Exodus 12:31

31 And he called Moses and Aaron [at] night, and he said, "Get up, go out from the midst of my people, both you as well as the {Israelites}, and go, serve Yahweh, as you have said.

Exodus 12:31 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 12:31

And he called for Moses and Aaron by night
Not that Pharaoh went in person, but he sent his servants to call them; for they never saw his face more after he had drove them from his presence; but now was fulfilled what Moses told him, that his servants should come to him in a very suppliant manner, and entreat him and his people to get away in all haste, ( Exodus 10:28 Exodus 10:29 ) ( 11:8 ) . Where Moses and Aaron now were is not certain, probably in the city, or suburbs of it, where Pharaoh's palace was, for it is not likely that they were gone to Goshen:

and said, rise up;
from their beds in which they now were, being midnight:

and get ye forth from among my people, both ye and the children of
Israel;
even all of them, without any exception of women or children as before; and without limiting them to place or time, where they should go, and how long they should stay, and without obliging them to promise to return:

and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said;
as they had entreated they might, and as they had demanded in the name of the Lord that they should; to which now he gave his consent, though he afterwards repented of it.

Exodus 12:31 In-Context

29 {And} in the middle of the night, Yahweh struck all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who [was] in the prison house and every firstborn of an animal.

30 And Pharaoh got up [at] night, he and all his servants and all Egypt, and a great cry of distress was in Egypt because there was not a house where there was no one dead.

31 And he called Moses and Aaron [at] night, and he said, "Get up, go out from the midst of my people, both you as well as the {Israelites}, and go, serve Yahweh, as you have said.

32 Take both your sheep and goats as well as your cattle, and go, and bless also me."

33 And [the] Egyptians urged the people [in order] to hurry their release from the land, because they said, "All of us [will] die!"

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"