Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Exodus · About this commentary
Flies, and a Division Made
Exodus 8:20-32
20 Yahweh said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; behold, he comes out to the water; and tell him, ‘This is what Yahweh says, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. · WEB
From the fourth plague Israel is exempted, and Pharaoh begins offering compromises that would keep the substance while conceding the words.
I will set apart in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there Exodus 8:22.
Until now the plagues have fallen on everyone, Israel included; from here they do not. The exemption is announced beforehand, which is what makes it evidence rather than coincidence, and the purpose is stated twice: to the end you may know that I am Yahweh on the earth. I will put a division between my people and your people Exodus 8:22–23.
The division is not a reward. Nothing in the narrative suggests that the Hebrew settlements had become more deserving between the third plague and the fourth; they had done nothing but make bricks. What the boundary demonstrates is discrimination in the older sense of the word, a distinction drawn by the one striking, in a country where the two populations lived close enough that no natural affliction could have observed the line. A God who can exempt a district can also be shown not to be striking blindly.
What follows is the beginning of a negotiation, and its four stages are worth watching as a set, because each offers Pharaoh's opponents most of what they asked for while retaining the one element that would make it useless.
Go, sacrifice to your God in the land! Exodus 8:25. Worship, by all means — but here, where it can be regulated. Moses refuses on grounds that are practical rather than theological: we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Yahweh our God... won't they stone us? Exodus 8:26. The animals Israel would offer were sacred in Egypt, and a public slaughter of them in the delta would end in a riot. The refusal is also a quiet statement about what worship costs when it takes place on terms set by people who find it offensive.
I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to Yahweh your God in the wilderness, only you shall not go very far away Exodus 8:28. The second offer concedes the wilderness and keeps a leash on the distance. Later he will concede the men and keep the children Exodus 10:11, and later still concede the people and keep the livestock Exodus 10:24. The shape is consistent: yield the visible part of the demand and hold something back that makes return inevitable. A departure with a limit on it is not a departure.
Pray for me, he adds Exodus 8:28, and Moses agrees while saying exactly what he expects: only don't let Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go Exodus 8:29. The warning is unusually direct, and it is ignored.
Yahweh did according to the word of Moses, and he removed the swarms of flies... There remained not one. Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also Exodus 8:31–32. The completeness of the relief and the completeness of the reversal are set side by side. Answered prayer, precisely delivered, changed nothing in a man who had already decided.
settled What this mark means