Ephrem the Syrian

In his own words on Exodus

• Exodus 1:21-22

  Just as Pharaoh was drowned in those very waters in which he had drowned the infants, so too David removed Goliath's head with that very sword with which he had destroyed many. Moses divided the waters through the symbol of the cross, while David laid Goliath low through the symbol of the stone. Our Lord condemned Satan by the word of his mouth when the latter was tempting him. Pharaoh was drowned by the waters with which he had drowned [others].

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON 12

• Exodus 3:1

  Moses in Egypt was held in great honor: Pharaoh's daughter called him her own son —yet rejecting this, he chose to be just a shepherd, living in hardship.

  HYMNS ON PARADISE 6

• Exodus 3:2

  The bush which was unsuitable even as an image of dead gods was able to depict within itself the mystery of the living God. Moses, this is a sign to you: as you saw God dwelling in the midst of fire, by fire must you serve the God who dwells in the fire.

  COMMENTARY ON EXODUS 3:2

• Exodus 3:5

  "Remove your sandals" and go trample the Egyptians. See, it is thirty years past the time of their picking. Up to this point, Moses proceeded without fear. But when he saw a sight that was more than his eyes [could bear], he hid his face out of fear of looking at God the way he looked at the angel.

  COMMENTARY ON EXODUS 3:1

• Exodus 3:11

  Moses said, "Who am I to go before Pharaoh?" Although I have a royal title, I will not be received by him. And now that I do the work of a simple shepherd, who will allow me to go before Pharaoh? And even if I were let in, what importance would he see in me to believe my words?

  COMMENTARY ON EXODUS 3:3

• Exodus 4:25

  At the place where they were spending the night, the Lord came upon Moses and wanted to kill him, because he had discontinued circumcision in Midian for one of his sons who had not been circumcised. From the day [the Lord] spoke with him on Horeb, he had not been united to his wife, who was distressed; and she was under judgment because she had not put full faith in his word. [Moses] blamed her for keeping his son from being circumcised. They spent the night [preoccupied] with these thoughts. Suddenly an angel appeared for both of these reasons, while seeming to appear only because of circumcision.[The angel] appeared to Moses in anger so that his departure [from Midian] would not be ridiculed because he had discontinued circumcision without necessity, while the Hebrews had not interrupted it in spite of the death of their children. Now whom should he have feared, God, who prescribed circumcision, or his wife, who had stood in the way of circumcision? When Moses' wife saw that he was about to die because she had stood in the way of circumcision, about which and on account of which he had argued with her that evening, "she took a piece of flint" and, still trembling from the vision of the angel, "circumcised her son," letting him be spattered with his [own] blood. Then she held the angel's feet and said, "I have a husband of blood. Do not cause suffering on the day of the celebration of circumcision." Because there was great joy on the day Abraham circumcised Isaac, she said, "I too have a husband of blood. If you do not [refrain from harm] on account of me, who circumcised my son with my own hands, or on account of Moses, refrain on account of the commandment of circumcision itself which has been observed."

  COMMENTARY ON EXODUS 4.4.1-3

• Exodus 7:10

  The staff is a sign of the cross. It caused all the plagues when it swallowed the snakes, just as [the cross] would destroy all idols. With [the staff], [Moses] divided the sea and drowned the Egyptians. That prefigured the destruction of the Canaanites.

  COMMENTARY ON EXODUS 7:4

• Exodus 9:24

  "Hail and fire fell" together; neither did the hail extinguish the fire, nor did the fire melt the hail. Rather, it burst into flames in the hail as in a thicket and turned [the hail] as red as iron in the fire, blazing in the hail, and careful of the trees. The force [of the hail] "splintered the ancient trees," but the fire in [the hail] protected the hedges, seed beds and vineyards.

  COMMENTARY ON EXODUS 9:3

• Exodus 9:27

  Pharaoh said to Moses, "This time I have sinned." And the previous times he hardened his heart, did he not sin? And even if he sinned the previous times, he did not sin the way he did this time. [The Lord] warned him to bring in the cattle, but he was not persuaded. This is why his offense was more serious in this plague than in all the [other] plagues.

  COMMENTARY ON EXODUS 9:4

• Exodus 14:25

  The Egyptians pursued the Hebrews with no fear of the darkness that separated them from the Hebrews and without being disturbed by the sea that was divided. During the night, through a sea that was divided, they went rushing forward to do battle with the people who were led by the column of fire. During the morning watch, the Lord appeared to the Egyptians and threw them into confusion. He clogged the wheels of their chariots so that they could neither pursue the people nor escape from the sea. But they did not fear the Lord who appeared to them, and they were not deterred by their wheels that were clogged. They boldly drove their chariots with full force.

  COMMENTARY ON EXODUS 14:5

• Exodus 15:20

  "The prophetess Miriam took.…" How did she become a prophetess? Either, like Isaiah's wife, she had the honorary title of prophecy, although she was not a prophetess, or because she was just a woman.

  COMMENTARY ON EXODUS 15.4.2

• Exodus 25:9

  By saying [to him], "You shall make everything according to the model of the tabernacle that I will show you," he first called it a model and a temporal tabernacle to indicate that it was transitory and that it would be replaced by the church, the perfect prototype which lasts forever. And so … they would esteem it because of its likeness to the heavenly tabernacle.

  COMMENTARY ON EXODUS 25:1

• Exodus 32:1

  For he was of the sons of Israel, whom terrible signs accompanied up to the sea, that they might fear; and blessed miracles surrounded in the waste desert, that they might be reconciled; but through lack of faith, for a slight cause, they rejected them, saying: As for this Moses who brought us up, we know not what has become of him. For they ceased to regard the mighty works that had been surrounding them. They perceived that Moses was not near them; so that for this cause that had come near, they drew near to the heathenism of Egypt. For Moses was for a little removed from before them, that the calf that was before them might appear, that they might worship it openly also; for they had been secretly worshipping it in their hearts. But when their heathenism from being inward became open, then Moses also from being hidden openly appeared; that he might openly punish those whose heathenism had revelled beneath the holy cloud which had overshadowed them. But God removed the Shepherd of the flock from it for forty days, that the flock might show that its trust was fixed upon the calf. While God was feeding the flock with all delights, it chose for itself as its Shepherd the calf, which was not able even to eat. Moses who kept them in awe was removed from them, that the idolatry might cry aloud in their mouths, which the restraint of Moses had kept down in their hearts. For they cried: Make us gods, to go before us.

  Homily - On Our Lord

• Exodus 32:10

  When he wished that [the fig tree] be uprooted, the event was similar to that earlier one, when the Father said to Moses, "Permit me to destroy the people." He [thus] gave him a reason to intercede with him. Here too he showed the vinedresser that he wished to uproot it. The vinedresser made known his plea, and the merciful one showed his pity, that if, in a further year, [the fig tree] did not yield fruit, it would be uprooted.

  COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON 14:27

• Exodus 32:20

  For Moses ground to powder the calf and caused them to drink it in the water of ordeal; that by drinking of the calf all those who were living for its worship might die. For the sons of Levi ran upon them, those who ran to help Moses and girded on their swords. For the sons of Levi did not know whom they should slay, because those that worshipped were mingled with those that worshipped not. But He, for Whom it was easy to distinguish, distinguished those who were defiled from those who were not defiled; so that the innocent might give thanks that their innocence had not passed unseen by the Just One; and the guilty might be convicted that their offence had not escaped the eye of the Judge. But the sons of Levi were the open avengers. Accordingly Moses set a mark upon the offenders, that it might be easy for the avengers to avenge. For the draught of the calf entered those in whom the love of the calf was dwelling, and displayed in them a manifest sign, that the drawn sword might rush upon them.

  Homily - On Our Lord

• Exodus 32:27

  For the sons of Levi ran upon them, those who ran to [help] Moses and girded on their swords. For the sons of Levi did not know whom they should slay, because those that worshipped were mingled with those that worshipped not. But He, for Whom it was easy to distinguish, distinguished those who were defiled from those who were not defiled; so that the innocent might give thanks that their innocence had not passed [unseen by] the Just One; and the guilty might be convicted that their offence had not escaped [the eye of] the Judge. But the sons of Levi were the open avengers. Accordingly Moses set a mark upon the offenders, that it might be easy for the avengers to avenge. For the draught of the calf entered those in whom the love of the calf was dwelling, and displayed in them a manifest sign, that the drawn sword might rush upon them.

  HOMILY ON OUR LORD 6

• Exodus 34:29

  In Moses he depicted for you a parable: his cheeks, ashen with age, became shining and fair, a symbol of old age that in Eden again becomes young.

  HYMNS ON PARADISE 7.10