Exodus 12:33

The Exodus

33 ¹The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, "We shall all be dead."

Exodus 12:33 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 12:33

And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people
The people of Israel; not using force, but strong entreaties, the most powerful arguments, and importunate language they were masters of:

that they might send them out of the land in haste:
this looks as if it was the people about Pharaoh, his ministers and courtiers, they were pressing upon to dismiss the Israelites at once, and to hasten their departure; or else Moses and Aaron, and the elders of the people, to stir them up to a quick dispatch of their affairs, that they might be soon rid of them; unless the sense is, that they were very solicitous and earnest with the people, that they would get away out of the land as fast as they could:

for they said, we [be] all dead [men];
for their firstborn being all slain, they expected that they themselves, and the rest of their families, would be struck with death next; and this they feared would be the case in a very little time, if they did not depart;

for they had sufficient reason to convince them,
that it was purely on their account, and because they had not leave to go out of the land, that all the above judgments, and particularly the last, were inflicted on them.

Exodus 12:33 In-Context

31 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, "Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said.

32 Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!"

33 The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, "We shall all be dead."

34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.

35 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 6:1; Exodus 11:1, 8; Psalms 105:38