And Moses besought the Lord his God
As the Lord was the God of Moses, his covenant God, and he had an
interest in him, he made use of it in favour of the people of
Israel:
and said, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy
people?
so as to think or speak of consuming them utterly; otherwise he
knew there was reason for his being angry and wroth with them;
but though they were deserving of his hot wrath and displeasure,
and even to be dealt with in the manner proposed, yet he entreats
he would consider they were his people; his special people, whom
he had chose above all people, and had redeemed them from the
house of bondage, had given them laws, and made a covenant with
them, and many promises unto them, and therefore hoped he would
not consume them in his hot displeasure; God had called them the
people of Moses, and Moses retorts it, and calls them the people
of God, and makes use of their relation to him as an argument
with him in their favour; and which also shows that Moses did not
understand that the Lord by calling them his people disowned them
as his:
which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt with great
power,
and with a mighty hand?
this the Lord had ascribed to Moses, and observes it is an
aggravation of their ingratitude to Moses, and here Moses
retorts, and ascribes it to God, and to his mighty power; as for
himself he was only a weak feeble instrument, the Lord was the
efficient cause of their deliverance, in which he had shown the
exceeding greatness of his power; and he argues from hence, that
seeing he had exerted his mighty arm in bringing them from
thence, that he would not now lift it up against them and destroy
them.