J 26 promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean 27 ye by this service? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD's passover, 1who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and 28 worshipped. | And the children of Israel went and did so; P as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. 29 And it came to pass at midnight, that the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of 30 Cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not 1 Or, for that he passed Exodus (cf. xiii. 8—10, 14—16, xv. 26; and see p. 87), which in style and tone approximate to Deuteronomy, and may be additions due to the compiler of JE. The injunction contained in these verses is still observed by the Jews, in the part of the Passover service called the Haggādāh, or 'telling': see Oesterley and Box, op. cit. p. 359 ff. 26, 27a. For the instruction of the children, cf. x. 2, xiii. 8, Dt. iv. 9b, vi. 7 (=xi. 19); and esp. the similarly worded passages, Ex. xiii. 14-15, Dt. vi. 20 ff., Jos. iv. 6-7 (J), 21—24 (D2). 27b. bowed the head and worshipped (iv. 31)] In acknowledgement of the promises of protection and deliverance given in vv. 21—23. 28. How the people carried out the instructions given to them (vv. 1-13). The verse, as its style and form shew (see on vii. 6), belongs to P; and perhaps formed originally the conclusion to vv. 1-13. 29-36. The death of the Egyptian first-born; and preparations of the Israelites for their departure. 29. Execution of the threat of xi. 4 f. (J). the captive, &c.] In xi. 5 'the bondmaid that is behind the mill. . 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. 892) numerous references to travellers and others, who state that they usually break out in spring, and are often worse at the time of the Hamsin wind (see on x. 23; and cf. Lane, Mod. Eg. i. 2); they are also sometimes accompanied by very great mortality. But, as Di. Jone dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, 31 and said, Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as 22 ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. And the 33 Egyptians were urgent upon the people, to send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men. And 34 the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their E shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to 35 the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels 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 firstborn' (Di. on v. 29, slightly abridged). Cf. pp. 410, 412. 31, 32. The Pharaoh hastily summons Moses and Aaron, and gives permission for the people to go and serve Yahweh with their flocks and herds, as they had requested. The passage has sometimes been deemed inconsistent with x. 29. But there is a difference between seeking an audience to demand leave to depart or threaten chastisement, and response to the urgent summons of the stricken king' (C.-H.). 31. as ye have said] iii. 18, v. 3, vii. 16 (all J). It seems therefore (Di.) that the Pharaoh only gives leave for a temporary absence. 32. as ye have said] See x. 9, 26 (J). and bless me also] viz. at the festival which you are about to hold: include me as well as yourselves in the blessings which you will then invoke. 33. We be all dead men] cf. (though the terms are milder) x. 7. 34. The people had not time to leaven their dough, but took it with them before it was leavened. The notice, taken in conjunction with the one in v. 39, is evidently intended as an explanation of the origin of the Mazzoth-feast: cf. Dt. xvi. 3; and p. 91, above. their kneading-bowls] See on viii. 3. in their clothes] rather, in their mantles. The simlah was the large square outer garment, inade of woollen cloth, which served as a covering by night (ch. xxii. 26 f.), and was also often used for carrying things in (Jud. viii. 25, Ru. iii. 15). See DRESS 36 in DB. (i. 625). 35, 36. Carrying out of the instructions given in iii. 21, 22 (cf. xi. 2). 35. did &c.] had done....., and asked,--before viz. the events just narrated (vv. 29-34). Cf. xi. 3. 36 of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and the LORD E gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And they spoiled the Egyptians. 37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to P Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were 36. let them. have] lit. let them ask (viz. successfully), i.e. granted them, let them have, not necessarily 'lent' them. So I S. i. 28 (lit. "let one ask him for Jehovah'), the correlative of 'ask' in vv. 17, 27, as of the same word here in v. 35. Still, it is remarkable that the ordinary word for 'gave' is not used: and it cannot be denied that 'let ask may, as in Syriac (Luke xi. 5 Pesh.), have had in Heb. the meaning lend. In this case, we must suppose that the things were 'lent' for use at the festival in the wilderness; Pharaoh's subsequent pursuit of the Israelites put their return out of the question, and so they 'spoiled' the Egyptians (Ewald, Hist. ii. 66). Dillm. writes: In reality the fundamental idea of the narrative is this: God, in His contest for the oppressed and against the oppressor, brings it about by His judgements that the enemy is obliged not only to allow the people to hold their festival in the wilderness, but also at their request to provide them willingly with garments and ornaments to wear at it (cf. on iii. 21 f.); and eventually even to give these things up to them, as lawful spoil, and also, probably, as a reward for long and hard service (so Jubilees xlviii. 18, Philo, Vit. Mos. i. p. 103, Clem. Al. Strom. i. p. 345, Iren. iv. 49, and other Fathers), and as partial compensation for what the Hebrews left behind them in Egypt.' 37-42. The departure from Egypt. 37. journeyed] lit. plucked up (viz. tent-pegs), a metaphor from breaking up camp. So regularly, as xiii. 20, xvi. 1, &c. Ra'meses] Very possibly (p. 4) Tell er-Reṭabeh, 10 m. W. of Succoth. Succoth] No doubt the Eg. Thke, with the determinative of a foreign place, prob. (Griffith) a foreign name, the sing. of Succoth, 'Booths,' and to be read Thukke. Thukke is often mentioned in inscriptions found at Tell el-Maskhuța (= Pithom: see on i. 11); and seems to have been both a name of Pithom itself, the capital of the nome (so in these inscriptions, and in the geographical lists), and also to have denoted the region surrounding Pithom (so in the Anastasi papyri, dating from Dyn. xix., in which it has moreover the determinative of a borderland inhabited by foreigners): see Naville, Pithom, ed. 4, pp. 6, 7b; cf. W. Max Müller, EB. ii. 1436, and s. v. PITHOм. Indeed Dillm. (on Ex. xiv. 2) had already, before Naville's discoveries, pointed out that this was the situation required for Succoth. six hundred thousand] The same number is given in Nu. xi. 21 (also J). If it stood alone, it might be understood as a round number, current traditionally, for a very high figure: but P commits himself to Jmen, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up 38 also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough 39 which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any P victual. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, 40 which they sojourned in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of four hundred and 41 details, giving the numbers of the various tribes, the whole number being, at the first census in the wilderness (Nu. i. 46), 603,550 males above 20 years old, besides 22,000 Levites above one month old, or 8580 between 30 and 50 years old (Nu. iii. 39, iv. 48). 600,000 men implies a total, including women and children, of at least 2,000,000 souls. These numbers are incredible: they are not consistent either with the limits of Goshen1, or (as has been most recently shewn by Petrie, Researches in Sinai, 1907, pp. 206-8) with the number that could be maintained in the Sinaitic Peninsula (similarly Di. Numbers, p. 6)2: the details given by P are, moreover, inconsistent and impossible in themselves (see G. B. Gray, Numbers, pp. 12-15). The figures do not come to us from eye-witnesses; and tradition, in the course of years, greatly exaggerated the numbers of the Israelites at the Exodus. children] Heb. taph, lit. those taking short, tripping steps, here including women, as x. 10, 24 al. 38. a great mixed multitude] cf. Nu. xi. 4 (the Heb. word different). Non-Israelites (cf. the same word in Neh. xiii. 3) of various kinds are meant: e.g. Egyptians who had intermarried with Israelites (cf. Lev. xxiv. 10), other Semites who had found their way into Egypt, and prisoners taken in war who had been employed in the corvée (i. 9). flocks and herds] cf. v. 32, x. 26. 39. Cf. v. 34; and for unleavened cakes see on v. 8. Here, however, there is an independent word for 'cakes,' the one found in Gen. xviii. 6, 1 K. xix. 6 al., and probably denoting cakes baked rapidly by being placed on the 'hot stones' (1 K. .c.),—i.e. stones heated by a fire having been made upon them (EB. i. 604),—and covered with the hot ashes: LXX. ¿yκpupíaι, Vulg. subcinericii panes. thrust out] vi. 1 (Heb.), xi. I. 40, 41. The length of Israel's sojourn in Egypt. 40. four hundred and thirty years] cf. the round number 400 in Gen. xv. 13 (hence Acts vii. 6, Jos. Ant. ii. 9. 1, BJ. v. 9. 4). 1 So Sayce, EHH. 212. 2 Petrie's own solution of the difficulty (that 'eleph in the lists in Numbers has been understood wrongly in the sense of thousand' instead of in that of 'family') is improbable in itself ('eleph itself meaning 'clan' rather than 'family,' and even in that sense being very rare, and never occurring in statistical lists), besides leaving many passages unexplained. See also McNeile, p. 75; and Numbers (Camb. Bible), p. 71. 42 thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all P the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. | It? is 1a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: | 'this is that night of the RP? LORD, to be much observed of all the children of Israel throughout their generations. 1 Or, a night of watching unto the LORD 2 Or, this same night is a night of watching unto the LORD for all &c. Whether it is historically correct is more than we can say: not only is Egyptian chronology itself uncertain, but we do not know the Eg. king under whom Jacob went down into Egypt; hence we have no independent data for fixing with precision the interval between Jacob's migration into Egypt and the Exodus. The chronology of P (from whom all systematic dates in the Pent. are derived) is artificial, and in many of its particulars entirely undeserving of confidence: still this figure may itself be correct. It is however inconsistent with the many passages of P (see on vi. 27), which place Moses and his contemporaries in the fourth generation from Jacob's sons. P himself may have been unconscious of the inconsistency; for he may have reckoned—of course, falsely-a generation at 100 years (cf. Gen. xv. 16, comp. with 13). In a later age it appears to have been noticed; and in all probability the reading of LXX. Sam. here in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, was 430 years,' originated in an endeavour to lessen it: for, as the period from Abraham's migration into Canaan to Jacob's descent into Egypt was (according to P) 215 years (Gen. xii. 4, xxi. 5, xxv. 26, xlvii. 9), this reading reduces the period of the sojourn in Egypt to half of that stated in the Heb. text. The reading of Sam. LXX. was followed by St Paul in Gal. iii. 17, by Jos. Ant. ii. 15. 2, and by many ancient Jewish and Christian authorities; but it cannot be the original text; not only has Israel's sojourn in Egypt alone to do with the present context, but until the birth of Jacob's sons there were no 'children of Israel' to dwell in Canaan at all. Cf. the Introd. p. xlv. 41. the selfsame day] See on v. 17. the hosts of Jehovah] cf. v. 17; and see on vi. 26. 42. The night is to be observed in perpetuity as a night of watching, or of vigil, unto Jehovah; cf. Is. xxx. 29. Both the margins are preferable to the text., however, cannot mean for (i.e., apparently, in return for), though it might mean with regard to; but its natural meaning here would be in order to; hence Bu. Bä. may be right in rendering, A night of watching was it for Yahweh to bring them out, &c.; Jehovah Himself was on the watch that night to protect His people from the destroyer, and to bring them safely out of Egypt: 7. 41b will then be a later addition, transforming the night of vigil kept by Jehovah, into a night of vigil kept to Him (cf. Nowack, Arch. ii. 149). throughout your generations. See on v. 14. |