Part 662

104:4. Seek ye the lord, and be strengthened: seek his face evermore.

104:5. Remember his marvellous works which he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth.

104:6. O ye seed of Abraham his servant; ye sons of Jacob his chosen.

104:7. He is the Lord our God: his judgments are in all the earth.

104:8. He hath remembered his covenant for ever: the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.

104:9. Which he made to Abraham; and his oath to Isaac:

104:10. And he appointed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting testament:

104:11. Saying: To thee will I give the land of Chanaan, the lot of your inheritance.

104:12. When they were but a small number: yea very few, and sojourners therein:

104:13. And they passed from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people.

104:14. He suffered no man to hurt them: and he reproved kings for their sakes.

104:15. Touch ye not my anointed: and do no evil to my prophets.

104:16. And he called a famine upon the land: and he broke in pieces all the support of bread.

104:17. He sent a man before them: Joseph, who was sold for a slave.

104:18. They humbled his feet in fetters: the iron pierced his soul,

104:19. Until his word came. The word of the Lord inflamed him.

104:20. The king sent, and he released him: the ruler of the people, and he set him at liberty.

104:21. He made him master of his house, and ruler of all his possession.

104:22. That he might instruct his princes as himself, and teach his ancients wisdom.

104:23. And Israel went into Egypt: and Jacob was a sojourner in the land of Cham.

104:24. And he increased his people exceedingly: and strengthened them over their enemies.

104:25. He turned their heart to hate his people: and to deal deceitfully with his servants.

He turned their heart, etc.... Not that God (who is never the author of sin) moved the Egyptians to hate and persecute his people; but that the Egyptians took occasion of hating and envying them, from the sight of the benefits which God bestowed upon them.

104:26. He sent Moses his servant: Aaron the man whom he had chosen.

104:27. He gave them power to shew them signs, and his wonders in the land of Cham.

104:28. He sent darkness, and made it obscure: and grieved not his words.

Grieved not his words.... That is, he was not wanting to fulfil his words: or he did not grieve Moses and Aaron, the carriers of his words: or he did not grieve his words, that is, his sons, the children of Israel, who enjoyed light whilst the Egyptians were oppressed with darkness.

104:29. He turned their waters into blood, and destroyed their fish.