Verse | Translation | Text |
Ex 2:12 | King James | And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. |
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand--This act of Moses may seem and indeed by some has been condemned as rash and unjustifiable--in plain terms, a deed of assassination. But we must not judge of his action in such a country and age by the standard of law and the notions of right which prevail in our Christian land; and, besides, not only is it not spoken of as a crime in Scripture or as distressing the perpetrator with remorse, but according to existing customs among nomadic tribes, he was bound to avenge the blood of a brother. The person he slew, however, being a government officer, he had rendered himself amenable to the laws of Egypt, and therefore he endeavored to screen himself from the consequences by concealment of the corpse. |