Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Exodus 10:1-20
The Eighth Plague - The Plague of Locusts (Exodus 10:1).
We note in this passage a distinct change of tone. No longer does Yahweh commence with the opening, ‘let My people go' (compare Exodus 8:1; Exodus 9:1; Exodus 9:13). Instead He says ‘I have made strong (hardened) his heart and the heart of his officials in order to show my signs among them'. The end was near and He no longer looked for Pharaoh's honest response. Yet He had also begun in the same way in Exodus 7:14, although there it was because Pharaoh had made strong (‘hardened') his own heart. While Yahweh will still allow Moses and Aaron to make the call He recognises that the time for treaty is really past. Pharaoh has broken his word too often.
a Yahweh tells Moses that he has hardened the hearts of Pharaoh and his officials in order that He might show His signs among them (Exodus 10:1).
b It is in order that Israel might teach its children what God had achieved against Egypt and the signs that He has revealed, that it might be known that He is Yahweh (Exodus 10:2).
c Moses and Aaron approach Pharaoh in Yahweh's name and ask how long he refuses to humble himself before Yahweh and calls on him to let Yahweh's people go (Exodus 10:3).
d If he will not let them go locusts will be brought in who will cover the whole of the land and destroy all trees and vegetation and fill all their houses in a way that has not happened in living memory. Then Moses turned and went out from Pharaoh (Exodus 10:4).
e Pharaoh's officials plead with him to let the men go to serve Yahweh and ask Pharaoh if he realises how much the land has been subjected to destruction (Exodus 10:6).
f So reluctantly Pharaoh calls for Moses and Aaron who are brought before him, and he tells them that they may go and serve Yahweh, but asks who will go (Exodus 10:8).
g Moses replies that everyone must go including the cattle (Exodus 10:9).
g Pharaoh declares that he will not let all go, only the men (Exodus 10:10 a).
f Angry at their response Pharaoh causes them to be driven from his presence (Exodus 10:11 b).
e Yahweh tells Moses to stretch out his hand over the land of Egypt in order to bring the locusts down on it to eat whatever the hail has left (including the wheat and the spelt) (Exodus 10:12).
d Moses obeys Yahweh and an east wind brings in the locusts. The locusts arrive in huge numbers as never before or afterwards. They cover the face of the ground and eat everything that is left including the trees and vegetation (Exodus 10:13).
c Pharaoh calls for Moses and Aaron in haste and confesses that he has sinned against both Yahweh their God and Moses (thus he will let the people go). He asks forgiveness and that they will entreat that this living death might be moved from them (Exodus 10:16).
b Moses goes out from Pharaoh and entreats Yahweh and a west wind takes away the locusts so that none are left (thus making it known that He is Yahweh) (Exodus 10:18).
a Yahweh hardens Pharaoh's heart so that he will not let the children of Israel go (Exodus 10:20).
In ‘a' we have Yahweh's statement that He has hardened Pharaoh's heart and in the parallel the fact that He has hardened his heart. In ‘b' Israel is to teach its children what God has wrought in Egypt and what signs He has revealed so that they may know that He is Yahweh, in the parallel He mightily removes the vast clouds of locusts in one day, thus revealing what He is to Pharaoh and Egypt. In ‘c' Moses and Aaron approach Pharaoh and ask how long he will refuse to humble himself before Yahweh and demand that he will let God's people go, in the parallel Pharaoh repents and humbles himself and admits that he has been in the wrong for not letting Israel go. In ‘d' they declare that if he will not let the people go God will bring down on Egypt great clouds of locusts who will eat the trees and vegetation, in the parallel those locusts are brought down on Egypt and consume all that is left including the trees and vegetation. In ‘e' Pharaoh's official draw Pharaoh's attention to how much Egypt has been devastated because of his intransigence and ask that he let the Israelites go, in the parallel Yahweh orders the completion of that devastation. In ‘f' Pharaoh reluctantly appears to concede defeat but questions what they are wanting, in the parallel, having found out, he hits back and causes them to be driven them from his presence. In ‘g' Moses demands that everyone may go including the cattle, and in the parallel Pharaoh declares that not everyone can go, only the men.
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have made strong his heart and the heart of his servants that I might show these my signs among them, and that you might tell in the ears of your son, and of your son's son, what things I have wrought on (how I have shown up) Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am Yahweh.” '
The ‘I' is emphatic. The end is approaching and Yahweh is making things work according to His plan.
The wonders wrought in Egypt had a number of purposes. They were not only intended to convince the Egyptians to finally send the children of Israel away, but also to strengthen the latter's faith for the future and give an understanding that Yahweh is the One Who is there to act. Note that the specific aim is that these stories might be passed down to future generations, and be recited in their ears, not just as stories but as theological statements. And to someone who was used to recording things in writing (Exodus 17:14; Exodus 24:4; Exodus 34:27; Numbers 33:1; Deuteronomy 31:9) such a command must surely have issued in the same result. Moses would put everything important down in writing!
“These my signs among them.” His wonders were ‘signs'. They were intended to convince and give understanding. From them the Egyptians should have come to faith in Yahweh. And for a time some did, for they took their cattle inside to shelter from the hail (Exodus 9:20). But once the worst was over they soon forgot and convinced themselves that maybe their gods had won after all. From them too the children of Israel yet to come were to know the significance of the name of Yahweh, to ‘know that I am Yahweh'.
We probably do not sufficiently appreciate the subservience of a nation that has been enslaved for a long time. They had lost their spirit and had little resistance. When Moses had arrived they had seen the signs that Yahweh had given him and their hearts had been uplifted. But as soon as Pharaoh proved obstinate they had been like sheep and their resistance had collapsed and all they had been able to do was blame Moses. Indeed part of the purpose of the plagues was probably in order to stiffen their confidence in what Yahweh could do, and to teach them to rise above their problems, so that when they found themselves in the wilderness they would have some courage which would come from their confidence in Yahweh. And as we know that constantly failed, so much so that when eventually they arrived at the borders of the land their courage collapsed altogether and they failed to make their entry.
“I have wrought on.” The hithpael of ‘alal means ‘to make sport of, make a fool of, show up'. Here Yahweh's intent is deadly serious. It is not in order to mock but in order to show up. His intent was to reveal them and their gods for what they are.
Note again that Pharaoh's high officials are now being included (compare Exodus 9:34), although there were clearly some who had reservations (Exodus 9:20) as the sequel brings out. This suggests that it was now seen to be an emergency situation, and the counsellors were regularly being called in and on almost constant alert. Pharaoh was no longer as confident as he had been.
‘And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews. How long will you refuse to humble yourselves before me? Let my people go that they may serve me.” '
Note that Yahweh no longer tells them to do this. But they still make the same request, that they may be allowed to worship Yahweh in the wilderness. The diplomatic show has to go on. However, the battle has produced in Pharaoh a total feeling of intransigence. To yield now would be to admit Yahweh's superiority over himself and the gods of Egypt. And that is indeed what Yahweh now demands. ‘You refuse to humble yourselves before me'. The Egyptians may not learn the lesson but the children of Israel would never forget it. It would be with them in their memories and in their Psalms for ever. They knew now that their God was over all.
“Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold tomorrow I will bring locusts into your border, and they will cover the face (the word is usually rendered ‘eye') of the earth (or ‘land') so that one will not be able to see the earth (or ‘land'), and they will eat the residue of what has escaped, what remains to you from the hail, and will eat every tree which grows for you out of the countryside. And your houses will be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians as neither your fathers, nor your fathers' fathers, have seen since the day that they were on the earth up to this day.”
The next promise is the coming of a vast cloud of locusts. Locusts were brought on the wind and were not common in Egypt, but they had had enough experience of them to be afraid (Exodus 10:7). The locust was primarily a destroyer, although it could also be a useful source of protein (Leviticus 11:22), especially among desert tribes. Their coming was regularly seen as God's judgment (Deuteronomy 28:38; Deuteronomy 28:42; Joel 1:4).
The female lays its eggs just below the surface of the soil where they may stay for many months until moisture allows them to hatch. Once the eggs hatch the locust has the general shape of an adult locust but is without wings which it takes five to six months to acquire. They are wholly vegetarian and in large numbers cause massive devastation, eating everything in the fields and stripping the trees bare. The weather conditions elsewhere, which we know to have been a reality because of the excessive inundation of the Nile, would cause them to breed in vast numbers, awaiting the wind which would carry them into Egypt. And when they came in large numbers they would appear like a vast cloud, darkening the sky, and wherever they settled they would denude the vegetation, and then attack the trees. No vegetation would be safe. All would be denuded or eaten.
“They will cover the face of the earth (or ‘land”).' The word for face is one mostly translated ‘eye'. The word for earth is 'erets which can mean the earth, or the land. Thus ‘the face of the earth' may therefore signify the sun (compare also Exodus 10:15 where covering it results in darkening) as the ‘eye of the earth'. There are frequent references in Egyptian literature to ‘the eye of Re', the sun god. Thus would Re be restricted and hidden from what Yahweh was doing. Their main protection (from the point of view of the Egyptians) would be useless, for he was being blinded by Yahweh. Or the point may be that the earth itself is ‘blinded' by the multitude of locusts, and thus unable to perform its functions. Alternately we may translate ‘land' and intend it to mean that the whole face of the land will be covered with them.
“And your houses will be filled.” No one would escape. Pharaoh, his high officials and his people would find their houses filled with them. They would be inundated. They would be in such vast numbers that locusts would be everywhere. Experience would demonstrate that, even when they tried to eat, a locust would be on their food, there to eat it before them. The suggestion may be, although it is not stated, that the children of Israel will not be included, for their houses are not mentioned.
There would be an unusually large number of locusts such that the like had not been known over three generations (but not as unusual as the hail, of which the like of had not been seen since before the nation was founded - Exodus 9:24).
“And he turned and went out from Pharaoh.”
(Compare Exodus 7:23). Previously it has simply been ‘went out from Pharaoh'. Now Moses has been emboldened and is aware of his power. He wants Pharaoh to realise that he is in control. ‘He turned'. This time he does not pay Pharaoh the deference that Pharaoh usually demands and his subjects usually give. He openly and irreverently turns on his heel and stalks out. This is not the way Pharaoh is used to being treated. But Pharaoh is afraid of him. He has seen what he can do. So he lets him go. What supreme courage Moses had, for in the end he bore his burden alone, before that mighty array of powerful Egyptian aristocrats and priests. And no one knew more than he did what they had the power to do. Aaron no doubt discreetly followed him.
‘And Pharaoh's servants said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go that they may serve Yahweh their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?” '
But the mighty array were more afraid of Moses than he was of them. They advised that Pharaoh give in. This was not direct criticism of Pharaoh. That was something that they would not have dared to attempt. No doubt Pharaoh called a meeting to discuss the situation and to seek advice, and so they gave it. His advisers came up with a compromise solution. Let Pharaoh agree to let the men go to serve Yahweh their God. But there is no doubt that they were uneasy for they asked Pharaoh, safe in his palace, whether he was really aware of the devastations that had struck Egypt. Did he realise what the situation now was? Egypt had been almost destroyed. They had still had the wheat and spelt, but now this plague of locusts could signal the end. Their last and final crops could be devastated.
‘And Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve Yahweh your God. But who are they who will go?” '
So Moses and Aaron were recalled in accordance with the counsellors' advice. They were told that they could go and serve Yahweh, but first he wanted to determine as to who exactly would go.
‘And Moses said, “We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, we will go with our flocks and our herds, for we must hold a feast to Yahweh.” '
Moses reply was not unreasonable. It was to be a wholehearted worship of Yahweh and everyone must be involved, both young and old. It would be a time of sacrifices and offerings and a time of feasting and gladness before Yahweh, thus they would also need their flocks and herds with them in order to provide the wherewithal.
In fact the Egyptians used to welcome their children to their feasts so that that aspect of things would not have been seen as unreasonable, except to Pharaoh in his present mood.
‘And he said to them, “May Yahweh so be with you if I let you go with your little ones. Look at what you are proposing (literally ‘look at it'), for your intent is evil (‘evil is before your face'). It shall not be so. Go now, you who are adult men, and serve Yahweh, for that is what you want.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.'
Pharaoh refused to countenance their suggestion and put forward the worked out compromise. The adult men could go to serve Yahweh in the wilderness (compare Exodus 23:17; Exodus 34:23; Deuteronomy 16:16 - normally this would have been acceptable), but only them. He was now deeply suspicious that they had some evil purpose and he wanted hostages. Perhaps, he thought, there were plans to meet up with some enemy so as to attack Egypt while it was so devastatingly weakened, as the Hyksos had done previously. He probably did not fear that they would leave entirely for he knew that the Egyptian army could easily prevent it.
“May Yahweh so be with you.” An ironical comment. Did they really think that he would let Yahweh go with them like that? If he let them all go he would be giving Yahweh sole charge and renouncing his own authority, an unlikely scenario.
“They were driven out from Pharaoh” s presence.' Having spoken his last word they were driven from his presence. Pharaoh was not going to allow Moses to humiliate him again by turning round and once more walking out. So they were hustled out by soldiers. But Pharaoh was careful. He was still wary of what Moses could do. Things were definitely tense.
Why then did Pharaoh not have Moses immediately killed or arrested? The answer would seem to lie in superstitious dread. He knew that this being, whatever he was, had done such amazing things that who knew what might happen if he were physically attacked? It was something he dared not risk. And such would be the awe in which Moses was held that it is doubtful if Pharaoh could have found anyone to take on the job. Moses had truly become as a god to Pharaoh.
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come on the land of Egypt and eat all the vegetation in the land, even all that the hail has left.” And Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh brought an east wind on the land all that day and all that night, and when it was morning the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested in all the borders of Egypt. They were in huge numbers (‘very grievous'), before them there was no such a swarm of locusts as they, nor after them will be such, for they covered the face (or ‘eye') of the whole earth so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the vegetation on the land, and all the fruit of the trees, whatever the hail had left, and there did not remain any green thing, either tree or vegetation through all the land of Egypt.'
Again it was the hand of Moses as he stretched out his staff that was seen to produce the plague. The result was a continual east wind that gradually, unknown at first to the Egyptians who did not know of the threat to the south of them, brought the huge numbers of locusts down to Egypt overnight. Locusts required a wind if they were to travel far. And their numbers were so vast, more than ever known before, that it would need a continual wind, and when they came the whole of Egypt was affected. As they came in like a great cloud in the sky, the sun was hidden, the land was darkened, everything was covered with them and they began to eat all the greenery that remained after the hail.
People who have seen clouds of locust in modern days have described how they look like a huge, black, threatening storm cloud in the distance until at last they come closer and it is apparent that the cloud consists of locusts. And then they arrive and the whole land is covered with them. But this was exceptional even compared with that. There were untold numbers of them.
All the vegetation and trees that remained were devoured and this probably included the now growing wheat and spelt. The economy of Egypt which had been devastated was now being totally ruined. And all because of Pharaoh's obstinacy.
“They covered the ‘ayin of the whole earth so that the land was darkened.” ‘ayin usually means ‘eye'. It is therefore probable that this refers to the sun as ‘the eye of Re'. It was that that was hidden by the vast numbers of the locusts, darkening the land. Re had to stand by and do nothing. Or it may refer to the fact that once the locusts had landed the earth became dark because of the colour of their bodies. What a sight that would have been. The whole of the land darkened by one mass of locusts wherever the eye looked
“There remained not any green thing.” The land was totally bare. Such denuding of the land by locusts is terrible to see. One Pharaoh of the XIIth dynasty, Amenemhet, classed a plague of locusts as a calamity similar to a civil war, or to famine resulting from the failure of the Nile, and that was an ordinary one. The god Senehem is pictured in ancient Egypt as a locust, but he has clearly no control here.
‘Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and he said, “I have sinned against Yahweh your God and against you. Now therefore, I beg you, forgive my sin only this once and entreat Yahweh your God that he may take away from me this death only.”
The final devastation, made even more apparent by the presence of locusts in the palace and the darkening of the sun, brought Pharaoh temporarily to his senses. Moses and Aaron had asked how long it would be before he humbled himself (Exodus 10:3). Now he did humble himself (compare Exodus 10:3) and admit his guilt before Yahweh and before Moses (Moses has become as a god to Pharaoh - Exodus 7:1). But it was only to be temporary as such conversions often are. No mention is made of the release of the children of Israel to serve Yahweh in the wilderness at this point, but it is assumed in the admission of guilt. For this was the reason for his guilt, that he had not let them go to serve Yahweh.
“Take away from me this death only.” This could refer to the death that would result from the famine which would result from the activity of the locusts, or it may refer to the darkening of the sun seen as the temporary death of Re. Pharaoh, as the living god Horus, and prospective Osiris, was vitally connected with the sun god Re. Re's death would be his death.
‘And he went out from Pharaoh and entreated Yahweh, and Yahweh turned a very strong sea wind which took up the locusts and drove them into the sea of reeds. There remained not one locust in all the border of Egypt. But Yahweh made strong Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the children of Israel go.'
“He went out from Pharaoh.” This time Moses did not turn and stalk out, nor was he thrust out. He recognised Pharaoh's submission. This was no time for putting on a display of anger. He was prepared to be courteous when courtesy was deserved. It is never godly to be rude.
On Moses' entreaty Yahweh sent a strong sea wind which drove the locusts into the sea of reeds granting complete deliverance. Not one was left in Egypt. But once this had happened Pharaoh again changed his mind. He refused to let them go to worship Yahweh. However, it is again made clear that he was not frustrating Yahweh. His refusal was all in God's plan. It was Yahweh Who was making his heart so strong.
“Sea wind.” This might be a ‘west wind' as compared with the previous east wind (Exodus 10:13), for the west was then indicated by the Great Sea which lay to the west. Thus the same word can mean ‘west' or ‘sea'.