Exodus 10:21-23

The Ninth Blow: Darkness

10:21 ¹ The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward heaven ²  so that there may be ³  darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness so thick it can be felt.” ⁴ 

10:22 So Moses extended his hand toward heaven, and there was absolute darkness ⁵  throughout the land of Egypt for three days. ⁶  10:23 No one ⁷  could see ⁸  another person, and no one could rise from his place for three days. But the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

Psalms 105:28

105:28 He made it dark; ⁹ 

they did not disobey his orders. ¹⁰ 

Joel 2:31

2:31 The sunlight will be turned to darkness

and the moon to the color of blood, ¹¹ 

before the day of the Lord comes –

that great and terrible day!

Amos 5:18

The Lord Demands Justice

5:18 Woe ¹²  to those who wish for the day of the Lord!

Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come?

It will bring darkness, not light.

Amos 8:9

8:9 In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon,

and make the earth dark in the middle of the day. ¹³ 

Habakkuk 3:8-11

3:8 Is the Lord mad at the rivers?

Are you angry with the rivers?

Are you enraged at the sea? ¹⁴ 

Is this why ¹⁵  you climb into your horse-drawn chariots, ¹⁶ 

your victorious chariots? ¹⁷ 

3:9 Your bow is ready for action; ¹⁸ 

you commission your arrows. ¹⁹  Selah.

You cause flash floods on the earth’s surface. ²⁰ 

3:10 When the mountains see you, they shake.

The torrential downpour sweeps through. ²¹ 

The great deep ²²  shouts out;

it lifts its hands high. ²³ 

3:11 The sun and moon stand still in their courses; ²⁴ 

the flash of your arrows drives them away, ²⁵ 

the bright light of your lightning-quick spear. ²⁶ 

Acts 2:20

2:20 The sun will be changed to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the great and glorious ²⁷  day of the Lord comes.

[10:21]  ¹ sn The ninth plague is that darkness fell on all the land – except on Israel. This plague is comparable to the silence in heaven, just prior to the last and terrible plague (Rev 8:1). Here Yahweh is attacking a core Egyptian religious belief as well as portraying what lay before the Egyptians. Throughout the Bible darkness is the symbol of evil, chaos, and judgment. Blindness is one of its manifestations (see Deut 28:27-29). But the plague here is not blindness, or even spiritual blindness, but an awesome darkness from outside (see Joel 2:2; Zeph 1:15). It is particularly significant in that Egypt’s high god was the Sun God. Lord Sun was now being shut down by Lord Yahweh. If Egypt would not let Israel go to worship their God, then Egypt’s god would be darkness. The structure is familiar: the plague, now unannounced (21-23), and then the confrontation with Pharaoh (24-27).

[10:21]  ² tn Or “the sky” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[10:21]  ³ sn The verb form is the jussive with the sequential vav – וִיהִי חֹשֶׁךְ (vihi khoshekh). B. Jacob (Exodus, 286) notes this as the only instance where Scripture says, “Let there be darkness” (although it is subordinated as a purpose clause; cf. Gen 1:3). Isa 45:7 alluded to this by saying, “who created light and darkness.”

[10:21]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term מוּשׁ (mush) means “to feel.” The literal rendering would be “so that one may feel darkness.” The image portrays an oppressive darkness; it was sufficiently thick to possess the appearance of substance, although it was just air (B. Jacob, Exodus, 286).

[10:22]  ⁵ tn The construction is a variation of the superlative genitive: a substantive in the construct state is connected to a noun with the same meaning (see GKC 431 §133.i).

[10:22]  ⁶ sn S. R. Driver says, “The darkness was no doubt occasioned really by a sand-storm, produced by the hot electrical wind…which blows in intermittently…” (Exodus, 82, 83). This is another application of the antisupernatural approach to these texts. The text, however, is probably describing something that was not a seasonal wind, or Pharaoh would not have been intimidated. If it coincided with that season, then what is described here is so different and so powerful that the Egyptians would have known the difference easily. Pharaoh here would have had to have been impressed that this was something very abnormal, and that his god was powerless. Besides, there was light in all the dwellings of the Israelites.

[10:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “a man…his brother.”

[10:23]  ⁸ tn The perfect tense in this context requires the somewhat rare classification of a potential perfect.

[105:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “he sent darkness and made it dark.”

[105:28]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they did not rebel against his words.” Apparently this refers to Moses and Aaron, who obediently carried out God’s orders.

[2:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to blood,” but no doubt this is intended to indicate by metonymy the color of blood rather than the substance itself. The blood red color suggests a visual impression here – something that could be caused by fires, volcanic dust, sandstorms, or other atmospheric phenomena.

[5:18]  ¹² tn The term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”) was used when mourning the dead (see the note on the word “dead” in 5:16). The prophet here either engages in role playing and mourns the death of the nation in advance or sarcastically taunts those who hold to this misplaced belief.

[8:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “in a day of light.”

[3:8]  ¹⁴ sn The following context suggests these questions should be answered, “Yes.” The rivers and the sea, symbolizing here the hostile nations (v. 12), are objects of the Lord’s anger (vv. 10, 15).

[3:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “so that.” Here כִּי (ki) is resultative. See the note on the phrase “make it” in 2:18.

[3:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you mount your horses.” As the next line makes clear, the Lord is pictured here as a charioteer, not a cavalryman. Note NRSV here, “when you drove your horses, // your chariots to victory.”

[3:8]  ¹⁷ tn Or “chariots of deliverance.”

[3:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[into] nakedness your bow is laid bare.”

[3:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “sworn in are the arrow-shafts with a word.” The passive participle of שָׁבַע (shava’), “swear an oath,” also occurs in Ezek 21:23 ET (21:28 HT) referencing those who have sworn allegiance. Here the Lord’s arrows are personified and viewed as having received a commission which they have vowed to uphold. In Jer 47:6-7 the Lord’s sword is given such a charge. In the Ugaritic myths Baal’s weapons are formally assigned the task of killing the sea god Yam.

[3:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[with] rivers you split open the earth.” A literal rendering like “You split the earth with rivers” (so NIV, NRSV) suggests geological activity to the modern reader, but in the present context of a violent thunderstorm, the idea of streams swollen to torrents by downpours better fits the imagery.

[3:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “a heavy rain of waters passes by.” Perhaps the flash floods produced by the downpour are in view here.

[3:10]  ²² sn The great deep, which is to be equated with the sea (vv. 8, 15), is a symbol of chaos and represents the Lord’s enemies.

[3:10]  ²³ sn Lifting the hands here suggests panic and is accompanied by a cry for mercy (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19). The forces of chaos cannot withstand the Lord’s power revealed in the storm.

[3:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in their lofty dwelling places.”

[3:11]  ²⁵ tn Or “at the light of your arrows they vanish.”

[3:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “at the brightness of the lightning of your spear.”

[2:20]  ²⁷ tn Or “and wonderful.”