Exodus 11:5

_AND ALL THE FIRSTBORN IN THE LAND OF EGYPT SHALL DIE, FROM THE FIRSTBORN OF PHARAOH THAT SITTETH UPON HIS THRONE, EVEN UNTO THE FIRSTBORN OF THE MAIDSERVANT THAT IS BEHIND THE MILL; AND ALL THE FIRSTBORN OF BEASTS._ All the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die. The time, the suddenness, the dreadful severity of this coming calamity, and the special description of victims, both among men and beasts, on whom it was to fall, would all contribute to aggravate its character. The first-born were selected for the victims of this fatal plague, since, from the pre-eminence attached in ancient times to the primogeniture, they represented the elite of the nation; and the being who displayed his terrible power in the slaughter of the first-born might extend it to the entire destruction of the people. MAID-SERVANT ... BEHIND THE MILL. The grinding of the meal for daily use in every household...

4-10 The death of all the first-born in Egypt at once: this plague had been the first threatened, but is last executed. See how slow God is to wrath. The plague is foretold, the time is fixed; all their first-born should sleep the sleep of death, not silently, but so as to rouse the families at midnight. The prince was not too high to be reached by it, nor the slaves at the mill too low to be noticed. While angels slew the Egyptians, not so much as a dog should bark at any of the children of Israel. It is an earnest of the difference there shall be in the great day, between God's people and his enemies. Did men know what a difference God puts, and will put to eternity, between those that serve him and those that serve him not, religion would not seem to them an indifferent thing; nor would they act in it with so much carelessness as they do. When Moses had thus delivered his message, he...

Verse Exodus 11:5. _THE FIRST-BORN OF PHARAOH, C._] From the heir to the Egyptian throne to the son of the most abject slave, or the principal person in each family. Exodus 12:29. _THE MAID-SERVANT THAT_ IS _BEHIND THE MILL_] The meanest slaves were employed in this work. In many parts of the east they still grind all their corn with a kind of portable mill-stones, the upper one of which is turned round by a sort of _lever_ fixed in the rim. A drawing of one of these machines as used in China is now before me, and the person who grinds is represented as pushing the _lever before_ him, and thus running round with the stone. Perhaps something like this is intended by the expression BEHIND _the mill_ in the text. On this passage Dr. Shaw ha

Two points are to be noticed: 1. The extent of the visitation: the whole land suffers in the persons of its firstborn, not merely for the guilt of the sovereign, but for the actual participation of the people in the crime of infanticide Exodus 1:22. 2. The limitation: Pharaoh’s command had been to slay ALL the male children of the Israelites, but only one child in each Egyptian family was to die. If Tothmosis II was the Pharaoh, the visitation fell with special severity on his family. He left no son, but was succeeded by his widow. THE MILL - This consisted of two circular stones, one fixed in the ground, the other turned by a handle. The work of grinding was extremely laborious, and performed by women of the lowe

EXPOSITION The writer returns here to his account of the last interview between Moses and Pharaoh, repeating the introductory words of Exodus 10:29—"and Moses said." Having accepted his dismissal, and declared that he would not see the face of Pharaoh any more (_ibid._),_ _Moses, before quitting the presence, proceeded to announce the last plague, prefacing the announcement, as usual (Exodus 7:17; Exodus 8:2; Exodus 9:1, Exodus 9:13; Exodus 10:3), with the solemn dec

AND ALL THE FIRSTBORN IN THE LAND OF EYGPT SHALL DIE,.... By the destroying angel inflicting a disease upon them, as Josephus says q, very probably the pestilence; however, it was sudden and immediate death, and which was universal, reaching to all the firstborn that were in the families of the Egyptians in all parts of the kingdom: FROM THE FIRSTBORN OF PHARAOH THAT SITTETH UPON HIS THRONE: this periphrasis, "that sitteth upon his throne", either belongs to Pharaoh, and is a description of him who now sat upon the throne of Egypt; and the Septuagint version leaves out the pronoun "his"; and so it is the same as if it had been said the firstborn of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; or else, to the firstborn, and describes him who either already sat upon the throne with his father, as was sometimes the case, that the firstborn was taken a partner in the throne, in the lifetime of his father; or wh...

CHAPTER 11 THE TENTH PLAGUE ANNOUNCED _ 1. God's Word to Moses and to the people (Exodus 11:1)_ 2. The tenth plague announced to Pharaoh (Exodus 11:4) 3. Pharaoh's unbelief and his heart hardened (Exodus 11:9) In chapter 10:29 we hear Moses say to Pharaoh, “I will see thy face again no more.” In this chapter, however, we hear him address Pharaoh once more concerning the tenth plague judgment. The announcement made to Moses and recorded in the first verse of this chapter occurred before the inter-view of the previous chapter and Exodus 11:4 in chapter 11 is the continuation of Moses' address to Pharaoh after he had

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

Exodus 7:14 to Exodus 11:5 _The first nine Plagues_ The narrative of the Plagues, like that of the preceding Chapter s, is composite. The details of the analysis depend partly upon literary criteria, partly upon differences in the representation, which are not isolated, but recurrent, and which moreover _accompany_the literary differences and support the conclusions based upon them, the differences referred to often also agreeing remarkably with corresponding differences in the parts of the preceding narrative, especially in Exodus 3:1 to Exodus 7:13, which have already, upon independent grounds, been assigned to P, J, and E, respectively. N

FROM THE FIRST-BORN—UNTO—THE MAID-SERVANT THAT IS BEHIND THE MILL— That is, from the highest to the lowest. It was usual for the lowest slaves to be employed in the drudgery of the mill; and, therefore, the prophet Isaiah uses this idea, to express the abject state of slavery to which Babylon should be reduced: _Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon: sit on the ground, take the millstones and grind meal,_ Isaiah 47:1. Dr. Shaw observes, that most families in those countries still grind their wheat and barley at home, having two portable mill-stones for that purpose; the uppermost whereof is turned round by a small handle of wood or iron, which is placed in the rim. When this stone is large, or expedition is required, then a second person is called in to assist; and as it is usual for the _women_ alone to be concerned in this employment, who seat themselves ove