Exodus 8:25

25 And Pharaoh called (for) Moses and Aaron, and said to them, Go ye, make ye sacrifice to the Lord your God, in this land (Go ye, and offer your sacrifices to the Lord your God, here in this 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 and I shall set parting betwixt my people and thy people; this sign shall be tomorrow (this miracle shall come tomorrow).
24 And the Lord did so. And a most grievous fly, that is, (a) multitude of flies, came into the house of Pharaoh, and into the houses of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt; and the land was corrupted of such flies (and the land was ruined by such a multitude of flies).
25 And Pharaoh called (for) Moses and Aaron, and said to them, Go ye, make ye sacrifice to the Lord your God, in this land (Go ye, and offer your sacrifices to the Lord your God, here in this land).
26 And Moses said, It may not be [done] so, for why shall we offer to the Lord our God the abominations of Egyptians; that if we shall slay before the Egyptians those things which they worship, they shall throw us down with stones. (And Moses said, It cannot be done so, for we shall not offer to the Lord our God the abominations of the Egyptians; and if, in front of the Egyptians, we kill those things which they worship, they shall throw us down with stones.)
27 We shall go the way of three days into wilderness, and we shall make sacrifice to our Lord God, as he commanded us. (We shall make a journey for three days into the wilderness, and we shall offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, as he commanded us.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.