25 and Moses saith, `Thou also dost give in our hand sacrifices and burnt-offerings, and we have prepared for Jehovah our God;
`And this `is' the thing which thou dost to them, to hallow them, for being priests to Me: Take one bullock, a son of the herd, and two rams, perfect ones, and bread unleavened, and cakes unleavened anointed with oil, of fine wheaten flour thou dost make them, and thou hast put them on one basket, and hast brought them near in the basket, also the bullock and the two rams. `And Aaron and his sons thou dost bring near unto the opening of the tent of meeting, and hast bathed them with water; and thou hast taken the garments, and hast clothed Aaron with the coat, and the upper robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and hast girded him with the girdle of the ephod, and hast set the mitre on his head, and hast put the holy crown on the mitre, and hast taken the anointing oil, and hast poured `it' on his head, and hast anointed him. `And his sons thou dost bring near, and hast clothed them `with' coats, and hast girded them `with' a girdle (Aaron and his sons), and hast bound on them bonnets; and the priesthood hath been theirs by a statute age-during, and thou hast consecrated the hand of Aaron, and the hand of his sons, and hast brought near the bullock before the tent of meeting, and Aaron hath laid -- his sons also -- their hands on the head of the bullock. `And thou hast slaughtered the bullock before Jehovah, at the opening of the tent of meeting, and hast taken of the blood of the bullock, and hast put `it' on the horns of the altar with thy finger, and all the blood thou dost pour out at the foundation of the altar; and thou hast taken all the fat which is covering the inwards, and the redundance on the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat which `is' on them, and hast made perfume on the altar; and the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, thou dost burn with fire at the outside of the camp; it `is' a sin-offering. `And the one ram thou dost take, and Aaron and his sons have laid their hands on the head of the ram, and thou hast slaughtered the ram, and hast taken its blood, and hast sprinkled `it' on the altar round about, and the ram thou dost cut into its pieces, and hast washed its inwards, and its legs, and hast put `them' on its pieces, and on its head; and thou hast made perfume with the whole ram on the altar. It `is' a burnt-offering to Jehovah, a sweet fragrance; a fire-offering it `is' to Jehovah. `And thou hast taken the second ram, and Aaron hath laid -- his sons also -- their hands on the head of the ram, and thou hast slaughtered the ram, and hast taken of its blood, and hast put on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and on the tip of the right ear of his sons, and on the thumb of their right hand, and on the great toe of their right foot, and hast sprinkled the blood on the altar round about; and thou hast taken of the blood which `is' on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and hast sprinkled on Aaron, and on his garments, and on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him, and he hath been hallowed, he, and his garments, and his sons, and the garments of his sons with him. `And thou hast taken from the ram the fat, and the fat tail, and the fat which is covering the inwards, and the redundance on the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat which `is' on them, and the right leg, for it `is' a ram of consecration, and one round cake of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one thin cake out of the basket of the unleavened things which `is' before Jehovah. `And thou hast set the whole on the hands of Aaron, and on the hands of his sons, and hast waved them -- a wave-offering before Jehovah; and thou hast taken them out of their hand, and hast made perfume on the altar beside the burnt-offering, for sweet fragrance before Jehovah; a fire-offering it `is' to Jehovah. `And thou hast taken the breast from the ram of the consecration which `is' for Aaron, and hast waved it -- a wave-offering before Jehovah, and it hath become thy portion; and thou hast sanctified the breast of the wave-offering, and the leg of the heave-offering, which hath been waved, and which hath been lifted up from the ram of the consecration, of that which `is' for Aaron, and of that which `is' for his sons; and it hath been for Aaron and for his sons, by a statute age-during from the sons of Israel, for it `is' a heave-offering; and it is a heave offering from the sons of Israel, from the sacrifices of their peace-offerings -- their heave-offering to Jehovah. `And the holy garments which are Aaron's, are for his sons after him, to be anointed in them, and to consecrate in them their hand; seven days doth the priest in his stead (of his sons) put them on, when he goeth in unto the tent of meeting, to minister in the sanctuary. `And the ram of the consecration thou dost take, and hast boiled its flesh in the holy place; and Aaron hath eaten -- his sons also -- the flesh of the ram, and the bread which `is' in the basket, at the opening of the tent of meeting; and they have eaten those things by which there is atonement to consecrate their hand, to sanctify them; and a stranger doth not eat -- for they `are' holy; and if there be left of the flesh of the consecration or of the bread till the morning, then thou hast burned that which is left with fire; it is not eaten, for it `is' holy. `And thou hast done thus to Aaron and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded thee; seven days thou dost consecrate their hand; and a bullock, a sin-offering, thou dost prepare daily for the atonements, and thou hast atoned for the altar, in thy making atonement on it, and hast anointed it to sanctify it; seven days thou dost make atonement for the altar, and hast sanctified it, and the altar hath been most holy; all that is coming against the altar is holy. `And this `is' that which thou dost prepare on the altar; two lambs, sons of a year, daily continually; the one lamb thou dost prepare in the morning, and the second lamb thou dost prepare between the evenings; and a tenth `deal' of fine flour, mixed with beaten oil, a fourth part of a hin, and a libation, a fourth part of a hin, of wine, `is' for the one lamb. `And the second lamb thou dost prepare between the evenings; according to the present of the morning, and according to its libation, thou dost prepare for it, for sweet fragrance, a fire-offering, to Jehovah: -- a continual burnt-offering for your generations, at the opening of the tent of meeting, before Jehovah, whither I am met with you, to speak unto thee there, and I have met there with the sons of Israel, and it hath been sanctified by My honour. `And I have sanctified the tent of meeting, and the altar, and Aaron and his sons I sanctify for being priests to Me, and I have tabernacled in the midst of the sons of Israel, and have become their God, and they have known that I `am' Jehovah their God, who hath brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I may tabernacle in their midst; I `am' Jehovah their God.
And Bezaleel, and Aholiab, and every wise-hearted man, in whom Jehovah hath given wisdom and understanding to know to do every work of the service of the sanctuary, have done according to all that Jehovah commanded. And Moses calleth unto Bezaleel, and unto Aholiab, and unto every wise-hearted man in whose heart Jehovah hath given wisdom, every one whom his heart lifted up, to come near unto the work to do it. And they take from before Moses all the heave-offering which the sons of Israel have brought in for the work of the service of the sanctuary to do it; and still they have brought in unto him a willing-offering morning by morning. And all the wise men, who are doing all the work of the sanctuary, come each from his work which they are doing, and speak unto Moses, saying, `The people are multiplying to bring in more than sufficient for the service of the work which Jehovah commanded to make.' And Moses commandeth, and they cause a voice to pass over through the camp, saying, `Let not man or woman make any more work for the heave-offering of the sanctuary;' and the people are restrained from bringing, and the work hath been sufficient for them, for all the work, to do it, and to leave. And all the wise-hearted ones among the doers of the work make the tabernacle; ten curtains of twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, `with' cherubs, work of a designer, he hath made them. The length of the one curtain `is' eight and twenty by the cubit, and the breadth of the one curtain four by the cubit; one measure `is' to all the curtains. And he joineth the five curtains one unto another, and the `other' five curtains he hath joined one unto another; and he maketh loops of blue on the edge of the one curtain, at the end, in the joining; so he hath made in the edge of the outmost curtain, in the joining of the second; fifty loops he hath made in the one curtain, and fifty loops hath he made in the end of the curtain which `is' in the joining of the second; the loops are taking hold one on another. And he maketh fifty hooks of gold, and joineth the curtains one unto another by the hooks, and the tabernacle is one. And he maketh curtains of goats' `hair' for a tent over the tabernacle; eleven curtains he hath made them; the length of the one curtain `is' thirty by the cubit, and the breadth of the one curtain `is' four cubits; one measure `is' to the eleven curtains; and he joineth the five curtains apart, and the six curtains apart. And he maketh fifty loops on the outer edge of the curtain, in the joining; and fifty loops he hath made on the edge of the curtain which is joining the second; and he maketh fifty hooks of brass to join the tent -- to be one; and he maketh a covering for the tent of rams' skins made red, and a covering of badgers' skins above. And he maketh the boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood, standing up; ten cubits `is' the length of the `one' board, and a cubit and a half the breadth of the `one' board; two handles `are' to the one board, joined one unto another; so he hath made for all the boards of the tabernacle. And he maketh the boards for the tabernacle; twenty boards for the south side southward; and forty sockets of silver he hath made under the twenty boards, two sockets under the one board for its two handles, and two sockets under the other board for its two handles. And for the second side of the tabernacle, for the north side, he hath made twenty boards, and their forty sockets of silver, two sockets under the one board, and two sockets under the other board; and for the sides of the tabernacle, westward, hath he made six boards; and two boards hath he made for the corners of the tabernacle, in the two sides; and they have been twins below, and together they are twins at its head, at the one ring; so he hath done to both of them at the two corners; and there have been eight boards; and their sockets of silver `are' sixteen sockets, two sockets under the one board. And he maketh bars of shittim wood, five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the second side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle, for the sides westward; and he maketh the middle bar to enter into the midst of the boards from end to end; and the boards he hath overlaid with gold, and their rings he hath made of gold, places for bars, and he overlayeth the bars with gold. And he maketh the vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined linen, work of a designer he hath made it, `with' cherubs; and he maketh for it four pillars of shittim `wood', and overlayeth them with gold; their pegs `are' of gold; and he casteth for them four sockets of silver. And he maketh a covering for the opening of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined linen, work of an embroiderer, also its five pillars, and their pegs; and he overlaid their tops and their fillets `with' gold, and their five sockets `are' brass.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Exodus 10
Commentary on Exodus 10 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
The eighth plague; the Locusts. - Exodus 10:1-6. As Pharaoh's pride still refused to bend to the will of God, Moses was directed to announce another, and in some respects a more fearful, plague. At the same time God strengthened Moses' faith, by telling him that the hardening of Pharaoh and his servants was decreed by Him, that these signs might be done among them, and that Israel might perceive by this to all generations that He was Jehovah (cf. Exodus 7:3-5). We may learn from Ps 78 and 105 in what manner the Israelites narrated these signs to their children and children's children. אתת שׁית , to set or prepare signs (Exodus 10:1), is interchanged with שׂוּם (Exodus 10:2) in the same sense (vid., Exodus 8:12). The suffix in בּקרבּו (Exodus 10:1) refers to Egypt as a country; and that in בּם (Exodus 10:2) to the Egyptians. In the expression, “ thou mayest tell, ” Moses is addressed as the representative of the nation. התעלּל : to have to do with a person, generally in a bad sense, to do him harm (1 Samuel 31:4). “How I have put forth My might” ( De Wette ).
As Pharaoh had acknowledged, when the previous plague was sent, that Jehovah was righteous (Exodus 9:27), his crime was placed still more strongly before him: “ How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before Me? ” ( לענת for להענת , as in Exodus 34:24).
To punish this obstinate refusal, Jehovah would bring locusts in such dreadful swarms as Egypt had never known before, which would eat up all the plants left by the hail, and even fill the houses. “ They will cover the eye of the earth .” This expression, which is peculiar to the Pentateuch, and only occurs again in Exodus 10:15 and Numbers 22:5, Numbers 22:11, is based upon the ancient and truly poetic idea, that the earth, with its covering of plants, looks up to man. To substitute the rendering “surface” for the “eye,” is to destroy the real meaning of the figure; “face” is better. It was in the swarms that actually hid the ground that the fearful character of the plague consisted, as the swarms of locusts consume everything green. “The residue of the escape” is still further explained as “that which remaineth unto you from the hail,” viz., the spelt and wheat, and all the vegetables that were left (Exodus 10:12 and Exodus 10:15). For “all the trees that sprout” (Exodus 10:5), we find in Exodus 10:15, “all the tree-fruits and everything green upon the trees.”
The announcement of such a plague of locusts, as their forefathers had never seen before since their existence upon earth, i.e., since the creation of man (Exodus 10:6), put the servants of Pharaoh in such fear, that they tried to persuade the king to let the Israelites go. “ How long shall this (Moses) be a snare to us?...Seest thou not yet, that Egypt is destroyed? ” מוקשׁ , a snare or trap for catching animals, is a figurative expression for destruction. האנשׁים (Exodus 10:7) does not mean the men, but the people. The servants wished all the people to be allowed to go as Moses had desired; but Pharaoh would only consent to the departure of the men ( הגּברים , Exodus 10:11).
Exodus 10:8-11
As Moses had left Pharaoh after announcing the plague, he was fetched back again along with Aaron, in consequence of the appeal made to the king by his servants, and asked by the king, how many wanted to go to the feast. ומי מי , “ who and who still further are the going ones; ” i.e., those who wish to go? Moses required the whole nation to depart, without regard to age or sex, along with all their flocks and herds. He mentioned “ young and old, sons and daughters; ” the wives as belonging to the men being included in the “ we .” Although he assigned a reason for this demand, viz., that they were to hold a feast to Jehovah, Pharaoh was so indignant, that he answered scornfully at first: “ Be it so; Jehovah be with you when I let you and your little ones go; ” i.e., may Jehovah help you in the same way in which I let you and your little ones go. This indicated contempt not only for Moses and Aaron, but also for Jehovah, who had nevertheless proved Himself, by His manifestations of mighty power, to be a God who would not suffer Himself to be trifled with. After this utterance of his ill-will, Pharaoh told the messengers of God that he could see through their intention. “ Evil is before your face; ” i.e., you have evil in view. He called their purpose an evil one, because they wanted to withdraw the people from his service. “ Not so, ” i.e., let it not be as you desire. “ Go then, you men, and serve Jehovah .” But even this concession was not seriously meant. This is evident from the expression, “ Go then, ” in which the irony is unmistakeable; and still more so from the fact, that with these words he broke off all negotiation with Moses and Aaron, and drove them from his presence. ויגרשׁ : “ one drove them forth; ” the subject is not expressed, because it is clear enough that the royal servants who were present were the persons who drove them away. “ For this are ye seeking: ” אתהּ relates simply to the words “serve Jehovah,” by which the king understood the sacrificial festival, for which in his opinion only the men could be wanted; not that “he supposed the people for whom Moses had asked permission to go, to mean only the men” ( Knobel ). The restriction of the permission to depart to the men alone was pure caprice; for even the Egyptians, according to Herodotus (2, 60), held religious festivals at which the women were in the habit of accompanying the men.
After His messengers had been thus scornfully treated, Jehovah directed Moses to bring the threatened plague upon the land. “ Stretch out thy hand over the land of Egypt with locusts; ” i.e., so that the locusts may come. עלה , to go up: the word used for a hostile invasion. The locusts are represented as an army, as in Joel 1:6. Locusts were not an unknown scourge in Egypt; and in the case before us they were brought, as usual, by the wind. The marvellous character of the phenomenon was, that when Moses stretched out his hand over Egypt with the staff, Jehovah caused an east wind to blow over the land, which blew a day and a night, and the next morning brought the locusts (“ brought: ” inasmuch as the swarms of locusts are really brought by the wind).
Exodus 10:13-14
“ An east wind: not νότος (lxx), the south wind, as Bochart supposed. Although the swarms of locusts are generally brought into Egypt from Libya or Ethiopia, and therefore by a south or south-west wind, they are sometimes brought by the east wind from Arabia, as Denon and others have observed (Hgstb. p. 120). The fact that the wind blew a day and a night before bringing the locusts, showed that they came from a great distance, and therefore proved to the Egyptians that the omnipotence of Jehovah reached far beyond the borders of Egypt, and ruled over every land. Another miraculous feature in this plague was its unparalleled extent, viz., over the whole of the land of Egypt, whereas ordinary swarms are confined to particular districts. In this respect the judgment had no equal either before or afterwards (Exodus 10:14). The words, “ Before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such, ” must not be diluted into “a hyperbolical and proverbial saying, implying that there was no recollection of such noxious locusts,” as it is by Rosenmüller . This passage is not at variance with Joel 2:2, for the former relates to Egypt, the latter to the land of Israel; and Joel's description unquestionably refers to the account before us, the meaning being, that quite as terrible a judgment would fall upon Judah and Israel as had formerly been inflicted upon Egypt and the obdurate Pharaoh. In its dreadful character, this Egyptian plague is a type of the plagues which will precede the last judgment, and forms the groundwork for the description in Revelation 9:3-10; just as Joel discerned in the plagues which burst upon Judah in his own day a presage of the day of the Lord (Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1), i.e., of the great day of judgment, which is advancing step by step in all the great judgments of history or rather of the conflict between the kingdom of God and the powers of this world, and will be finally accomplished in the last general judgment.
Exodus 10:15
The darkening of the land, and the eating up of all the green plants by swarms of locusts, have been described by many eye-witnesses of such plagues. “ Locustarum plerumque tanta conspicitur in Africa frequentia, ut volantes instar nebulae solis radios operiant ” ( Leo Afric ). “ Solemque obumbrant ” ( Pliny , h. n. ii. 29).
This plague, which even Pliny calls Deorum irae pestis , so terrified Pharaoh, that he sent for Moses and Aaron in haste, confessed his sin against Jehovah and them, and entreated them but this once more to procure, through their intercession with Jehovah their God, the forgiveness of his sin and the removal of “ this death .” He called the locusts death , as bringing death and destruction, and ruining the country. Mors etiam agrorum est et herbarum atque arborum , as Bochart observes with references to Genesis 47:19; Job 14:8; Psalms 78:46.
To show the hardened king the greatness of the divine long-suffering, Moses prayed to the Lord, and the Lord cast the locusts into the Red Sea by a strong west wind. The expression “Jehovah turned a very strong west wind” is a concise form, for “Jehovah turned the wind into a very strong west wind.” The fact that locusts do perish in the sea is attested by many authorities. Gregatim sublatae vento in maria aut stagna decidunt ( Pliny ); many others are given by Bochart and Volney . ויּתקעהוּ : He thrust them, i.e., drove them with irresistible force, into the Red Sea. The Red Sea is called סוּף ים , according to the ordinary supposition, on account of the quantity of sea-weed which floats upon the water and lies upon the shore; but Knobel traces the name to a town which formerly stood at the head of the gulf, and derived its name from the weed, and supports his opinion by the omission of the article before Suph , though without being able to prove that any such town really existed in the earlier times of the Pharaohs.
Ninth plague: The Darkness. - As Pharaoh's defiant spirit was not broken yet, a continuous darkness came over all the land of Egypt, with the exception of Goshen, without any previous announcement, and came in such force that the darkness could be felt. חשׁך וימשׁ : “ and one shall feel, grasp darkness .” המשׁ : as in Psalms 115:7; Judges 16:26, ψηλαφητὸν σκότος (lxx); not “feel in the dark,” for משׁשׁ has this meaning only in the Piel with בּ (Deuteronomy 28:29). אפלה חשׁך : darkness of obscurity, i.e., the deepest darkness. The combination of two words or synonyms gives the greatest intensity to the thought. The darkness was so great that they could not see one another, and no one rose up from his place. The Israelites alone “ had light in their dwelling-places .” The reference here is not to the houses; so that we must not infer that the Egyptians were unable to kindle any lights even in their houses. The cause of this darkness is not given in the text; but the analogy of the other plagues, which had all of them a natural basis, warrants us in assuming, as most commentators have done, that there was the same here - that it was in fact the Chamsin, to which the lxx evidently allude in their rendering: σκότος καὶ γνόφος καὶ θύελλα . This wind, which generally blows in Egypt before and after the vernal equinox and lasts two or three days, usually rises very suddenly, and fills the air with such a quantity of fine dust and coarse sand, that the sun loses its brightness, the sky is covered with a dense veil, and it becomes so dark that “the obscurity cause by the thickest fog in our autumn and winter days is nothing in comparison” ( Schubert ). Both men and animals hide themselves from this storm; and the inhabitants of the towns and villages shut themselves up in the innermost rooms and cellars of their houses till it is over, for the dust penetrates even through well-closed windows. For fuller accounts taken from travels, see Hengstenberg (pp. 120ff.) and Robinson 's Palestine i. pp. 287-289. Seetzen attributes the rising of the dust to a quantity of electrical fluid contained in the air. - The fact that in this case the darkness alone is mentioned, may have arisen from its symbolical importance. “The darkness which covered the Egyptians, and the light which shone upon the Israelites, were types of the wrath and grace of God” (Hengstenberg). This occurrence, in which, according to Arabian chroniclers of the middle ages, the nations discerned a foreboding of the day of judgment or of the resurrection, filled the king with such alarm that he sent for Moses, and told him he would let the people and their children go, but the cattle must be left behind. יצּג : sistatur , let it be placed, deposited in certain places under the guard of Egyptians, as a pledge of your return. Maneat in pignus, quod reversuri sitis , as Chaskuni correctly paraphrases it. But Moses insisted upon the cattle being taken for the sake of their sacrifices and burnt-offerings. “ Not a hoof shall be left behind .” This was a proverbial expression for “not the smallest fraction.” Bochart gives instances of a similar introduction of the “hoof” into proverbial sayings by both Arabians and Romans (Hieroz. i. p. 490). This firmness on the part of Moses he defended by saying, “ We know not with what we shall serve the Lord, till we come thither; ” i.e., we know not yet what kind of animals or how many we shall require for the sacrifices; our God will not make this known to us till we arrive at the place of sacrifice. עבד with a double accusative as in Genesis 30:29; to serve any one with a thing.
At this demand, Pharaoh, with the hardness suspended over him by God, fell into such wrath, that he sent Moses away, and threatened him with death, if he ever appeared in his presence again. “ See my face, ” as in Genesis 43:3. Moses answered, “ Thou hast spoken rightly .” For as God had already told him that the last blow would be followed by the immediate release of the people, there was no further necessity for him to appear before Pharaoh.