Exodus 10:16

16 And Pharao hasted to call Moses and Aaron, saying, I have sinned before 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 (arql-rhmyw) "et festinavit ad vocandum", Montanus; "festinavit accersere", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Exodus 10:16 In-Context

14 and brought them up over all the land of Egypt. And they rested in very great abundance over all the borders of Egypt. Before them there were not such locusts, neither after them shall there be.

15 And they covered the face of the earth, and the land was wasted, and they devoured all the herbage of the land, and all the fruit of the trees, which was left by the hail: there was no green thing left on the trees, nor on all the herbage of the field, in all the land of Egypt.

16 And Pharao hasted to call Moses and Aaron, saying, I have sinned before the Lord your God, and against you;

17 pardon therefore my sin yet this time, and pray to the Lord your God, and let him take away from me this death.

18 And Moses went forth from Pharao, and prayed to God.