Exodus 4:23

_AND I SAY UNTO THEE, LET MY SON GO, THAT HE MAY SERVE ME: AND IF THOU REFUSE TO LET HIM GO, BEHOLD, I WILL SLAY THY SON, EVEN THY FIRSTBORN._ If thou refuse ... I will slay thy son, even thy first-born. The death of the first-born in the palace, and throughout the land of Egypt, as an act of retribution for refusing His first-born to God, would bring home in an emphatic manner to the business and bosoms of the Egyptians the full import of the phrase, "Israel is my first-born....

23._And I say unto thee, Let my son go. _This was not the beginning of the legation, but its final clause; for Moses warned the desperate man of his son’s death, when everything else had been tried in vain. The meaning is, then, that the obstinacy of the tyrant must not prevent Moses from pressing him even to this final act. Therefore this injunction was an exhortation to perseverance; as appears from the context, when God declares that he will punish the obstinacy of the tyrant, because he refused to obey the command to let the people go. Moreover, since this denunciation was very severe, and might very greatly awaken the tyrant’s wrath, therefore Moses is thus early commanded to prepare himself lest he should fail in this particular....

18-23 After God had appeared in the bush, he often spake to Moses. Pharaoh had hardened his own heart against the groans and cries of the oppressed Israelites; and now God, in the way of righteous judgment, hardens his heart against the teaching of the miracles, and the terror of the plagues. But whether Pharaoh will hear, or whether he will forbear, Moses must tell him, Thus saith the Lord. He must demand a discharge for Israel, Let my son go; not only my servant, whom thou hast no right to detain, but my son. It is my son that serves me, and therefore must be spared, must be pleaded for. In case of refusal I will slay thy son, even thy first-born. As men deal with God's people, let them expect so to be dealt with....

Verse Exodus 4:23. _LET MY SON GO, THAT HE MAY SERVE ME_] Which they could not do in Goshen, consistently with the policy and religious worship of the Egyptians; because the most essential part of an Israelite's worship consisted in sacrifice, and the animals which they offered to God were sacred among the Egyptians. Moses gives Pharaoh this reason Exodus 8:26. _I WILL SLAY THY SON_, EVEN _THY FIRST-BORN._] Which, on Pharaoh's utter refusal to let the people go, was accordingly done; see Exodus 12:29....

EXPOSITION EXODUS 4:18-2 If Moses had, as we have supposed, been accepted into the Midianitish nation, he would need permission to withdraw himself from the tribal head. This head was now Jether, or Jethro, Moses' connexion by marriage, perhaps his brother-in-law, perhaps a less near connexion. Nations and tribes were at this time anxious to keep up their numbers, and jealous of the desertion even of a single member. Jethro, however, made no opposition to the return of Moses to Egypt, even though he designed to be accompanied by his wife and sons (Exodus 4:20). Scripture gives no indications of the motives which actuated him. Perhaps the Midianites were at this time straitened for want of room. Perhaps the peculiar circumstances of Moses were held to justify his applicatio

AND I SAY UNTO THEE, LET MY SON GO, THAT HE MAY SERVE ME,.... Worship God according to his will in the place he had designed for him, and where he might be safe and free; and which service was due from him as a son, and to be performed not in a servile way, but in a filial manner, and therefore as a servant he could demand his dismission, and much more as his son; and this is required in an authoritative way, for saying is here commanding, insisting on it as a point of right to be done: AND IF THOU REFUSE TO LET HIM GO, BEHOLD, I WILL SLAY THY SON, EVEN THY FIRSTBORN; meaning, not only in a strict and literal sense Pharaoh's firstborn son, and heir to his crown, but the firstborn of all his subjects, which in a civil sense were his. This was not to be said to Pharaoh at the first opening of his commission to him, but after all methods had been tried, and the several other plagues design...

CHAPTER 4:1-28 MOSES' OBJECTIONS, JEHOVAH'S ANSWER AND THE RETURN TO EGYPT _ 1. The first objection (Exodus 4:1)_ 2. The two signs and Jehovah's assurance (Exodus 4:2) 3. The second objection (Exodus 4:10) 4. Jehovah's answer (Exodus 4:11) 5. Moses' request (Exodus 4:13) 6. Jehovah's anger and answer (Exodus 4:14) 7. The command to return to Egypt (Exodus 4:18

EXODUS 4:21 J. THE DEATH OF PHARAOH'S FIRSTBORN IS THREATENED. Exodus 4:22 f. seems to have been moved back hither from before Exodus 10:28 to serve as a general introduction to the Plagues, receiving Exodus 4:21 as preface. The portents of Exodus 4:21 are not the signs of Exodus 4:2 J, to be done for Israel's benefit, but those of Exodus 4:17 E, to be done with the rod before Pharaoh. With...

THE TEXT OF EXODUS TRANSLATION 4 And Mo-ses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, Je-ho-vah hath not appeared unto thee. (2) And Je-ho-vah said unto him, What is that in thy hand? And he said, A rod. (3) And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Mo-ses fled from before it. (4) And Je-ho-vah said unto Mo-ses, Put forth thy hand, and take it by the tail (and he put forth is hand, and laid hold of it, and it became a rod in his hand); (5) that they may believe that Je-ho-vah, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of I-saac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. (6) And Je-ho-vah said furthermore unto him, Put now thy hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. (7)...

SIGNS ATTESTING THE COMMISSION OF MOSES. HIS RETURN TO EGYPT Moses still hesitates, and now objects that the péople will not believe him when he tells them that Jehovah has sent him. He is granted the power of working three signs by way of substantiating his commission....