Exodus 10:12-20

10:12 The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand over the land of Egypt for ¹  the locusts, that they may come up over the land of Egypt and eat everything that grows ²  in the ground, everything that the hail has left.” 10:13 So Moses extended his staff over the land of Egypt, and then the Lord ³  brought ⁴  an east wind on the land all that day and all night. ⁵  The morning came, ⁶  and the east wind had brought up ⁷  the locusts! 10:14 The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and settled down in all the territory ⁸  of Egypt. It was very severe; ⁹  there had been no locusts like them before, nor will there be such ever again. ¹⁰  10:15 They covered ¹¹  the surface ¹²  of all the ground, so that the ground became dark with them, ¹³  and they ate all the vegetation of the ground and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green remained on the trees or on anything that grew in the fields throughout the whole land of Egypt.

10:16 ¹⁴ Then Pharaoh quickly ¹⁵  summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned ¹⁶  against the Lord your God and against you! 10:17 So now, forgive my sin this time only, and pray to the Lord your God that he would only ¹⁷  take this death ¹⁸  away from me.” 10:18 Moses ¹⁹  went out ²⁰  from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord, 10:19 and the Lord turned a very strong west wind, ²¹  and it picked up the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. ²²  Not one locust remained in all the territory of Egypt. 10:20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not release the Israelites.

[10:12]  ¹ tn The preposition בְּ (bet) is unexpected here. BDB 91 s.v. (the note at the end of the entry) says that in this case it can only be read as “with the locusts,” meaning that the locusts were thought to be implicit in Moses’ lifting up of his hand. However, BDB prefers to change the preposition to לְ (lamed).

[10:12]  ² tn The noun עֵשֶּׂב (’esev) normally would indicate cultivated grains, but in this context seems to indicate plants in general.

[10:13]  ³ tn The clause begins וַיהוָה (va’adonay [vayhvah], “Now Yahweh….”). In contrast to a normal sequence, this beginning focuses attention on Yahweh as the subject of the verb.

[10:13]  ⁴ tn The verb נָהַג (nahag) means “drive, conduct.” It is elsewhere used for driving sheep, leading armies, or leading in processions.

[10:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “and all the night.”

[10:13]  ⁶ tn The text does not here use ordinary circumstantial clause constructions; rather, Heb “the morning was, and the east wind carried the locusts.” It clearly means “when it was morning,” but the style chosen gives a more abrupt beginning to the plague, as if the reader is in the experience – and at morning, the locusts are there!

[10:13]  ⁷ tn The verb here is a past perfect, indicting that the locusts had arrived before the day came.

[10:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “border.”

[10:14]  ⁹ tn This is an interpretive translation. The clause simply has כָּבֵד מְאֹד (kaved mÿ’od), the stative verb with the adverb – “it was very heavy.” The description prepares for the following statement about the uniqueness of this locust infestation.

[10:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “after them.”

[10:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they covered.”

[10:15]  ¹² tn Heb “eye,” an unusual expression (see v. 5; Num 22:5, 11).

[10:15]  ¹³ tn The verb is וַתֶּחְשַׁךְ (vattekhshakh, “and it became dark”). The idea is that the ground had the color of the swarms of locusts that covered it.

[10:16]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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.”

[10:17]  ¹⁷ sn Pharaoh’s double emphasis on “only” uses two different words and was meant to deceive. He was trying to give Moses the impression that he had finally come to his senses, and that he would let the people go. But he had no intention of letting them out.

[10:17]  ¹⁸ sn “Death” is a metonymy that names the effect for the cause. If the locusts are left in the land it will be death to everything that grows.

[10:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he went out.”

[10:19]  ²¹ tn Or perhaps “sea wind,” i.e., a wind off the Mediterranean.

[10:19]  ²² tn The Hebrew name here is יַם־סוּף (Yam Suf), sometimes rendered “Reed Sea” or “Sea of Reeds.” The word סוּף is a collective noun that may have derived from an Egyptian name for papyrus reeds. Many English versions have used “Red Sea,” which translates the name that ancient Greeks used: ejruqrav qalavssa (eruqra qalassa).