Exodus 10:16

16 Then Pharaoh quickly sent for Moses and Aaron, and said, I have done evil 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 the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, resting on every part of the land, in very great numbers; such an army of locusts had never been seen before, and never will be again.
15 For all the face of the earth was covered with them, so that the land was black; and every green plant and all the fruit of the trees which was untouched by the ice-storm they took for food: not one green thing, no plant or tree, was to be seen in all the land of Egypt.
16 Then Pharaoh quickly sent for Moses and Aaron, and said, I have done evil against the Lord your God and against you.
17 Let me now have forgiveness for my sin this time only, and make prayer to the Lord your God that he will take away from me this death only.
18 So he went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to the Lord.
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