Exodus 10:22-29

10:22 So Moses extended his hand toward heaven, and there was absolute darkness ¹  throughout the land of Egypt for three days. ²  10:23 No one ³  could see ⁴  another person, and no one could rise from his place for three days. But the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

10:24 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord – only your flocks and herds will be detained. Even your families ⁵  may go with you.”

10:25 But Moses said, “Will you also ⁶  provide us ⁷  with sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may present them ⁸  to the Lord our God? 10:26 Our livestock must ⁹  also go with us! Not a hoof is to be left behind! For we must take ¹⁰  these animals ¹¹  to serve the Lord our God. Until we arrive there, we do not know what we must use to serve the Lord.” ¹² 

10:27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to release them. 10:28 Pharaoh said to him, “Go from me! ¹³  Watch out for yourself! Do not appear before me again, ¹⁴  for when ¹⁵  you see my face you will die!” 10:29 Moses said, “As you wish! ¹⁶  I will not see your face again.” ¹⁷ 

[10:22]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “a man…his brother.”

[10:23]  ⁴ tn The perfect tense in this context requires the somewhat rare classification of a potential perfect.

[10:24]  ⁵ tn Or “dependents.” The term is often translated “your little ones,” but as mentioned before (10:10), this expression in these passages takes in women and children and other dependents. Pharaoh will now let all the people go, but he intends to detain the cattle to secure their return.

[10:25]  ⁶ tn B. Jacob (Exodus, 287) shows that the intent of Moses in using גַּם (gam) is to make an emphatic rhetorical question. He cites other samples of the usage in Num 22:33; 1 Sam 17:36; 2 Sam 12:14, and others. The point is that if Pharaoh told them to go and serve Yahweh, they had to have animals to sacrifice. If Pharaoh was holding the animals back, he would have to make some provision.

[10:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “give into our hand.”

[10:25]  ⁸ tn The form here is וְעָשִּׂינוּ (vÿ’asinu), the Qal perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive – “and we will do.” But the verb means “do” in the sacrificial sense – prepare them, offer them. The verb form is to be subordinated here to form a purpose or result clause.

[10:26]  ⁹ tn This is the obligatory imperfect nuance. They were obliged to take the animals if they were going to sacrifice, but more than that, since they were not coming back, they had to take everything.

[10:26]  ¹⁰ tn The same modal nuance applies to this verb.

[10:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from it,” referring collectively to the livestock.

[10:26]  ¹² sn Moses gives an angry but firm reply to Pharaoh’s attempt to control Israel; he makes it clear that he has no intention of leaving any pledge with Pharaoh. When they leave, they will take everything that belongs to them.

[10:28]  ¹³ tn The expression is לֵךְ מֵעָלָי (lekh me’alay, “go from on me”) with the adversative use of the preposition, meaning from being a trouble or a burden to me (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 84; R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 51, §288).

[10:28]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “add to see my face.” The construction uses a verbal hendiadys: “do not add to see” (אַל־תֹּסֶף רְאוֹת, ’al-toseph rÿ’ot), meaning “do not see again.” The phrase “see my face” means “come before me” or “appear before me.”

[10:28]  ¹⁵ tn The construction is בְּיוֹם רְאֹתְךָ (bÿyom rÿ’otÿkha), an adverbial clause of time made up of the prepositional phrase, the infinitive construct, and the suffixed subjective genitive. “In the day of your seeing” is “when you see.”

[10:29]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Thus you have spoken.”

[10:29]  ¹⁷ tn This is a verbal hendiadys construction: “I will not add again [to] see.”