Exodus 4:22

22 And tell Pharao, thus sayth the Lorde: Israel is mine eldest sonne,

Exodus 4:22 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 4:22

And thou shall say unto Pharaoh
When arrived in Egypt, and in his presence: thus saith the Lord;
he was to declare to him that he came in his name, and by his orders, and, as an ambassador of his, required the dismission of the children of Israel out of Egypt: Israel [is] my son, [even] my firstborn;
as dear to him as a man's firstborn is, or as his only son: adoption is one of the privileges peculiar to Israel after the flesh, even national adoption, with all the external privileges appertaining to it, ( Romans 9:4 Romans 9:5 ) .

Exodus 4:22 In-Context

20 And Moses toke his wife and his sonnes and put them on an asse, and went agayne to Egipte, and toke the rodd of God in his hande.

21 And the Lorde sayde vnto Moses: when thou art come in to Egipte agayne, se that thou doo all the wondres before Pharao which I haue put in thy hande: but I will harden his herte, so that he shall not let the people goo.

22 And tell Pharao, thus sayth the Lorde: Israel is mine eldest sonne,

23 and therfore sayth vnto the: let my sonne goo, that he may serue me. Yf thou wilt not let hi goo: beholde, I will slee thine eldest sonne.

24 And it chaunced by the waye in the ynne, that the Lorde mett him and wolde haue kylled him.