Scripture often substitutes souls for men, as in Exodus: There went down to Egypt seventy-five souls.^[1] The whole man is to be understood from his better part.

The expression their souls must be interpreted as meaning the men whom he is known to have slain in that calamity. The words of Exodus attest that the soul stands for the whole person, as we have said: So all the souls that came out of Jacob’s thigh were seventy.^[1] This expression is the result of the figure of synecdoche, which signifies the whole from the part.

Joseph means increase; the interpretation of this name is testimony to the Hebrew people who came out of the land of Egypt in increased numbers.

We have heard in the lesson which was read, dearly beloved, that when Joseph was dead, the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful and prolific, and they sprang up like grass.^[1] What does this mean, brethren? As long as Joseph lived the children of Israel are not recorded to have increased or multiplied very much, but after he died they are said to have sprung up like the grass. Surely they should have increased and multiplied more when they were under the patronage and protection of Joseph. These words were prefigured in that Joseph, dearly beloved; but in our Joseph, that is, in Christ the Lord, they were fulfilled in truth. Before our Joseph died, that is, before he was crucified, few people believed in him, but after he died and rose again throughout the world the Israelites, that is, the Christian people, increased and multiplied. Thus even the Lord himself says in the Gospel: Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.^[2] After the precious grain of wheat died and was buried through the passion, from that one grain a harvest of the church sprang up throughout the world. Not as formerly was God renowned in Judah alone, nor is his great name worshiped only in Israel; but from the rising of the sun unto the going down^[3] his name is praised.

Perhaps it is in this sense that God is said to have hardened the heart of Pharaoh, because the substance of his heart was obviously such as to elicit from the Sun of justice not his illumination but his power to harden and to scorch. That no doubt was the reason why this same Pharaoh afflicted the life of the Hebrews with hard work and wore them out with clay and bricks. And certainly the works that he devised came from a heart as miry and muddy! And as the visible sun contracts and hardens the substance of clay, so with the same rays by which he enlightened the people of Israel and by means of those rays’ same properties the Sun of justice hardened the heart of Pharaoh that harbored muddy devices.

When the children of Israel were in Egypt, they were afflicted with mortar and brick^[1] for the works of Pharaoh the king until they cried out in their groaning to the Lord.^[2] And he heard their cry and sent his word to them by Moses and led them out of Egypt. When we were also in Egypt, I mean in the errors of this world and in the darkness of ignorance, we then did the works of the devil in lusts and desires of the flesh. But the Lord had pity on our affliction and sent the Word, his only begotten Son, to deliver us from ignorance of our error and to lead us to the light of divine law.

I have already lived through many paschs, which was the fruit of a long life. But now I desire a purer pasch: to depart from this Egypt, the heavy and dark Egypt of this life, and to be freed from the clay and bricks that held us in bondage^[1] and to pass over to the land of promise.^[2]

We have been led out of Egypt where we were serving the devil as a pharaoh, where we were doing works of clay amid earthly desires, and we were laboring much in them. For Christ cried out to us, as if we were making bricks, Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened.^[1] Led out of here, we were led over through baptism as through the Red Sea—red for this reason, because consecrated by the blood of Christ—when all our enemies who were assailing us were dead, that is, when our sins have been wiped out.

Thus too it has been said that the Pharaoh of Egypt was a type of the devil, in that he cruelly ordered the males to be cast into the Nile and permitted the females to live. So too the devil, ruling over the great Egypt of the world from Adam unto Moses,^[1] made an effort to carry off and destroy the male and rational offspring of the soul in the flood of the passions, while he takes delight in seeing the carnal and sensual offspring increase and multiply.

On the midwives’ lie, by which they deceived Pharaoh and kept him from killing the Israelite males when they were born: The midwives said that Hebrew women did not give birth as Egyptian women did. It is usual to ask whether such lies have been approved by divine authority. Scripture says that God favored the midwives. It is unclear whether God, in his mercy, pardoned the lie or judged that the lie itself deserved a reward. For the midwives did one thing by letting the infant boys live and another by lying to Pharaoh. In letting them live they performed a work of mercy; but they used that lie for their own ends, to keep Pharaoh from harming the infants. This act could be the occasion not for praise but for pardon. It does not seem to me that the authority to lie has been given to those of whom it is said, And a lie has not been found in their mouths.^[1] For if the lives of certain people, being far below the level of the saints’ lives, include these sins of lying, these people are living in accord with their natural abilities, especially if they do not yet know that they should expect heavenly gifts but busy themselves with earthly things. As for those who live in such a way that their conversation, as the apostle says, is in heaven,^[2] I do not think that they should regulate the style of their speech, insofar as it affects speaking the truth and avoiding falsehood, on the example of the midwives. But we should consider this question more carefully, on account of the other examples that are found in Scripture.

Many lies indeed seem to be for someone’s safety or advantage, spoken not in malice but in kindness: such was that of those midwives in Exodus, who gave a false report to Pharaoh, to the end that the infants of the children of Israel might not be slain. But even these are praised not for the fact but for the disposition shown; since those who only lie in this way will attain in time to a freedom from all lying.

Indeed, in regard to other Hebrew women you find it written that the Hebrew women give birth before the midwives arrive. This is so because the souls of the just do not wait upon branches of learning arranged according to kinds of knowledge, nor do they require assistance in parturition, but they bring forth their offspring spontaneously and anticipate the expected time.

As for its being written that God dealt well with the Hebrew midwives and with Rahab the harlot of Jericho,^[1] he did not deal well with them because they lied but because they were merciful to the men of God. And so it was not their deception that was rewarded but their benevolence; the benignity of their intention, not the iniquity of their invention.

Because they feared God, they built up houses. Without the fear of God, a house cannot be built. If then with the fear of God houses were built by those who had not committed sin but rather did their building at God’s pleasure, we who have been captured, what must we do? Listen, sinner; we must fear God, indeed, to avoid sin; but after shipwreck there is the second plank of repentance. When the house was being built after captivity.^[1] When the house was being built, not was built, for repentance is without limit. To the just man who has died, repentance naturally is rendered superfluous. Whenever there is sin, always there is remorse of conscience. Hence the psalmist says was being built. While time lasts, the door is always open to repentance, for however long you shall live, as long as you live, you will fall into sin.

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.^[1] Moses divided the waters through the symbol of the cross,^[2] 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].

And that you may learn this—Pharaoh commanded the infants to be cast into the river. Unless the infants had been cast forth, Moses would not have been saved, he would not have been brought up in the palace. When he was safe, he was not in honor; when he was exposed, then he was in honor. But God did this to show his riches of resource and contrivance.