Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 12:29
And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that [was] in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
29. Execution of the threat of Exo 11:4 f. (J).
the captive, &c.] In Exo 11:5 ‘ the bondmaid that is behind the mill.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
29 36. The death of the Egyptian first-born; and preparations of the Israelites for their departure.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This plague is distinctly attributed here and in Exo 12:23 to the personal intervention of the Lord; but it is to be observed that although the Lord Himself passed through to smite the Egyptians, He employed the agency of the destroyer Exo 12:23, in whom, in accordance with Heb 11:28, all the ancient versions, and most critics, recognize an Angel (compare 2Ki 19:35; 2Sa 24:16).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Exo 12:29-30
A great cry in Egypt.
The death of the firstborn of Egypt
I. We see here that Gods vengeance is as certainly executed upon the rebellious as it is threatened. Men cannot elude the stroke of heaven.
II. We see here that Gods vengeance is upon all sinners, no matter what their social position, whether king or beggar. He takes the rich from their wealth, the poor from their misery; and perhaps in the next life the relations of men may be inverted–the poor man may be the prince, and the prince the slave in the dungeon.
III. We see here that Gods vengeance comes upon sinners when they least expect it, and in their moments of fancied security. The darkness cannot hide from Him, We know not what will be in the approaching night.
IV. We see mere that Gods vengeance may make the most obstinate sinners yield to the demands of heaven. It is well to avoid the penalties of sin, though this is the very lowest motive for obedience to the will of heaven. The submission of Pharaoh
1. It was immediate upon the plague.
2. It was complete in its obedience.
3. It was comprehensive in its injunction.
4. It was welcomed by the Egyptians. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Not a house where there was not one dead
I. We shall notice some of the particulars detailed in this remarkable history. It is of no utility we read it, if it be not with care for our instruction.
1. Evidently there was a Divine design in this event. All events are of Providence, and not a single death takes place, however man seeks to shun it, without its concurrence. But in this ease, God obviously determined on giving palpable proof of His hand, that the blindest of the Egyptians should be able to see and own it.
(1) There was method in the dispensation.
(2) The time was remarkable.
(3) There was no death in any of the families of the Israelites.
2. Let us ascertain what was the design of God in this peculiar visitation of the Egyptians. He may bear long in patience with the unjust and cruel, but not always, and the lingering stroke will fall the more heavily at last.
II. When God resolves on punishing the rebellious, it is impossible to stay his hand.
1. How sudden was the infliction l No sign was given to the rebellious of this particular calamity; for they had been furnished with signs which, they had net properly regarded.
2. What may we suppose were the contemplations and feelings of the Israelites during these solemn proceedings? No doubt they had often been tempted to think hardly of Providence that had given them such evil things, and the Egyptians their good things of wealth and prosperity, at their cost. Now what a reverse! He is not unrighteous who taketh vengeance.
III. The scenes of mortality, still so common in our world, ought to produce in us a disposition to thine of our own approaching dissolution. Let two things be well considered.
1. A sense of the transitory nature of earthly scenes unquestionably is most necessary as a preparation and stimulus to seek the salvation of the soul. 2 What is it to be prepared for death? There is no other question equal in importance to this. You must see and feel yourself a lost sinner without Christ as your Saviour. (Essex Remembrancer.)
The marks of spiritual death
1. The first mark of spiritual death which I shall mention is that of living in any open and acknowledged sin; such as profane swearing, sabbath breaking, drunkenness, adultery, covetousness, and such like.
2. Another mark of spiritual death is a dependence in whole or in part upon ourselves for salvation. One of the first acts of the Spirit of God upon the heart is to convince men of sin.
3. A third mark of this state is, when under the preaching of the gospel, no change takes place in the life or conversation.
4. Another mark of this state is, a practical preference of the creature to the Creator, or of self to God. When the soul is quickened by the Holy Spirit, it makes God its chief happiness.
5. Another mark of those who ai e spiritually dead is, living without private and secret prayer. (J. H. Stewart, M. A.)
A kings bereavement
Henry I., on his return from Normandy, was accompanied by a crowd of nobles and his son William. The white ship in which the prince embarked lingered behind the rest of the royal fleet, while the young nobles, excited with wine, hung over the ships side taunting the priest who came to give the customary benediction. At last the guards of the kings treasure pressed the vessels departure, and, driven by the arms of fifty rowers, it swept swiftly out to sea. All at once the ships side struck on a rock at the mouth of the harbour, and in an instant it sank beneath the waves. One terrible cry, ringing through the stillness of the night, was heard by the royal fleet, but it was not until the morning that the fatal news reached the king. He fell unconscious to the ground and rose never to smile again! (H. O. Mackey.)
A fathers grief
On the death of his only son, the famous Edmund Burke wrote as follows: The storm has gone over me, and I lie like one of those old oaks which the late hurricane has scattered around me. I am stripped of all my honour. I am torn up by the roots, and lie prostrate on the earth. I am alone. (J. Tinling, B. A.)
The last plague, and the deliverance of the Israelites
Two questions naturally arise here: Why in this judgment upon the life of man should precisely the firstborn have been slain? and if the judgment was for the overthrow of the adversary and the redemption of Israel, why should a special provision have been required to save Israel also from the plague?
1. In regard to the first of these points, there can be no doubt that the slaying of the firstborn of Egypt had respect to the relation of Israel to Jehovah; Israel, said God, is My son, My firstborn: if thou refuse to let him go, I will slay thy son, thy firstborn (Exo 4:22-23). But in what sense could Israel be called Gods firstborn son? Something more is plainly indicated by the expression, though no more is very commonly found in it, than that Israel was peculiarly dear to God, had a sort of firstborns interest in His regard. It implies this, no doubt, but it also goes deeper, and points to the Divine origin of Israel as the seed of promise; in their birth the offspring of grace, as contradistinguished from nature. As the firstborn in Gods elect family is to be spared and rescued, so the firstborn in the house of the enemy, the beginning of his increase, and the heir of his substance, must be destroyed: the one a proof that the whole family were appointed to life and blessing; the other, in like manner, a proof that all who were aliens from Gods covenant of grace, equally deserved, and should certainly in due time inherit, the evils of perdition.
2. In regard to the other question which concerns Israels liability to the judgment which fell upon Egypt, this arose from Israels natural relation to the world, just as their redemption was secured by their spiritual relation to God. For, whether viewed in their individual or in their collective capacity, they were in themselves of Egypt: collectively, a part o! the nation, without any separate and independent existence of their own, vassals of the enemy, and inhabitants of His doomed territory; individually, also, partakers of the guilt and corruption of Egypt. It is the mercy and grace alone of Gods covenant which makes them to differ from those around them; and, therefore, to show that while, as children of the covenant, the plague should not come nigh them, not a hair of their head should perish, they still were in themselves no better than others, and had nothing whereof to boast, it was, at the same time, provided that their exemption from judgment should be secured only by the blood of atonement. (P. Fairbairn, D. D.)
A picture of the wrath to come
Is this a dreadful picture? Yet it is but a type of what must be–a shadow merely of the wrath to come to all the unsprinkled souls tenements in eternity. Ye that affect to think so lightly of death and eternity! see here this shadow and gather the elementary ideas of what shall be, from what has been already, under the government of God. Standing, in imagination, amid these complicated horrors in Egypt–the groans of the dying, mingling with the shrieks of the living, throughout a whole empire–all earthly pomp and power levelled to mingle its unavailing cries with the lowest and meanest in a common woe,–here see what it is for God to whet His glittering sword and His hand to take hold on vengeance. (S. Robinson, D. D.)
Gods direct interference
It is to be observed that in this last plague God is represented as descending in His own Person. It is no longer the man Moses, standing as a mediator between the king of Egypt and the King of kings. God Himself awakes to judgment; He hath girt His sword upon His thigh, and is come down;–Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt (Exo 11:4). This solemn assurance, though it might well strike terror into the hearts of the miserable Egyptians, would encourage and confirm the Israelites. What God had undertaken could not fail, could not miscarry. The course of Moses policy with Pharaoh hitherto had brought them no deliverance, but some increase of their sufferings, and many disappointments. Now they might feel assured that the promised rescue was at hand. The God of their fathers has given over the Egyptians appointed unto death, and is gathering the Israelites together for safety and release. Through the fall of Egypt salvation is come unto Israel; and the judgment which slays the one people is ordained as a type of mercy and redemption for the other, to be commemorated evermore. If God made use of natural means in a supernatural manner, as in the case of the locusts, and generally of the other plagues, the miracle would not, on that account, be less miraculous. But there are circumstances in the account of this plague which distinguish it from any known or specific form of disease. The firstborn only were smitten; these were singled out in every family with unerring precision, the houses of the Israelites, wherever the blood of the lamb was sprinkled on the door-posts being passed over. The death of all those thousands, both of man and beast, took place at the same instant–at midnight. Every one of these extraordinary events had been foretold by Moses. Whatever explanations modern scepticism may suggest, they were admitted without hesitation both by the Egyptians and the Jews to be the Lords doing, and marvellous in their eyes. The God whom they knew not had come among them, and made His presence felt: they stood face to face with their Creator. Fear fell upon them, and a horrible dread overwhelmed them; their flesh trembled for fear of Him, and they were afraid of His judgments. The sins of the parents were now visited upon the children: the seed of evildoers was cut off. Slaughter was prepared for the children, for the iniquity of their fathers. Is God unrighteous, then, that taketh vengeance? No;this is an act of retribution. The Egyptians had slain the children of the Israelites, casting their infants into the river. Now the affliction is turned upon themselves; the delight of their eyes is taken from them; all their firstborn are dead, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat upon his throne, unto the firstborn of the captive that was in his dungeon. (T. S. Millington.)
Midnight terror
A Southern lady, writing of the early days of the war in America, says–The fear of an uprising of the blacks was most powerful with us at night. The notes of the whip-poor-wills in the sweet.gum swamp near the stable, the mutterings of a distant thunderstorm, even the rustle of the night wind in the oaks that shaded my window, filled me with nameless dread. In the daytime it seemed impossible to associate suspicion with those familiar tawny or sable faces that surrounded us. We had seen them for so many years smiling or saddening with the family joys or sorrows: they were so guileless, patient, and satisfied. What subtle influence was at work that should transform them into tigers thirsting for our blood? But when evening came again, the ghost that refused to be laid was again at ones elbow. Rusty bolts were drawn and rusty fire-arms loaded. A watch was set where never before had eye or ear been lent to such a service. (H. O. Mackey.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 29. Smote all the first born] If we take the term first-born in its literal sense only, we shall be led to conclude that in a vast number of the houses of the Egyptians there could have been no death, as it is not at all likely that every first-born child of every Egyptian family was still alive, and that all the first-born of their cattle still remained. And yet it is said, Ex 12:30, that there was not a house where there was not one dead. The word therefore must not be taken in its literal sense only. From its use in a great variety of places in the Scriptures it is evident that it means the chief, most excellent, best beloved, most distinguished, c. In this sense our blessed Lord is called the FIRST-BORN of every creature, Col 1:15, and the FIRST-BORN among many brethren, Ro 8:29 that is, he is more excellent than all creatures, and greater than all the children of men. In the same sense we may understand Re 1:5, where CHRIST is called the FIRST-BEGOTTEN from the dead, i.e., the chief of all that have ever visited the empire of death, and on whom death has had any power; and the only one who by his own might quickened himself. In the same sense wisdom is represented as being brought forth before all the creatures, and being possessed by the Lord in the beginning of his ways, Pr 8:22-30; that is, the wisdom of God is peculiarly conspicuous in the production, arrangement, and government of every part of the creation. So Ephraim is called the Lord’s FIRST-BORN, Jer 31:9. And the people of Israel are often called by the same name, see Ex 4:22: Israel is my son, my FIRST-BORN; that is, the people in whom I particularly delight, and whom I will especially support and defend. And because the first-born are in general peculiarly dear to their parents, and because among the Jews they had especial and peculiar privileges, whatever was most dear, most valuable, and most prized, was thus denominated. So Mic 6:7: Shall I give my FIRST-BORN for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Shall I give up the most beloved child I have, he that is most dear and most necessary to me, in order to make an atonement for my sins! In like manner the Prophet Zechariah, speaking of the conversion of the Jews to the Gospel of Christ, represents them as looking on him whom they have pierced, and being as one that is in bitterness for his FIRST-BORN; that is, they shall feel distress and anguish as those who had lost their most beloved child. So the Church triumphant in the kingdom of God are called, Heb 12:23, the general assembly and Church of the FIRST-BORN, i.e., the most noble and excellent of all human if not created beings. So Homer, Il. iv., ver. 102: “A hecatomb of lambs all firstlings of the flock.” That is, the most excellent of their kind.
In a contrary sense, when the word first-born is joined to another that signifies any kind of misery or disgrace, it then signifies the depth of misery, the utmost disgrace. So the FIRST-BORN of the poor, Isa 14:30, signifies the most abject, destitute, and impoverished. The FIRST-BORN of death, Job 18:13, means the most horrible kind of death. So in the threatening against Pharaoh, Ex 11:5, where he informs him that he will slay all the first-born, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon the throne; to the first born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill, he takes in the very highest and lowest conditions of life. As there was no state in Egypt superior to the throne, so there was none inferior to that of the female slave that ground at the mill. The Prophet Habakkuk seems to fix this as the sense in which the word is used here; for speaking of the plagues of Egypt in general, and the salvation which God afforded his people, he says, Hab 3:13: Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people – thou woundedst the HEAD ( rosh, the chief, the most excellent) of the house of the wicked – of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And the author of the book of Wisdom understood it in the same way: The master and the servant were punished after one manner; and like as the king, so suffered the common people – for in one moment the NOBLEST OFFSPRING of them was destroyed, Wisdom 18:11,12. And in no other sense can we understand the word in Ps 89:27, where, among the promises of God to David, we find the following: Also I will make him my FIRST-BORN, higher than the kings of the earth; in which passage the latter clause explains the former; David, as king, should be the FIRST-BORN, of God, i.e., he should be higher than the kings of the earth – the MOST EMINENT potentate in the universe. In this sense, therefore, we should understand the passage in question; the most eminent person in every family in Egypt, as well as those who were literally the first-born, being slain in this plague. Calmet and some other critics particularly contend for this sense.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
At midnight; a great aggravation of the plague; for then darkness itself strikes men with horror, and makes any calamity more terrible; then they were. asleep and secure, and least expected such a stroke.
All the first-born, both of man and beast, whether male or female. Some extend it to all that were first-born; and so many persons might be killed in one house, as both father and mother, and several sons, which might be the first-born by several mothers, and sons sons or daughters, &c. Others confine it to the first-born child in the family. I conceive the heads of the family are not included, for these, though they might be the firstborn children of their parents families, yet were not, nor ever are called or accounted, the first-born of their own families, but the heads and roots of them: but for all the rest, I conceive they are all included, because all such were really first-born, and did first open their mothers womb; and all such were to be set apart unto the Lord, instead of these first-born of the Egyptians now slain, Exo 13:12,15, and therefore are in both places to be understood in the same latitude.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
29. at midnight the Lord smote allthe first-born in the land of EgyptAt the moment when theIsraelites were observing the newly instituted feast in the singularmanner described, the threatened calamity overtook the Egyptians. Itis more easy to imagine than describe the confusion and terror ofthat people suddenly roused from sleep and enveloped in darknessnonecould assist their neighbors when the groans of the dying and thewild shrieks of mourners were heard everywhere around. The hope ofevery family was destroyed at a stroke. This judgment, terriblethough it was, evinced the equity of divine retribution. For eightyyears the Egyptians had caused the male children of the Israelites tobe cast into the river [Ex 1:16],and now all their own first-born fell under the stroke of thedestroying angel. They were made, in the justice of God, to feelsomething of what they had made His people feel. Many a time have thehands of sinners made the snares in which they have themselves beenentangled, and fallen into the pit which they have dug for therighteous [Pr 28:10]. “Verilythere is a God that judgeth in the earth” [Ps58:11].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,…. The midnight of the fifteenth of Nisan, as the Targum of Jonathan, when fast asleep, and thoughtless of any danger; and it being at such a time must strike with a greater horror and terror, when sensible of the blow, which might be attended with a great noise, that might awaken the rest:
from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne; the heir to his crown, who was to have sat upon his throne, or already did, being taken a partner with him in it:
unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; or prison, that was grinding at the mill there, Ex 11:5 which was the work and business the prisoners were often put to, as appears from the case of Samson, Jud 16:21,
and all the firstborn of cattle; which were left of the other plagues, which had consumed great numbers of them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Death of the first-born, and Release of Israel. – The last blow announced to Pharaoh took place in “the half of the night,” i.e., at midnight, when all Egypt was lying in deep sleep (Mat 25:5-6), to startle the king and his people out of their sleep of sin. As all the previous plagues rested upon a natural basis, it might seem a probable supposition that this was also the case here, whilst the analogy of 2Sa 24:15-16 might lead us to think of a pestilence as the means employed by the destroying angel. In that case we should find the heightening of the natural occurrence into a miracle in the fact, that the first-born both of man and beast, and they alone, were all suddenly slain, whilst the Israelites remained uninjured in their houses. This view would be favoured, too, by the circumstance, that not only are pestilences of frequent occurrence in Egypt, but they are most fatal in the spring months. On a closer examination, however, the circumstances mentioned tell against rather than in favour of such a supposition. In 2Sa 24:15, the pestilence is expressly alluded to; here it is not. The previous plagues were nearly all brought upon Egypt by Moses’ staff, and with most of them the natural sources are distinctly mentioned; but the last plague came direct from Jehovah without the intervention of Moses, certainly for no other reason than to make it apparent that it was a purely supernatural punishment inflicted by His own omnipotence. The words, “ There was not a house where there was not one dead, ” are to be taken literally, and not merely “as a general expression;” though, of course, they are to be limited, according to the context, to all the houses in which there were first-born of man or beast. The term “first-born” is not to be extended so far, however, as to include even heads of families who had children of their own, in which case there might be houses, as Lapide and others suppose, where the grandfather, the father, the son, and the wives were all lying dead, provided all of them were first-born. The words, “ From the son of Pharaoh, who will sit upon his throne, to the son of the prisoners in the prison ” (Exo 12:29 compared with Exo 13:15), point unquestionably to those first-born sons alone who were not yet fathers themselves. But even with this limitation the blow was so terrible, that the effect produced upon Pharaoh and his people is perfectly intelligible.
Exo 12:30-32 The very same night Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and gave them permission to depart with their people, their children, and their cattle. The statement that Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron is not at variance with Exo 10:28-29; and there is no necessity to resort to Calvin’s explanation, “Pharaoh himself is said to have sent for those whom he urged to depart through the medium of messengers from the palace.” The command never to appear in his sight again did not preclude his sending for them under totally different circumstances. The permission to depart was given unconditionally, i.e., without involving an obligation to return. This is evident from the words, “Get you forth from among my people,” compared with Exo 10:8, Exo 10:24, “Go ye, serve Jehovah,” and Exo 8:25, “Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.” If in addition to this we bear in mind, that although at first, and even after the fourth plague (Exo 8:27), Moses only asked for a three days’ journey to hold a festival, yet Pharaoh suspected that they would depart altogether, and even gave utterance to this suspicion, without being contradicted by Moses (Exo 8:28, and Exo 10:10); the words “Get you forth from among my people” cannot mean anything else than “depart altogether.” Moreover, in Exo 11:1 it was foretold to Moses that the result of the last blow would be, that Pharaoh would let them go, or rather drive them away; so that the effect of this blow, as here described, cannot be understood in any other way. And this is really implied in Pharaoh’s last words, “Go, and bless me also;” whereas on former occasions he had only asked them to intercede for the removal of the plagues (Exo 8:8, Exo 8:28; Exo 9:28; Exo 10:17). , to bless, indicates a final leave-taking, and was equivalent to a request that on their departure they would secure or leave behind the blessing of their God, in order that henceforth no such plague might ever befall him and his people. This view of the words of the king is not at variance either with the expression “as ye have said” in Exo 12:31, which refers to the words “serve the Lord,” or with the same words in Exo 12:32, for there they refer to the flock and herds, or lastly, with the circumstance that Pharaoh pursued the Israelites after they had gone, with the evident intention of bringing them back by force (Exo 14:5.), because this resolution is expressly described as a change of mind consequent upon renewed hardening (Exo 14:4-5).
Exo 12:33 “ And Egypt urged the people strongly ( to press hard, , lxx) to make haste, to send them out of the land; ” i.e., the Egyptians urged the Israelites to accelerate their departure, “ for they said (sc., to themselves), “ We are all dead, ” i.e., exposed to death. So great was their alarm at the death of the first-born.
Exo 12:34-36 This urgency of the Egyptians compelled the Israelites to take the dough, which they were probably about to bake for their journey, before it was leavened, and also their kneading-troughs bound up in their clothes (cloths) upon their shoulders. , , was a large square piece of stuff or cloth, worn above the under-clothes, and could be easily used for tying up different things together. The Israelites had intended to leaven the dough, therefore, as the command to eat unleavened bread for seven days had not been given to them yet. But under the pressure of necessity they were obliged to content themselves with unleavened bread, or, as it is called in Deu 16:3, “the bread of affliction,” during the first days of their journey. But as the troubles connected with their departure from Egypt were merely the introduction to the new life of liberty and grace, so according to the counsel of God the bread of affliction was to become a holy food to Israel; the days of their exodus being exalted by the Lord into a seven days’ feast, in which the people of Jehovah were to commemorate to all ages their deliverance from the oppression of Egypt. The long-continued eating of unleavened bread, on account of the pressure of circumstances, formed the historical preparation for the seven days’ feast of Mazzoth, which was instituted afterwards. Hence this circumstance is mentioned both here and in Exo 12:39. On Exo 12:35, Exo 12:36, see Exo 3:21-22.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Death of the Firstborn. | B. C. 1491. |
29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said. 32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. 33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men. 34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. 35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: 36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.
Here we have, I. The Egyptians’ sons, even their first-born, slain, Exo 12:29; Exo 12:30. If Pharaoh would have taken the warning which was given him of this plague, and would thereupon have released Israel, what a great many dear and valuable lives might have been preserved! But see what obstinate infidelity brings upon men. Observe, 1. The time when this blow was given: It was at midnight, which added to the terror of it. The three preceding nights were made dreadful by the additional plague of darkness, which might be felt, and doubtless disturbed their repose; and now, when they hoped for one quiet night’s rest, at midnight was the alarm given. When the destroying angel drew his sword against Jerusalem, it was in the day-time (2 Sam. xxiv. 15), which made it the less frightful; but the destruction of Egypt was by a pestilence walking in darkness, Ps. xci. 6. Shortly there will be an alarming cry at midnight, Behold, the bridegroom cometh. 2. On whom the plague fastened–on their first-born, the joy and hope of their respective families. They had slain the Hebrews’ children, and now God slew theirs. Thus he visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children; and he is not unrighteous who taketh vengeance. 3. How far it reached–from the throne to the dungeon. Prince and peasant stand upon the same level before God’s judgments, for there is no respect of persons with him; see Job 34:19; Job 34:20. Now the slain of the Lord were many; multitudes, multitudes, fall in this valley of decision, when the controversy between God and Pharaoh was to be determined. 4. What an outcry was made upon it: There was a great cry in Egypt, universal lamentation for their only son (with many), and with all for their first-born. If any be suddenly taken ill in the night, we are wont to call up neighbours; but the Egyptians could have no help, no comfort, from their neighbours, all being involved in the same calamity. Let us learn hence, (1.) To tremble before God, and to be afraid of his judgments, Ps. cxix. 120. Who is able to stand before him, or dares resist him? (2.) To be thankful to God for the daily preservation of ourselves and our families: lying so much exposed, we have reason to say, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.”
II. God’s sons, even his first-born, released; this judgment conquered Pharaoh, and obliged him to surrender at discretion, without capitulating. Men had better come up to God’s terms at first, for he will never come down to theirs, let them object as long as they will. Now Pharaoh’s pride is abased, and he yields to all that Moses had insisted on: Serve the Lord as you have said (v. 31), and take your flocks as you have said, v. 32. Note, God’s word will stand, and we shall get nothing by disputing it, or delaying to submit to it. Hitherto the Israelites were not permitted to depart, but now things had come to the last extremity, in consequence of which, 1. They are commanded to depart: Rise up, and get you forth, v. 31. Pharaoh had told Moses he should see his face no more; but now he sent for him. Those will seek God early in their distress who before had set him at defiance. Such a fright he was now in that he gave orders by night for their discharge, fearing lest, if he delayed any longer, he himself should fall next; and that he sent them out, not as men hated (as the pagan historians have represented this matter), but as men feared, is plainly discovered by his humble request to them (v. 32): “Bless me also; let me have your prayers, that I may not be plagued for what is past, when you are gone.” Note, Those that are enemies to God’s church are enemies to themselves, and, sooner or later, they will be made to see it. 2. They are hired to depart by the Egyptians; they cried out (v. 33), We be all dead men. Note, When death comes into our houses, it is seasonable for us to think of our own mortality. Are our relations dead? It is easy to infer thence that we are dying, and, in effect, already dead men. Upon this consideration they were urgent with the Israelites to be gone, which gave great advantage to the Israelites in borrowing their jewels, Exo 12:35; Exo 12:36. When the Egyptians urged them to be gone, it was easy for the to say that the Egyptians had kept them poor, that they could not undertake such a journey with empty purses, but, that, if they would give them wherewithal to bear their charges, they would be gone. And this the divine Providence designed in suffering things to come to this extremity, that they, becoming formidable to the Egyptians, might have what they would, for asking; the Lord also, by the influence he has on the minds of people, inclined the hearts of the Egyptians to furnish them with what they desired, they probably intending thereby to make atonement, that the plagues might be stayed, as the Philistines, when they returned the ark, sent a present with it for a trespass-offering, having an eye to this precedent, 1Sa 6:3; 1Sa 6:6. The Israelites might receive and keep what they thus borrowed, or rather required, of the Egyptians, (1.) As justly as servants receive wages from their masters for work done, and sue for it if it be detained. (2.) As justly as conquerors take the spoils of their enemies whom they have subdued; Pharaoh was in rebellion against the God of the Hebrews, by which all that he had was forfeited. (3.) As justly as subjects receive the estates granted to them by their prince. God is the sovereign proprietor of the earth, and the fulness thereof; and, if he take from one and give to another, who may say unto him, What doest thou? It was by God’s special order and appointment that the Israelites did what they did, which was sufficient to justify them, and bear them out; but what they did will by no means authorize others (who cannot pretend to any such warrant) to do the same. Let us remember, [1.] That the King of kings can do no wrong. [2.] That he will do right to those whom men injure, Ps. cxlvi. 7. Hence it is that the wealth of the sinner often proves to be laid up for the just,Pro 13:22; Job 27:16; Job 27:17.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 29, 30:
The tenth and final “stroke” or plague fell as Moses had prophesied. It came “at midnight.” It reached from Pharaoh’s palace to the prisoner in the dungeon, and the “maidservant. . .behind the mill” (Ex 11:5). And it included the firstborn of even the “cattle,” the domestic animals of the Egyptians.
This “stroke” awakened the Egyptians, and the entire land was filled with mourning. “There was not a house where there was not’ one dead” is a hyperbole. It obviously does not mean each and every house in Egypt, but only those in which there was a firstborn male child.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
29. And it came to pass, that at midnight. Lest the hand of God should be hidden in this miracle, as well in the preservation of the people as in taking vengeance upon the Egyptians, Moses sets forth its power by many circumstances. For he both relates that the destruction took place at midnight, which was the time prescribed by God, and then adds, that all the first-born of the land were smitten, from the son of the king to the son of the captive in the dungeon. It is thus that he indicates proverbially the most abject persons, as he had said before, “unto the first-born of the maidservant that is behind the mill.” For it could only be by an extraordinary miracle that this calamity could affect every house without exception, at the same hour, especially when it extended even to the beasts. Thirdly, he recounts that all the Egyptians were aroused suddenly, and manifestly convinced that the God of Israel was wroth with them. Fourthly, that Pharaoh humbly prayed of Moses to lead forth the people in haste; nay, that he even importunately thrust them out. Yet not even by such clear and solid proofs has the dishonesty and impudence of some been prevented from attempting to upset by their falsehoods this memorable work of God. The calumnies are too well known which Josephus refutes in his reply to Apion the Grammarian; and it appears from Justin (144) that they were generally received. Nor can we wonder that the devil should have employed all sorts of artifices, so that by the introduction of various fables he might efface from men’s minds the redemption of the Church. But here also was manifested the admirable wisdom of God, that the futility of these absurdities refutes itself, without the use of any arguments against them. Perhaps there was no intention to deceive on the part of profane writers, when they reported these frivolous and silly stories about the Jews; for doubtless Strabo (145) desired to give the true history of the origin of circumcision when he wrote his foolish and unfounded fables. Nor did even Cornelius Tacitus, (146) although he wrote with malignant and virulent feelings, intentionally put himself to shame; but when by the impulse of Satan they obscured God’s glory, they were smitten with blindness and folly, so that their ridiculous want of truth might be discovered even by children; from whence, however, some sparks of fact may still be elicited, because God would not suffer so memorable an operation to be altogether forgotten, of which these blind men were the proclaimers, when the devil was using their aid to obliterate its memory.
(144) Vide Justini Hist., lib. 36 cap. 2.
(145) Vide Strabonis Geog., lib. 17
(146) C. Tacit. Hist., 5:3, 4.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(29) All the firstborn.The Hebrew word used applies only to males.
The firstborn of Pharaoh.The law of primogeniture prevailed in Egypt, as elsewhere generally. The Pharaohs eldest son was recognised as hereditary crown prince, and sometimes associated in the kingdom during his fathers lifetime. This had been the case with Lameses II., probably the Pharaoh from whom Moses fled (Exo. 2:15); but the practice was not common. In any case, however, the eldest son of the reigning monarch occupied a most important position, and his loss would be felt as a national calamity.
The firstborn of the captive.The variation of phrase between this verse and Exo. 11:5 is curious, but appears not to be of any significance. The writer simply means, in both places, all, from the highest to the lowest.
All the firstborn of cattle.Rather, of beasts, as in Exo. 11:5. (On the reasons for beasts being included in the calamity, see the Note on that passage.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE TENTH PLAGUE.
(29, 30) The nature of the tenth plague is indubitable, but as to the exact agency which was employed there may be different views. In every family in which the firstborn child had been a male, that child was stricken with death. Pharaohs firstborn sonthe erpa suten sathe heir to his throne, was taken; and so in all other families. Nobles, priests, tradesmen, artisans, peasants, fishermenall alike suffered. In the hyperbolic language of the narrator, there was not a house where there was not one dead. And the deaths took place at midnight, in the weirdest hour, at the most silent time, in the deepest darkness. So it had been prophesied (Exo. 11:4); but the particular night had not been announced. As several days had elapsed since the announcement, the Egyptians may have been wrapt in fancied security. Suddenly the calamity fell upon them and there was a great cry. Death did not come, as upon the host of Sennacherib, noiselessly, unperceivedly, but with observation. Those who were seized woke up and aroused their relatives. There was a cry for help, a general alarm, a short, sharp struggle and then a death.
The visitation is ordinarily ascribed to God Himself (Exo. 4:23; Exo. 11:4; Exo. 12:12; Exo. 12:27; Exo. 12:29; Exo. 13:15, &c), but in Exo. 12:23 to the destroyer. It has been already shown that this expression points to angelic agency. That agency, however, does not exclude a further natural one. As in 2 Samuel 24 the seventy thousand whom the destroying angel killed (Exo. 12:16) are said to have been slain by a pestilence (Exo. 12:15), so it may have been here. Pestilence often rages in Egypt in the spring of the year, and carries off thousands in a very short space. As with so many of the other plagues, God may here too have employed a natural agency. None the less would the plague have been miraculous(1) in its intensity; (2) in its coming at the time prophesied, viz., midnight; (3) in its selection of victims, viz., the firstborn males only, and all of them; (4) in its avoidance of the Israelites; and (5) in its extension, as prophesied, to the firstborn of animals.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
TENTH JUDGMENT STROKE, Exo 12:29-36.
And now arose the awful “midnight cry,” as the flower of every house fell before the destroyer.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Slaughter of the First-Born and the Exodus.
v. 29. And it came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of cattle. v. 30. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, v. 31. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, v. 32. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. v. 33. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste, v. 34. And the people v. 35. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold, costly vessels and jewelry, and raiment; v. 36. and the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Exo 12:29, Exo 12:30
THE TENTH PLAGUE. At last the time had come for the dealing of the final blow. Nine plagues had been sent, nine inflictions endured, and no serious effect had been produced. Once or twice Pharaoh had wavered, had made profession of submitting himself, had even acknowledged his sin. But each time he had relapsed into obstinacy. Now at length the fiat had gone forth for that last plague which had been announced the first (Exo 4:23). Pharaoh’s own son, his firstborn, the heir to his throne, was smitten with death, in common with all the other male Egyptians who had “opened the womb.” What the effect on the king would have been, had he alone suffered, we cannot certainly say. As it was, the whole population of the country, nobles, tradesmen, peasants, suffered with him; and the feeling aroused was so intense that the popular movement left him no choice. The Egyptians everywhere “rose up in the night” (Exo 12:30), and raised “a great cry,” and insisted that the Israelites should depart at once (Exo 12:33). Each man feared for himself, and felt his life insecure, so long as a single Israelite remained in the land.
Exo 12:29
At midnight. As prophesied by Moses (Exo 11:4). The day had not been fixed, and this uncertainty must have added to the horror of the situation. The first-born of Pharaoh. We have no proof that the eldest son of Menephthah died before his father, unless we take this passage as proving it. He left a son, called Seti-Menephthah, or Seti II, who either succeeded him, or reigned after a short interval, during which the throne was held by Ammonmes, a usurper. The first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon. This phrase takes the place of another expression, viz. “the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill” (Exo 11:5). In both cases, the general meaning is, “all, from the highest to the lowest.” This is perhaps the whole that is in the writer’s thought; but it is also true that captives in dungeons were in some cases employed in turning hand-mills (Jdg 16:21). And all the first-born of cattle. Rather, “of beasts.” There is no limitation of the plague to domesticated animals.
Exo 12:30
And Pharaoh rose up in the night, and all his servants. This general disturbance differentiates the present visitations from that which came upon the host of Sennacherib (2Ki 19:35). Then, the calamity came with such silence and secrecy, that the deaths were not suspected until men rose to go about their various tasks in the morning Now, every household seems to have been aroused from its sleep in the night. We must suppose sharp and painful illness, terminating after a few hours in death. The disaster itself may have been one from which Egypt often suffers in the spring of the year (Kalisch); but its attacking all the firstborn and no others, and no Israelites, as well as its announcement, plainly showed it to be miraculous. There was a great cry. See the comment on Exo 11:6. For there was not a house where there was not one dead. This is perhaps a slight hyperbole. There would be many families in which there was no son; and some houses might contain no male who had opened the womb. It is always to be borne in mind, that the language of Scriptureespecially where exciting and tragical events are narratedis poetical, or at the least highly rhetorical.
HOMILETICS
Exo 12:29, Exo 12:30
The death of the first-born.
From the death of the first-born we may learn:
I. THE SEVERITY OF GOD‘S LONG DEFERRED JUDGMENTS. That punishment will overtake the wicked sooner or later was the conviction of heathendom no less than of the Jewish and Christian worlds. Horace says”Judgment may halt, but yet it rarely fails to overtake the guilty one at last.” Tibullus”Wretch, though at first thy sin no judgment meet, vengeance will come at length with silent feet.” But the greater heaviness of the punishment that is long deferred does not appear to have attracted their notice. Yet experience might have taught it them. Who has not seen the long triumphant career of a thoroughly bad man, crowned with success for years, seeming to turn all he touched to gold, “flourishing,” as the Psalmist has it, “like a green bay tree,” yet ending in calamities and misfortunes so striking, and so heaped one upon another, as to draw general attention? It is invidious, perhaps, to note instances; but the present generation has seen at least one example among the crowned heads of Europe. And Scripture is full of examples. How long God’s Spirit strove with men in the antediluvian world, as they proceeded from one wickedness to another, heaping up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath, till the flood came and swept away the ungodly! For what a prolonged term of years must the long-suffering of God have borne with the cities of the plain, as they more and more corrupted themselves, till in all Sodom there were not ten godly men left! And then, how signal the punishment! Again, what an instance is Ahab of the operation of the law! Flourishing in every way, in spite of his numerous sinshis idolatries, cruelties, selfishness, meanness, hatred of God’s servantsvictorious over Benhadad, supported by all the forces of Jehoshaphat, encouraged by his successes to undertake an aggressive war against Syriaand then struck down in a moment, slain by an arrow shot at a venture (1Ki 22:34)his blood licked up by dogshis wife and seventy sons murdered! The Pharaohs and the Egyptians had now worked their wicked will on Israel for a century or more, since the king arose “who knew not Joseph”all this time they had been treasuring up to themselves wrath (Rom 2:5)and now it had fallen upon them in full force. Let sinners beware of trying the forbearance and long-suffering of God too farlet them tremble when all goes well with them, and no punishment comes. Let them be assured that the account of their offences is strictly kept, and that for each they will have to suffer. Delay does but mean accumulation. However long suspended, the bolt will fall at last, and it will be proportioned in its severity to the length of the delay, and the amount of the wrath stored up.
II. THE SUDDENNESS WITH WHICH THEY COME UPON MEN. It was nightit was the hour of repose, of peace, silence, tranquillity. All had gone to rest unsuspectingly. No one anticipated evil. Each said to himself, as he lay down, “To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant,” when suddenly, without warning, there was death everywhere. Fathers saw the light of their eyes snatched from themmothers beheld their darlings struggling in the agonies of dissolution. A shrill, prolonged cry sounded throughout the land. So the flood came upon man unawares (Luk 17:27)and a sudden destruction overthrew the cities of the plain (ib. 28, 29)and Ahab found himself mortally wounded when he was thinking of nothing but victoryand in the height of his pride Herod Agrippa was seized with a fearful maladyand Uzziah’s leprosy smote him in a momentand in the night of his feast was Belshazzar slain. Wicked men are for the most part thinking of nothing less when the judgments of God fall upon them. They have said to their soul”Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry,” when the dread sentence goes forth”Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” God’s judgments often come in the night. We know not what a day, nor what a night may bring forth. Let us commend our souls to God when we lie down to rest, and repeat the prayer of the Litany against sudden death.
III. THE IMPARTIALITY WITH WHICH THEY ARE DEALT OUT UPON ALL CONDITIONS OF MEN. “Pale death smites equally the poor man’s but and the king’s palace,” says a heathen moralist. And so it is with all God’s judgments. He is no respecter of persons. “Without respect of persons he judgeth according to every man’s work” (1Pe 1:17). Greatness furnishes no security against him. His messengers can enter the palace, elude the sentinels, pass the locked doors, make their way into the secret chamber, smite the monarch, sleeping or waking, with disease, or death, or frenzy. Nor can obscurity escape him; “All things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” The lowest dungeon, the most wretched garret, the obscurest cellars are within his ken, their inmates known, the moral condition of each and all of them noted. His judgments find men out as easily in the darkest haunts of vice, or the most wretched abodes of poverty, as in royal mansions. And as greatness will not prevent him from chastising, so neither will meanness The “woman behind the mill,” the “captive in the dungeon” are his creatures and his servants, no less than the great, and must be either his true servants, or rebels against his authority. If they are the-latter, their obscurity and insignificance will not save them from his judgments, any more than the great man’s greatness will save him. Vice must not look for impunity because it is low-placed, and hides itself in a corner.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Exo 12:29-31
The death of the first-born,
On this see Exo 11:4-7. Observe here
I. THIS JUDGMENT IS BASED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF REPRESENTATION. Hitherto, the plagues had fallen on the Egyptians indiscriminately. Now, a change is made to the principle of representation. Egypt, Israel also, is represented in its first-born. When a death-penalty was to be inflicted, the lines had to be drawn more sharp and clear. We are reminded that this principle of representation holds a vitally important place in God‘s moral government. The illustrations which more immediately affect ourselves are, first, the representation of the race in Adam, and second, its representation in Christ (Rom 5:12-21). Hence it is not altogether fanciful to trace a relation to Christ even in this judgment on the first-born.
1. Christ is the great first-born of the race. We catch some glimpse of this by looking at the matter from the side of Israel. Israel, as God’s son, his first-born, is admitted to have been a type of Christ (cf. Mat 2:15). Much more were the first-born in Israelthe special representatives of this peculiar feature in the calling of the nationtypes of Christ. They resembled him in that they bore the guilt of the rest of the people. But Christ, as the Son of man, sustained a relation to more than Israel. He is, we may say, the great First-born of the race. Egypt as well as Israel was represented in him.
2. The death of Christ is not only God‘s great means of saving the world, but it is God‘s great judgment upon the sin of the world. It is indeed the one, because it is the other. There is thus in the death of Christ, beth the Israel side and the Egypt side. There is some shadow of vicarious endurance of penaltyof the one suffering for, and bearing the guilt of, the manyeven in the destruction of Egypt’s first-born.
3. The death of Christ, which brings salvation to the believing, is the earnest of final doom to the unbelieving portion of the race. This also is exhibited in principle in the history of the exodus. In strictness, the first-born were viewed as having died, both in Israel and Egypt. The Egyptian first-born died in person; the Israelitish first-born in the substituted Lamb. The death of a first-born in person could typify judgment in the room, or in the name, of others; but the first-born being himself one of the guilty, his death could not (even in type) properly redeem. Hence the substitution of the lamb, which held forth in prophecy the coming of the true and sinless first-born, whose death would redeem. But Christ’s death, to the unbelieving part of mankindthe wilfully and obstinately unbelievingis a prophecy, not of salvation, but of judgment. God’s judgment on sin in the person of Christ, the first-born, is the earnest of the doom which will descend on all who refuse him as a Saviour. And this was the meaning of the death of the first-born in Egypt. That death did not redeem, but forewarned Egypt of yet worse doom in store for it if it continued in its sins. The first-born endured, passed under, God’s judgment, for the sin of the nation; and so has Christ passed under, endured God’s judgment, for the sin even of the unbelieving. Egypt, not less than Israel, was represented in him; but to the one (Egypt as representative of hostility to the kingdom of God) his death means doom; to the other (Israel as representative of the people of God) it means salvation.
II. THIS JUDGMENT COMPELLED PHARAOH TO RELAX HIS HOLD ON ISRAEL. It was the consummating blow. Imagination fails in the attempt to realise it. As we write, accounts come to hand of the terrific storm of Oct. 14, attended by a lamentable loss of life on the Berwickshire coast of Scotland. The storm was sudden, and preluded by an awful and ominous darkness. Cf. with remarks on ninth plague the following:”I noticed a black-looking cloud over by the school, which shortly spread over all the sky out by the Head. Sea, sky and ground all seemed to be turning one universal grey-blue tint, and a horrible sort of stillness fell over everything. The women were all gathering at their doors, feeling that something awful was coming. No fewer than 200 fishermen and others are believed to have perished, the village of Eyemouth alone losing 129. So connected by intermarriage is the population of the villages and hamlets, that there is scarcely a family in any of them which is not called to mourn its dead. The scenes are heart-rending. Business in every shape and form is paralysed.” An image this, and yet how faint, of the cry that went up in Egypt that night, when in every house there was found one dead. Yet no stroke less severe would have served the purpose, and this one is to be studied in view of the fact that it did prove effectual for its end. Observe,
1. It was a death-stroke. Death has a singular power in subduing and melting the heart. It is the most powerful solvent God can apply to a rebellious nature. It is sometimes tried when gentler means have failed. God removes your idol. He lays your dear one in the dust. You have resisted milder influences, will you yield to this? Your heart is for the moment bowed and broken, will the repentance prove lasting, or will it be, like Pharaoh’s, only for a time?
2. It is a death-grip upon the soul which is needed to make sin relax its hold upon it. “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gut hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul” (Psa 116:3, Psa 116:4). God comes in the preaching of his law, and lays his hand, a hand carrying death in it, upon the soul of the trembling transgressor, who then for the first time realises the fatal and unspeakably awful position in which he has placed himself by sin. It is a death-sentence which is written in his conscience.
3. That which completes the liberation of the soul is a view of the meaning of the death of christ. Terror alone will not melt the heart. There is needed to effect this the influence of love. And where is love to be seen in such wonderful manifestation as at the Cross of Christ? What see we there? The first-born of the race expiring in awful agony under the judgment of God for our sins. Is not this a spectacle to melt the heart? It is powerful enough, if earnestly contemplated, to make the Pharaoh that is within us all relinquish his grip upon the captive spirit. What read we of the prospective conversion of Israel?”They shall look on Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son; and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born“ (Zec 12:10). See again, Act 2:36, Act 2:37, “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts,” etc. Cf. also Rev 2:7. The Cross inspires mourning
(1) By the spectacle it presents of holy suffering.
(2) By the recollection of who it is that there suffers.
(3) By the thought that it is our own sins which are the cause of this suffering.
(4) By the thought that it is the judgment of God in the infliction of the curse of sin which the Holy one is thus enduring.
(5) By the conviction of sin, and the dread of Divine justice, thus awakened.
(6) Above all, by the infinite love shown in this gift of the Son, and in the Son’s willingness to endure this awful agony and shame for our salvation.J.O.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Exo 12:29. And it came to pass, that at midnight, &c. See ch. Exo 11:4-5. If the common interpretation of the words in Exo 12:12 the gods of Egypt be embraced; we may reasonably suppose, that the first-born of beasts is here so particularly specified, on account of the veneration which the Egyptians paid to the beasts; those, especially, which were held and worshipped as emblematical of their gods. Herodotus informs us, lib. ii. c. 36. that the Egyptians lived promiscuously with their cattle. The word becor, rendered the first-born, comes from the verb bacer, to precede, go before, &c. and so may signify, those which had the pre-eminence; the chief and most distinguished, Exo 4:22. Psa 89:27. Mic 6:7. Wis 18:12.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Now the awful stroke is felt: and what a midnight cry was heard in Egypt. See Exo 4:22-23 . Reader! pause, spiritualize the history, for it is truly awful, and think what a midnight cry will be in the soul when God shall arise to shake terribly the earth! Psa 96:6 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 12:29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that [was] in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
Ver. 29. From the firstborn of Pharaoh. ] See Exo 12:12 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
at midnight. On the fourteenth of Abib. See Exo 11:4.
smote. Compare Exo 11:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the First-born of Egypt Slain
Exo 12:29-36
It was night, the time for peace, rest and silence. None anticipated evil, unless some few among the Egyptians had begun to believe in the veracity of Moses, that man of God. Suddenly, without warning, there was death everywhere. Death can enter the palace, elude the sentinels, pass locked doors, and smite the son of Pharaoh; while the lowly obscurity of the woman grinding corn and the captive in the dungeon, will not save them from his blow. There is no difference between us all in the fact of our sinnership, or the inevitableness of penalty, unless redeemed, as Israel was, by sacrifice.
Pharaohs surrender was complete. Children? Yes! Flocks and herds? Yes! There was also a great popular uprising, and the people readily supplied the Israelites with whatever they asked-their wages for long unpaid servitude. They went forth as a triumphant host, more than conquerors through Him who loved them.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
at midnight: Exo 12:12, Exo 11:4, Exo 13:15, Job 34:20, 1Th 5:2, 1Th 5:3
the Lord smote: The infliction of this judgment on the Egyptians was most equitable; because, after their nation had been preserved by one of the Israelitish family, they had, contrary to all right, and in defiance of original stipulation, enslaved the people to whom they had been so much indebted, had murdered their offspring, and made their bondage intolerable. See Bryant, p. 160. Num 3:13, Num 8:17, Num 33:4, Psa 78:51, Psa 105:36, Psa 135:8, Psa 136:10, Heb 11:28, Heb 12:23
the firstborn of Pharaoh: Exo 4:23, Exo 11:5
dungeon: Heb. house of the pit, Isa 24:22, Isa 51:14, Jer 38:6, Jer 38:13, Zec 9:11
Reciprocal: Exo 9:15 – that Exo 15:26 – diseases Num 3:12 – General Deu 16:1 – for in 1Sa 25:38 – the Lord 2Ki 19:35 – that night 2Ch 15:13 – whether small Job 27:20 – a tempest Job 36:20 – cut Psa 81:5 – through Psa 91:6 – pestilence Isa 15:1 – in the Isa 44:26 – confirmeth Isa 47:11 – thou shalt not know Amo 4:10 – pestilence Hab 3:5 – went Hab 3:13 – thou woundedst Hab 3:14 – the head Act 12:23 – the angel Rom 5:14 – even
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 12:29-36. Egyptian Firstborn Die: the Israelites Prepare to Depart.In Exo 11:1-3* E and Exo 11:4-8* J the spoiling of the Egyptians and the death of their firstborn sons were announced, and the events are now given by the editor in reverse order, Exo 12:29-34 J preceding Exo 12:35 f. E. The last plague was a sudden outbreak of pestilence, cf. 2Ki 19:35, which was believed to have stricken every firstborn son. The fact that the eldest son of the king and other notable Egyptians fell victims, along with the practice of dedicating first-born sons (Exo 13:1-16*, Num 3:11-13*), and possibly the connexion of the spring festival with the sacrifice of firstlings, may have led to the tradition assuming the sharply defined form of the text. The number of eldest sons appearing in The Times obituaries of officers in 191415 was such as to suggest to some minds the idea of an evil fate. Behind the tradition is a faith that, whether God inflicts calamity on themselves or their enemies, His people gain some good and the victims do not suffer in vain. And the plagues of Egypt were among the events which nourished this faith. The climax of decision with which Pharaoh at last grants the request recorded in Exo 5:3 and defined in Exo 10:26 is put clearly in Exo 12:31 f. The haste with which the alarmed Egyptians thrust the Hebrews forth (Exo 12:33 f. J) is mentioned to account for their starting without waiting for a supply of leavened bread, the historical link with the Feast of Mazzoth or Unleavened Cakes being thus indicated. But in Exo 12:35 f. E the situation is rather differently conceived, there being time to organise a levy upon the stores of gold and silver ornaments and festal garments which the Egyptians had, which the Hebrews needed for due religious service (cf. Exo 33:4-6*). The threefold relation (Exo 3:22, Exo 11:3, and here) shows with what relish the story was told. From Exo 11:3 we should suppose the levy was made before the stroke fell. If that be the meaning, this will be an editorial repetition, and the verbs in Exo 12:35 f. should be pluperfects, had done . . . had asked . . . had given. The night was an impossible time for such a collection. The RV rendering, they let them have, suggests that the things were given outright. But the word gave is avoided, and the phrase may well mean lent (as in Syr.). In that case the transaction would be justified because Pharaohs later pursuit made return after the wilderness festival impossible; or else because by Hebrew standards all was fair in dealing with tyrants. Keble (Christian Year, 3rd Sunday in Lent) has adopted from Augustine an allegorical application of the spoiling of the Egyptians.
Exo 12:34 b. Render: their kneading-bowls (Exo 8:3*) being bound up in their mantles (Jdg 8:25, Rth 3:15).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
2. The death of the first-born and the release of Israel 12:29-36
The angel struck the Egyptians at midnight, the symbolic hour of judgment (Exo 12:29; cf. Mat 25:5-6), when they were asleep ". . . to startle the king and his subjects out of their sleep of sin." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, 2:23.] Pharaoh had originally met Moses’ demands with contemptuous insult (Exo 5:4). Then he tried a series of compromises (Exo 8:25; Exo 8:28; Exo 10:8-11; Exo 10:24). All of these maneuvers were unacceptable to God.
There is evidence from Egyptology that the man who succeeded Amenhotep II, the pharaoh of the plagues, was not his first-born son. [Note: See Unger, Archaeology and . . ., pp. 142-44; Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, p. 218; and Pritchard, p. 449.] His successor was Thutmose IV (1425-1417 B.C.), a son of Amenhotep II but evidently not his first-born. Thutmose IV went to some pains to legitimatize his right to the throne. This would not have been necessary if he had been the first-born. So far scholars have found no Egyptian records of the death of Amenhotep II’s first-born son.
"Thutmose IV claimed that when he was still a prince he had a dream in which the sun god promised him the throne; this implies that he was not the one who would be expected to succeed to the throne under normal circumstances." [Note: Gispen, p. 113.]
Remember Joseph’s dreams.
In contrast to the former plagues, this one was not just a heightened and supernaturally directed natural epidemic but a direct act of God Himself (cf. Exo 12:12-13; Exo 12:23; Exo 12:27; Exo 12:29).
We need to understand "no home" in its context (Exo 12:30). There was no Egyptian home in which there was a first-born son, who was not a father himself, that escaped God’s judgment of physical death.
"This series of five imperative verbs [in Exo 12:31], three meaning ’go’ (dlh is used twice) and one meaning ’take,’ coupled with five usages of the emphatic particle mg ’also’ . . ., marvelously depicts a Pharaoh whose reserve of pride is gone, who must do everything necessary to have done with Moses and Israel and the Yahweh who wants them for his own." [Note: Durham, p. 167.]
Pharaoh’s request that Moses would bless him is shocking since the Egyptians regarded Pharaoh as a god (Exo 12:32; cf. Gen 47:7).
The reader sees God in two roles in this section, representing the two parts of Israel’s redemption. He appears as Judge satisfied by the blood of the innocent sin-bearer, and He is the Deliverer of Israel who liberated the nation from its slavery.
Redemption involves the payment of a price. What was the price of Israel’s redemption? It was the lives of the lambs that God provided as the substitutes for Israel’s first-born sons who would have died otherwise (cf. Isaac in Genesis 22, and Jesus Christ, the only-begotten of the Father). The first-born sons remained God’s special portion (Num 8:17-18). The Egyptian first-born sons died as a punishment on the Egyptians. The Egyptians had enslaved God’s people and had not let them go, and they had executed male Israelite babies (Exo 1:15-22) possibly for the last 80 years. [Note: Ramm, p. 79.] God owns all life. He just leases it to His creatures. God paid the price of Israel’s redemption to Himself. He purchased the nation to be a special treasure for Himself and for a special purpose (Exo 19:5).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE TENTH PLAGUE.
Exo 12:29-36.
And now the blow fell. Infants grew cold in their mothers’ arms; ripe statesmen and crafty priests lost breath as they reposed: the wisest, the strongest and the most hopeful of the nation were blotted out at once, for the firstborn of a population is its flower.
Pharaoh Menephtah had only reached the throne by the death of two elder brethren, and therefore history confirms the assertion that he “rose up,” when the firstborn were dead; but it also justifies the statement that his firstborn died, for the gallant and promising youth who had reconquered for him his lost territories, and who actually shared his rule and “sat upon the throne,” Menephtah Seti, is now shown to have died early, and never to have held an independent sceptre.
We can imagine the scene. Suspense and terror must have been wide spread; for the former plagues had given authority to the more dreadful threat, the fulfilment of which was now to be expected, since all negotiations between Moses and Pharaoh had been formally broken off.
Strange and confident movements and doubtless menacing expressions among the Hebrews would also make this night a fearful one, and there was little rest for “those who feared the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh.” These, knowing where the danger lay, would watch their firstborn well, and when the ashy change came suddenly upon a blooming face, and they raised the wild cry of Eastern bereavement, then others awoke to the same misery. From remote villages and lonely hamlets the clamour of great populations was echoed back; and when, under midnight skies in which the strong wind of the morrow was already moaning, the awestruck people rushed into their temples, there the corpses of their animal deities glared at them with glassy eyes.
Thus the cup which they had made their slaves to drink was put in larger measure to their own lips at last, and not infants only were snatched away, but sons around whom years of tenderness had woven stronger ties; and the loss of their bondsmen, from which they feared so much national weakness, had to be endured along with a far deadlier drain of their own life-blood. The universal wail was bitter, and hopeless, and full of terror even more than woe; for they said, “We be all dead men.” Without the consolation of ministering by sick beds, or the romance and gallant excitement of war, “there was not a house where there was not one dead,” and this is said to give sharpness to the statement that there was a great cry in Egypt.
Then came such a moment as the Hebrew temperament keenly enjoyed, when “the sons of them that oppressed them came bending unto them, and all they that despised them bowed themselves down at the soles of their feet.” Pharaoh sent at midnight to surrender everything that could possibly be demanded, and in his abject fear added, “and bless me also”; and the Egyptians were urgent on them to begone, and when they demanded the portable wealth of the land,–a poor ransom from a vanquished enemy, and a still poorer payment for generations of forced labour,–“the Lord gave them favour” (is there not a saturnine irony in the phrase?) “in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And they spoiled the Egyptians.”
By this analogy St. Augustine defended the use of heathen learning in defence of Christian truth. Clogged by superstitions, he said, it contained also liberal instruction, and truths even concerning God–“gold and silver which they did not themselves create, but dug out of the mines of God’s providence, and misapplied. These we should reclaim, and apply to Christian use” (De Doct. Chr., 60, 61).
And the main lesson of the story lies so plainly upon the surface that one scarcely needs to state it. What God requires must ultimately be done; and human resistance, however stubborn and protracted, will only make the result more painful and more signal at the last.
Now, every concern of our obscure daily lives comes under this law as surely as the actions of a Pharaoh.