Exodus 2:1

And there went a man of the house of Levi,.... This man was Amram, the son of Kohath, and grandson of Levi, as appears from Exodus 6:18 and took to wife a daughter of Levi; one of the same house,

And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

EXODUS CHAPTER 2 Moses’ s parentage and birth, ,2. His mother makes an ark, puts him therein, . Pharaoh’ s daughter going to wash herself, seeth him, takes him for her own child, and gives him to his mother to nurse, . Moses seeing an Israelite wronged by an Egyptian, kills him, ,12. Pharaoh hearing this, seeks to slay Moses; he flees to Midian, . There he rescues Reuel’ s daughters from the violence of the shepherds, ; serves Reuel, and marries his daughter Zipporah, Exodus 21. She bears him a son, his name, and the reason of it, . God heareth the cry of the Israelites, . There went a man, viz. Amram, ,59 from the place of his abode to another place for the following purpose. A daughter of Levi, namely Jochebed, , called a daughter, not strictly, but more largely, to wit, a grandchild, as the words father and son are oft used for a grandfather and a grandson, as hath been showed before: And so the word sister, , is to be taken largely, as brother is oft used for a cousin. This seems more probable than that an Israelite should marry his own sister, which even heathens by the light of nature have condemned, especially now when he had such abundant choice elsewhere.

Exodus 2:1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took [to wife] a daughter of Levi.Ver. 1. And took to wife.] His own aunt. The law against incest was not yet given, nor the state of Israel settled. But what excuse can there be for that abominable incest of the house of Austria by Papal dispensation? King Philip of Spain was uncle to himself, first cousin to his father, husband to his sister, and father to his wife! And what shall we say of our modern sectaries, whose practising of incest is now avowed publicly in print? They shame not to affirm that those marriages are most lawful that are between persons nearest in blood, brother and sister, father and daughter, mother and son, uncle and niece. The prohibition of degrees in Leviticus is to be understood, say they, of fornication, not of marriage Tamar did not doubt to be her brother Amnon’ s wife, but detested the act of fornication, &c. Lo, here, what noonday devils do now, in this unhappy time, walk with open face among us! Spec. Europ. See Mr Bayly’ s Dissuasion, part 2, and Mr Edwards’ s Gangr., part 3. Little Nonsuch, pp. 5-7.

II. THE BIRTH, , AND EARLY LIFE OF MOSES.(1) There went.—Comp. Genesis 35:22; Hosea 1:3. The expression is idiomatic, and has no special force. A man of the house of Levi.—Note the extreme simplicity of this announcement; and compare it with the elaborate legends wherewith Oriental religions commonly surrounded the birth of those who were considered their founders, as Thoth, Zoroaster, Orpheus. Even the name of the man is here omitted as unimportant. It is difficult to conceive any one but Moses making such an omission. A daughter of Levi—i.e., a woman of the same tribe as himself, a descendant of Levi—not a daughter in the literal sense, which the chronology makes impossible.

CHAPTER II Amram and Jochebed marry, 1. Moses is born, and is hidden by his mother three months, 2. Is exposed in an ark of bulrushes on the riser Nile, and watched by his sister, 3, 4. He is found by the daughter of Pharaoh, who commits him to the care of his own mother, and has him educated as her own son, 5-9. When grown up, he is brought to Pharaoh's daughter, who receives him as her own child, and calls him Moses, 10. Finding an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, he kills the Egyptian, and hides him in the sand, 11, 12. Reproves two Hebrews that were contending together, one of whom charges him with killing the Egyptian, 13, 14. Pharaoh, hearing of the death of the Egyptian, sought to slay Moses, who, being alarmed, escapes to the land of Midian, 15. Meets with the seven daughters of Reuel, priest or prince of Midian, who came to water their flocks, and assists them, 16, 17. On their return they inform their father Reuel, who invites Moses to his house, 18-20. Moses dwells with him, and receives Zipporah his daughter to wife, 21. She bears him a son whom he calls Gershom, 22. The children of Israel, grievously oppressed in Egypt, cry for deliverance, 23. God remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and hears their prayer, 24, 25. NOTES ON CHAP. II Verse 1. There went a man] Amram, son of Kohath, son of Levi, Exodus 6:16-20. A daughter of Levi, Jochebed, sister to Kohath, and consequently both the wife and aunt of her husband Amram, Exodus 6:20; Numbers 26:59. Such marriages were at this time lawful, though they were afterwards forbidden, Leviticus 18:12. But it is possible that daughter of Levi means no more than a descendant of that family, and that probably Amram and Jochebed were only cousin germans. As a new law was to be given and a new priesthood formed, God chose a religious family out of which the lawgiver and the high priest were both to spring.

1–10. Birth, deliverance, and education of Moses. ‘The murderous command of the tyrant was to become, in the hand of God, the means of bringing Israel’s future deliverer to the Egyptian court, and of preparing him for his future work (cf. the history of Joseph in the same narrator, E, Genesis 45:5; Genesis 45:7-8; Genesis 50:20)’ (Di.).

A man ... a daughter of Levi - Amram and Jochebed. See Exodus 6:20.

BIRTH AND OF MOSES, Exodus 2:1-10. 1. A man of the house of Levi — Amram, a descendant of Levi through Kohath. And took to wife a daughter (descendant) of Levi — Jochebed. Exodus 6:20, where see note.