Exodus 11. A Final Plague Threatened

A Final Plague Threatened

• Exodus 11 is one of the shortest chapters in the Torah with only 10 verses (Behind Leviticus 12 with 8 verses)
• This is a continuation of the previous paragraph from Exodus 10

The Lord said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. ² Speak now in the hearing of the people, that they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” ³ And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.

• Pharaoh was unconvinced, but the people of Egypt were ready for the Israelites TO LEAVE – and they saw Moses as a great man of YHWH
• The silver and gold fulfills something God promised Moses before he ever returned to Egypt: Exodus 3:21-22 “When you go, you shall not go empty… So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
• This also fulfills Genesis 15 when God spoke to Abram! ¹³ Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions

⁴ So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, ⁵ and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 

• God foreshadowed this in Exodus 4:21-23
• No one will be spared, not even the slaves, or the cows, or Pharaoh himself.
• Notice how before God said He would send plagues, but for this particular one, YHWH Himself will go out “in the midst of Egypt”

⁶ There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. ⁷ But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ 

• The Hebrew is closer to “…a dog shall not sharpen/move its tongue” means absolute peace and protection for Israel that not even a dog will bark at them.

⁸ And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. 

• Egypt will turn on Pharaoh in a reversal of power – kicking the Israelites out themselves.

⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

¹⁰ Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.