Exodus 10:4

4 else soothly if thou against-standest, and wilt not deliver it, lo! I shall bring in tomorrow a locust, that is, a multitude of locusts, into thy coasts, (or else, if thou standest against me, that is, if thou refusest me, and wilt not let them go, lo! tomorrow I shall bring a multitude of locusts into thy land,)

Exodus 10:4 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 10:4

Else, if thou refuse to let my people go
He threatens him with the following plague, the plague of the locusts, which Pliny ^F24 calls "denrum irae pestis":

behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast;
according to Bishop Usher ^F25 this was about the seventh day of the month Abib, that this plague was threatened, and on the morrow, which was the eighth day, it was brought; but Aben Ezra relates it as an opinion of Japhet an Hebrew writer, that there were many days between the plague of the hail, and the plague of the locusts, that there might be time for the grass and plants to spring out of the field; but this seems not necessary, for these locusts only ate of what were left of the hail, as in the following verse.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29.
F25 Annales Vet. Test. p. 21.

Exodus 10:4 In-Context

2 and (so) that thou (can) tell in the ears of thy son(s), and of thy sons? sons, how oft I all-brake the Egyptians, and did signs in them (and did these miracles among them); and (so) that ye know that I am the Lord.

3 Therefore Moses and Aaron entered to Pharaoh, and said to him, The Lord God of (the) Hebrews saith these things, How long wilt thou not be made subject to me? Deliver thou my people, that it make sacrifice to me (Let my people go, so that they can worship me);

4 else soothly if thou against-standest, and wilt not deliver it, lo! I shall bring in tomorrow a locust, that is, a multitude of locusts, into thy coasts, (or else, if thou standest against me, that is, if thou refusest me, and wilt not let them go, lo! tomorrow I shall bring a multitude of locusts into thy land,)

5 that shall cover the over-part of the earth, neither anything thereof shall appear, but that, that was left of the hail shall be eaten of (the) locusts; for the locust(s) shall gnaw all the trees that burgeon in [the] fields; (which shall cover the face of the earth, so that none of it can be seen; and what was left by the hail shall be eaten by the locusts, for the locusts shall gnaw all the trees that grow in the fields;)

6 and they shall full-fill thine houses, and the houses of thy servants, and of all the Egyptians, (by) how great thy fathers and thy grand-sires saw not, since they were born on (the) earth, till into this present day. And Moses turned away himself (And then Moses turned), and went out from Pharaoh.