Exodus 10:16

16 Wherefore Pharao in haste called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.

Exodus 10:16 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 10:16

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste
Or, "hastened to call them" F20; sent messengers in all haste to fetch them, and desire them to come as soon as possible to him. Thus he who a few hours ago drove them from his presence, in a hurry, sends for them to come to him with all speed, which the present circumstances he was in required:

and he said to Moses and Aaron:
when they were brought into his presence:

I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you;
against the Lord by disobeying his command, in refusing to let Israel go, when he had so often required it of him; and against Moses and Aaron his ambassadors, whom he had treated with contempt, and had drove them from his presence with disgrace; and against the people of Israel, whom they personated, by retaining them, and using them so ill as he had. This confession did not arise from a true sense of sin, as committed against God, nor indeed does he in it own Jehovah to be his God, only the God of Moses and Aaron, or of the Israelites; but from the fright he was in, and fear of punishment continued upon him, to the utter ruin of him and his people.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 (arql-rhmyw) "et festinavit ad vocandum", Montanus; "festinavit accersere", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Exodus 10:16 In-Context

14 And they came up over the whole land of Egypt; and rested in all the coasts of the Egyptians, innumerable, the like as had not been before that time, nor shall be hereafter.
15 And they covered the whole face of the earth, wasting all things. And the grass of the earth was devoured, and what fruits soever were on the trees, which the hail had left; and there remained not any thing that was green on the trees, or in the herbs of the earth, in all Egypt.
16 Wherefore Pharao in haste called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.
17 But now forgive me my sin this time also, and pray to the Lord your God, that he take away from me this death.
18 And Moses going forth from the presence of Pharao, prayed to the Lord:
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