Exodus 12:30

12:29-36 The Egyptians had been for three days and nights kept in anxiety and horror by the darkness; now their rest is broken by a far more terrible calamity. The plague struck their first-born, the joy and hope of their families. They had slain the Hebrews' children, now God slew theirs. It reached from the throne to the dungeon: prince and peasant stand upon the same level before God's judgments. The destroying angel entered every dwelling unmarked with blood, as the messenger of woe. He did his dreadful errand, leaving not a house in which there was not one dead. Imagine then the cry that rang through the land of Egypt, the long, loud shriek of agony that burst from every dwelling. It will be thus in that dreadful hour when the Son of man shall visit sinners with the last judgment. God's sons, his first-born, were now released. Men had better come to God's terms at first, for he will never come to theirs. Now Pharaoh's pride is abased, and he yields. God's word will stand; we get nothing by disputing, or delaying to submit. In this terror the Egyptians would purchase the favour and the speedy departure of Israel. Thus the Lord took care that their hard-earned wages should be paid, and the people provided for their journey.

And Pharaoh rose up in the night,.... Being awakened by the uncommon noise he heard: he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; he and his nobles, and ministers of state, courtiers, and counsellors, and his subjects in common, perhaps everywhere in his kingdom, but particularly in the metropolis: and there was a great cry in Egypt; throughout the whole land, the firstborn being everywhere slain, which caused a most dreadful lamentation of parents for their eldest son, of brethren and sisters for their elder brother, and of servants and maidens for the principal and heir of the family; a cry so loud and general as perhaps was never heard before or since, and under which distress they could have no relief, or any to be their comforter, since all were in the same circumstances: for there was not a house wherein there was not one dead; for if there was no firstborn in it, as it can hardly be thought there should be in every house, though some have been of opinion that it was so ordered in Providence that there should; yet the principal or most considerable person in the family, that is next to the master, might be called the firstborn, as Jarchi notes from Psalm 89:27. Though this may be taken as an hyperbolical expression, or, as Aben Ezra observes, it being usual with the Scripture to say that of all, which is true of the greatest part.

(30) A great cry. —See the comment on Exodus 11:6 . The combination of public calamity, private grief, and shocked religious fanaticism might well produce a cry “such as there was none like it, neither shall be like it any more” ( Exodus 11:6 ). Not a house where there was not one dead. This cannot have been literally true. In half the families a daughter would have “opened the womb;” in others, the firstborn son would have been absent, or dead previously. To judge Scripture fairly, we must make allowance for the hyperbole of Oriental thought and expression, which causes the substitution of universal terms for general ones, and the absence of qualifying clauses. The meaning is that in the great majority of houses there was one dead. This may, well have been so, if we include the dependants and the animals. Pet animals—dogs, cats, gazelles, and monkeys—abounded in Egyptian homes.

This plague is distinctly attributed here and in Exodus 12:23 to the personal intervention of the Lord; but it is to be observed that although the Lord Himself passed through to smite the Egyptians, He employed the agency of "the destroyer" Exodus 12:23 , in whom, in accordance with Hebrews 11:28 , all the ancient versions, and most critics, recognize an Angel (compare 2 Kings 19:35 ; 2 Samuel 24:16 ).

Verse 30. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, and all his servants . This general disturbance differentiates the present visitations from that which came upon the host of Sennacherib ( 2 Kings 19:35 ). Then, the calamity came with such silence and secrecy, that the deaths were not suspected until men rose to go about their various tasks in the morning Now, every household seems to have been aroused from its sleep in the night. We must suppose sharp and painful illness, terminating after a few hours in death. The disaster itself may have been one from which Egypt often suffers in the spring of the year (Kalisch); but its attacking all the firstborn and no others, and no Israelites, as well as its announcement, plainly showed it to be miraculous. There was a great cry . See the comment on Exodus 11:6. For there was not a house where there was not one dead . This is perhaps a slight hyperbole. There would be many families in which there was no son; and some houses might contain no male who had opened the womb. It is always to be borne in mind, that the language of Scripture - especially where exciting and tragical events are narrated - is poetical, or at the least highly rhetorical. CHAPTER 12:31-36 Exodus 12:30

30 . a great cry in Egypt ] cf. Exodus 11:6 (J). The tenth plague, like the preceding ones, has also its connexion with the natural conditions of the country. Malignant epidemics are of not unfrequent occurrence in Egypt; and Di. quotes from Kn. (see also DB. iii. 892b) numerous references to travellers and others, who state that they usually break out in spring, and are often worse at the time of the Ḥamsîn wind (see on Exodus 10:23 ; and cf. Lane, Mod. Eg. 5 i. 2); they are also sometimes accompanied by very great mortality. But, as Di. continues, ‘the plague here, by its momentary suddenness, as also by its carrying off as its victims exclusively the first-born of the Egyptians, bears a wholly supernatural character. This particular form of the tradition ( Sage ) evidently first arose partly through the influence of the Isr. spring-offering of the Passover, partly through that of the Isr. custom of dedicating the first-born, which together brought into the tradition the sparing of the houses and first-born of the Israelites, and transformed the Egyptians who perished in the plague into first-born’ (Di. on v. 29, slightly abridged). Cf. pp. 410, 412.

30. there was not a house where there was not one dead—Perhaps this statement is not to be taken absolutely. The Scriptures frequently use the words "all," "none," in a comparative sense—and so in this case. There would be many a house in which there would be no child, and many in which the first-born might be already dead. What is to be understood is, that almost every house in Egypt had a death in it.

The very same night Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and gave them permission to depart with their people, their children, and their cattle. The statement that Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron is not at variance with Exodus 10:28-29 ; and there is no necessity to resort to Calvin's explanation, "Pharaoh himself is said to have sent for those whom he urged to depart through the medium of messengers from the palace." The command never to appear in his sight again did not preclude his sending for them under totally different circumstances. The permission to depart was given unconditionally, i.e., without involving an obligation to return.

This is evident from the words, "Get you forth from among my people," compared with Exodus 10:8 , Exodus 10:24 , "Go ye, serve Jehovah," and Exodus 8:25 , "Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land." If in addition to this we bear in mind, that although at first, and even after the fourth plague ( Exodus 8:27 ), Moses only asked for a three days' journey to hold a festival, yet Pharaoh suspected that they would depart altogether, and even gave utterance to this suspicion, without being contradicted by Moses ( Exodus 8:28 , and Exodus 10:10 ); the words "Get you forth from among my people" cannot mean anything else than "depart altogether." Moreover, in Exodus 11:1 it was foretold to Moses that the result of the last blow would be, that Pharaoh would let them go, or rather drive them away; so that the effect of this blow, as here described, cannot be understood in any other way. And this is really implied in Pharaoh's last words, "Go, and bless me also;" whereas on former occasions he had only asked them to intercede for the removal of the plagues ( Exodus 8:8 , Exodus 8:28 ; Exodus 9:28 ; Exodus 10:17 ). בּרך, to bless, indicates a final leave-taking, and was equivalent to a request that on their departure they would secure or leave behind the blessing of their God, in order that henceforth no such plague might ever befall him and his people.