Biblion Bible Commentary
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A Cry at Midnight
Exodus 12:29-42
29 At midnight, Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. · WEB
The kingdom that would not release its slaves drives them out at night, pays them to go, and the four hundred and thirty years end to the day.
At midnight, Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon Exodus 12:29.
The range is stated from the palace to the prison. Nine plagues have moved through the country's economy, its comfort and its gods; this one reaches its households, and it reaches every stratum of them at the same hour.
There was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead Exodus 12:30.
The narrative does not soften this and it should not be softened in the reading. It is the most terrible sentence in the book. Two things hold it inside the frame the book has been building. The judgment was announced before the first sign was given Exodus 4:23 and repeated through nine warnings, so that no household in Egypt could claim to be surprised. And the door out of it was open to anyone: the requirement was a lamb and a marked lintel, not Hebrew ancestry, which is why a mixed multitude went up also with them Exodus 12:38. Egyptians who believed the warning left with Israel in the morning.
Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve Yahweh, as you have said! Exodus 12:31.
Every clause the king had fought over is surrendered at once — the people, the children, the flocks and herds, the distance. He adds four words nobody asked for: and bless me also! Exodus 12:32. The man who began by asking who is Yahweh Exodus 5:2 ends by requesting his blessing at two in the morning, having lost his son, and the request changes nothing, because in a week he will pursue them.
The Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, "We are all dead men" Exodus 12:33. The nation that would not let Israel go for a three-day festival now cannot get them out fast enough.
They asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing... They plundered the Egyptians Exodus 12:35–36. Four centuries of unpaid labor are settled, and settled by gift rather than by looting; the wealth is handed over. It is worth remembering where this gold ends up, because it goes two ways — into a tabernacle, and into a calf.
The departure is from Rameses to the first camp, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, in addition to children Exodus 12:37, a figure the later census repeats in detail and the wilderness narratives assume throughout.
At the end of four hundred thirty years, to the day, all of Yahweh's armies went out from the land of Egypt Exodus 12:41.
To the day. The phrase is the answer to chapter five, and to every reader who has ever concluded from a long silence that nothing was being done. The delay had a length, the length was known, and it ended on schedule.
settled What this mark means