‘And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one
plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards
he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he
shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. 2. Speak
now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow
of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour,
jewels of silver, and jewels of gold. 3. And the Lord
gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians.
Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of
Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the
sight of the people. 4. And Moses said, Thus saith the
Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of
Egypt; 5. And all the first-born in the land of Egypt
shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth
upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the
maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the
first-born of beasts. 6. And there shall be a great cry
throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none
like it, nor shall be like it any more. 7. But against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his
tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that
the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and
Israel. 8. And all these thy servants shall come down
unto Me, and bow themselves unto Me, saying, Get Thee
out, and all the people that follow Thee: and after that
I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great
anger. 9. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall
not hearken unto you; that My wonders may be multiplied
in the land of Egypt. 10. And Moses and Aaron did all
these wonders before Pharaoh: and the Lord hardened
Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children
of Israel go out of his land.’–EXODUS xi. 1-10.
The first point to be noted in this passage is that it interposes a
solemn pause between the preceding ineffectual plagues and the last
effectual one. There is an awful lull in the storm before the last
crashing hurricane which lays every obstacle flat. ‘There is silence in
heaven’ before the final peal of thunder. Verses 1 to 3 seem, at first
sight, out of place, as interrupting the narrative, since Moses’
denunciation and prophecy in verses 4 to 8 must have been spoken at the
interview with Pharaoh which we find going on at the end of the
preceding chapter. But it is legitimate to suppose that, at the very
moment when Pharaoh was blustering and threatening, and Moses was
bearding him, giving back scorn for scorn, the latter heard with the
inward ear the voice which made Pharaoh’s words empty wind, and gave
him the assurances and commands contained in verses 1 to 3, and that
thus it was given him in that hour what he should speak; namely, the
prediction that follows in verses 4 to 8. Such a view of the sequence
of the passage makes it much more vivid, dramatic, and natural, than to
suppose that the first verses are either interpolation or an awkward
break referring to a revelation at some indefinite previous moment.
When a Pharaoh or a Herod or an Agrippa threatens, God speaks to the
heart of a Moses or a Paul, and makes His servant’s face ‘strong
against their faces.’
The same purpose of parting off the preceding plagues from the past
ones explains the introduction of verses 9 and 10, which stand as a
summary of the whole account of these, and, as it were, draw a line
across the page, before beginning the story of that eventful day and
night of Israel’s deliverance.
Moses’ conviction, which he knew to be not his own thought but God’s
revelation of His purpose, pointed first to the final blow which was to
finish Pharaoh’s resistance. He had been vacillating between compliance
and refusal, like an elastic ball which yields to compression and
starts back to its swelling rotundity as soon as the pressure is taken
off. But at last he will collapse altogether, like the same ball when a
slit is cut in it, and it shrivels into a shapeless lump. Weak people’s
obstinate fits end like that. He will be as extreme in his eagerness to
get rid of the Israelites as he had been in his determination to keep
them. The sail that is filled one moment tumbles in a heap the next,
when the halyards are cut. It is a poor affair when a man’s actions are
shaped mainly by fear of consequences. Fright always drives to
extremes. ‘When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out
hence altogether.’ Many a stout, God-opposing will collapses altogether
when God’s finger touches it. ‘Can thy heart endure in the days that I
shall deal with thee?’
Verses 2 and 3 appear irrelevant here, but the command to collect from
the Egyptians jewels, which might be bartered for necessaries, may well
have been given to Moses simultaneously with the assurance that he
would lead forth the people after the next plague, and the particulars
of the people’s favour and of Moses’ influence in the eyes of the
native inhabitants, come in anticipatively to explain why the request
for such contributions was granted when made.
With the new divine command swelling in his heart, Moses speaks his
last word to Pharaoh, towering above him in righteous wrath, and
dwindling his empty threats into nothingness. What a contrast between
the impotent rage of the despot, with his vain threat, ‘Thou shalt
die,’ and the unblenching boldness of the man with God at his back! One
cannot but note in Moses’ prediction of the last plague the solemn
enlargement on the details of the widespread calamity, which is not
unfeeling gloating over an oppressor’s misery, but a yearning to save
from hideous misery by timely and plain depicting of it. There is a
flash of national triumph in the further contrast between the universal
wailing in Egypt and the untouched security of the children of Israel,
but that feeling merges at once into the higher one of ‘the Lord’s’
gracious action in establishing the ‘difference’ between them and their
oppressors. It is not safe to dwell on superiority over others, either
as to condition or character, unless we print in very large letters
that it is ‘the Lord’ who has made it. There is a flash, too, of
natural triumph in the picture of the proud courtiers brought down to
prostrate themselves before the shepherd from Horeb, and to pray him to
do what their master and they had so long fought against his doing. And
there is a most natural assertion of non-dependence on their leave in
that emphatic ‘After that _I will_ go out.’ He is not asserting himself
against God, but against the cowering courtiers. ‘Hot anger’ was
excusable, but it was not the best mood in which to leave Pharaoh.
Better if he had gone out unmoved, or moved only to ‘great heaviness
and sorrow of heart’ at the sight of men setting themselves against
God, and rushing on the ‘thick bosses of the Almighty’s buckler’ to
their own ruin. Moses’ anger we naturally sympathise with, Christ’s
meekness we should try to copy.
The closing verses, as we have already noticed, are a kind of
summing-up of the whole narrative of the plagues and their effects on
Pharaoh. They open two difficult questions, as to how and why it was
that the effect of the successive strokes was so slight and transient.
They give the ‘how’ very emphatically as being that ‘Jehovah hardened
Pharaoh’s heart.’ Does that not free Pharaoh from guilt? And does it
not suggest an unworthy conception of God? It must be remembered that
the preceding narrative employs not only the phrase that ‘Jehovah
hardened Pharaoh’s heart,’ but also the expression that Pharaoh
hardened his own heart. And it is further to be noted that the latter
expression is employed in the accounts of the earlier plagues, and that
the former one appears only towards the close of the series. So then,
even if we are to suppose that it means that there was a direct
hardening action by God on the man’s heart, such action was not first,
but subsequent to obstinate hardening by himself. God hardens no man’s
heart who has not first hardened it himself. But we do not need to
conclude that any inward action on the will is meant. Was not the
accumulation of plagues, intended, as they were, to soften, a cause of
hardening? Does not the Gospel, if rejected, harden, making consciences
and wills less susceptible? Is it not a ‘savour of death unto death,’
as our fathers recognised in speaking of ‘gospel-hardened sinners’? The
same fire softens wax and hardens clay. Whosoever is not brought near
is driven farther off, by the influences which God brings to bear on us.
The ‘why’ is stated in terms which may suggest difficulties,–‘that my
wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.’ But we have to
remember that the Old Testament writers are not wont to distinguish so
sharply as more logical Westerns do between the actual result of an
event and its purpose. With their deep faith in the all-ruling power of
God, whatever had come to pass was what He had meant to come to pass.
In fact, Pharaoh’s obstinacy had not thwarted the divine purpose, but
had been the dark background against which the blaze of God’s
irresistible might had shone the brighter. He makes the wrath of man to
praise Him, and turns opposition into the occasion of more
conspicuously putting forth His omnipotence.
Bible in Basic English
Bible Verses About love – John 12:25
He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
Bible Verses About love – Ephesians 4:16
From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Bible Scriptures – Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.
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Bible Verses About love – 1-John 5:2
In this way, we are certain that we have love for the children of God, when we have love for God and keep his laws.
Bible Verses About love – 2-Corinthians 6:6
In a clean heart, in knowledge, in long waiting, in being kind, in the Holy Spirit, in true love,
Bible Verses About know – John 20:2
Then she went running to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple who was loved by Jesus, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the place of the dead and we have no knowledge where they have put him.
Bible Verses About example – Deuteronomy 20:18
So that you may not take them as your example and do all the disgusting things which they do in the worship of their gods, so sinning against the Lord your God.
Bible Verses About ziklag – 1-Chronicles 12:1
Now these are the men who came to David at Ziklag, while he was still shut up, because of Saul, the son of Kish; they were among the strong men, his helpers in war.
Bible Verses About side – Numbers 6:9
If death comes suddenly to a man at his side, so that he becomes unclean, let his hair be cut off on the day when he is made clean, on the seventh day.
Bible Verses About hara – Exodus 1:11
So they put overseers of forced work over them, in order to make their strength less by the weight of their work. And they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.
Bible Verses About ideas – John 7:47
Then the Pharisees said to them, Have you, like the others, been given false ideas?
Bible Verses About talked – Matthew 26:13
Truly I say to you, Wherever this good news goes out in all the world, what this woman has done will be talked of in memory of her.
Bible Verses About mizpah – Judges 11:34
Then Jephthah came back to his house in Mizpah, and his daughter came out, meeting him on his way with music and with dances; she was his only child; he had no other sons or daughters.
Bible Verses About ninety – Luke 15:4
What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if one of them gets loose and goes away, will not let the ninety-nine be in the waste land by themselves, and go after the wandering one, till he sees where it is?
Bible Verses About cruelly – Ezekiel 34:4
You have not made the diseased ones strong or made well that which was ill; you have not put bands on the broken or got back that which had been sent away or made search for the wandering ones; and the strong you have been ruling cruelly.
Bible Verses About whipped – Matthew 27:26
Then he let Barabbas go free: but after having Jesus whipped, he gave him up to be put to death on the cross.
Bible Verses About ataroth – Joshua 18:13
And from there the line goes south to Luz, to the side of Luz (which is Beth-el), then down to Ataroth-addar, by the mountain to the south of Beth-horon the lower.
Bible Verses About jarmuth – Joshua 10:3
So Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent to Hoham, king of Hebron, and to Piram, king of Jarmuth, and to Japhia, king of Lachish, and to Debir, king of Eglon, saying,
Bible Verses About nail – Daniel 4:33
That very hour the order about Nebuchadnezzar was put into effect: and he was sent out from among men, and had grass for his food like the oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair became long as eagles' feathers and his nails like those of birds.
Bible Verses About gileadite – 2-Samuel 19:31
And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim; and he went on as far as Jordan with the king to take him across Jordan.
Bible Verses About accounts – Nehemiah 6:19
And they said much before me of the good he had done, and gave him accounts of my words. And Tobiah sent letters with the purpose of causing me fear.
Bible Verses About greatly – Acts 3:12
And when Peter saw it he said to the people, You men of Israel, why are you so greatly surprised at this man? or why are you looking at us as if by our power or virtue we had given him the use of his legs?
Bible Verses About formed – Ezekiel 16:7
And be increased in number like the buds of the field; and you were increased and became great, and you came to the time of love: your breasts were formed and your hair was long; but you were uncovered and without clothing.
Bible Verses About anything – Mark 6:22
And when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and did a dance, Herod and those who were at table with him were pleased with her; and the king said to the girl, Make a request for anything and I will give it you.
Bible Verses About resting – Ezekiel 32:29
There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who have been given a resting-place with those who were put to the sword: they will be resting among those without circumcision, even with those who go down to the underworld.
Bible Verses About wisdom – Revelation 7:12
So be it. Let blessing and glory and wisdom and praise and honour and power and strength be given to our God for ever and ever. So be it.
Bible Verses About fear – Isaiah 8:9
Have knowledge, O peoples, and be in fear; give ear, all you far-off parts of the earth:
Bible Verses About worship – Deuteronomy 13:2
And the sign or the wonder takes place, and he says to you, Let us go after other gods, which are strange to you, and give them worship;
Bible Verses About anger – 2-Kings 14:10
It is true that you have overcome Edom and your heart is uplifted; let that glory be enough for you, and keep in your country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself, and Judah with you, in danger of downfall?
Bible Verses About wife – Genesis 4:17
And Cain had connection with his wife and she became with child and gave birth to Enoch: and he made a town, and gave the town the name of Enoch after his son.
Bible Verses About water – Leviticus 14:50
And put one of the birds to death in a vessel of earth over flowing water;
Bible Verses About clean – Numbers 19:14
This is the law when death comes to a man in his tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, will be unclean for seven days.
Bible Verses About giving – Luke 5:28
And giving up his business, he got up and went after him.
Bible Verses About faith – 1-Thessalonians 2:10
You are witnesses, with God, how holy and upright and free from all evil was our way of life among you who have faith;
Bible Verses About women – Isaiah 3:12
As for my people, their ruler is acting like a child, and those who have authority over them are women. O my people, your guides are the cause of your wandering, turning your footsteps out of the right way.
Bible Verses About baptism – John 4:2
(Though, in fact, it was his disciples who gave baptism, not Jesus himself),
Bible Verses About money – Proverbs 20:14
A poor thing, a poor thing, says he who is giving money for goods: but when he has gone on his way, then he makes clear his pride in what he has got.
Bible Verses About friend – Judges 14:20
But Samson's wife was given to the friend who had been his best man.
Bible Verses About dreams – Zechariah 10:2
For the images have said what is not true, and the readers of signs have seen deceit; they have given accounts of false dreams, they give comfort to no purpose: so they go out of the way like sheep, they are troubled because they have no keeper.
Bible Verses About peace – Isaiah 48:18
If only you had given ear to my orders, then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:
Bible Verses About poor – Zechariah 7:10
Do not be hard on the widow, or the child without a father, on the man from a strange country, or on the poor; let there be no evil thought in your heart against your brother.
Bible Verses About mothers – Mark 13:12
And brother will give up brother to death, and the father his child; and children will go against their fathers and mothers, and put them to death.
Bible Verses About fathers – Jeremiah 16:3
For this is what the Lord has said about the sons and daughters who come to birth in this place, and about their mothers who have given them birth, and about their fathers who have given life to them in this land:
Bible Verses About husbands – Jeremiah 44:19
And the women said, When we were burning perfumes to the queen of heaven and draining out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes in her image and give her our drink offerings without the knowledge of our husbands?
Bible Verses About tongue – Romans 3:13
Their throat is like an open place of death; with their tongues they have said what is not true: the poison of snakes is under their lips:
World English Bible
Bible Verses About faith – Philippians 3:9
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Bible Verses About grace – Exodus 33:16
For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? [is it] not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that [are] upon the face of the earth.
Bible Verses About courage – Deuteronomy 3:28
But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.
Bible Verses About forgive – Psalms 25:18
Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.
Bible Verses About clean – Chronicles-2 29:18
Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the showbread table, with all the vessels thereof.
Bible Verses About hope – Romans 8:25
But if we hope for that we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for [it].
Bible Verses About wife – Peter-1 3:7
Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with [them] according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
Bible Verses About goodness – Psalms 25:7
Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.
Bible Verses About jealousy – Psalms 78:58
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
Bible Verses About wisdom – Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Bible Verses About half – Chronicles-1 6:61
And unto the sons of Kohath, [which were] left of the family of that tribe, [were cities given] out of the half tribe, [namely, out of] the half [tribe] of Manasseh, by lot, ten cities.
Bible Verses About knit – Colossians 2:19
And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
Bible Verses About scorpion – Chronicles-2 10:11
For whereas my father put a heavy yoke upon you, I will put more to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I [will chastise you] with scorpions.
Bible Verses About spark – Isaiah 1:31
And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench [them].
Bible Verses About calamity – Proverbs 1:26
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
Bible Verses About sycamore – Kings-1 10:27
And the king made silver [to be] in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he [to be] as the sycamore trees that [are] in the vale, for abundance.
Bible Verses About cleft – Micha 1:4
And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, [and] as the waters [that are] poured down a steep place.
Bible Verses About deep – Amos 7:4
Thus hath the Lord GOD showed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
Bible Verses About willow – Job 40:22
The shady trees cover him [with] their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.
Bible Verses About devoted – Numbers 18:14
Everything devoted in Israel shall be thine.
King James Bible
Bible Scriptures About command – Samuel-1 20:29
And he said, Let me go, I pray thee; for our family hath a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he hath commanded me [to be there]: and now, if I have found favour in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, and see my brethren. Therefore he cometh not unto the king's table.
Bible Scriptures About disciples – John 18:17
Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also [one] of this man's disciples? He saith, I am not.
Bible Scriptures About gathered – Matthew 2:4
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
Bible Scriptures About delivered – Deuteronomy 5:22
These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.
Bible Scriptures About service – Chronicles-1 25:1
Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen according to their service was:
Bible Scriptures About captains – Jeremiah 42:1
Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near,
Bible Scriptures About help – Job 26:2
How hast thou helped [him that is] without power? [how] savest thou the arm [that hath] no strength?
Bible Scriptures About jews – Corinthians-1 9:20
And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
Bible Scriptures About beside – Daniel 11:4
And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.
Bible Scriptures About whole – Isaiah 28:22
Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
Bible Scriptures About stone – Romans 9:32
Wherefore? Because [they sought it] not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
Bible Scriptures About part – Acts 22:21
And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.
Bible Scriptures About ghost – Acts 10:44
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
Bible Scriptures About captain – Samuel-1 10:1
Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured [it] upon his head, and kissed him, and said, [Is it] not because the LORD hath anointed thee [to be] captain over his inheritance?
Bible Scriptures About truth – Psalms 45:4
And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness [and] righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
Bible Scriptures About babylon – Chronicles-2 36:6
Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.
Bible Scriptures About understand – Proverbs 15:32
He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.
Bible Scriptures About servant – Kings-1 1:51
And it was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah feareth king Solomon: for, lo, he hath caught hold on the horns of the altar, saying, Let king Solomon swear unto me to day that he will not slay his servant with the sword.
Bible Scriptures About joseph – Genesis 39:6
And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was [a] goodly [person], and well favoured.
Bible Scriptures About poured – Daniel 9:11
Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that [is] written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
Bible Verses About cup – Ezekiel 23:31
Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.
Bible Verses About escape – Jeremiah 41:15
But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites.
Bible Verses About dew – Job 29:19
My root [was] spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.
Bible Verses About cyrus – Ezra 1:2
Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which [is] in Judah.
Bible Verses About liberty – Isaiah 61:1
The spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound;
Bible Verses About ashes – Kings-1 13:5
The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
Bible Verses About incense – Exodus 31:11
And the anointing oil, and sweet incense for the holy [place]: according to all that I have commanded thee shall they do.
Bible Verses About wonders – Acts 6:8
And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Bible Verses About restore – Genesis 42:25
Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus did he unto them.
Bible Verses About foundation – Ezra 5:16
Then came the same Sheshbazzar, [and] laid the foundation of the house of God which [is] in Jerusalem: and since that time even until now hath it been in building, and [yet] it is not finished.
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