Exodus 10

4 coast. The word “coast” in old English means district, or border (so R.V.), without any reference to the sea and land. See Josh. i. 4.

6 neither thy fathers, etc. This visitation (as the terms of the threatening imply) was well known in Egypt as a terrible scourge; but now surpassed any that had gone before. The fearful nature of this plague may be learned from Joel i. 11.

7 this [man]. The word “man” is not in the Hebrew. Some render it, “How long shall this course of conduct be a snare to us?” referring to Pharaoh’s obstinate opposition.

10 look to it. Or, “See, that evil is before you”; i.e., “Your purposes are evil.”

13 the east wind brought the locusts. i.e., over from Arabia.

15 was darkened. As is the case even with ordinary swarms of locusts. These, however, were unusual in size and number.

19 west wind. The west or “sea-wind” in Egypt, blowing from north-west, would carry the locusts to the “Sea of Suph,” or “weeds”; i.e., the Red Sea.

21 darkness. This visitation is connected by many with the Egyptian sirocco or chamsin—a hot, scorching wind from the desert of Sahara, sometimes accompanied with dense darkness, owing to the atmosphere being filled with fine sand.

22 thick darkness. The sun was one of the chief objects of Egyptian worship.

23 light in their dwellings. The sirocco did not extend to the district of Goshen, being miraculously withheld or turned aside.