Exodus 10:24

_AND PHARAOH CALLED UNTO MOSES, AND SAID, GO YE, SERVE THE LORD; ONLY LET YOUR FLOCKS AND YOUR HERDS BE STAYED: LET YOUR LITTLE ONES ALSO GO WITH YOU._ Pharaoh called unto Moses. Terrified by the preternatural darkness, the stubborn king relents, and proposes another compromise-the flocks and herds to be left as hostages for their return. Verse 25. THOU MUST GIVE US ALSO SACRIFICES, х_ ZªBAACHIYM_ (H2077)] - opposed to х_ `OLOWT_ (H5927)], 'burnt offerings.' The word denotes a sacrifice only in part consumed, a thank offering (cf. Leviticus 17:8; Numbers 15:5). But the crisis is approaching, and Moses insists on all he had asked for. The cattle would be needed for sacrifice-how

24._And Pharaoh called unto Moses. _We gather that he was greatly alarmed by this infliction; because of his own accord he again calls to him (as before) the men who were so troublesome to him, and the authors of such sore calamities, that he may treat with them of their departure. But it is asked how, if no one rose from his place for three days, Pharaoh could send for Moses and Aaron? If we were to answer that the messengers were sent after the darkness had been dispersed, this objection must readily arise, via, that it does not appear probable that this untamable wild beast should be so much subdued, when the severity of the punishment was relaxed; for thus far we perceive that, as often as God withdrew his hand, the proud tyrant, having cast aside his fear, returned to his ferocity. My own opinion is, that whilst the exigency was still pressing upon him, and he feared lest the darkne...

21-29 The plague of darkness brought upon Egypt was a dreadful plague. It was darkness which might be felt, so thick were the fogs. It astonished and terrified. It continued three days; six nights in one; so long the most lightsome palaces were dungeons. Now Pharaoh had time to consider, if he would have improved it. Spiritual darkness is spiritual bondage; while Satan blinds men's eyes that they see not, he binds their hands and feet, that they work not for God, nor move toward heaven. They sit in darkness. It was righteous with God thus to punish. The blindness of their minds brought upon them this darkness of the air; never was mind so blinded as Pharaoh's, never was air so darkened as Egypt. Let us dread the consequences of sin; if three days of darkness were so dreadful, what will everlasting darkness be? The children of Israel, at the same time, had light in their dwellings. We mu...

Verse Exodus 10:24. _ONLY LET YOUR FLOCKS AND YOUR HERDS BE STAYED_] Pharaoh cannot get all he wishes; and as he sees it impossible to contend with Jehovah, he now consents to give up the Israelites, their wives and their children, provided he may keep their _flocks_ and their _herds_. The _cruelty_ of this demand is not more evident than its _avarice_. Had _six hundred thousand_ men, besides women and children, gone three days' journey into the _wilderness_ without their cattle, they must have inevitably perished, being without milk for their little ones, and animal food for their own sustenance, in a place where little as a substitute could possibly be found. It is evident from this that Pharaoh intended the total destruction of the whole Israelitish host....

YOUR FLOCKS AND YOUR HERDS - Pharaoh still exacts what would of course be a complete security for their return: but the demand was wholly incompatible with the object assigned for the journey into the wilderness....

EXPOSITION THE NINTH PLAGUE. The ninth plague, like the third and the sixth, was inflicted without special warning. God had announced, after the plague of boils, that he was about to "send all his plagues upon the heart" of the king; and so a succession of inflictions was to be expected. The ninth plague probably followed the eighth after a very short interval. It is rightly regarded as an aggravation of a well-known natural phenomenon—the Khamsin, or "Wind of the Desert"_ _which commonly visits Egypt about the time of the vernal equinox, and is accompanied by an awful and weird darkness. This is caused by the dense clouds of fine sand which the wind brings with it, which intercept the sun's light, and produce a darkness beyond that of our worst fogs, and compared by some travellers to "the most gloomy night." The wind is depressing and annoying to an extreme degree. "While it lasts no m...

AND PHARAOH CALLED UNTO MOSES,.... After the three days, as the Targum of Jonathan, when the darkness was over, or at least much diminished, fearing that still worse evils would befall him: AND SAID, GO YE, SERVE THE LORD, ONLY LET YOUR FLOCKS AND YOUR HERDS BE STAYED; stopped or remained behind, as a pledge and security of their return; and these the rather he was desirous of retaining, because of the great loss of cattle he had sustained by the murrain and boils upon them, and by the hail: let your little ones also go with you; this he had refused before, but now consents to it, which he thought was doing them a great favour, and that upon such terms they might be content to go....

SAID, GO YE That is, "Leave your property in the world." Compare (Matthew 16:25); (Luke 18:18)....

CHAPTER 10 THE EIGHTH AND NINTH PLAGUES _ 1. The eighth plague: locusts (Exodus 10:1)_ 2. Pharaoh's renewed confession and refusal (Exodus 10:16) 3. The ninth plague: darkness (Exodus 10:21) 4. Pharaoh's anger (Exodus 10:27) The eighth plague is introduced by another warning; the ninth came without it. As a result of the eighth plague, Pharaoh confessed his sin against God and against Moses and Aaron; but after the ninth plague drove Moses from his presence and threatened the divine messenger with death. Locusts covered the face of the whole earth and every green thing was destroyed. On the

EXODUS 7:14 TO EXODUS 12:36. THE TEN PLAGUES. How deeply this series of events imprinted itself on the mind and heart of the nation is shown by the fulness with which the three sources report them. J 1° 2° 4° 5° 7° 8° 9° 10° E 1° 7° 8° 9° 10° P 1° 2° 3° 6° 10° 1°, river turned to blood; 2°, frogs; 3°, fice (gnats); 4°, flies; 5°, murrain; 6°, boils; 7°, hail; 8°, locusts; 9°, darkness; 10°, death of firstborn. A sound historical judgment will conclude, both from this fact and from the nature of the occurrences mentioned, as well as from the need for _some_ such group of causes to account for the escape of the tribes, that the traditions have a firm foothold in real events. But since not less than four centuries intervened between the events and the earliest of our sources, it is not to b