Exodus 10:16

10:16 ¹ Then Pharaoh quickly ²  summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned ³  against the Lord your God and against you!

Exodus 10:1

The Eighth Blow: Locusts

10:1 ⁴ The Lord said ⁵  to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, in order to display ⁶  these signs of mine before him, ⁷ 

Exodus 2:8

2:8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes, do so.” ⁸  So the young girl ⁹  went and got ¹⁰  the child’s mother. ¹¹ 

Psalms 113:7-8

113:7 He raises the poor from the dirt,

and lifts up the needy from the garbage pile, ¹² 

113:8 that he might seat him with princes,

with the princes of his people.

Daniel 2:25

2:25 So Arioch quickly ushered Daniel into the king’s presence, saying to him, “I ¹³  have found a man from the captives of Judah who can make known the interpretation to the king.”

[10:16]  ¹ sn The third part of the passage now begins, the confrontation that resulted from the onslaught of the plague. Pharaoh goes a step further here – he confesses he has sinned and adds a request for forgiveness. But his acknowledgment does not go far enough, for this is not genuine confession. Since his heart was not yet submissive, his confession was vain.

[10:16]  ² tn The Piel preterite וַיְמַהֵר (vaymaher) could be translated “and he hastened,” but here it is joined with the following infinitive construct to form the hendiadys. “He hurried to summon” means “He summoned quickly.”

[10:16]  ³ sn The severity of the plague prompted Pharaoh to confess his sin against Yahweh and them, now in much stronger terms than before. He also wants forgiveness – but in all probability what he wants is relief from the consequences of his sin. He pretended to convey to Moses that this was it, that he was through sinning, so he asked for forgiveness “only this time.”

[10:1]  ⁴ sn The Egyptians dreaded locusts like every other ancient civilization. They had particular gods to whom they looked for help in such catastrophes. The locust-scaring deities of Greece and Asia were probably looked to in Egypt as well (especially in view of the origins in Egypt of so many of those religious ideas). The announcement of the plague falls into the now-familiar pattern. God tells Moses to go and speak to Pharaoh but reminds Moses that he has hardened his heart. Yahweh explains that he has done this so that he might show his power, so that in turn they might declare his name from generation to generation. This point is stressed so often that it must not be minimized. God was laying the foundation of the faith for Israel – the sovereignty of Yahweh.

[10:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and Yahweh said.”

[10:1]  ⁶ tn The verb is שִׁתִי (shiti, “I have put”); it is used here as a synonym for the verb שִׂים (sim). Yahweh placed the signs in his midst, where they will be obvious.

[10:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “in his midst.”

[2:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “Go” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “Go ahead”; TEV “Please do.”

[2:8]  ⁹ sn The word used to describe the sister (Miriam probably) is עַלְמָה (’alma), the same word used in Isa 7:14, where it is usually translated either “virgin” or “young woman.” The word basically means a young woman who is ripe for marriage. This would indicate that Miriam is a teenager and so about fifteen years older than Moses.

[2:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb קָרָא (qara’, “called”).

[2:8]  ¹¹ sn During this period of Egyptian history the royal palaces were in the northern or Delta area of Egypt, rather than up the Nile as in later periods. The proximity of the royal residences to the Israelites makes this and the plague narratives all the more realistic. Such direct contact would have been unlikely if Moses had had to travel up the Nile to meet with Pharaoh. In the Delta area things were closer. Here all the people would have had access to the tributaries of the Nile near where the royal family came, but the royal family probably had pavilions and hunting lodges in the area. See also N. Osborn, “Where on Earth Are We? Problems of Position and Movement in Space,” BT 31 (1980): 239-42.

[113:7]  ¹² sn The language of v. 7 is almost identical to that of 1 Sam 2:8.

[2:25]  ¹³ sn Arioch’s claim is self-serving and exaggerated. It is Daniel who came to him, and not the other way around. By claiming to have found one capable of solving the king’s dilemma, Arioch probably hoped to ingratiate himself to the king.