Exodus 10

10:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and 2 the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs in the midst of them: and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what things I have wrought upon Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know that I am 3 the LORD. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before 4 me? let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, 5 behold, to-morrow will I bring locusts into thy border: and they shall cover the face of the earth, that one shall not be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which 6 groweth for you out of the field: and thy houses shall be filled, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; as neither thy fathers nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he 7 turned, and went out from Pharaoh. And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their 8 God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are 9 they that shall go? And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we 10 must hold a feast unto the LORD. And he said unto them, So be the LORD with you, as I 11 will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that is what ye desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence. 12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land,

13 even all that the hail hath left. And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all the night; and 14 when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the borders of Egypt; very grievous were they; 15 before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing, either tree or herb of the field, through all the land of 16 Egypt. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned 17 against the LORD your God, and against you. Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the LORD your God, that he may take away from me this death 18 only. And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD. And the LORD turned 19 an exceeding strong west wind, which took up the locusts, and drove them into the Red 20 Sea; there remained not one locust in all the border of Egypt. But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.

21. And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may 22 be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of 23 Egypt three days; they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three 24 days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: 25 let your little ones also go with you. And Moses said, Thou must also give into our hand 26 sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the LORD our God. Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the LORD our God; and we know not with what we must serve the LORD, until we 27 come thither. But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. 28 And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; 29 for in the day thou seest my face thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well; I will see thy face again no more.

11 : 1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Yet one plague more will I bring upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely 2 thrust you out hence altogether. Speak now in the ears of the people, and let them ask every man of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels 3 of gold. And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the sight of the people. 4 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of 5 Egypt: 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 6 mill; and all the firstborn of cattle. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land 7 of Egypt, such as there hath been none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. 8 And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. 9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh will not hearken unto you: that my wonders 10 may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

Locusts covering the Earth and filling the Houses.

Every judgment and every deliverance from it would have led an ingenuous mind to see the wrath of God for disobedience, and his clemency upon promise of amendment. But this heart was so proud and audacious as to contend with the Almighty; it was exasperated with severity, and conceived vain hopes upon the removal of a judgment, that the hand of God was tired and would yield to the obstinacy of man. With respect to this perverse temper, it was that God says, I have hardened Pharaoh’s heart; meaning, by his dealings with him, which were intended to correct and amend him, but by his misapplication of them, they still left him more incorrigible, and finally ended in his utter destruction. Reading.

Alas for man’s perverse and false nature—his proud heart and his lying lips! How readily he relapses back into his old and much-loved sin and becomes more hardened than ever! The judgments of God extort confessions and tears and prayers; but God’s mercies let off this pressure and leave the guilty soul to fly back to its old sins again. So it was with Pharaoh. God’s mercies, abused, worked out his ruin. But it were simply monstrous to say that this showing of mercy is on God’s part a moral wrong and that it throws over upon him the moral responsibility of hardening the sinner’s heart. Yet it was precisely in this way—perhaps more really and potently than in any other—that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. H. C.—Who can deny that what God did on Pharaoh was much more proper to soften than to harden his heart; especially when it is observable, that it was not till after seeing each miracle, and after the ceasing of each plague, that his heart is said to have been hardened? Psalmanecer.

2. That thou mayest tell. We have here for the first time the far-reaching purpose announced, of the transmission by report of these Jehovah’s wonderful dealings from generation to generation in Israel. As a sample of this transmission see Ps. 78 and 105. Alf.—The events of this wonderful conflict and victory were stamped into the national life of Israel; they reappear all along the course of future ages, interwoven into the very warp and woof of her national history and into the moral forces which developed the nation’s piety. It might as reasonably be maintained that there never was any Hebrew nation as that God did not bring them forth out of Egypt with a high hand, first loosing Pharaoh’s grasp by these ten plagues, and last, burying his pursuing hosts in the waters of the Red Sea. H. C.—And ye shall know that I am the Lord. The grand scope of all these signs was to reveal the Creator in his true character to man. This is the lesson of nature, of providence, and of grace, to those who read and understand. 3. How long dost thou refuse to humble thyself before me? Eight signs, one of them instructive and seven corrective, had already been given to him. His haughtiness of spirit is not subdued; to humble himself even before God he has not yet learned. M.

7. I am not surprised that Pharaoh’s servants remonstrated against his folly and madness when they heard the plague of locusts announced. Let the men go, said they to their proud master, that they may serve the Lord their God. Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? And when they came they were very grievous, for they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened, and they ate every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees, and there remained not any green thing in the trees, nor in the herbs of the field. Moses declared that they should cover the face of the earth so that one cannot be able to see the ground. I have this dreadful picture indelibly fixed on my mind. For several nights after they came to Abeih, as soon as I closed my eyes the whole earth seemed to be creeping and jumping, nor could I banish the ugly image from my brain. The coming of locusts is a sore judgment from God. If I command the locusts to devour the land, says the Lord to Solomon. Yes, it is the command of God that brings these insects to scourge a land for the wickedness of the inhabitants thereof. W. M. Thompson.

8,9. But who are they that shall go? Hebrew, Who and who (are) going? The repetition of the interrogative is emphatic. He was to specify with the utmost distinctness who were to go, and who were to stay behind. Moses in reply tells him plainly that they were to serve God with their all; that their wives and their children, their flocks and their herds, without exception or reservation, must go with them.

10. The bold and positive declaration of Moses was too much for Pharaoh. Greatly exasperated by this uncompromising statement he answers in a style of mingled irony and wrath, “Let the Lord do with you as I will let you go;” q. d. “If this be the proposed condition of your going, that you take your little ones with you, then may the God whom you serve favor you as much with his presence as I do with my consent, and no more. In this case your prospects are sorry indeed.” It is a very strong and emphatic mode of denying them the permission which they sought. Bush.

14,15. By the hail and thunder and fire mingled with rain, both the barley and flax were ruined, and their pastures must have been greatly injured. But the wheat and the rye were not yet in ear; and such was the fruitfulness of the soil, that a very short time would have sufficed for the leaves of the trees, and for the grass of the field to have been recruited. It pleased God, therefore, to send an host of locusts, to devour every leaf and blade of grass which had been left in the former devastation, and whatever was beginning to vegetate. It is hard to conceive how widely the mischief extends, when a cloud of these insects comes upon a country. Though it were a paradise before, it is soon rendered a desert. They devour to the very root and bark; so that it is a long time before vegetation can be renewed. Scarcely any misfortune can so effectually damage a land, but that room will be left for them to add to the mischief. How dreadful their inroads at all times were, may be known from a variety of authors, ancient and modern. They describe them as being brought on upon a country by one wind, and carried off by another; and speak of their numbers as past all conception. As Egypt is, in great measure, bounded to the east and north by seas, and is far removed from those regions in Africa where locusts particularly generate, it is not much infested with them. However, at the time spoken of, an east wind prevailed “all day and all night;” and the whole country in the morning swarmed with these insects. Hence we know that they came from Arabia. Bryant.—Generally, it is not the east but the south wind that brings the locusts, from Ethiopia or Libya. It was purposely from a long distance that they were sent, to show that Jehovah reigned everywhere. A. E.

17. So formidable was the calamity, that although Pharaoh had previously driven Moses and Aaron from his presence, yet he is now constrained to send for them again, to avow his fault, and to beg for one reprieve more. His confession now has more the air of unfeigned repentance than on any former occasion. He acknowledges that he had sinned against God and his servants, humbly asks their forgiveness, and sues for their intercession. So there are but too many who in the hour of sickness and in the fear of death, have prayed to be delivered only this once, with promises of amendment, but who yet upon recovery have returned, Pharaoh-like, to their former impenitence, worldliness, and sin. They forget that these repeated lapses and broken vows are all the while swelling guilt to fearful dimensions, and making more and more ripe for a sudden destruction. Bush.

The conviction was forced upon Pharaoh and the confession extorted from his lips (utterly against his will), that God’s hand wrought these achievements; that these calamities came at his command, and could be removed by his power and not otherwise. Hence over and over he begs Moses to pray to his God for their removal. See this in the case of the frogs (8 : 8); of the flies (8 : 28, 29); of the hail (9 : 27-29); and the locusts. It is not easy to see how stronger testimony to the reality of miracles can ever exist. That these plagues were real miracles, direct from the hand of God, it is unquestionably the intent of the whole narrative to set forth and affirm. So much, no candid reader of the account has ever questioned. Some may say, the narrator was himself deceived: none will deny that he saw God’s finger there and meant to make all his readers see it. None can deny that according to his account even proud Pharaoh saw and felt the very finger of God in them. In fact the narrative makes this its main purpose, viz. to show that these judgments were nothing less than immediate visitations from the hand of the Almighty. Take out this element and there is nothing left. H. C.

19. There remained not one locust. The sudden and complete disappearance of the locusts is a phenomenon scarcely less remarkable than their coming; the putrefaction of such immense masses not unfrequently causes a terrible pestilence near the coasts of the sea into which they fall. Cook.

Three Days’ Thick Darkness.

22,23. No sooner had Pharaoh’s request been granted, than his rebellion returned. Then, once more unannounced, came the ninth stroke, more terrible than any that had preceded. A thick darkness covered the whole land, except Goshen. There was this peculiar phenomenon about it, that, not only were the people unable to see each other, but “neither rose any from his place for three days.” A. E.—Their great divinity, the Sun, was put to shame before the God of the slave and the stranger. For three whole days, as Moses stretched his hand toward heaven, a darkness, described with unexampled force as a DARKNESS THAT MIGHT BE FELT, overspread the land; not merely was the sun unable to penetrate the gloom, and enlighten his favored land, but they could distinguish nothing, and were constrained to sit in awe-struck inactivity. Milman.—So deep was the darkness that during the whole of this time, “they saw not one another.” So overwhelming were the amazement and sorrow, that during this period no man “rose from his place.” Uncertain whether they should ever again see the light, they lay paralyzed in a darkness that could be felt. Here the triumph of the God of Israel was complete, and the perfect vanity of Egyptian idolatry demonstrated. Egypt, with all her learning and prowess, supported by a gorgeous and almost boundless range of idolatrous religion, is exhibited as convicted, punished, and without any power to escape, or any hope of alleviation. Smith’s Heb. People.—What madness could be greater than theirs, when in their hardness of heart they cease not to contend against God’s hand, formidable as it was? Their waters turned into blood had denied them drink; frogs and other animals had filled the whole country; their limbs had been enfevered by boils; the hail had destroyed part of their corn; the locusts had brought still increased destruction; the very hosts of heaven were armed against them. Calv.

But in Goshen all these three days was light and festive joy. For while thick darkness lay upon Egypt, the children of Israel, as directed by God, had already on the tenth of the month—four days before the great night of woe—selected their Paschal lambs, and were in waiting for their deliverance. And alike the darkness and the light were of Jehovah—the one symbolical of his judgments, the other of his favor. A. E.—During these three days of darkness to the Egyptians, if God had so pleased, the Israelites by the light which they had might have made their escape, and without asking leave of Pharaoh; but God would bring them out with a high hand, and not by stealth or in haste (Is. 52: 12). H.

24-28. Once more, Pharaoh now summoned Moses. This time he would let all the people go, if only they would leave their flocks behind as pledge of their return. And when Moses refused the condition, the king “said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself; see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die.” It was a challenge which sounded not strange in Moses’ ears, for before this interview God had informed him what would happen, and directed that Israel should prepare to leave. A. E.—Pharaoh quails before the appalling darkness. He yields another point. The women and children may go with the men, but not the flocks and the herds. Moses, however, cannot go to hold a national festival unto the Lord without sacrifices. Not a hoof of their cattle must be left behind. Pharaoh is again exasperated. His proud heart becomes hard as the nether millstone. A reckless madness takes possession of him. He forbids Moses to appear before him again on pain of death. There is something ominous in the reply of Moses. “Well hast thou spoken; I will see thy face no more.” He means, as we shall see, more than is here expressed. M.

Now Pharaoh proves like to some beasts that grow mad with baiting: grace often resisted turns to desperateness: “Get thee from me; look thou see my face no more; whensoever thou comest in my sight, thou shalt die.” As if Moses could not plague him as well in absence: as if he, that could not take away the lice, flies, frogs, grasshoppers, could at his pleasure take away the life of Moses, that procured them. What is this, but to run upon the judgments, and run away from the remedies? Evermore, when God’s messengers are abandoned, destruction is near. Moses will see him no more, but God will now visit him more than ever. The fearfulest plagues God still reserves for the upshot: all the former do but make way for the last. Pharaoh may exclude Moses and Aaron, but God’s angel he cannot exclude: invisible messengers are used, when the visible are debarred. Bp. H.

29. Spoken well.** The ungodly king, carried away by his rage, prophesies against his will. God repays on Pharaoh’s own head what he had threatened Moses. But we must remember that Moses did not speak on his own impulse, but at God’s command. Had he not been informed that this was the last communication, he would still have been ready to do his part. Calv.—No more. It is not said that Moses went out. His departure took place ch. 11: 8; therefore that which follows, though it happened somewhat earlier, is placed after this to explain the speech of Moses. Gert.

11: 1-3. The first three verses of Ex. 11 must have been spoken to Moses before his last interview with Pharaoh. Verse 1 should be rendered: “And Jehovah had said unto Moses,” etc. They are inserted after 10: 29, because they account for and explain the confident reply with which Moses met the challenge of Pharaoh. Evidently, 11: 4, and what follows, form part of that reply of Moses to Pharaoh which begins in 10: 29. A. E.—1. The Lord said. Or “the Lord had said.” Commentators generally agree that the first three verses of this chapter are parenthetical. The most probable account of their insertion in this place appears to be that, before Moses relates the last warning given to Pharaoh, he feels it right to recall to his readers’ minds the revelation and command which had been previously given to him by the Lord. Cook.

2. Ask.** Neither here, nor in ch. 3: 22, ch.

12 : 35, is it said that the Israelites had “borrowed” the vessels; nor ch. 12 : 36, that the Egyptians had “tent” them; but the former had demanded, the latter had yielded to the demand: when the transaction took place, the journey out was determined on, and even desired by the Egyptians, and there was no thought on either side of “giving back.” Moreover, this “spoiling” has not the signification of secretly taking away,—but that of openly taking possession of anything. The significance of the Divine command, and of the conduct of the Israelites, is rather this: Egypt and Pharaoh had sinned in manifold ways, by robbery and tyranny against Israel—they deny the people independence, and liberty to worship their God: their God takes the part of his first-born son, and smites, after many other signs, the firstborn in the whole of Egypt. The heathen king and people are humbled, and lose courage; they entreat Israel to be gone, and drive them forth; and the Egyptians give them all they can in order to appease them. Thus it comes to pass, that without violation of right, the powerless, oppressed, poor people spoil their tyrants, and depart laden with their treasures. Gerl.

3. The people favor. Moses was great.** This favor shown to the Israelites and this deep reverence for Moses are noted as conjoint effects of the previous judgments. The mention of this second result, as well as the former, is essential to the moral completeness of the narrative. It is a strange mistake to suppose that the words contain a “laudation of Moses.” Birks.—With historical faithfulness and unaffected simplicity Moses makes these remarks about his own person; they are historical facts; and he relates them with the same objective impartiality with which Xenophon speaks of himself in the Anabasis, or Cæsar in his Commentaries. Kalisch.

4. And Moses said.** The following words must be read in immediate connection with the last verse of the preceding chapter. It is not there stated that Moses left the presence of Pharaoh; this passage tells us what took place after his declaration that this would be his last interview. About midnight. This marks the hour, but not the day, on which the visitation would take place. There may have been, and probably was, an interval of some days, during which preparations might be made both for the celebration of the Passover, and the dedeparture of the Israelites: in the mean time Egypt remained under the shadow of the menace.

5. The firstborn.** 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. 2. The limitation, Pharaoh’s command had been to slay all the male children of the Israelites, one child only in each Egyptian family was to die. Cook.

Now is threatened the greatest and most awful of the plagues. The first came out of the river, the benefactor of the land; the third and fourth from the earth; the rest from the air. All stood in close connection to the idolatrous land, whose Lord the God of Israel would show himself to be. But now he will smite them with another plague, not only far exceeding all the rest, but also coming so directly from God’s hand, that none of the natural phenomena peculiar to Egypt could offer any resemblance to it. Gerl.—This had been the first threatened (ch. 4 : 23, I will slay thy son, thy firstborn), but is last to be executed; lesser judgments were tried, which, if they had done the work, would have prevented this. See how slow God is to wrath; and how willing to be met with in the way of his judgments, and to have his anger turned away, and particularly how precious the lives of men are in his eyes: if the death of their cattle would have humbled and reformed them, their children had been spared; but if men will not improve the gradual advances of divine judgments, they must thank themselves, if they find, in the issue, that the worst was reserved for the last. H.

8. After that I will go out.** Moses has thus far recited the words of God’s message to Pharaoh, but here he begins to speak in his own person, announcing the speedy submission of Pharaoh’s servants to him, and their humble and earnest request that he should “depart out of their coasts.” We must bear in mind that Moses says this in his repres-native character, and that it is to the Most High in Moses that this submission was to be made. It is indeed wonderful to see God thus identifying himself with a creature who speaks in his name, and yet it is unquestionable that the Scriptures afford repeated instances of the same usage of speech. Bush.

In hot anger. It is the Holy Spirit which here inflames the heart of Moses with holy zeal, and preserves it from all mixture of unholy passion. Much reason have we, when moved by righteous indignation, to pray for the spirit of forbearance and singleness of mind to preserve us from excess. Yet we see from Moses’ anger, that God does not desire that we should be cold and indifferent in the execution of his commands. Calv.

9,10. These two verses are a recapitulation of all that has been related after the introductory paragraph in the seventh chapter, especially ver. 3. This verse is the prediction; the intervening narrative sets forth the details, and the two verses now before us are the logical conclusion or summing up of the whole. This inferential summary could not come in before the speech of Moses, threatening the death of the firstborn, as this occurs at the closing interview between him and Pharaoh, and presents the latter with the last occasion for rejecting the demands of the Lord. And it could not come in after the death of the firstborn, because then Pharaoh at length yielded, whereas these verses record his long-continued resistance. They form therefore the methodical recapitulation of the opposition of Pharaoh foretold by the Lord, when that opposition has come to its last efforts. “Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Muraim,” for the perpetual instruction of mankind in certain sublime and necessary principles of theological truth. And so it has accordingly happened. M.—It is impossible to read the conclusion of this chapter without being reminded of the very similar ending of the chapter in John (12) which precedes the narrative of the great Passover itself: v. 37, “Although he had done all these miracles before them, yet believed they not on him,"—in words almost the reproduction of those used here. Alf.

Look at that world-ideal of the irresponsible tyrant. No fancy ever made him; no human imagination could have kept up a consistency, so well sustained, of character and destiny. Leave out, if you please, all that is miraculous in the plagues, or resolve them into strictly physical events coming at longer seeming intervals, and having a miraculous air by being crowded upon a brief historical canvas. There stand the figures of the king and the prophet; we have before us that truest of despots, that grandest of seers. Pharaoh and Moses,—we image them, at once, as forms of living men; they have more life for us than Solon and Crus, than Socrates and the Athenian judges, than Seneca and Nero, than any characters that were ever drawn by the genius of Homer, or sketched by the graphic pen of Tacitus. The scenes are so vivid, though so far away; so lifelike, though of such high proportion; so natural, though so grand, that we can hardly conceive their falsehood. What convergency of scattered myths could have grown into such a consistent whole? What single mind could ever have created a picture so defiant of the antiquating power of time? It has the same life for us now, in this remote Western world, that it had more than three thousand years ago on the banks of the Nile. There it stands right before us, as though written yesterday, clear as the pyramids, fresh as the sculptures on the Karnak, and with a meaning for the world how far beyond any wisdom we may ever hope to get from folios of monumental learning. It is, in fact, a painting that never can grow old; for it is engraved, photographed, we might say, in our human nature; age only adds to the brightness of its coloring; the most minute inspection, under the highest lens of antiquarian learning, only reveals its perfect accuracy of line and shade. T. L.

It is impossible, as we read the description of the Plagues, not to feel how much of force is added to it by a knowledge of the peculiar customs and character of the country in which they occurred. It is not an ordinary river that is turned into blood; it is the sacred, beneficent, solitary Nile, the very life of the state and of the people, in its streams and canals and tanks, and vessels of wood and vessels of stone, then, as now, used for the filtration of the delicious water from the sediment of the river-bed. It is not an ordinary nation that is struck by the mass of putrefying vermin lying in heaps by the houses, the villages, and the fields, or multiplying out of the dust of the desert sands on each side of the Nile valley. It is the cleanliest of all the ancient nations, clothed in white linen, anticipating, in their fastidious delicacy and ceremonial purity, the habits of modern and northern Europe. It is not the ordinary cattle that died in the field, or ordinary fish that died in the river, or ordinary reptiles that were overcome by the rod of Aaron. It is the sacred goat of Mendes, the ram of Ammon, the calf of Heliopolis, the bull Apis, the crocodile of Ombos, the carp of Latopolis. It is not an ordinary land of which the flax and the barley, and every green thing in the trees, and every herb of the field are smitten by the two great calamities of storm and locust. It is the garden of the ancient Eastern world,—the long line of green meadow and cornfield, and groves of palm and sycamore and fig-tree, from the Cataracts to the Delta, doubly refreshing from the desert which it intersects, doubly marvellous from the river whence it springs. If these things were calamities anywhere, they were truly “signs and wonders”—speaking signs and oracular wonders—in such a land as “the land of Ham.” A. P. S.

This was the season of the greatest and most stupendous miracles of any recorded in the history of the world, whether we look to the period of its duration, or to the magnitude of the scale on which the miracles were wrought. The public ministry and miracles of Moses lasted a great deal longer than those of Jesus Christ. And, generally speaking, Moses’ miracles were of wider and larger operation, and bearing in the greater number of instances the same relation to the other miracles, whether of the Old or the New Testament, that nations do to individuals. T. C.

The Plagues are divided first into nine, and one, the last one, standing clearly apart from all the others, in the awful shriek of woe which it draws forth from every Egyptian home. The nine are arranged in threes. In the first of each three the warning is given to Pharaoh in the morning (7 : 15 ; 8 : 20 ; 9 : 13). In the first and second of each three, the plague is announced beforehand (8 : 1 ; 9 : 1 ; 10 : 1), in the third not (8 : 16 ; 9 : 6 ; 10 : 21). At the third the magicians of Pharaoh acknowledged the finger of God (8 : 19), at the sixth they cannot stand before Moses (9 : 11), and at the ninth Pharaoh refuses to see the face of Moses any more (10 : 28). In the first three Aaron uses the rod; in the second three it is not mentioned; in the third three Moses uses it, though in the last of them only his hand is mentioned. All these marks of order lie on the face of the narrative, and point to a deeper order of nature and reason out of which they spring.

The gradation in the severity of these strokes is no less obvious. In the first three no distinction is made among the inhabitants of the land; in the remaining seven a distinction is made between the Israelites, who are shielded from, and the Egyptians, who are exposed to, the stroke. In these seven which are peculiar to the Egyptians, the order is the reverse of that in the work of creation. Three refer to the animal creation, and three to the vegetable world, the support of animal life. The last of these six is darkness, the opposite of light, the product of the first day; and the seventh is death. The first three affect the health and comfort of man; the next three take away the staff of life; then comes death itself, and the work of destruction is complete. M.

The whole period covered by the Plagues was about ten months. The delay occasioned by Pharaoh’s repeated refusals to listen to the commands afforded ample time for preparation on the part of the Israelites. Two full months elapsed between the first and second interview of Moses with the king. During that time the people, uprooted for the first time from the district in which they had been settled for centuries, were dispersed throughout Egypt, subjected to severe suffering, and impelled to exertions of a kind differing altogether from their ordinary habits, whether as herdsmen or bondsmen. This was the first and a most important step in their training for a migratory life in the desert.

Toward the end of June, at the beginning of the rise of the annual inundation, the first series of plagues began. The Nile was stricken. Egypt was visited in the centre both of its physical existence and of its national superstitions. Pharaoh did not give way, and no intimation as yet was made to the people that permission for their departure would be extorted; but the intervention of their Lord was now certain, the people on their return wearied and exhausted from the search for stubble, had an interval of suspense. Three months appear to have intervened between this and the next plague. There must have been a movement among all the families of Israel; as they recapitulated their wrongs and hardships, the sufferings of their officers, and their own position of hopeless antagonism to their oppressors, it is impossible that they should not have looked about them, calculated their numbers and resources, and meditated upon the measures which, under the guidance of a leader of ability and experience, might enable them to effect their escape from Egypt. Five months might not be too much, but were certainly sufficient, to bring the people so far into a state of preparation for departure.

The plague of frogs coincided in time with the greatest extension of the inundation in September. Pharaoh then gave the first indication of yielding; the permission extorted from him, though soon recalled, was not therefore ineffectual. Moses was not likely to lose any time in transmitting instructions to the people. The first steps may have been then taken toward an orderly marshalling of the people.

The third plague must have followed soon after that of the frogs, early in October. It marks the close of the first series of inflictions, none of them causing great suffering, but quite sufficient on the one hand to make the Egyptians conscious of danger, and to confirm in the Israelites a hope of no remote deliverance.

The second series of plagues was far more severe; it began with swarms of poisonous insects, probably immediately after the subsidence of the inundation. It is a season of great importance to Egypt; from that season to the following June the land is uncovered; cultivation begins; a great festival (called Chabsta) marks the period for ploughing. At that time there was the first separation between Goshen and the rest of Egypt. The impression upon Pharaoh was far deeper than before, and then, in November, the people once more received instructions for departure; there was occasion for a rehearsal, so to speak, of the measures requisite for the proper organization of the tribes and families of Israel.

The cattle plague broke out in December, or at the latest in January. It was thoroughly Egyptian both in season and in character. The exemption of the Israelites was probably attributed by Pharaoh to natural causes; but the care then bestowed by the Israelites upon their cattle, the separation from all sources of contagion, must have materially advanced their preparation for departure.

Then came the plague of boils, severe but ineffectual, serving however to make the Egyptians understand that continuance in opposition would be visited on their persons. With this plague the second series ended. It appears to have lasted about three months.

The hailstorms followed, just when they now occur in Egypt, from the middle of February to the early weeks of March. The time was now drawing near. The Egyptians for the first time, show that they are seriously impressed. There was a division among them, many feared the word of the Lord, and took the precautions, which, also for the first time, Moses then indicated. This plague drew from Pharaoh the first confession of guilt; and now for the third time, between one and two months before the Exodus, the Israelites receive permission to depart, when formal instructions for preparation were of course given by Moses. The people now felt also for the first time that they might look for support or sympathy among the very servants of Pharaoh.

The plague of locusts, when the leaves were green, toward the middle of March, was preceded by another warning, the last but one. The conquest over the spirit of Egypt was now complete. All but the king gave way (see 10:7). Though not so common in Egypt as in adjoining countries, the plague occurs there at intervals, and is peculiarly dreaded. Pharaoh once more gives permission to depart; once more the people are put in an attitude of expectation.

The ninth plague concludes the third series. Like the third and the sixth, each closing a series, it was preceded by no warning. It was peculiarly Egyptian. Though causing comparatively but little suffering, it was felt most deeply as a menace and precursor of destruction. It took place most probably a very few days before the last and crowning plague, a plague distinct in character from all others, the first and the only one which brought death home to the Egyptians, and accomplished the deliverance of Israel.

We have thus throughout the characteristics of local coloring, of adaptation to the circumstances of the Israelites, and of repeated announcements followed by repeated postponements, which enabled and indeed compelled the Israelites to complete that organization of their nation, without which their departure might have been, as it has been often represented, a mere disorderly flight. Cook.