The Plague Of Locusts Series

The Plague of Locusts

Exodus 10:1-6 (NIV) Par ?

1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them 2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD."

3 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go so that they may worship me. 4 If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow.5 They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. 6 They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your parents nor your ancestors has ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.'" Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh.

COMMENTARY

1. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them

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 he decreed the hardening of Pharaoh and his servants, 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 Psalms 78 and 105 how the Israelites narrated these signs to their children and children. ??? ????, to set or prepare signs (Exodus 10:1), is interchanged with ????? (Exodus 10:2) in the same sense (vid., Exodus 8:12). The suffix in ??????? (Exodus 10:1) refers to Egypt as a country; and that in ??? (Exodus 10:2) to the Egyptians. In the expression, "thou mayest tell," Moses is addressed as the nation's representative' meaning 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."

2. You may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them and that you may know that I am the LORD."

Moreover, that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and thy son's son. Not of his sons and grandsons only; for Moses here, as Aben Ezra observes, was in the stead of Israel; and the sense is that it should be told to their posterity in all succeeding ages:

What things I have wrought in Egypt; the plagues that he inflicted on the Egyptians:

Furthermore, my signs which I have done amongst them; meaning the same things which were signs:

That ye may know that I am the Lord; their God is the true Jehovah, and the one only living and true God; the Lord God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, infinite, and eternal.

3. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go so that they may worship me.

Moreover, Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, as the Lord commanded them, for what is before said to Moses was designed for Aaron also, his prophet and spokesman:

And said unto him, thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews; as the ambassadors of the God of Israel, and in his name said:

How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? To acknowledge his offense, lie low before God, and be subject to his will; he had humbled himself for a moment, but then this did not continue; what God expected of him, and complains of the want of, was such a continued humiliation before him, and such subjection to him, as would issue in complying with what he had so often demanded of him, and is as follows: let my people go, that they may serve me; see Exodus 9:1.

4. If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow.

Verse 4. – Tomorrow. Again a warning is given, and a space of time interposed, during which the king may repent and submit himself if he chooses—the locusts. The species intended is probably either the Aeridium peregrinum or the Oedipoda migratoria. Both are common in Arabia and Syria and are known in Egypt. They are said to be equally destructive—the Hebrew name arbeh points to the "multitudinous" character of the visitation. A traveler in Syria says - "It is difficult to express the effect produced on us by the sight of the whole atmosphere filled on all sides and to a great height by an innumerable quantity of these insects, whose flight was slow and uniform, and whose noise resembled that of rain; the sky was darkened, and the light of the sun considerably weakened. In a moment, the terraces of the houses, the streets, and all the fields were covered by these insects." Into thy coast - i.e., "across thy border, into thy territories." The locust is only an occasional visitant in Egypt and seems always to arrive from some foreign country. Exodus 10:4