Exodus 8:25

25 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land."

Exodus 8:25 Meaning and Commentary

Ver. 25 And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron
He and his people not being able to endure this plague of flies any longer; and we read in profane history of such creatures being so troublesome, that people have been obliged to quit their habitations, and seek for new ones; so Pausanias F20 relates of the inhabitants of Myus, that such a number of flies rose out of the lake, that the men were obliged to leave the city, and go to Miletus; so Aelian F21 reports, that the inhabitants of Megara were driven from thence by a multitude of flies, as were the inhabitants of Phaselis by wasps, which creatures also might be in this mixture of insects:

and said, go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land;
that is, in the land of Goshen, in the place where they were; he was willing to allow them the liberty of sacrificing to their God, which it seems they had before; but then he would not consent they should go out of the land to do it.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 Achaica, sive l. 7. p. 400.
F21 De Animal. l. 11. c. 28.

Exodus 8:25 In-Context

23 Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. By tomorrow shall this sign be."'"
24 And the LORD did so; there came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses, and in all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by reason of the flies.
25 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land."
26 But Moses said, "It would not be right to do so; for we shall sacrifice to the LORD our God offerings abominable to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?
27 We must go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as he will command us."
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.