tribe of Benjamin. He was carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar,
with Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, king of Judah, A. M. 3405, Esther ii, 5,
6. He settled at Shushan, and there lived to the first year of Cyrus,
when it is thought he returned to Jerusalem, with several other
captives; but he afterward returned to Shushan. There is great
probability that Mordecai was very young when taken into captivity. The
book of Esther gives the whole history of Mordecai’s elevation, the
punishment of Haman, and the wonderful deliverance of the Jews, in clear
and regular narrative. But it may be asked, For what reason did Mordecai
refuse to pay that respect to Haman, the neglect of which incensed him
against the Jews? Esther iii, 1–6. Some think the reason was, because
Haman was an Amalekite; a people whom the Israelites had been
commissioned from God to destroy, because of the injuries they had
formerly done them, Deut. xxv, 17–19. But this scarcely seems to be a
sufficient account of Mordecai’s refusing civil respect to Haman, who
was first minister of state; especially when by so doing he exposed his
whole nation to imminent danger. Beside, if nothing but civil respect
had been intended to Haman, the king need not have enjoined it on his
servants after he had made him his first minister and chief favourite,
Esther iii, 1, 2; they would have been ready enough to show it on all
occasions. Probably, therefore, the reverence ordered to be done to this
great man was a kind of divine honour, such as was sometimes addressed
to the Persian monarchs themselves; which, being a species of idolatry,
Mordecai refused for the sake of a good conscience. And perhaps it was
because Haman knew that his refusal was the result of his Jewish
principles, that he determined to attempt the destruction of the Jews in
general, knowing they were all of the same mind. As to another question,
why Haman cast lots, in order to fix the day for the massacre of the
Jews, Esther iii, 7; from whence the feast of purim, which is a Persic
word, and signifies _lots_, took its name, Esther ix, 26; it was no
doubt owing to the superstitious conceit which anciently prevailed, of
some days being more fortunate than others for any undertaking; in
short, he endeavoured to find out, by this way of divining, what month,
and what day of the month, was most unfortunate to the Jews, and most
fortunate for the success of his bloody design against them. It is very
remarkable, that while Haman sought for direction in this affair from
the Persian idols, the God of Israel so over-ruled the lot as to fix the
intended massacre to almost a year’s distance, from Nisan the first
month to Adar the last of the year, in order to give time and
opportunity to Mordecai and Esther to defeat the conspiracy.
MORIAH, MOUNT. A hill on the north-east side of Jerusalem, once
separated from that of Acra by a broad valley, which, according to
Josephus, was filled up by the Asmoneans, and the two hills converted
into one. In the time of David it stood apart from the city, and was
under cultivation; for here was the threshing floor of Araunah, the
Jebusite, which David bought, on which to erect an altar to God, 2 Sam.
xxiv, 15–25. On the same spot Solomon afterward built the temple, 2
Chron. iii, 1; when it was included within the walls of the city. Here,
also, Abraham is supposed to have been directed to offer his son Isaac,
Gen. xxii, 1, 2. _Moriah_ implies vision;” and the land of Moriah,”
mentioned in the above passage in the history of Abraham, was probably
so called from being seen afar off.” It included the whole group of
hills on which Jerusalem was afterward built.
MOSES. This illustrious legislator of the Israelites was of the tribe of
Levi, in the line of Koath and of Amram, whose son he was, and therefore
in the fourth generation after the settlement of the Israelites in
Egypt. The time of his birth is ascertained by the exode of the
Israelites, when Moses was eighty years old, Exod. vii, 7. By a singular
providence, the infant Moses, when exposed on the river Nile, through
fear of the royal decree, after his mother had hid him three months,
because he was a goodly child, was taken up and adopted by Pharaoh’s
daughter, and nursed by his own mother, whom she hired at the suggestion
of his sister Miriam. Thus did he find an asylum in the very palace of
his intended destroyer; while his intercourse with his own family and
nation was still most naturally, though unexpectedly, maintained: so
mysterious are the ways of Heaven. And while he was instructed in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians,” and bred up in the midst of a luxurious
court, he acquired at home the knowledge of the promised redemption of
Israel; and, by faith” in the Redeemer Christ, “refused to be called the
son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the
people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
esteeming the reproach of Christ,” or persecution for Christ’s sake,
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect to the
recompense of reward,” Exodus ii, 1–10; Acts vii, 20–22; Heb. xi, 23–26;
or looked forward to a future state.
When Moses was grown to manhood, and was full forty years old, he was
moved by a divine intimation, as it seems, to undertake the deliverance
of his countrymen; for he supposed that his brethren would have
understood how that God, by his hand, would give them deliverance; but
they understood not.” For when, in the excess of his zeal to redress
their grievances, he had slain an Egyptian, who injured one of them, in
which he probably went beyond his commission, and afterward endeavoured
to reconcile two of them that were at variance, they rejected his
mediation; and the man who had done wrong said, Who made thee a judge
and a ruler over us? Intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the
Egyptian yesterday?” So Moses, finding it was known, and that Pharaoh
sought to slay him, fled for his life to the land of Midian, in Arabia
Petræa, where he married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, or Reuel,
prince and priest of Midian; and, as a shepherd, kept his flocks in the
vicinity of Mount Horeb, or Sinai, for forty years, Exodus ii, 11–21;
iii, 1; xviii, 5; Num. x, 29; Acts vii, 23–30. During this long exile
Moses was trained in the school of humble circumstances for that arduous
mission which he had prematurely anticipated; and, instead of the
unthinking zeal which at first actuated him, learned to distrust
himself. His backwardness, afterward, to undertake that mission for
which he was destined from the womb, was no less remarkable than his
forwardness before, Exod. iv, 10–13.
At length, when the oppression of the Israelites was come to the full,
and they cried to God for succour, and the king was dead, and all the
men in Egypt that sought his life, the God of glory” appeared to Moses
in a flame of fire, from the midst of a bush, and announced himself as
the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,” under the titles of _Jahoh_
and _Æhjeh_, expressive of his unity and sameness; and commissioned him
first to make known to the Israelites the divine will for their
deliverance; and next to go with the elders of Israel to Pharaoh,
requiring him, in the name of “the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, to
suffer the people to go three days’ journey into the wilderness, to
sacrifice unto the Lord their God,” after such sacrifices had been long
intermitted during their bondage; for the Egyptians had sunk into
bestial polytheism, and would have stoned them, had they attempted to
sacrifice to their principal divinities, the apis, or bull, &c, in the
land itself: foretelling, also, the opposition they would meet with from
the king, the mighty signs and wonders that would finally compel his
assent, and their spoiling of the Egyptians, by asking or demanding of
them (not borrowing) jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment,
(by way of wages or compensation for their services,) as originally
declared to Abraham, that they should go out from thence with great
substance,” Gen. xv, 14; Exod. ii, 23–25; iii, 2–22; viii, 25, 26.
To vouch his divine commission to the Israelites, God enabled Moses to
work three signal miracles: 1. Turning his rod into a serpent, and
restoring it again: 2. Making his hand leprous as snow, when he first
drew it out of his bosom, and restoring it sound as before when he next
drew it out: and, 3. Turning the water of the river into blood. And the
people believed the signs, and the promised deliverance, and worshipped.
To assist him, also, in his arduous mission, when Moses had represented
that he was not eloquent, but slow of speech,” and of a slow or
stammering tongue, God inspired Aaron, his elder brother, to go and meet
Moses in the wilderness, to be his spokesman to the people, Exod. iv,
1–31, and his prophet to Pharaoh; while Moses was to be a god to both,
as speaking to them in the name, or by the authority, of God himself,
Exod. vii, 1, 2. At their first, interview with Pharaoh, they declared,
Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may
hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the
Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not,” or
regard not, the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” In answer to this
haughty tyrant, they styled the Lord by a more ancient title, which the
Egyptians ought to have known and respected, from Abraham’s days, when
he plagued them in the matter of Sarah: “The God of the Hebrews hath met
with us: Let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert,
and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with
pestilence or with the sword:” plainly intimating to Pharaoh, also, not
to incur his indignation, by refusing to comply with his desire. But the
king not only refused, but increased the burdens of the people, Exod. v,
1–19; and the people murmured, and hearkened not unto Moses, when he
repeated from the Lord his assurances of deliverance and protection, for
anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage, Exod. v, 20–23; vi, 1–9.
At their second interview with Pharaoh, in obedience to the divine
command, again requiring him to let the children of Israel go out of his
land; Pharaoh, as foretold, demanded of them to show a miracle for
themselves, in proof of their commission, when Aaron cast down his rod,
and it became a serpent before Pharaoh and before his servants, or
officers of his court. The king then called upon his wise men and
magicians, to know if they could do as much by the power of their gods,
“and they did so with their enchantments; for they cast down every man
his rod, and they became serpents; but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their
serpents.” Here the original phrase, ויעשו כן, and they did so,” or in
like manner,” may only indicate the attempt, and not the deed; as
afterward, in the plague of lice, when they did so with their
enchantments, but could not,” Exod. viii, 18. And, indeed, the original
term, להטיהם, rendered their enchantments,” as derived from the root
לאט, or לוט, to _hide_ or _cover_, fitly expresses the secret deceptions
of legerdemain, or sleight-of-hand, to impose on spectators: and the
remark of the magicians, when unable to imitate the production of lice,
which was beyond their skill and dexterity, on account of their
minuteness,--“This is the finger of a God!”--seems to strengthen the
supposition; especially as the Egyptians were famous for legerdemain and
for charming serpents: and the magicians, having had notice of the
miracle they were expected to imitate, might make provision accordingly,
and bring live serpents, which they might have substituted for their
rods. And though Aaron’s serpent swallowed up their serpents, showing
the superiority of the true miracle over the false, 2 Thess. ii, 9, it
might only lead the king to conclude, that Moses and Aaron were more
expert jugglers than Jannes and Jambres, who opposed them, 2 Timothy
iii, 8. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, so that he hearkened not
unto them, as the Lord had said,” or foretold, Exod. vi, 10, 11; vii,
8–13. For the conduct of Moses as the deliverer and lawgiver of the
Israelites, see PLAGUES OF EGYPT, RED SEA, and LAW.
At Mount Sinai the Lord was pleased to make Moses, the redeemer of
Israel, an eminent type of the Redeemer of the world. I will raise them
up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my
words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall
command him: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken
unto my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of
him:” which Moses communicated to the people. The Lord thy God will
raise up unto thee a prophet, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren,
like unto me: unto him shall ye hearken,” Deut. xviii, 15–19. This
prophet like unto Moses was our Lord Jesus Christ, who was by birth a
Jew, of the middle class of the people, and resembled his predecessor,
in personal intercourse with God, miracles, and legislation, which no
other prophet did, Deut. xxxiv, 10–12; and to whom God, at his
transfiguration, required the world to hearken, Matt. xvii, 5. Whence
our Lord’s frequent admonition to the Jewish church, He that hath ears
to hear, let him hear,” Matthew xiii, 9, &c; which is addressed, also,
by the Spirit to the Christian churches of Asia Minor, Rev. iii, 22.
In the affair of the _Golden Calf_, (see CALF,) the conduct of Moses
showed the greatest zeal for God’s honour, and a holy indignation
against the sin of Aaron and the people. And when Moses drew nigh, and
saw their proceedings, his anger waxed hot, and he cast away the tables
of the covenant, or stone tablets on which were engraven the ten
commandments by the finger of God himself, and brake them beneath the
mount, in the presence of the people; in token that the covenant between
God and them was now rescinded on his part, in consequence of their
transgression. He then took the golden calf, and burned it in the fire,
and ground it to powder, and mixed it with water, and made the children
of Israel drink of it. After thus destroying their idol, he inflicted
punishment on the idolaters themselves; for he summoned all that were on
the Lord’s side to attend him; and all the Levites having obeyed the
call, he sent them, in the name of the Lord, to slay all the idolaters,
from one end of the camp to the other, without favour or affection
either to their neighbour or to their brother; and they slew about three
thousand men. The Lord also sent a grievous plague among them for their
idolatry, Exodus xxxii, 2–35, on which occasion Moses gave a signal
proof of his love for his people, by interceding for them with the Lord;
and of his own disinterestedness, in refusing the offer of the Almighty
to adopt his family in their room, and make of them a great nation.” He
prayed that God would blot him out of his book, that is, take away his
life, if he would not forgive the great sin of his people;” and
prevailed with God to alter his determination of withdrawing his
presence from them, and sending an inferior angel to conduct them to the
land of promise. So wonderful was the condescension of God to the voice
of a man, and so mighty the power of prayer.
When the Lord had pardoned the people, and taken them again into favour,
he commanded Moses to hew two tablets of stone, like the former which
were broken, and to present them to him on the top of the mount; and on
these the Lord wrote again the ten commandments, for a renewal of the
covenant between him and his people. To reward and strengthen the faith
of Moses, God was pleased, at his request, to grant him a fuller view of
the divine glory, or presence, than he had hitherto done. And, to
confirm his authority with the people on his return, after the second
conference of forty days, he imparted to him a portion of that glory or
light by which his immediate presence was manifested: for the face of
Moses shone so that Aaron and all the people were afraid to come nigh
him, until he had put a veil on his face, to hide its brightness. This
was an honour never vouchsafed to mortal before nor afterward till
Christ, the Prophet like Moses, in his transfiguration also, appeared
arrayed in a larger measure of the same lustre. Then Moses again beheld
the glory of the Word made flesh, and ministered thereto in a glorified
form himself, Exod. xxxiv, 1–35; Matt. xvii, 1–8.
At Kibroth Hataavah, when the people loathed the manna, and longed for
flesh, Moses betrayed great impatience, and wished for death. He was
also reproved for unbelief. At Kadesh-barnea, Moses having encouraged
the people to proceed, saying, Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the
land before thee, go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers
hath said unto you: fear not,” Deut. i, 19–21; they betrayed great
diffidence, and proposed to Moses to send spies to search out the land,
and point out to them the way they should enter, and the course they
should take. And the proposal pleased him well,” and with the consent of
the Lord he sent twelve men, one out of each tribe, to spy out the land,
Deut. i, 22, 23; Num. xiii, 1–20. All these, except Caleb and Joshua,
having brought an evil report,” so discouraged the people, that they
murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Would God
that we had died in the land of Egypt; or would God that we had died in
the wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land to
fall by the sword, that our wives and our children shall be a prey? Were
it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another,
Let us make a captain, and return into Egypt.” They even went so far as
to propose to stone Joshua and Caleb, because they exhorted the people
not to rebel against the Lord, nor to fear the people of the land, Num.
xiv, 1–10; Deut. i, 26–28. Here again the noble patriotism of Moses was
signally displayed. He again refused the divine offer to disinherit the
Israelites, and make of him and his family a greater and mightier nation
than they.” He urged the most persuasive motives with their offended
God, not to destroy them with the threatened pestilence, lest the
Heathen might say, that the Lord was not able to bring them into the
land which he sware unto them.” He powerfully appealed to the long-tried
mercies and forgivenesses they had experienced ever since their
departure from Egypt; and his energetic supplication prevailed; for the
Lord graciously said, I have pardoned, according to thy word: but
verily, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the
Lord;” or shall adore him for his righteous judgments; for all these men
which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt, and in
the wilderness, and have tempted me these ten times, and have not
hearkened to my voice, surely shall not see the land which I sware unto
their fathers: neither shall any of them that provoked me see it. As ye
have spoken in my ears, so will I do unto you,” by a righteous
retaliation: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. But your
little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in; and
they shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your
whoredoms, after the number of the days in which ye searched the land,
each day for a year, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness.”
And immediately after this sentence, as the earnest of its full
accomplishment, all the spies, except Caleb and Joshua, were cut off,
and died by the plague before the Lord, Num. xiv, 11–37; Deut. i, 34–39.
The people now, to repair their fault, contrary to the advice of Moses,
presumptuously went to invade the Amalekites and Canaanites of Mount
Seir, or Hor; who defeated them, and chased them as bees to Hormah, Num.
xiv, 39–45; Deut. i, 41–44. On the morrow they were ordered to turn away
from the promised land, and to take their journey south-westward, toward
the way of the Red Sea: and they abode in the wilderness of Kadesh many
days, or years, Num. xiv, 25; Deut. i, 40–46. The ill success of the
expedition against the Amalekites, according to Josephus, occasioned the
rebellion of Korah, which broke out shortly after, against Moses and
Aaron, with greater violence than any of the foregoing, under Korah, the
ringleader, who drew into it Dathan and Abiram, the heads of the senior
tribe of Reuben, and two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly,
among whom were even several of the Levites. (See _Korah_.) But although
all Israel round about had fled at the cry of the devoted families of
Dathan and Abiram, for fear that the earth should swallow them up also;”
yet, on the morrow, they returned to their rebellious spirit, and
murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of
the Lord.” On this occasion also, the Lord threatened to consume them as
in a moment; but, on the intercession of Moses, only smote them with a
plague, which was stayed by an atonement made by Aaron, after the
destruction of fourteen thousand seven hundred souls, Num. xvi, 41–50.
On the return of the Israelites, after many years’ wandering, to the
same disastrous station of Kadesh-barnea, even Moses himself was guilty
of an offence, in which his brother Aaron was involved, and for which
both were excluded, as a punishment, from entering the promised land. At
Meribah Kadesh the congregation murmured against Moses, for bringing
them into a barren wilderness without water; when the Lord commanded
Moses to take his rod, which had been laid up before the Lord, and with
Aaron to assemble the congregation together, and to speak to the rock
before their eyes; which should supply water for the congregation and
their cattle. But Moses said unto the congregation, when they were
assembled, Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this
rock? And he smote the rock twice with his rod, and the water came out
abundantly; and the congregation drank, and their cattle also. And the
Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify
me in the eyes of the children of Israel; therefore ye shall not bring
this congregation into the land which I have given them,” Num. xx, 1–13;
and afterward in stronger terms: Because ye rebelled against my
commandment,” &c, Numbers xxvii, 14.
The offence of Moses, as far as may be collected from so concise an
account, seems to have been, 1. He distrusted or disbelieved that water
could be produced from the rock only by speaking to it; which was a
higher miracle than he had performed before at Rephidim, Exod. xvii, 6.
2. He unnecessarily smote the rock twice; thereby betraying an
unwarrantable impatience. 3. He did not, at least in the phrase he used,
ascribe the glory of the miracle wholly to God, but rather to himself
and his brother: Must _we_ fetch you water out of this rock?” And he
denominated them rebels” against his and his brother’s authority, which,
although an implied act of rebellion against God, ought to have been
stated, as on a former occasion, Ye have been rebels against the Lord,
from the day that I knew you,” Deut. ix, 24, which he spake without
blame. For want of more caution on this occasion, he spake unadvisedly
with his lips, because they provoked his spirit,” Psalm cvi, 33. Thus
was God sanctified at the waters of Meribah,” by his impartial justice,
in punishing his greatest favourites when they did amiss, Num. xx, 13.
How severely Moses felt his deprivation, appears from his humble, and it
should seem repeated, supplications to the Lord to reverse the sentence:
O Lord of gods, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness, and
thy mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or in earth that can do
according to thy works, and according to thy might? I pray thee let me
go over and see the good land beyond Jordan, even that goodly mountain
Lebanon,” or the whole breadth of the land. But the Lord was wroth with
me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and he said unto me, Let it
suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. Get thee up unto the
top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and
southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt
not go over this Jordan,” Deut. iii, 23–27.
The faculties of this illustrious legislator, both of mind and body,
were not impaired at the age of a hundred and twenty years, when he
died. His eye was not dim, nor his natural strength abated,” Deut.
xxxiv, 7: and the noblest of all his compositions was his Song, or the
Divine Ode, which Bishop Lowth elegantly styles, _Cycnea Oratio_, “the
Dying Swan’s Oration.” His death took place after the Lord had shown
him, from the top of Pisgah, a distant view of the promised land,
throughout its whole extent. He then buried his body in a valley
opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Moab; but no man knoweth his
sepulchre unto this day,” observes the sacred historian, who annexed the
circumstances of his death to the book of Deuteronomy, xxxiv, 6. From an
obscure passage in the New Testament, in which Michael the archangel is
said to have contended with the devil about the body of Moses, Jude 9,
some have thought that he was buried by the ministry of angels, near the
scene of the idolatry of the Israelites; but that the spot was purposely
concealed, lest his tomb might also be converted into an object of
idolatrous worship among the Israelites, like the brazen serpent.
Beth-peor lay in the lot of the Reubenites, Joshua xiii, 20. But on so
obscure a passage nothing can be built. The body of Moses,” may
figuratively mean the Jewish church; or the whole may be an allusion to
a received tradition which, without affirming or denying its truth,
might be made the basis of a moral lesson.