Exodus 10:4

4 If you refuse to let my people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.

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.


FOOTNOTES:

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

Exodus 10:4 In-Context

2 You will be able to tell your children and grandchildren exactly how I treated the Egyptians and what miraculous signs I did among them. This is how you will all know that I am the LORD."
3 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD God of the Hebrews says: How long will you refuse to humble yourself in my presence? Let my people go to worship me.
4 If you refuse to let my people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.
5 They will cover the land so that the ground can't be seen. They will eat everything left by the hail, including every tree still standing in the fields.
6 They will fill your houses and the houses of all your officials and those of all the Egyptians. Your parents and ancestors never saw anything like this from the time they first came here until now." Moses turned and left Pharaoh.
GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved. Used by permission.