QUEST. XVII. Of the taking of Sarai into Pharaos house.

Vers. 15. THe woman was taken into Pharaos house, 17. but the Lord plagued Pharao and his house.* 1. It was an usuall thing among the heathen Princes, (whose will stood for a law) to take with violence at their pleasure such women as they liked: so the Egyptians did steale away Isis, the daughter of Inachus, King of Argives, and caried her into Egypt. The Grecians carried away Europa, daughter of Age∣nor, out of Phenicia into Creta. Iason brought Medea from Colchis into Grecia: Paris did the like to He∣lena Menelaus wife: so doth Pharao here to Sarai. 2. Pharao was plagued some thinke with a flux of bloud, some, in that the wombs of their women were shut up, as it is in the like story, Gen. 20. Iosephus thinketh it was the plague: Philo a torment both of bodie and minde: it is most like it was such a plague as Pha∣rao felt in himselfe. 3. His house also was smitten with the same plague: not onely the Princes that com∣mended Sarai her beauty, and so were accessary to this fact, as Chrysostome thinketh: but the whole house generally: who though they all were not agents in this matter, yet God, whose judgements, though secret,* yet are alwayes just, was able to finde sufficient cause of punishment among them, Calvin.