Biblion Bible Commentary
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Locusts
Exodus 10:1-20
1 Yahweh said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these my signs among them; · WEB
Pharaoh's own officials tell him the country is finished, and he offers to release the men while keeping the children.
Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these my signs among them; and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your son's son Exodus 10:1–2.
A purpose is stated that has not been stated before, and it reaches past everyone in the room. The plagues are being performed for grandchildren. What is happening in Egypt is meant to be told, and the telling is part of the point — which is why the instructions for the Passover in the next chapter are framed around a child's question.
How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Exodus 10:3. The demand has narrowed. It is no longer about a festival in the wilderness; it is about a man's estimate of himself, and it always was.
Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve Yahweh, their God. Don't you yet know that Egypt is destroyed?" Exodus 10:7.
The court has changed sides. The men whose careers depend on the king's judgment tell him to his face that his judgment has ruined the country, and their question uses the same words God's messenger had used a moment earlier. When the advisers and the prophet are asking the same question, a ruler is alone with an opinion.
He recalls Moses and opens a negotiation, and the second of his four offers is the cruelest. Go, serve Yahweh your God; but who are those who will go? Exodus 10:8. Moses answers with a list that leaves nothing out: with our young and with our old... with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds Exodus 10:9.
Not so! Go now you who are men, and serve Yahweh; for that is what you desire! Exodus 10:11.
The men may worship; the children stay. It is offered as a concession and is in fact a hostage arrangement, and the king says the quiet part aloud beforehand — see, evil is clearly before your faces Exodus 10:10. He understands perfectly that a religion permitted to adults and withheld from their children lasts one generation. So does Moses, which is why the refusal is absolute and why the terms are not negotiated downward by a single name.
The locusts come on an east wind, and the description is total: there remained nothing green, either tree or herb of the field, through all the land of Egypt Exodus 10:15. What the hail had spared, because it was still under the ground, is now eaten as it comes up. The two plagues are one judgment in two parts, the second timed to catch exactly what the first could not reach.
I have sinned against Yahweh your God, and against you. Now therefore please forgive my sin again Exodus 10:16–17.
The confession is fuller than the last one, includes an apology to Moses, and admits the repetition with the word again. It is also, by now, entirely predictable, and so is what follows the relief. A west wind takes every locust into the sea, and the heart closes Exodus 10:19–20. Nine plagues have produced two confessions, four offers, and no change whatever.
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