Chapter iii., v. 2. The Douay says that 'the Lord appeared,' instead of the angel. The picture of the Omnipotent and: Eternal God appearing as a flame of fire in the middle of a bush, which burns, but is not burnt, and desiring Moses to take his shoes off, is scarcely calculated to arouse a reverential feeling in our minds.
Verse 6. In Genesis, chap, xxxv., v. 10, God said of Jacob, 'Thy name shall not be any more called Jacob, Israel is thy name,' yet we find he calls himself 'the God of Jacob,' and uses the name 'Jacob' no fewer than eight times in the book of Exodus alone. Verse 22. This mode of 'borrowing' seems very much like stealing, and the translators of the Breeches Bible in a note say that this example is not to be followed generally.
Chapter iv., v. 14. The anger of the Lord kindled, and why? Because Moses tells him that ne is not a good speaker, and that he (Moses) therefore desired the Lord to choose somebody else to represent his wishes to Pharaoh and the Jews. But why should the Lord be angry? he must have himself foreknown and foreordained that Moses should be reluctant to go.
Verse 21. What are the miracles which are previously mentioned but so many incidents in a solemn farce, if God had already determined that Pharaoh should pay no attention to them? The serpent, rod, and the leprous hand, not being intended by God to move Pharaoh, of what use are they? In the third chapter, God tells Moses to use subterfuge to Pharaoh, by pretending that the Jewish nation only wanted to go three days' journey to sacrifice in the wilderness, and at the same time God says that he is 'sure the King of Egypt will not let you go.' If God is the ruler and ordainer of all things, he must have ruled and ordained that his chosen people should be ill-treated by Pharaoh, whom God must have created for that very purpose. Can anything be more inconsistent and less calculated to enable us to admire the character of a just and merciful Deity?
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 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.