Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 11:9
And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.
9. wonders ] portents, as Exo 7:3 (see on Exo 4:21). The whole verse is nearly the same as Exo 7:4 a, 3 b; but, if it is in its right place, the ‘portents’ here can be only those which happened subsequently to the ninth plague. (The rend. as a pluperfect, had said, is contrary to grammar.)
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9 10 . The close of P’s account of the ‘portents’ hitherto done before the Pharaoh. They had failed to produce any effect upon king; and more, and more convincing ones, must in consequence follow.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 9. Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you] Though shall and will are both reputed signs of the future tense, and by many indiscriminately used, yet they make a most essential difference in composition in a variety of cases. For instance, if we translate lo yishma, Pharaoh SHALL not hearken, as in our text, the word shall strongly intimates that it was impossible for Pharaoh to hearken, and that God had placed him under that impossibility: but if we translate as we should do, Pharaoh WILL not hearken, it alters the case most essentially, and agrees with the many passages in the preceding chapters, where he is said to have hardened his own heart; as this proves that he, without any impulsive necessity, obstinately refused to attend to what Moses said or threatened; and that God took the advantage of this obstinacy to work another miracle, and thus multiply his wonders in the land.
Pharaoh WILL not hearken unto you; and because he would not God hardened his heart – left him to his own obstinacy.
To most critics it is well known that there are in several parts of the Pentateuch considerable differences between the Hebrew and Samaritan copies of this work. In this chapter the variations are of considerable importance, and competent critics have allowed that the Samaritan text, especially in this chapter, is fuller and better connected than that of the Hebrew.
1. It is evident that the eighth verse in the present Hebrew text has no natural connection with the seventh. For in the seventh verse Moses delivers to the Israelites what God had commanded him to say: and in the eighth he appears to continue a direct discourse unto Pharaoh, though it does not appear when this discourse was begun. This is quite contrary to the custom of Moses, Who always particularly notes the commencement of his discourses.
2. It is not likely that the Samaritans have added these portions, as they could have no private interest to serve by so doing; and therefore it is likely that these additions were originally parts of the sacred text, and might have been omitted, because an ancient copyist found the substance of them in other places. It must however be granted, that the principal additions in the Samaritan are repetitions of speeches which exist in the Hebrew text.
3. The principal part of these additions do not appear to have been borrowed from any other quarter. Interpolations in general are easily discerned from the confusion they introduce; but instead of deranging the sense, the additions here made it much more apparent; for should these not be admitted it is evident that something is wanting, without which the connection is incomplete.-See Calmet. But the reader is still requested to observe, that the supplementary matter in the Samaritan is collected from other parts of the Hebrew text; and that the principal merit of the Samaritan is, that it preserves the words in a better arrangement.
Dr. Kennicott has entered into this subject at large, and by printing the two texts in parallel columns, the supplementary matter in the Samaritan and the hiatus in the Hebrew text will be at once perceived. It is well known that he preferred the Samaritan to the Hebrew Pentateuch; and his reasons for that preference in this case I shall subjoin. As the work is extremely scarce from which I select them, one class of readers especially will be glad to meet with them in this place.
“Within these five chapters. vii., viii., ix., x., and xi., are seven very great differences between the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuchs, relating to the speeches which denounced seven out of the ten judgments upon the Egyptians, viz., waters into blood, frogs, flies, murrain, hail, locusts and destruction of the first-born. The Hebrew text gives the speeches concerning these judgments only once at each; but the Samaritan gives each speech TWICE. In the Hebrew we have the speeches concerning the five first as in command from GOD to Moses, without reading that Moses delivered them; and concerning the two last, as delivered by Moses to Pharaoh, without reading that GOD had commanded them. Whereas in the Samaritan we find every speech TWICE: GOD commands Moses to go and speak thus or thus before Pharaoh; Moses goes and denounces the judgment; Pharaoh disobeys, and the judgment takes place. All this is perfectly regular, and exactly agreeable to the double speeches of Homer in very ancient times. I have not the least doubt that the Hebrew text now wants many words in each of the seven following places: chap. vii., between verses 18 and 19; Ex 7:18-19 end of chap. vii.; Ex 7:25 chap. viii., between 19 and 20; Ex 8:19-20 chap. x., between 2 and 3; Ex 10:2-3 chap. xi., at verses 3 and 4. Ex 11:3-4 The reader will permit me to refer him (for all the words thus omitted) to my own edition of the Hebrew Bible, (Oxford 1780, 2 vols. fol.,) where the whole differences are most clearly described. As this is a matter of very extensive consequence, I cannot but observe here, that the present Hebrew text of Exod. xi. did formerly, and does still appear to me to furnish a demonstration against itself, in proof of the double speech being formerly recorded there, as it is now in the Samaritan. And some very learned men have confessed the impossibility of explaining this chapter without the assistance of the Samaritan Pentateuch. I shall now give this important chapter as I presume it stood originally, distinguishing by italics all such words as are added to or differ from our present translation. And before this chapter must be placed the two last verses of the chapter preceding, Ex 10:28-29: And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou hast well spoken, I will see thy face again no more.
EXODUS XI
| HEBREW TEXT AND PRESENT VERSION | SAMARITAN TEXT AND NEW VERSION |
| 1. 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. | 1. Then Jehovah said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt, and afterwards he will send you out hence: when he will send you away, he will surely drive you 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. | 2. Speak now in the ears of the people; and let every man ASK of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold and raiment. |
| 3. And the LORD GAVE the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. | 3. And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they shall give them what they ask. 4. For about midnight I wilt go forth into the midst of the land of Egypt. 5. And every first-born in the land of Egypt shalt die, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sitteth upon his throne, unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and even unto the first-born of every beast. 6. And there shall be a great cry through 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 even against beast; that thou mayest know that Jehovah doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. |
| 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. | 8. And thou also shalt be greatly honoured in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the sight of the people. 9. THEN Moses said unto Pharaoh, Thus saith Jehovah, Israel is my son, my first-born; and I said unto thee, Let my son go that he may serve me. 10. But thou hast refused to let him go; behold, Jehovah slayeth thy son, thy first-born. |
| 4. And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt. | 11. And Moses said, Thus saith Jehovah, About midnight will I go forth into the midst of the land 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. | 12. And every first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and even unto the first-born of every beast. |
| 6. And there shall be a great cry through all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. | 13. And there shall be a great cry through 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. | 14. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or even against beast: that thou mayest know 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 down 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 great anger. | 15. And all these thy servants shall come down to me, and bow down themselves to me, saying, Go forth, thou and all the people that follow thee; and then I will go forth. 16. Then went he forth from before Pharaoh in great indignation. |
| 9. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. | 17. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Pharaoh doth 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 Pharoah’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land. | 18. And Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh: but Jehovah hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land. |
“The reader has now the whole of this chapter before him. When, therefore, he has first read the 28th and 29th verses of the preceding chapter, and has then observed with due surprise the confusion of the Hebrew text in chap. xi., he will be prepared to acknowledge with due gratitude the regularity and truth of the Samaritan text, through these many and very considerable differences.” – REMARKS on select passages in the Old Testament, 8vo., Oxford, 1787.
The reader will pass his own judgment on the weight of this reasoning, and the importance of the additions preserved in the Samaritan text; a conviction of their utility has induced me to insert them.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And the Lord said unto Moses,…. Not at this time when he went out from Pharaoh, but some time before this, for the words may be rendered, “the Lord had said” x, for so he had, as is related, Ex 7:3, but the historian makes mention of it here, to show that Moses was not ignorant of the event of things; he knew that Pharaoh’s heart would be hardened from time to time, and that one plague after another must be inflicted, before he would let the people go; and therefore when he prayed for the removal of any, it was not in expectation that he would abide by his promise, but to do the will of God, and the duty of his calling:
Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; to Moses and Aaron, and let the people of Israel go as required of him:
that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt; which Jarchi interprets of the smiting of the firstborn, dividing the waters of the Red sea, and the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in it; but since these words were said before any of the plagues, were inflicted, it may refer to them all.
x “dixerat autem”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Rivet.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In Exo 11:9 and Exo 11:10 the account of Moses’ negotiations with Pharaoh, which commenced at Exo 7:8, is brought to a close. What God predicted to His messengers immediately before sending them to Pharaoh (Exo 7:3), and to Moses before his call (Exo 4:21), had now come to pass. And this was the pledge that the still further announcement of Jehovah in Exo 7:4 and Exo 4:23, which had already been made known to the hardened king (Exo 11:4.), would be carried out. As these verses have a terminal character, the vav consecutive in denotes the order of thought and not of time, and the two verses are to be rendered thus: “As Jehovah had said to Moses, Pharaoh will not hearken unto you, that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt, Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and Jehovah hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Verses 9, 10:
God had forewarned Moses of Pharaoh’s obstinacy. If Pharaoh had heeded Jehovah’s word and submitted to His authority, the “wonders” God showed in Egypt would have been necessary. But the more Pharaoh resisted, the more God showed His power.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
9. And the Lord said unto Moses. This seems to be a representation of the reason why Moses was so angry; viz., because he had been forewarned that he had to do with a lost and desperate man. When, therefore, after so many contests, he sees the dominion of God despised by the audacity and madness of the tyrant, deeper indignation bursts from him in their last struggle; especially because he sees before his eyes that detestable prodigy, viz., an earthen vessel so bold as to provoke God with indomitable obstinacy. But God had foretold to Moses (as we have already seen) the end of this his exceeding stubbornness, lest, having so often suffered repulse, he should faint at length. Otherwise, there might have crept in no trifling temptation, as to how it could please God to contend in vain with a mortal man. And it was absurd that the hardness of a human heart could not be either subdued, or corrected, or broken by the divine power. God, therefore, asserts that He was thus designing His own glory, which he desired to manifest by various miracles; and on this account he adds again in the next verse, that Pharaoh’s heart was again hardened by God Himself; whereby he signifies, that the tyrant thus pertinaciously resisted, not without the knowledge and will of God, in order that the deliverance might be more wonderful.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9, 10) And. the Lord said . . . The series of the nine wonders wrought by Moses and Aaron is terminated by this short summary, of which the main points are(1) God had said (Exo. 4:21) that the miracles would fail to move Pharaoh; (2) He had assigned as the reason for this failure His own will that the wonders should be multiplied (Exo. 7:3); (3) the miracles had now been wrought; (4) Pharaoh had not been moved by them; (5) God had hardened his heart, as a judgment upon him, after he had first himself hardened it. The result had been a series of manifestations calculated to impress the Israelites with a sense of Gods protecting care, the Egyptians and the neighbouring nations with a sense of His power to punish.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9, 10. These verses review and recapitulate the whole series of judgments, recording the fulfilment of the prediction made when Moses was first commissioned . Exo 7:2-3.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
A Final Summary of What Yahweh Has Done ( Exo 11:9-10 ).
Exo 11:9-10
‘And Yahweh had said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you in order that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and Yahweh made Pharaoh’s heart strong and he did not let the children of Israel go out of the land.’
These words summarise all that has gone before. They refer to what is past and indicate that the story is now coming to its climax. All that now remains is the final episode. The tension is mounting.
There is an indication here that Yahweh had given Egypt a unique opportunity. They had seen what He could do. They could have come to Him and sought Him. But they did not do so. Like Pharaoh their hearts were hardened. But in the end it was Yahweh Who had brought this about, so that with one last judgment He might obtain the release of His people. However much Pharaoh might have felt himself in control it was Yahweh Who had brought things to this stage in order that His great wonders might be revealed in a never to be forgotten way. For Yahweh had declared from the beginning that He would smite Pharaoh’s firstborn because of his intransigence (Exo 4:23). And that is what happened.
Those who think that signs and wonders are the answer to bringing people to Christ should consider what happened here. There had been signs and wonders enough. But none had softened Pharaoh’s heart or convinced most of the Egyptians. People convinced by signs and wonders soon turn away once the signs and wonders are forgotten. Even the final wonder that ‘multiplied the wonders’ for it affected so many would leave people distraught rather than believing.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
EXPOSITION
Before proceeding to relate the last and greatest of the plagues, the author allows himself a momentary pause while he casts his eye back on the whole series of miracles hitherto wrought in Egypt, on the circumstances under which they had been wrought, their failure to move the stubborn will of Pharaoh, and the cause of that failure, the hardening of his heart, which hardening the author once more ascribes to Jehovah. With this summary he terminates the second great division of his work, that which began with Exo 2:1-25; and which traces the history of Moses from his birth to the close of his direct dealings with Pharaoh.
Exo 11:9
And the Lord said. Rather, “had said.” God had forewarned Moses that Pharaoh’s heart would be hardened (Exo 4:21; Exo 7:3), and that, in spite of all the miracles which he was empowered to perform before him, he would not let the people go (Exo 3:19; Exo 4:21). It was not until God took Pharaoh’s punishment altogether into his own hands, and himself came down and smote all the first-born, that the king’s obstinacy was overcome, and he proceeded to “thrust the people out.” That my wonders may be multiplied. Compare Exo 3:20; Exo 7:3. If Pharaoh had yielded at the first, or even after two or three miracles, God’s greatness and power would not have been shown forth very remarkably. Neither the Egyptians nor the neighbouring nations would have been much impressed. The circumstances would soon have been forgotten. As it was, the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart, while it delayed the departure of the Israelites for a year, and so added to their sufferings, was of advantage to them in various ways:
1. It gave them time to organise them elves, and make all necessary preparations for a sudden departure.
2. It deeply impressed the Egyptians, and led them to abstain from all interference with the Israelites for above three centuries.
3. It impressed the neighbouring nations also to.some extent, and either prevented them from offering opposition to the Israelites, or made them contend with less heart, and so with less success against them.
Exo 11:10
Moses and Aaron did all these plagues before Pharaoh. Aaron’s agency is not always mentioned, and seems to have been less marked in the later than in the earlier miracles, Moses gradually gaining self-reliance. In passing from the subject of the plagues wrought by the two brothers, it may be useful to give a synopsis of them, distinguishing those which came without warning from those which were announced beforehand, and noting, where possible, their actual worker, their duration, their physical source, and the hurt which they did.
Plagues.
Announced or Not.
Actual Worker.
Duration.
Physical Source.
Hurt which they did.
1. River turned into blood
announced
Aaron
7 days
water
annoyance to man and beast.
2. Frogs
do.
do.
Unknown
do
annoyance to man
3. Mosquitoes
not
do
do
[dust of the earth]
annoyance to man and beast
4. Beetles
announced
God
do
air (?)
annoyance and loss to man
5. Murrain
do
do
do
do
do
6. Boils
not
Moses
do
[ashes of the furnace]
suffering to man and beast
7. Hail
announced
do
do
air
loss to man
8. Locusts
do
do
do
east wind
do
9. Darkness
not
do
3 days
air (?)
annoyance and horror to man
HOMILETICS
Man’s ill-doing but causes God’s wonders to be multiplied
(Exo 11:9). God’s wonders are either such as occur in the general course of his providence, or such as are abnormal and extraordinary. It is these last of which Moses especially speaks to us in the Book of Exodus. But the same law which applies to the abnormal wonders, applies also to those which are constant and ordinary. Men’s perverseness leads to their multiplication.
I. PARDON OF SIN IS MULTIPLIED THROUGH HUMAN TRANSGRESSION. Nothing is a greater marvel than God’s pardon of sin. How “the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity”he who “is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity”can pardon sin, is one of those mysteries which must ever remainin this life, at any rateunfathomable. Man pardons his fellow-sinner without much difficulty, because he is his fellow-sinnerbecause he feels that he is himself so much in need of forgiveness. But for a perfect Being to pardon what is utterly alien to his own nature, what he must despise and abhor, what in his eyes is vile, base, mean, wicked, despicable, detestableis a truth which faith may accept, but which reason is quite incompetent to understand. Yet God does pardon. St. Paul must have been pardoned his persecution of the saints, before he was called to be “a chosen vessel.” God bids us ask for pardon, and he would not bid us ask for that which he could not or would not give. And the marvel of pardon is being daily augmented, heaped up, multiplied, by the ever-increasing sum of human transgression.
II. GOD THE SPIRIT‘S CONDESCENSION GROWS AND INCREASES THROUGH THE SAME. God the Father declared once upon a time, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man” (Gen 6:3). Yet near five thousand years have elapsed, and his Spirit strives still. Man turns away from his Spirit, “grieves” him, vexes him, is deaf to his pleadings, sets at nought his counsel, wills none of his reproof (Pro 1:25)yet he does not withdraw himself. He “gives us the comfort of his help again”he “will not leave us, nor forsake us.” We may, no doubt, if we persist in evil courses, and set to work determinedly to drive him from us, in course of time cause him to withdraw, alienate him wholly, “quench” him. But, short of such alienation, our sins do but cause him to multiply the wonders of his love and his long-suffering, to be ever more gracious and more merciful, to plead with us more persuasively, more constantly, and save us, as it were, in spite of ourselves.
III. CHRIST‘S PROTECTION OF HIS CHURCH IS SHOWN MORE AND MORE MARVELOUSLY AS ITS ASSAILANTS INCREASE IN POWER AND BOLDNESS. In prosperous times God seems to do little for his Church; but let danger come, let men rise up against it, let Gebal and Ammon and Amalek be confederate together, and raise the cry, “Down with it, down with it, even to the ground,” and the wonders which he proceeds to work on its behalf are simply astounding. Arius would corrupt its doctrine with the Court at his back, and Arius is smitten in the dead of the night by a death as silent, sudden, and inscrutable as that which came in the time of Moses on all the first-born of the Egyptians. Julian would crush it by depriving its ministers of support and its members of education, and Julian is cut off in the flower of his age by the javelin of an unknown enemy. Atheism, Agnosticism, Rationalism, Materialism, and often immorality league themselves against it at the present day, and lo! from without evidences are made to rise up out of crumbling heaps of rubbish in Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt; while from within is developed a new life, a new zeal, a new vigour and activity, which give sure promise of triumph over the coalition. Man’s opposition to God provokes God to arise and show forth his might, to confound and scatter his foes. So men may be led at last to know that he, whose name is Jehovah, is truly “the Most High over all the earth” (Psa 83:18).
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Exo 11:9. And the Lord said unto Moses These verses, being added as a kind of close to the foregoing chapters, we should certainly read (as the original will allow us) the Lord had said unto Moses, &c.
REFLECTIONS.The blow was long suspended. Now it descends. God tries lesser chastisements first, to bring men to repentance; but when they are found incorrigible, then vengeance overtakes them to the uttermost.
1. The judgment is denounced; the time fixed, at dead of night; the extent of it, from the prince to the slave: Israel alone is exempted. In their dwellings there shall be life and joy, while death and mourning shall fill the houses of the Egyptians. Note; Death, as the wages of sin, can never hurt those who are passed from death unto life, and live by faith on the Son of God.
2. It is foretold how suppliant the proud prosecutors would grow; and hereupon Moses with indignation leaves the devoted palace. Note; (1.) The hardness of sinners’ hearts is a bitter grief to the ministers of Christ (2.) When sin is the object of our indignation, we may be angry, and not sin.
3. The determined hardness of Pharaoh’s heart, as foretold, continues. Note; We are not to wonder at the general rejection of God’s truth: it was foretold long ago.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
How graciously God confirms his word. He had prepared the mind of Moses to expect this inattention on the part of Pharaoh several times before: Exo 3:19 ; Exo 7:4 etc. And thus the issue proved. But what awful scriptures are these which explain the cause of such obduracy! Joh 12:37-40 ; Rom 11:8 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 11:9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.
Ver. 9. That my wonders. ] See Trapp on “ Rom 9:17 “]
Pharaoh: Exo 3:19, Exo 7:4, Exo 10:1, Rom 9:16-18
wonders: Exo 7:3
Reciprocal: Exo 3:20 – smite Psa 81:12 – they walked Isa 50:11 – walk
11:9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; {d} that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.
(d) God hardens the hearts of the reprobate, that his glory by this might be set forth even more, Rom 9:17.
"These two verses are considered by many commentators as redundant or misplaced. But they can easily be explained as a summary and epilogue of the Section of the Plagues.
"In the following section not only the course of events will change, but also the background and the dramatis personae. Till now the central theme was the negotiations conducted by Moses and Aaron on the one hand, and Pharaoh and his servants on the other, in Pharaoh’s palace or its environs. But henceforth the principal hero of the drama will be the people of Israel in its totality, and the perspective will be enlarged. Moses and Aaron will no longer be sent to Pharaoh but to the Israelites, in order to prepare them for the exodus and to implement it; nor will they be enjoined again to perform acts for the purpose of bringing the plagues, for the last plague will take place of its own accord, through the instrumentality of the angel of the Lord. Since the episode about to be narrated represents a new theme, and one, moreover, of fundamental importance, it is desireable [sic] that before reading this account we should look back for a moment, and review generally the events that have taken place thus far, as well as the situation obtaining at the conclusion of those events. This review is provided for us in the verses under consideration." [Note: Cassuto, pp. 134-35.]
The theological lesson that Pharaoh and the Egyptians were to learn from this plague was that Yahweh would destroy the gods that the Egyptians’ gods supposedly procreated. Pharaoh was a god and so was his first-born son who would succeed him. The Egyptians attributed the power to procreate to various gods. It was a power for which the Egyptians as well as all ancient peoples depended on their gods. By killing the first-born Yahweh was demonstrating His sovereignty once again. However this plague had more far-reaching consequences and was therefore more significant than all the previous plagues combined.
"Possibly no land in antiquity was more obsessed with death than Egypt. The real power of the priesthood lay in its alleged ability to guarantee the dead a safe passage to the ’Western World’ under the benign rule of Osiris. This terrible visitation which defied and defies all rational explanation, showed that Yahweh was not only lord of the forces of nature, but also of life and death." [Note: Ellison, p. 60.]
". . . it is by means of the account of the last plague that the author is able to introduce into the Exodus narrative in a clear and precise way the notion of redemption from sin and death. The idea of salvation from slavery and deliverance from Egypt is manifest throughout the early chapters of Exodus. The idea of redemption and salvation from death, however, is the particular contribution of the last plague, especially as the last plague is worked into the narrative by the author. . . .
"By means of the last plague, then, the writer is able to bring the Exodus narratives into the larger framework of the whole Pentateuch and particularly that of the early chapters of Genesis. In the midst of the judgment of death, God provided a way of salvation for the promised seed (Gen 3:15). Like Enoch (Exo 5:22-23), Noah (Exo 6:9), and Lot (Exo 19:16-19), those who walk in God’s way will be saved from death and destruction." [Note: Sailhamer, The Pentateuch . . ., p. 258.]
This tenth plague brought Yahweh’s concentrated education of both the Egyptians and the Israelites to a climactic conclusion.
"In short, therefore, what were the essential purposes of these ten plagues? First of all, they were certainly designed to free the people of God. Second, they were a punishment upon Egypt for her portion in the long oppression of the Hebrews [cf. Gen 15:13]. Third, they were designed to demonstrate the foolishness of idolatry. They were a supreme example both for the Egyptians and for Israel. It was by these that Jehovah revealed His uniqueness in a way that had never before been revealed (Exo 6:3; cf. Exo 10:2). Finally, the plagues clearly demonstrated the awesome, sovereign power of God. In the Book of Genesis, God is described as the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all the laws of nature. In the Book of Exodus the exercise of that creative power is revealed as it leads to the accomplishment of divine goals. God’s sovereignty is not only exercised over the forces of nature, but is also revealed against evil nations and their rulers." [Note: Davis, pp. 151-52.]
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)