Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)

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E X O D U S

CHAP. XI.

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Pharaoh had told Moses to get out of his presence

(ch. x. 28),

and Moses had promised this should be the last time he would trouble

him, yet he resolves to say out what he had to say, before he left him;

accordingly, we have in this chapter,

I. The instructions God had given to Moses, which he was now to

pursue

(ver. 1, 2),

together with the interest Israel and Moses had in the esteem of the

Egyptians,

ver. 3.

II. The last message Moses delivered to Pharaoh, concerning the death

of the firstborn,

ver. 4-8.

III. A repetition of the prediction of Pharaoh’s hardening his

heart,

(ver. 9),

and the event answering to it,

ver. 10.

The Plagues of Egypt.	B. C. 1491.

     

1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague

more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you

go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you

out hence altogether.

  2 Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow

of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of

silver, and jewels of gold.

  3 And the LORD gave the people favour 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.

     

Here is, I. The high favour Moses and Israel were in with God. 1. Moses

was a favourite of Heaven, for God will not hide from him the thing he

will do. God not only makes him his messenger to deliver his errands,

but communicates to him his purpose (as the man of his counsel) that he

would bring one plague more, and but one, upon Pharaoh, by which he

would complete the deliverance of Israel,

v. 1.

Moses longed to see an end of this dreadful work, to see Egypt no more

plagued and Israel no more oppressed: “Well,” says God, “now it is near

an end; the warfare shall shortly be accomplished, the point gained;

Pharaoh shall be forced to own himself conquered, and to give up the

cause.” After all the rest of the plagues, God says, I will bring

one more. Thus, after all the judgments executed upon sinners in

this world, still there is one more reserved to be brought on them in

the other world, which will completely humble those whom nothing else

would humble. 2. The Israelites were favourites of Heaven; for God

himself espouses their injured cause, and takes care to see them paid

for all their pains in serving the Egyptians. This was the last day of

their servitude; they were about to go away, and their masters, who had

abused them in their work, would not have defrauded them of their

wages, and have sent them away empty; while the poor Israelites were so

fond of liberty that they would be satisfied with that, without pay,

and would rejoice to get that upon any terms: but he that executeth

righteousness and judgment for the oppressed provided that the

labourers should not lose their hire, and ordered them to demand it now

at their departure

(v. 2),

in jewels of silver and jewels of gold, to prepare for which

God, by the plagues, had now made the Egyptians as willing to part with

them upon any terms as, before, the Egyptians, by their severities, had

made them willing to go upon any terms. Though the patient Israelites

were content to lose their wages, yet God would not let them go without

them. Note, One way or other, God will give redress to the injured, who

in a humble silence commit their cause to him; and he will see to it

that none be losers at last by their patient suffering any more than by

their services.

     

II. The high favour Moses and Israel were in with the Egyptians,

v. 3.

1. Even the people that has been hated and despised now came to be

respected; the wonders wrought on their behalf put an honour upon them

and made them considerable. How great do they become for whom God thus

fights! Thus the Lord gave them favour in the sight of the

Egyptians, by making it appear how much he favoured them: he also

changed the spirit of the Egyptians towards them, and made them to be

pitied of their oppressors,

Ps. cvi. 46.

2. The man Moses was very great. How could it be otherwise when

they saw what power he was clothed with, and what wonders were wrought

by his hand? Thus the apostles, though otherwise despicable men, came

to be magnified,

Acts v. 13.

Those that honour God he will honour; and with respect to those that

approve themselves faithful to him, how meanly soever they may pass

through this world, there is a day coming when they will look great,

very great, in the eyes of all the world, even theirs who now look upon

them with the utmost contempt. Observe, Though Pharaoh hated Moses,

there were those of Pharaoh’s servants that respected him. Thus in

Caesar’s household, even Nero’s, there were some that had an esteem for

blessed Paul,

Phil. i. 13.

     

4 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go

out into the midst of Egypt:

  5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from

the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto

the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and

all the firstborn of beasts.

  6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of

Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any

more.

  7 But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog

move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that

the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.

  8 And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow

down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people

that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went out

from Pharaoh in a great anger.

  9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto

you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

  10 And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh:

and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let

the children of Israel go out of his land.

     

Warning is here given to Pharaoh of the last and conquering plague

which was now to be inflicted. This was the death of all the

first-born in Egypt at once, which had been first threatened

(ch. iv. 23,

I will slay thy son, thy first-born), but is last executed; less

judgments were tried, which, if they had done the work would have

prevented this. See how slow God is to wrath, and how willing to be met

with in the way of his judgments, and to have his anger turned away,

and particularly how precious the lives of men are in his eyes: if the

death of their cattle had humbled and reformed them, their children

would have been spared; but, if men will not improve the gradual

advances of divine judgments, they must thank themselves if they find,

in the issue, that the worst was reserved for the last. 1. The plague

itself is here particularly foretold,

v. 4-6.

The time is fixed–about midnight, the very next midnight, the dead

time of the night; when they were all asleep, all their first-born

should sleep the sleep of death, not silently and insensibly, so as not

to be discovered till morning, but so as to rouse the families at

midnight to stand by and see them die. The extent of this plague is

described,

v. 5.

The prince that was to succeed in the throne was not too high to be

reached by it, nor were the slaves at the mill too low to be taken

notice of. Moses and Aaron were not ordered to summon this plague; no

I will go out, saith the Lord,
v. 4.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God;

what is hell but this? 2. The special protection which the children of

Israel should be under, and the manifest difference that should be put

between them and the Egyptians. While angels drew their swords against

the Egyptians, there should not so much as a dog bark at any of the

children of Israel,

v. 7.

An earnest was hereby given of the difference which shall be put in the

great day between God’s people and his enemies: did men know what a

difference God puts, and will put to eternity, between those that serve

him and those that serve him not, religion would not seem to them such

an indifferent thing as they make it, nor would they act in it with so

much indifference as they do. 3. The humble submission which Pharaoh’s

servants should make to Moses, and how submissively they should request

him to go

(v. 8):

They shall come down, and bow themselves. Note, The proud

enemies of God and his Israel shall be made to fall under at last

(Rev. iii. 9),

and shall be found liars to them,

Deut. xxxiii. 29.

When Moses had thus delivered his message, it is said, He went out

from Pharaoh in a great anger, though he was the meekest of all the

men of the earth. Probably he expected that the very threatening of the

death of the firstborn would have induced Pharaoh to comply, especially

as Pharaoh had complied so far already, and had seen how exactly all

Moses’s predictions hitherto were fulfilled. But it had not that

effect; his proud heart would not yield, no, not to save all the

firstborn of his kingdom: no marvel that men are not deterred from

vicious courses by the prospects given them of eternal misery in the

other world, when the imminent peril they run of the loss of all that

is dear to them in this world will not frighten them. Moses, hereupon,

was provoked to a holy indignation, being grieved (as our Saviour

afterwards) for the hardness of his heart,
Mark iii. 5.

Note, It is a great vexation to the spirits of good ministers to see

people deaf to all the fair warnings given them, and running headlong

upon ruin, notwithstanding all the kind methods taken to prevent it.

Thus Ezekiel went in the bitterness of his spirit

(Ezek. iii. 14),

because God had told him that the house of Israel would not hearken to

him,

v. 7.

To be angry at nothing but sin is the way not to sin in anger. Moses,

having thus adverted to the disturbance which Pharaoh’s obstinacy gave

him, (1.) Reflects upon the previous notice God had given him of this

(v. 9):

The Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken to you. The

scripture has foretold the incredulity of those who should hear the

gospel, that it might not be a surprise nor stumbling-block to us,

John xii. 37, 38; Rom. x. 16.

Let us think never the worse of the gospel of Christ for the slights

men generally put upon it, for we were told before what cold

entertainment it would meet with. (2.) He recapitulates all he had said

before to this purport

(v. 10),

that Moses did all these wonders, as they are here related, before

Pharaoh (he himself was an eye-witness of them), and yet he could not

prevail, which was a certain sign that God himself had, in a way of

righteous judgment, hardened his heart. Thus the Jews’ rejection of the

gospel of Christ was so gross an absurdity that it might easily be

inferred from it that God had given them the spirit of slumber,
Rom. xi. 8.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)

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