With him will I speak mouth to mouth
And face to face, as he had done, ( Exodus 33:11
) ; in a free, friendly, and familiar manner, as one friend
speaks to another, without injecting any fear or dread, and
consternation of mind, which was sometimes the case of the
prophets; or without a middle person, a mediator, as Aben Ezra,
not by means of an angel, as in some cases, but the Lord himself
spake to him:
even apparently, and not in dark speeches;
the word "apparently", or "vision", being opposed to "dark
speeches", shows that this is not to be understood of the
appearance or vision of an object presented to the sight, or to
the mind, which is denied of Moses, though usual with other
prophets; but of the vision, or plain sense and meaning of words,
which are so plainly expressed, that the sense is easily seen and
understood; it was not under figures and allegories, and parables
and dark representations of things, that the law of the
decalogue, and other laws, statutes, and ordinances, and the
proclamation the Lord made of himself, as the Lord gracious,
merciful were delivered unto Moses, but in plain words and clear
expressions; not in such enigmatical, parabolical, and
allegorical terms as many of the visions and prophecies of
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos, and Zechariah, were exhibited to
them; (See Gill on Numbers
12:6):
and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold:
as he had at the burning bush, and at Mount Sinai, with the
elders of Israel, and when the Lord proclaimed his name before
him; at which several times it is highly probable he beheld the
Lord, even the Lord Christ, in an human form, as a presage of his
future incarnation, and as he might also after this: the Targum
of Jonathan is,
``the similitude which is after my Shechinah (or divine Majesty) he saw;''that is, his back parts, as Jarchi, and other Jewish writers, interpret it; but Bishop Patrick thinks the word not should be repeated from the preceding clause, and that the sense is, that he did not behold him in similitudes, nor did the Lord speak to him by them, as to other prophets, see ( Hosea 12:10 ) ;
wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my
servant Moses?
or against my servant, against Moses; against any servant of
mine, but especially against Moses, so faithful in my house, so
much approved of and honoured by me, and so superior to all other
prophets.