Verse 26. What does this mean? If the Lord sought to kill Moses, what
hindered him from carrying out his desire? It is strange that he should
seek to kill the very man whom he had selected to lead his chosen people
out of Egypt. The circumcision of the son of Moses seems connected with
the story, but not very clearly. The abrupt transition from the message
to Pharaoh, to the seeking to kill Moses, shows that something has been
lost from the original text. The verses 22 to 27 read as they stand are
absurd. In our version we are told that _after_ the Lord let Moses go,
Zipporah said 'A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.'
In the Douay we find that Zipporah used these words _before_ the Lord
let Moses go.
Verses 28, 29, and 30. Aaron who wrought the signs, and spoke the words
to the people, did so without any direct communication from God. He
must have been more credulous than Moses, for he seems to have readily
undertaken, upon the mere representation of his brother, that which his
brother had hesitated to do, although personally commanded by God.
In chap, v, we find that Moses complains to God that the Jews are
worse off since his message, and he expresses himself in a manner which
implies doubt as to whether God really intend to deliver his people.
*Chapter vi., v. 3 (see also page 38 of this work), Here is a positive
statement that God was known unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the
name [------] (Bal Shadi, translated, God Almighty), but not by the name
[------] (yeue, anglicised as Jehovah). This statement, professedly
from the lips of God himself, is absolutely contradicted by the book of
Genesis, in which the name [------] occurs no less than {51} 130 times.
In the Douay it reads, 'and my name Adonai I did not show them,' and in
a foot-note we are told that the name Adonai is substituted for the
four letters [------], because the Jews out of reverence never pronounce
"this word. This is not true: the Jews simply do not pronounce the word,
because without points it is unpronounceable. 'The nearest approach to
the exact utterance or pronunciation of this word will be produced by
suspending the action of all the organs of articulation, and making
only that convulsive heave of the larynx, by which the bronchial
vessels discharge the accumulated phlegm; it is enunciated with the
most eloquent propriety in the act of _vomiting?_ (_Vide_ Taylor's
'Diegesis,' chap. 22.)
Verses 12 and 30. The fear expressed by Moses that Pharaoh will not
listen to him, because he (Moses) has not been circumcised, is strongly
corroborative of Voltaire's criticism given on page 35 of this work.
Verses 26 and 27 could never have been written by Moses, but must have
been written long after, by some one who wished to identify the Aaron
and Moses of the genealogy with the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord
spoke.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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