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Chapters 1 and 2. The mystery of disasters sent to us from God: with them God cleanses our soul and draws us to Himself. During tribulations, we learn by experience that the yoke of the Lord is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). Chapter 3, [v.] 12. And [God] said: I will be with you, and this is a sign for you that I have sent you: when you bring [My] people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain. In these words, God is omnipotent and omniscient. He sees that His high arm will force the stubborn Pharaoh to release the people of Israel from Egypt and that the Jews, having left Egypt, will pray to Him in Mount Horeb, where Moses saw a miracle. Prayer is a matter of human free will: as the God of the human heart, God foresaw it too. Glory to Thee, our Creator, who leads my sitting and my rising and foreseees all my paths [Ps. 138:1, 3]. [14-]15 art. He who is [Jehovah] has sent me to you... This is My name forever, and the remembrance of Me from generation to generation. – Existing... How beautifully this word expresses the eternity and immutability of the Divine. For Him there is neither past nor future, but there is only one present: He is the One, or the Existing One - then He was the One, and now He is the One, and He is the One forever and ever! What about us? We weren't there recently. Then, through our parents, God called us into existence - and we exist; but our days, like the shadow 43, pass, we have one minute of the present, and that minute moves and passes, so that this minute, which I call the present, immediately becomes past. The future is not in my will, and I do not know what I will be in the next minute. This is my existence. Let us all revere God. 22 art. Every woman will beg from her neighbor and from the one who lives in her house for silver and gold and clothing, and you will dress your sons and your daughters with them, and you will rob the Egyptians. The Egyptians withheld the due payment of the Jews, so it is right that God commands to rob the Egyptians. Why does God command that the sons and daughters of the Jews be adorned? - For the sake of the triumph of deliverance from Egyptian slavery, in which they were bitter slaves, in coarse rags and had neither appearance nor kindness. Chapter 4, 2 art. And the Lord said to him (Moses), What is this in your hand? He answered: a rod. The Lord said: throw him to the ground. He threw it to the ground, and the rod turned into a serpent, and Moses fled from it. And the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand and take him by the tail. He stretched out his hand and took him [by the tail]; and it became a rod in his hand. How can one not recognize here the Lord of every creation, by whose word this world came into being? According to His almighty word, the stick turns into a serpent and the serpent again into a stick. Not only a snake, but also a man, He can just as easily turn him into a stick or a pillar. So Lot's wife was turned by Him into a pillar of salt. 6 tbsp. The Lord also said to him: Put your hand in your bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom, and took it out [from his bosom], and behold, his hand was as white as snow with leprosy. [Moreover] the Lord said [to him]: Put your hand again in your bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom; and he took it out of his bosom, and behold, it again became the same as his body. Do you see here, man, your Creator? Do you see how human flesh obeys Him, as if it were intelligent and alive? Do you see how He kills and gives life?.. 9th Art. Take water from the river and pour it onto dry land; and the water taken from the river will become blood on the dry land. Do you see the Creator of nature? Do you see who created the liquid element? Do you see Who forms the blood, although you do not see how? So in our body there is water and blood; we see them, although we do not know how blood is formed from water. Marvel at the wisdom and omnipotence of the Creator. For this reason, God commanded Moses to perform these miracles, so that the Egyptian king would see in them the finger of the Living, true God. The priests of Pharaoh apparently did the same thing, but only in a ghostly way and not truly. Silence was needed for the high purpose of Moses: he could become proud. 11th century The Lord said [to Moses]: who gave the man a mouth (and Moses tried to avoid the embassy by being tongue-tied)? who makes one dumb, or deaf, or sighted, or blind? Am I not the Lord [God]? therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what to say. God, for wise purposes, allows us to be dumb, deaf and blind: we should not complain about this. Dumbness, deafness and blindness should not be considered a great misfortune: a person can fulfill his destiny even with these shortcomings. In the words of God you clearly see the all-wise Creator of man. 30 tbsp. And Aaron told [them] all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses; and Moses did the signs in the sight of the people. [Article 31]. And the people believed; and they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and had seen their suffering, and they bowed down and worshiped. The men of God Moses and Aaron came to the elders of Israel with the joyful news of deliverance and confirmed the authenticity of their message with miracles. How poverty-stricken Israel rejoiced at this news! The joy was the greater the less the Israelis thought about liberation, the brighter the land to which they were to go seemed brighter to them. Having clearly learned the will of God about themselves and feeling the presence of Jehovah with them, people worship Him with reverence. Chapter 6, [Article 1]. And the Lord said to Moses: Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh; by the working of a mighty hand he will let them go; by the action of a mighty hand he will even drive them out of his land. Despite all the reluctance of Pharaoh to let the people of Israel leave their land, he, as we will see, was really glad to finally expel them from his kingdom, although he soon repented again. So Almighty God, without restricting his freedom, prompted him to let His chosen people go. 2 tbsp. and so on. And God spoke to Moses and said to him: I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with the name “God Almighty,” but with My name “Lord” I did not reveal myself to them; and I established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojourning, in which they sojourned. And I heard the groaning of the children of Israel because the Egyptians kept them in bondage, and I remembered My covenant. Therefore say to the children of Israel: I am the Lord, and I will bring you out... and I will make you a people for Myself, and I will be your God, and you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out... And I will bring you into the land which I lifted up My hand and swore to give it to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and I will give it to you as an inheritance. I am the Lord. God mercifully speaks to Moses: firstly, that He appeared to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, being their God both then and now, although the Lord did not reveal His name to them, like Moses, because Moses needed, so to speak, greater confidence in the omnipotence of God by his very service; secondly, that He made a covenant with them - to give them as an inheritance the land of Canaan, in which they were strangers and lived for a considerable time; and, thirdly, that He now remembered this covenant, having heard the groaning of Israel in the slavery of Egypt, and therefore wants to free His people from this slavery, lead them out of Egypt, accept them as His people and be their God and bring them into the land over which His hand has already been stretched out, in order to give it to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that He is now giving them this land as an inheritance. How faithful God is in His promises! Having appeared to Abraham, He said that He would give him the land of Canaan as an inheritance, but that He would not fulfill this now, but in four hundred years, and during this time the Israelites would suffer a lot (after four hundred years they would enter here with great wealth), that now He would not do this because the sins of the Amorites living in the land of Canaan had not yet been fulfilled. The Israelites actually left Egypt after four hundred years, having been in slavery for a long time, and came out with great wealth, having robbed the Egyptians. Punishing us for our corruption with disasters, the Lord, as it were, leaves us during these disasters, as if he ceases to be our God, and we cease to be His people; and when he punishes us worthily, when we come to our senses and are cleansed of vices, then he again approaches us and becomes our God, just as we become His people: and I will accept you as My people and will be your God... and I will lead you into the land about which I, having raised My hand, swore to give it to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How divinely expressed is God’s decree about the granting of the land of Canaan to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!.. Having raised My hand, I swore to give it (that is, the land of Canaan), that is, My determination had already taken place long ago - to expel the Canaanite peoples from this land and settle you here instead, but until now there was no just reason to expel them; now, when their sins are fulfilled, I pronounce My judgment on them, take away their land from them and give it to you, My chosen people: and I will give it to you as an inheritance. I am the Lord. Art.30. Moses said before the Lord: Behold, I am without words: how will Pharaoh listen to me? Ch.7, [v.1–2]. But the Lord said to Moses: Look, I have made you God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet: you will tell [him] (Aaron) everything that I command you, and Aaron your brother will tell Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of his land. These words contain the triumph of the true, holy word of God. For the third time, Moses points out to God his weakness and inability to carry out such an important embassy. God majestically answered his first complaint: Who gave man a mouth? who makes one dumb, or deaf, or sighted, or blind? Am I not the Lord [God]? - and Moses complained about his tongue-tiedness. The Lord let him know that if He, the Almighty Creator of all people, sends him, then it means that Moses is capable or will be capable of this. Now God says to Moses even stronger and more majestic: I have made you God to Pharaoh, and Aaron, your brother, will be your prophet, that is, if you do not believe My previous words that you will be able to fulfill My embassy, ​​then here is My Divine word for you: I am making you a god for Pharaoh, making you omnipotent, miraculous for a while, and Aaron, your brother, will be your prophet as a deity. With My omnipotence, should you fear Pharaoh? This time you are not afraid of anything, because the entire universe with all its elements and animals will be obedient to you, like a submissive slave. Go and be calm, in the hope of perfect success! Great God! I throw myself into the dust before Your omnipotence and goodness: You have clothed the weak and mortal with Your omnipotence, You have subdued the earth, the sea, the air, and the fire to the weak mortal. How good it is to be Your faithful servant! 3 tbsp. I will multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt - that is, phenomena, deeds by which they will know that they are the works of My hands, My omnipotence. 10. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Isn't this a sign of God's omnipotence? Yes, from this miracle I see that it is the work of God. Only the Creator can make a soulless thing animate. Although the Magi performed similar miracles, they were ghostly, or if not ghostly, then the devil himself was in their manifestations, while the miracles of Moses, being performed by the power of God, did not contain the Divinity, which is omnipresent. Moreover, it should be noted that the rod of Aaron devoured the rods of the priests. The next day, at the command of the Lord, Moses meets with Pharaoh on the bank of the river, along which Pharaoh was probably walking. In the hands of Moses was a rod that had previously been turned into a serpent. The future leader of the Jewish people had to tell Pharaoh the following: The Lord God of the Jews sent me to you with these words: Let My people go so that they can serve Me in the wilderness: you have not listened to Me until now. This is what the Lord says: you will recognize Me by the following sign: here I, Moses, will strike the river water with the rod that is in my hand, and it will turn into blood, and the river fish will die, the river will stink, and the Egyptians will not be able to drink water from it. Then the Lord says to Moses: Tell Aaron your brother: take your staff in your hand and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt: over their rivers, wells, lakes, and over every gathering of their waters - and there will be blood everywhere. And there was blood all over the land of Egypt, even in the trees and stones. When Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, Aaron struck the river with his rod solemnly in the presence of Pharaoh and his servants. Since the Egyptian magicians did the same with their magic, Pharaoh did not consider the miracle of God in his mind and did not listen to Moses and Aaron. Meanwhile, the Egyptians could not drink river water and dug wells for themselves near it; the miracle lasted seven days. How not to recognize the Creator of the universe in these miracles! All water, all plant juices turn into blood from one blow to the river. Isn’t God’s omnipotence visible here more clearly than the sun? Our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated His Divinity in a similar way, forbidding the turbulence of the sea and the winds, walking on the sea as if it were dry land, feeding thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish. The Lord works in Egypt not one or two miracles, but ten - in order to gradually reveal the greatness of His power, so that the miracles would be more memorable and striking for the Egyptians and Jews and to show with what high muscle He leads the Jews out of Egyptian slavery. God even allows the Magi to perform the same three miracles that Moses did - in order to show the limitations of the demons who assisted the priests, so that the Egyptians and Jews would unwittingly become convinced of their insignificance before the Almighty Creator and say: this far you will come and you will not pass [Job. 38:11]. Chapter 8. The Lord again speaks to Moses: Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, This is what the Lord says: Let My people go, that they may serve Me. If you do not want to let go, then behold, I am destroying all the borders of your kingdom with frogs. And the river will spew up frogs, which will enter into your houses, into your bedchambers, into your beds, into the houses of your servants and your people, into the dough and into the oven. And they will come against you and against your servants and against your people. And the Lord said to Moses: Tell Aaron your brother, stretch out your rod with your hand over the rivers, wells and lakes, and bring out the frogs from the land of Egypt. As said, so done. As soon as Moses stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, frogs came out and covered the land of Egypt. The Magi also brought frogs to the land of Egypt, but they could not destroy them, like Moses. This is the final limit to their sorcery. They will no longer be able to do anything like this. The Right Hand of the Lord was gloriously glorified in the fortress. At the request of Pharaoh, Moses prayed to the Lord for the extermination of the toads - and they died out everywhere: in houses and in fields, except for the river, in which, according to the agreement with Pharaoh, Moses left them. And so, they were gathered in one place and many stacks of toads appeared, and the earth fouled terribly. Having received joy, Pharaoh hardened his heart and again did not want to let the Jews go. Wonderful are Your works, O Lord, how obedient are Your creatures: at the blow of the rod, frogs crawl out of all the waters and cover the land of Egypt. But where did they come from? Had they really been hiding in the waters for so long and only crawled out of them at the wave of a miraculous rod? Judging by their unprecedented multitude, one must think that the waters drove them out deliberately, according to the word of the Lord. How did the Magi do this? God allowed Satan to perform a similar miracle - to produce toads, because he allows him to transform himself into an Angel of Light to deceive people. But he did not allow him to destroy them. What an inordinate number of toads! - many stacks of them were collected, so that the earth stank from them. Terrible! Next, the Lord says to Moses: tell Aaron: stretch out your staff with your hand and strike it into the dust of the earth: and there will be skrips on people and on cattle, on Pharaoh and his house and on his servants, and all the sand throughout the whole land of Egypt will turn into skrips (small insects like bedbugs). Aaron did as he was told, and skeeps appeared everywhere. The Egyptian magicians tried to use their sorcery to decipher the Scrips, just as Aaron produced them, but they could not, saying that the finger of God was clearly visible in the Scpips. Pharaoh became bitter again and did not listen to Moses and Aaron. The Lord again says to Moses: get up tomorrow morning and stand before Pharaoh, who will come out to the water, and say to him: this is what the Lord says: Let My people go, so that they can serve Me in the wilderness. If you do not want to let go, then behold, I am sending swarms of flies on you and on your servants and on all your subjects in Egypt and on your houses, and the houses of Egypt will be filled with swarms of flies and the whole earth. And in that day I will glorify the land of Goshen, 44 in which my people dwell; there will be no flies in it, so that you may know that I am the Lord God of all the earth. And I will separate My people from yours: this sign will be on the earth tomorrow morning. The Lord did so: a multitude of dog flies flew into the houses of Pharaoh, into the houses of his servants, and into the whole land of Egypt; the vegetation of the earth died from them. Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said to them: Go and eat a sacrifice to the Lord your God in this land. Moses said: This cannot be so, because the Egyptians will laugh at our sacrifice. No, we will not place a demand here on the Lord our God, but if we make a demand according to the custom of the Egyptians, according to their blasphemous service, then our foreigners will stone us. For three days' journey we will go into the desert and there we will eat for the Lord our God, as He told us. And Pharaoh said, I release you: eat the Lord your God in the wilderness, but do not go any further; pray to the Lord for me too. Moses said: Behold, I will leave you and pray to the Lord God, and tomorrow the flies of the dogs will disappear from you, from your slaves and from your people; Look, Pharaoh, don’t even think about tempting the Lord - not letting people go to sacrifice to the Lord. And Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to God. God, through his prayer, destroyed the dog flies. And again Pharaoh became embittered and did not want to let the people go. How majestically the Lord reveals Himself before Pharaoh, the proud ruler of Egypt. How could he not humble himself before the true God! - but pagan, demonic pride does not want to bow before the power of the true God, unknown to him! And why was his own weakness and insignificance more obvious to Pharaoh, when God, striking Egypt with plagues, struck Pharaoh with them along with others? Or what is clearer than the ever-present power and divinity of the Jewish God, when He, having struck the whole land of Egypt with dog flies, did not strike with them only the land of Heshen, on which the Jews lived? Chapter 9. Again the Lord says to Moses: Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, This is what the Lord God of the Jews says: Let My people go, that they may serve Me. If again you do not want to let them go and you hold on, then behold, the hand of the Lord will be stretched out on your livestock in the fields, on horses, on donkeys, on camels, on beef and on sheep: there will be a great death toll. And at this time I will do a marvelous thing between the cattle of Egypt and the Hebrews: out of all the livestock of the Hebrews, not one beast will die. God also appointed the time when this would happen, saying: in the morning the Lord will fulfill His word on earth. And the Lord fulfilled His word in the morning, and all the Egyptian cattle died, but not one of the Hebrew cattle died. Envy hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he again did not want to let the Jews go. The Lord again said to Moses and Aaron: take your hands full of ashes from the oven, and let Moses scatter these ashes to heaven before Pharaoh and his servants, and let the ashes be all over the land of Egypt: purulent scabs will appear on people and livestock, they will be sharp and burning - on people and livestock throughout the entire land of Egypt. Moses took the ashes of the furnace before Pharaoh and scattered them towards the sky, and there became festering scabs, burning on people and on livestock. The Magi could not stand before Moses because of the scabs, since the Magi and all the Egyptians had scabs. The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he again did not listen to Moses. And the Lord said to Moses, Arise in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God of the Jews: Let My people go, that they may serve Me. At this hour I will release all My plagues on you, on your servants and on your people, so that you may know that there is no other God like Me in all the earth. Now, having released My hand (which I previously held back), I will strike you and kill your people, and you will be destroyed from the earth along with all your people. This is why you have been spared until now, so that I might show you My strength (power) and so that My name might be preached throughout the whole earth. This is why God so gradually struck Egypt and allowed Pharaoh to laugh at His omnipotence, so that the pagan, who worships soulless and powerless gods, could feel the power of the Living, True God, and so that the name of the Almighty God, who commands the whole world, would be preached throughout the whole earth. Do you still rise up against my people and not let them go? Now I will immediately rain the strongest hail, such as has not happened in Egypt from its beginning until now. So, hurry up now to gather your livestock and everything you have in the field: all the people and animals that are found in the fields and do not enter the house will perish from the hail that falls on them. Whoever of Pharaoh's subjects believed the words of the Lord gathered his livestock into the house, and whoever did not heed the word of the Lord in thought, he left his livestock in the field. Meanwhile, the Lord said to Moses: Stretch out your hand into heaven, and there will be hail throughout all the land of Egypt and will strike people and cattle and all the grass of the earth. So Moses stretched out his hand to heaven, and the Lord gave thunder and hail, and fire flowed across the earth: the Lord made such fiery hail throughout the entire land of Egypt. It was a strange hail: fire burned with hail, and the hail was so strong that it had not been seen in Egypt since people settled there. The hail struck all the animals of Egypt, from man to cattle, every grass of the field, even all the trees of the field, the hail destroyed it. Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, there was no hail. Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said to them: I am guilty. The Lord is righteous, but I and my people are wicked. Pray to the Lord for me, so that the thunder of God and the hail and fire will stop, and I will let you go, and you will no longer hesitate. And Moses said to him: When I leave the city, I will stretch out my hands into heaven to the Lord, and the thunder will cease and there will be no hail, so that you may know that the land is the Lord's. You and your servants, I know, have not yet feared the Lord. Your flax and barley are killed, because the barley has eared, and the flax has been seeded; and the wheat and wheat were not beaten, because they were late (what authenticity of the historical story! - the story is extremely smooth and even). And Moses left the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord - and the thunder stopped, and the hail and rain did not even fall to the ground. Pharaoh, seeing that the thunder and rain and hail had stopped, again did not come to his senses and did not let the Israelites go. Chapter 10. Again the Lord said to Moses: Go in to Pharaoh: he and his servants have become hardened by their stubborn character because of My wonders; I will also perform similar signs for them, so that you will tell your children and the children of your children about these signs and how much I laughed at the Egyptians, and so that you will know that I am the Lord of the whole world. Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the Lord God of the Jews says: How long will you not fear Me?” Let My people go, so that they may serve Me. If you do not want to let them go, then tomorrow at this time I will bring many springs over all your borders, so that they will cover the land, and you will not see it, and they will eat up all the remaining grain that was not destroyed by the hail, and they will eat up every tree that grows on your land; Moreover, your houses and the houses of your servants and all the houses throughout all the land of Egypt will be filled with them. Neither your fathers nor their great-grandfathers have ever seen such a multitude of insects. Moses and Aaron left. Meanwhile, Pharaoh's officials said to him: How long will we have this torment? Let these people go, so that they may serve the Lord their God: or do you want to see Egypt perish? Moses and Aaron were again called to Pharaoh, and he said to them: Go, serve the Lord your God. But who and who will go? Moses answered: We will go with our young men and elders, with our sons and daughters, with our sheep and oxen, since we will have the feast of our Lord. And Pharaoh said to them, So be it, the Lord be with you. But, letting you go, should I really let your property go with you? Do you see how cunning you are? No: let only grown men go and serve God: you yourself ask for it. And they drove them out from Pharaoh. Meanwhile, the Lord said to Moses: Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt, let the springs come out into the land of Egypt and eat all the grass and all the fruit of the trees that are left from the hail. And so Moses raised his rod to heaven, and the Lord caused the south wind to blow all day and all night; It was morning, and the south wind lifted the springs and brought them over the whole land of Egypt, and they attacked in great numbers all the borders of the land of Egypt; There were no such springs before and there won’t be any after. And they covered the whole earth, and the earth decayed: they ate all the grass and every fruit on the trees; There was no greenery left either on the trees or on the ground throughout the entire land of Egypt. Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron to him and said to them: I have sinned against the Lord your God and before you. Forgive my sin even now and pray to the Lord your God that He will deliver me from this death. Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. The Lord changed the wind; A strong wind blew from the sea and took the rods and threw them into the Red Sea: there was not a single rod left in all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh again, out of hardness of heart, did not want to let the Jews go. The Lord said to Moses: Stretch out your hand to heaven; let there be darkness in the land of Egypt, tangible darkness (dense). Moses stretched out his hand to heaven, and there was darkness, gloom, and storm over all the land of Egypt for three days. No one saw his brother for three days, no one rose from his bed for three days, while the Israelites had light in all their dwellings. Pharaoh again called Moses and Aaron and said to them: Go, serve the Lord your God: only leave the sheep and oxen, and let your substance go with you. Moses said: No, give us both burnt offerings and sacrifices that we would offer to the Lord our God. Not only our property, but also our cattle will go with us: we will not leave even a hoof; We will offer sacrifices from it to the Lord our God; if there are no cattle with us, how will we serve our God when we arrive at the place? Pharaoh became embittered this time more than all previous times. With anger he said to Moses: Get away from me and do not appear in front of me anymore. If you appear, death is yours. And Moses said: If it pleases you, I will not appear to you any more. Chapter 11. The Lord says to Moses: I will bring another plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt, and after that he will let you go from here. And when he lets you go completely, then he will drive you out, just as exiles are driven out of a city. Therefore, tell the people secretly that each one should ask his neighbor for gold and silver vessels and clothing. The Lord arranged it so that the Israelites this time entered into favor with the Egyptians, and they gave them everything at the request of the Israelites. Meanwhile, Moses became a very great man in the eyes of the Egyptians and Pharaoh himself and his officials. And Moses said, This is what the Lord says: At midnight I will go into Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the bondwoman who is at the millstone, and to the firstborn of every livestock: and there will be great mourning throughout all the land of Egypt, such as has never been and never will be. And among the children of Israel not even a dog shall move his tongue [v. 7], not only shall not one firstborn of Israel nor any living creature die, so that you may see how the Lord will be glorified between the Egyptians and the Israelites. And all these youths of yours will come to Me with a bow, saying: Go, you and all your people whom you want to lead with you. Then I will stop sending My plagues on Egypt. Moses left Pharaoh in anger. And the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that I may multiply signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did all the miracles before the eyes of Pharaoh, but he became embittered and did not want to let the Israelites go. Chapter 12. The Lord establishes Passover for the children of Israel - in memory of their exodus from Egypt. This holiday was supposed to begin on the 14th of the first month, or the month in which they left Egypt, and continue until the 21st until the evening. For seven days no one was to eat sour things, but everyone was to eat unleavened bread with meat (of the Passover lamb) and bitter herbs. All this was to be eaten at night and nothing was left by the morning of the next day. The Passover lamb was to be eaten without breaking the bones. Each family had to slaughter a lamb; if the number of family members was very small, so that a significant portion of the baked lamb could remain, then several people from another family had to be hired so that the entire lamb could be eaten. In the evening of the day on which the lamb was slaughtered, it was also necessary to anoint with its blood both the linings and the threshold of the doors in every Israeli house: this was a sign (of future deliverance by blood) of Christ, as a spotless and pure Lamb [1 Pet. 1:19], and the present deliverance from death of all the firstborn of the Jews. This holiday was to be celebrated throughout all generations forever, that is, until the coming of the promised Messiah. At midnight the Lord struck with death every firstborn in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh, his officials and all the Egyptians rose from their beds at night and filled all Egypt with their cries, because there was no house in which there was not a dead man. At night Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said to them: Go, get away from my people; Go, serve your God as you have spoken: take sheep and cattle; Yes, and pray for me. Now the Egyptians began to forcefully drive the Jews out of their land, saying: perhaps we will all die because of you. The Jews begged the Egyptians for silver and gold vessels and clothing - everything was given to them, and the Jews robbed the Egyptians. The Jews lived in Egypt for 430 years, as the Lord told Abraham. And after so much time all the power of the Lord (a wonderful expression) came out of the land of Egypt at night. Chapter 13. The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Chapter 14. After a short time, Pharaoh repented that he had let the Jews go; Soon he harnessed his chariots and gathered together all his people capable of bearing arms, also six hundred chosen chariots, all the horses of Egypt and, in addition, three hundred 45. So he chased after the Israelites and found them encamped by the sea. The Israelis noticed the Egyptians; They were horrified and raised their cries to heaven, then they began to murmur against Moses, saying: there was no death for us in Egypt, so you brought us out to die in the desert? What did you do to us when you brought us out of Egypt? Didn’t we tell you in Egypt: leave us to work for the Egyptians; and indeed, it was better for us to work for the Egyptians than to die in this desert. Moses answered them: take courage, stand and see how the Lord will save us today; You have now seen the Egyptians before your eyes, but soon you will not see them. The Lord Himself will fight for you, but you remain silent. Meanwhile, the Lord called to Moses, saying: Why are you crying to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go. And take your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea and cut it: let the Israelites pass through the middle of the sea on dry land. Even now I will glorify Myself: all the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. And so the Angel of God, who walked before the army of the children of Israel, took his lead and went behind them; the pillar of cloud also took in front and stood behind them, and thereby put a division between the Egyptian regiment and the Jewish regiment; There was darkness and gloom, night fell, and the two regiments did not mix with each other all night. Meanwhile, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea: with a strong south wind, the Lord stirred up and dispersed the sea water, the water parted, and the sea became dry land in a certain place. The Israelites entered the sea on dry ground and walked between two walls of water, on the right and left. The Egyptians also set off after them: all Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemen set off into the sea. In the morning watch, the Lord looked at the Egyptian regiment, standing in the pillars of fire and cloud, and brought it into confusion - he tied the axles of the chariots and led them with difficulty. The Egyptians said: Let us flee from the Israelites, because the Lord God will fight for them. But at this time the Lord said to Moses: stretch out your hand over the sea, let the water unite and cover the Egyptians, their horsemen and chariots. Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and by the next day the water had returned to its place; The Egyptians fled under the water, below two walls of water on either side, and the Lord shook them out (like earth, like rubbish) in the middle of the sea. The water moved and covered the chariots and horsemen and all the power of Pharaoh - not one of them remained. But the Israelis passed safely on dry land. Grateful for deliverance from obvious destruction, the sons of Israel and their leader Moses sang the following song to the Lord. Chapter 15. We sing to the Lord, because He was gloriously glorified, throwing horse and rider into the sea. He became a Helper and Protector for my salvation: He is my God, I will glorify Him, He is the God of my father, I will magnify Him. He is the Lord who destroys battles; the Lord is His name. The chariots of the Egyptian king with all his strength plunged into the sea, and the horseman drowned many of his chosen ones in the Red Sea. He covered them with the abyss; they sank into the depths like a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorified in strength; Thy right hand, O Lord, has crushed the enemies; With the multitude of Your glory You wiped out your opponents, You sent Your wrath: He ate them like stems of plants. Because of the spirit of Your wrath the waters parted, the waters became hardened like a wall; The waves in the sea grew thicker. The enemy said: having pursued, I will overtake them, I will divide the treasures, I will satisfy my soul, I will kill them with the sword, my hand will rule. But You sent Your Spirit, and the sea covered them: they sank like tin in a great quantity of water. Who is like You among the gods, O Lord, who is like You? You are glorified in the saints, marvelous in glory; You do wonders. You stretched out Your right hand, and the earth devoured them. Meanwhile, You taught these Your people, whom You delivered from the hand of the enemy, in Your righteousness, etc. So solemn and enthusiastic was the song of the children of Israel, delivered from the hand of the enemy. But the new Israel has reason to rejoice just as much and even more than the old. We have been delivered from our fiercest enemies – the devil and death. Chapter 16 About dyes and manna. On the sixth day manna was collected in double quantity, and neither baking nor cooking was allowed on the Sabbath. Likewise, spiritual Israel must abstain on Sunday from all worldly things and engage in the thought of God and the study of the affairs of God. [Ch.] 17. About bringing water out of a stone and about the war with the Amalekites. The power of the Cross is amazing even in the Old Testament. The cruciform raising of Moses' hands was the reason for the victory over Amalek. [Ch.] 18. Advice from Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, about the easiest way to govern the people. Chapter 19, [Article 4]. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you [as it were] on eagle’s wings, and brought you to Myself; Therefore, if you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you will be My possession above all nations, for all the earth is Mine, and you will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. How majestic and divine this is! The Lord says to Moses: Behold, I will come to you in a pillar of cloud, so that people will hear that I speak to you, and thereby always believe you. Tell this to the people and cleanse them today and tomorrow, let them wash their clothes. On the third day everyone must be ready, because on the third day the Lord will descend on Mount Sinai before all the people. Place all the people around, saying: see, do not go up the mountain and do not touch it with anything; whoever touches it will die. When the voices and trumpets cease, and the cloud departs from the mountain, then let the people go up to the mountain. Moses came down from the mountain to the people and sanctified them, and they washed their clothes. And he said to them: Be ready; Do not go in among your wives for three days. On the third day, when it was approaching morning, thunder was suddenly heard, lightning flashed, a dark cloud covered Mount Sinai; trumpet sounds loudly resounded in the mountainous area and the surrounding area. Everyone was in fear. So Moses led the people out of the army to meet God and left them under the mountain. Mount Sinai was all in smoke because of the descent of God on it in fire; the smoke swirled and rose upward, like smoke from a stove. Everyone was struck with great fear. Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder: go up, and Aaron with you; but let not the priests and the people rush to ascend to the Lord, lest [the Lord] smite them [v. 24]. So, for the benefit of the people, because they could not bear the immediate presence of God, God did not command them to go up the mountain: lest, he says, the Lord destroy them from them, not out of a sense of revenge, because God is impassive, but because He is a consuming Fire for sinners; just as stubble is scorched or burned by fire, so is the sinner from God. Seekers of the priesthood! You are striving, like the people of Israel, to climb the mountain of knowledge of God, but see if you are able to endure the appearance of the Divine? Chapter 20. The Decalogue is spoken. [5-]6 tbsp. I am the Lord your God... who shows mercy to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments. Keep the commandments of God out of love for Him. 10[-11]. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: on it you shall not do any work... for in six days the Lord created heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it. Glory to God that He, in His wisdom and goodness, established to celebrate the seventh day and devote it to the thought of God, excluding all everyday affairs. People, with all their forgetfulness and tendency towards ingratitude, involuntarily, so to speak, had to bring to mind the greatest blessings of God, revealed in the creation of the world or in its calling from the abyss of insignificance to being. Christians, new Israel! You are celebrating a new Saturday, which is no less important than the ancient one. On Saturday, the Only Begotten Son of God rested from all suffering, having called His rational creation to a new, grace-filled existence from moral destruction. And on Sunday He raised all mankind with Him from the dead. All the people heard the voice and the sound of the trumpet and saw candles and a smoking mountain. Out of fear, all the people stood at a distance and said to Moses: speak to us, and let not God tell us: otherwise we will die. Moses says: Do not be afraid! God came to you to test you, to bring His fear upon you, so that you would not sin. Moses entered the darkness where God was, and God again began to talk to him about how the people should not make gods of gold and silver, since he himself clearly saw that the living, true God was in heaven, from where they themselves heard His voice: you saw how I spoke to you from heaven [v. 22]. Chapter 21, 15[-17]. Whoever strikes his father or his mother must be put to death... Whoever curses his father or his mother must be put to death. This is how sacred the person of a father or mother should be, or this is the respect children owe to them. Chapter 22, 21 Art. Do not oppress the stranger and do not oppress him, for you yourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt. Christians are strangers on earth; Moreover, they should not insult strangers from a foreign land or from their own. [Verse] 22. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan; If you oppress them, then when they cry out to Me, I will hear their cry, and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children orphans. This is how God loves widows and orphans, provides for them and avenges them! [Verse] 26. If you take your neighbor's clothing as a pledge, return it before the sun goes down, for it is his only covering, it is the clothing of his body: what will he sleep in? So when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am merciful. The Jew had one robe with which he covered himself like a robe. It covered his shame and served as light protection from the weather. At night he covered himself with it instead of a blanket. It is obvious that it was the most necessary accessory of a Jew. That is why God makes it a law that whoever receives it as a pledge should give it back before the sun sets. [Art.] 29. Do not hesitate to bring Me the firstfruits of your threshing floor and your winepress; Give me the firstborn of your sons. And we must sacrifice to God the first fruits of our labors or part of our property, and through this confess God as the giver of blessings. Chapter 23, [v.] 14. Celebrate Me three times a year. But here we celebrate holidays not only not three times and not ten, but more times, as an image of the eternal sabbath of the people of God in the city of God. 25. Serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread [and your wine] and your water; and I will turn away diseases from you. Serve the Lord - and God’s blessing will be on your whole house and on all your property. 26[-27]. I will make the number of your days complete. I will send My terror before you, and I will confuse every nation to which you come, and I will turn the rear of all your enemies to you. Orthodox people! Serve your Lord with good morals, and He will make you a terror to all nations. Chapter 24, Article 17. And the sight of the glory of the Lord on the top of the mountain was before the eyes of the children of Israel like a consuming fire. So, the glory of the Lord was revealed on the mountain in flaming fire, because God is Light and Fire, consuming human uncleanness. [Ch.] 25–30. About the construction of the tabernacle, about the installation of Aaron as high priest and his sons as priests, about the construction of sacred garments for them, etc. [Ch.] 31, [v. 3–5]. The Lord chooses from the tribe of Judah the son of Uriah and Hur, calls him by the name of Bezaleel and fills him with the Spirit of God, wisdom, understanding, knowledge and all kinds of art, to work in gold, silver and copper, [from blue, purple and scarlet wool and from woven linen], to cut stones for setting and to cut wood for every work. O Lord Almighty and Most Gracious Father! You yourself deigned to do everything for the construction of the tabernacle: you showed him the model and gave him the master, teaching him everything in advance. And now various masters receive their skills, their art from God. Here we talk about the tablets with the commandments. Chapter 32. The Jews drain themselves of the golden calf. Moses, who was with God on the mountain, is informed of this by God, who tells him to leave Him, threatens to destroy the idolaters, and instead of the destroyed people promises to produce a numerous people from Moses. Moses begs the Lord for the people and says: Why are You, Lord, so angry with Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with the great fortress and with Your exalted arm. If You destroy them in the desert, the Egyptians will say: He brought them out by cunning in order to destroy them in the mountains and destroy them from the earth. Satisfy Your anger and be merciful to the sins of Your people, remembering Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself and said to them: I will greatly multiply your seed (people are called seed, because they, like plants, are formed from seeds), like the stars of the sky - in such a multitude, and I will give this land to which we are going and which You promised to give to their descendants for eternity possession. The Lord was merciful. 32[-34] art. Forgive them their sin, and if not, then blot me out of Your book, in which You wrote. The Lord said to Moses: I will blot out the one who sinned against Me (meaning a grave sin, for example, idolatry) from My book; therefore go, [descend,] lead this people where I told you (in Egypt); Behold, My angel will go before you, and on the day of My visitation I will visit them for their sin. What selflessness of Moses for the salvation of his compatriots! Great soul! No wonder God chose him as a leader. How majestically God says to Moses: whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out from the book of eternal life - and why will I blot you out? Go, get off the mountain and bring these people to the place that I told you about back in Egypt - to the land of Canaan: behold, My Angel will go before you again! Chapter 33 Then he promises Moses to give an Angel to expel the Canaanite peoples from their land, but He himself refuses to go with the Jews because of their stiff necks and so as not to kill Moses on the way. Next, the Lord commands Moses that the Jews take off their holiday clothes and utensils, and they take their clothes and utensils from Mount Horeb. Moses takes down his tabernacle, places it outside the army, far from it, and calls it the tabernacle of meeting. Everyone who sought the Lord entered this tabernacle. When Moses entered into it, the whole people stood and watched at the door of their tent and watched Moses depart until he entered the tabernacle itself. When Moses entered the tabernacle, a pillar of cloud came down and stood before the doors of the tabernacle: from the cloud the Lord Himself spoke to Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing before the door of the tabernacle, and behold, all the people stood up and bowed down, each one of the doors of his tabernacle. And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as one speaks to his friend; At the end of the conversation with God, Moses was released from the tabernacle to the regiment, but Moses’ servant Joshua did not leave it. Moses said to the Lord: Behold, You say to me: Lead these people; Meanwhile, I have not revealed who you will send with me. And You said to me: I know you more than anyone else and you have grace with Me. So, if I have grace with You, reveal Yourself to me, so that I can see You separately and clearly and in fact find grace before You and that this numerous people are Your people. The Lord says to him: I myself will go before you and give you rest. Moses to Him: if You Yourself do not go with us, then do not take me out of here (the language of love that does not want to be separated from God). And how, in fact, will it be known that I and Your people have grace from You, if not only when You go with us? Then I and Your people will be glorified more than all the nations that are on earth. The Lord says to Moses: And this word that you have just spoken, I will fulfill, because you have found grace from Me and I know you more than anyone else. Moses says: Show me Your glory. The Lord answered that a person would not remain alive if he saw His face, His being, however, added: here is my place, and you stand on the stone. When My glory has passed by, I will put you in a cleft of the stone and cover you with My hand while I pass by; then I will remove My hand, and then you will see My footprint, My behind, but My face will not appear to you. It is terrible to think what position Moses would have been in at the time when the Lord passed over him in His glory, and what an indescribable brilliance of the Divine, unbearable for the mortal eye, there was at that time. Yes, in all fairness, even Moses, who spoke with God face to face, could not have endured this brilliance, this unapologetically greatness of the Divine. When the Lord was in the cloud, then it was possible to speak face to face, but now it is not so. If even then the appearance of God on Sinai shook the earth, then what will happen to this mortal body that a person wears, with his soul, always unclean before God? - Death, disappearance! Chapter 34, 3 art. No one should ascend with you (to Mount Sinai), and no one should appear on the entire mountain (at the top of it, far from the place of the Descent of God or on its slope); Even livestock, small and large, should not graze near this mountain. God prudently takes care that any of the people, out of curiosity to see God, or of the animals looking for food for themselves, does not approach the mountain or the mountain itself, sanctified by the special presence of the Almighty and Terrible God, and does not die instantly from His unapproachable greatness, stunning and scorching with His touch everything that is white, material and unclean. Great and terrible are You, our God. How spiritual and pure we must be in order to be worthy of Your sight! At the command of the Lord, Moses ascends to Sinai in the morning with two stone tablets. So the Lord descended onto the mountain in a cloud; Moses appears before Him and calls Him by name. The Lord passed by before him and cried: The Lord, the Lord, is a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and truth, preserving [righteousness and showing] mercy to thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin [vv. 6–7]. Moses hastily lowered his face to the ground, worshiping God, and said to Him: if I have found grace from You, then may my Lord go with us: I cannot do anything with this people, they are a stiff-necked people. And so that You can go with us, You will take away our iniquities and sins, and we will be Yours. The Lord further establishes a covenant with Moses: not to make any conditions with the pagan Canaanite peoples, not to bow to their gods, not to marry Jewish daughters to Canaanite youths and not to marry your children to their maidens; to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days in the month of new fruits, when the Israelites came out of Egypt; dedicate the firstborn of a bull and a sheep to Him, and redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a sheep or give a price for it; also to redeem every firstborn of his sons and not to appear at birth empty-handed before God. This was a living reminder that God Himself gives birth to both people and animals, feeding and growing them. Work for six days, and rest from work on the seventh; to celebrate the beginning of the wheat harvest (and wheat, in general, all the fruits, God grows) and the festival of its gathering - in the middle of summer. Three times a year, every male sex had to appear before God - in the tabernacle, or in the church. The first-fruits of the first harvest were to be brought into the house of God. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking. At this time, the face of Moses was illuminated by the uncreated light of the face of God, so that Aaron and the Israelites, seeing him, were afraid to approach him, and he had to put the veil on his face and take it off when he appeared to the face of God. Chapter 35. About the collection of materials for the construction of the tabernacle. Everyone took part according to their skill, strength and condition: both men and women. And now our women take part in decorating the church of God, for example, they embroider carpets. Chapter 36. So much material was brought for the construction of the tabernacle with its accessories every day that Moses announced to the army that neither men nor women would bring anything else for the firstfruits of the shrine. So great was the zeal for the house of God! The following is a description of the high priestly garments. Chapter 37. About the structure of the tabernacle. Chapter 39 Moses was shown all the work, all the fittings of the tabernacle, and Moses blessed it all. Chapter 40 and last. Moses sets up the tabernacle and all its accessories; dedicates Aaron and his sons. When Moses finished his work, a cloud covered the tabernacle of the meeting, and the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord. Moses himself could not enter the tabernacle of the meeting, because a cloud overshadowed it and the whole tabernacle was full of the glory of the Lord. When the cloud lifted from the tabernacle of meeting, the Israelites set out on their journey with their possessions; if it did not rise, they stood until the cloud rose. There was a cloud over the tabernacle by day, and fire by night, in the sight of all the Israelites in all their journeys. Wonderful trip! May his glory sweep through all nations and all times! Sen (Church Slavic) – here in the meaning of “shadow”. The land of Goshen (Goshen) is a country on the eastern outskirts of Egypt where the Jews lived, fertile and convenient for pastures. Tristats are military chariots drawn by three horses; Egyptian tristats - military leaders, horsemen sitting on chariots. Stout (Church Slavic) – rude, fat, insensitive. You might be interested in: