Exodus 8:25

25 Pharaoh summoned Moshe and Aharon and said, "Go, and sacrifice to your God here in 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Exodus 8:25 In-Context

23 Yes, I will distinguish between my people and your people, and this sign will happen by tomorrow."'"

24 ADONAI did it: terrible swarms of insects went into Pharaoh's palace and into all his servants'houses - the insects ruined the entire land of Egypt.

25 Pharaoh summoned Moshe and Aharon and said, "Go, and sacrifice to your God here in the land."

26 But Moshe replied, "It would be inappropriate for us to do that, because the animal we sacrifice to ADONAI our God is an abomination to the Egyptians. Won't the Egyptians stone us to death if before their very eyes we sacrifice what they consider an abomination?

27 No, we will go three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to ADONAI our God, as he has ordered us to do."