Exodus 10:4

4 For if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring the locusts into thy borders,

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 and that thou may tell in the ears of thy sons and of thy son’s sons the things I did in Egypt and my signs which I gave among them and that ye may know that I am the LORD.

3 Then Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh and said unto him, Thus hath the LORD God of the Hebrews said, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me.

4 For if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring the locusts into thy borders,

5 and they shall cover the face of the earth that one will not be able to see the earth, and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remains unto you from the hail and shall eat every tree which produces fruit for you out of the field:

6 And they shall fill thy houses and the houses of all thy slaves and the houses of all the Egyptians, which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself and went out from Pharaoh.