Exoduschapter 11
10 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
So Moses declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt,
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Exodus Overview.
The book names Moses as the one who wrote down the words of the LORD, and here he writes as a man raised in Pharaoh's household who has now stood before its king through nine plagues. His first hearers were the people who walked out of Egypt and the children they raised in the wilderness, and they knew the house of slavery at first hand. This short chapter is the last warning before the blow falls. Listen for who speaks to whom as the scene changes. Listen for the line drawn between two peoples, and for the way Moses leaves the room.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, whose own firstborn sons belonged to God because of the night this chapter announces
- What
- Exodus 11 is the LORD's word to Moses about the last plague and the warning Moses gives Pharaoh before it falls.
- Where
- It takes place in Egypt before Pharaoh, at a royal city the chapter leaves unnamed, with Israel living in the eastern Nile delta.
- When
- It falls on the eve of the exodus, which the two main datings place in the fifteenth or the thirteenth century BC, with Exodus 12:40 and 41 and 1 Kings 6:1 bearing on the question, and both datings are held.
- Why
- It puts the death of the firstborn on record in advance, so the night of chapter 12 comes as a judgment already announced.
Historical context
Exodus carries Moses' name in the tradition of Israel and of the church, and the book records him writing at the LORD's command at 17:14 and again at 24:4.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The chapter falls in Egypt's New Kingdom, in the days before the going out. The early dating puts it about 1446 BC from the four hundred and eighty years of 1 Kings 6:1 read literally, while Kenneth Kitchen and James Hoffmeier date the exodus to the thirteenth century from the store cities of Exodus 1:11, and the chapter names no Pharaoh and no year.
The place is the eastern Delta, where Pharaoh's court sat within reach of the land of Goshen that Israel worked in.
The occasion is Moses' last appearance before Pharaoh, where he announces the death of every firstborn in Egypt at about midnight.
A first hearer knew what a firstborn son was worth, since he was the heir, he took a double portion, he carried the family name, and in the royal house he was the coming king whom Egyptian belief treated as divine. The same hearer knew that Pharaoh had ordered Hebrew sons drowned in the Nile, so a plague that takes Egyptian sons answers Egypt's own policy in kind. He knew what it cost a household to hand over its silver, gold and clothing, and the chapter says the LORD gave the people such favour that the Egyptians granted the request. That metal and cloth is what later goes into the tabernacle, and into the golden calf.
The promise that not even a dog will snarl at an Israelite was a saying about total safety, given to people who knew what a camp of dogs did on a night of screaming.
Significance
Israel heard God draw a line between Egypt and Israel and keep it, house by house, on one night.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Every Israelite firstborn son and every firstborn animal in the camp was consecrated because of what happened then. The claim on them was the standing receipt for a life that had been spared.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi reads the order to ask the Egyptians for silver in verse 2 as a promise being kept in full. The word for speak carries entreaty here, so that Abraham "may not say" that the affliction foretold to him came true while the going out with great substance did not (Rashi on Exodus 11:2:1). At verse 4 he places the whole announcement inside Pharaoh's hall, because Moses did not see his face again after leaving it (Rashi on Exodus 11:4:1). On the hour of it he carries a dispute. The plain sense is that the blow falls when the night is divided. The Rabbis read the word as about midnight, and held that Moses said it so loosely lest Pharaoh's astrologers mistake the hour and call him a liar (Rashi on Exodus 11:4:2). At verse 5 he asks why the captives were struck, since they had not enslaved Israel. His answer is that their own gods might otherwise be credited with the blow (Rashi on Exodus 11:5:1). At verse 8 he holds that Moses spoke of Pharaoh's servants coming down "out of respect for the king", though Pharaoh himself came in the end (Rashi on Exodus 11:8:1). Sforno reads verse 1 by the temper of the man. Pharaoh will send Israel out as he drove Moses from his presence, "under a similar type of stress" (Sforno on Exodus 11:1:1, the Eliyahu Munk translation, CC-BY). The Rashi text is the Rosenbaum and Silbermann translation of 1929 to 1934, in the public domain.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis take up the hour of midnight at Berakhot 3b:27, 4a:6 and 4a:7. On the dog that shall not move its tongue they taught at Berakhot 56b:12 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 7:2. On the firstborn of verse 5 they taught in the Mekhilta at Tractate Pischa 13:8 and 13:27. On the favour Israel found in Egyptian eyes they taught in Devarim Rabbah 11:10.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Exodus 11:2:1, 11:4:1, 11:4:2, 11:5:1 and 11:8:1, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934 (public domain); Sforno, Sforno on Exodus 11:1:1, the Eliyahu Munk translation of HaChut Hameshulash (CC-BY); Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Exodus 11:3:1 and 11:6:1, cited by ref alone under the corpus licence rule; The Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 3b:27, 4a:6, 4a:7 and 56b:12, cited by ref; The Midrash, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 7:2, 13:8 and 13:27, and Devarim Rabbah 11:10, cited by ref.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
One Plague More
God gives Moses the count before the last stroke falls, so the sequence ends on an announcement rather than on a surprise. The promise that Pharaoh will thrust you out hence altogether is reported as kept at 12:33, where the Egyptians are urgent upon the people, and at 12:39, where the dough has no time to rise. Genesis 12:17 records the LORD plaguing an earlier Pharaoh over an earlier Hebrew household, and the account of Egypt and the sons of Abraham closes here with the same word.
Exodus 11:1
“The Lord said - Or “the Lord had said.” The first three verses of this chapter are parenthetical. Before Moses relates the last warning given to Pharaoh, he feels it right to recall to his readers’ minds the revelation and command which had been previously given to him by the Lord. When he shall let you go ... - When at last he lets you depart with children, flocks, herds, and all your possessions, he will compel you to depart in haste.”
Exodus 11:2-3
The instruction repeats a promise made at the bush, where Exodus 3:21 and 3:22 said the people would not go out empty, and Exodus 12:35 reports it carried out. Adam Clarke argues at 3:22 that the English borrow misrepresents the Hebrew shaal, which is the ordinary verb for asking, so what the text describes is a request granted rather than a loan never repaid. Behind both stands Genesis 15:14, where God told Abram that afterward shall they come out with great substance. The favour is given by the LORD, and the same verse says the man who fled Egypt at 2:15 is now great in the sight of Pharaoh's own servants.
Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt: Adam Clarke traces this regard to the signs Pharaoh's officials had watched Moses work through nine plagues. In his reading the same standing kept Moses from violence at a hostile court. Origen counts him among the few men Scripture calls great.
Exodus 11:3
“The man Moses was very great - The miracles which Pharaoh and his servants had already seen him work had doubtless impressed them with a high opinion of his wisdom and power. Had he not appeared in their sight as a very extraordinary person, whom it would have been very dangerous to molest, we may naturally conclude that some violence would long ere this have been offered to his person.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 11:3
About Isaac it is said that "he grew strong until he became great, exceedingly great." Moses was called "great," and John the Baptist was called "great," and now Jesus is called "great," and after this no one is any longer called "great." For before he who is truly "great" had come, in comparison with the rest of men, the saints whom we mentioned earlier were called "great."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 12.2.5patristic
Death of the Firstborn Announced
The nine plagues before this one fall in three groups of three, each triad opening with a warning at the river in the morning, then a warning in the palace, then a stroke with no warning at all. The tenth stands outside that architecture. Moses announces it instead of being told to perform it, no rod is stretched out and no hand is lifted, and the LORD says he will go out himself. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the going out as language used after the manner of men.
Exodus 11:4
“Thus saith the Lord, About midnight--Here is recorded the announcement of the last plague made in the most solemn manner to the king, on whose hardened heart all his painful experience had hitherto produced no softening, at least no permanently good effect. will I go out into the midst of Egypt--language used after the manner of men.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 11:4
“About midnight will I go out - Whether God did this by the ministry of a good or of an evil angel is a matter of little importance, though some commentators have greatly magnified it. Both kinds of angels are under his power and jurisdiction, and he may employ them as he pleases. Such a work of destruction as the slaying of the first-born is supposed to be more proper for a bad than for a good angel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis spent fifty chapters putting the younger ahead of the elder, Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Ephraim over Manasseh, and Exodus turns and deals with the firstborn directly. The words answer Exodus 4:22 and 4:23, where God called Israel his firstborn son and told Pharaoh what a refusal would cost, so the last plague was named before the first one fell. The stroke reaches from the throne to the handmill, which puts it on the house that gave the order at 1:22 and on the house that grinds the grain. Exodus 13:2 will take up the survivors with sanctify unto me all the firstborn, and that is the first occurrence of sanctify in Scripture.
Exodus 11:5
“Two points are to be noticed: 1. The extent of the visitation: the whole land suffers in the persons of its firstborn, not merely for the guilt of the sovereign, but for the actual participation of the people in the crime of infanticide Exo 1:22. 2. The limitation: Pharaoh’s command had been to slay ALL the male children of the Israelites, but only one child in each Egyptian family was to die. If Tothmosis II was the Pharaoh, the visitation fell with special severity on his family. He left no son, but was succeeded by his widow.”
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 11:5
“Warning is here given to Pharaoh of the last and conquering plague which was now to be inflicted. This was the death of all the first-born in Egypt at once, which had been first threatened ( ch. iv. 23 , I will slay thy son, thy first-born ), but is last executed; less judgments were tried, which, if they had done the work would have prevented this.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 11:5
“Two portable millstones are used for the purpose, of which the uppermost is turned by a small wooden handle, and during the operation the maid sits behind the mill.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Exodus 11:6-7
The cry that goes up in Egypt answers the cry that went up from Israel at 2:23, where the people cried by reason of the bondage and their cry came up unto God, and 12:30 reports it fallen. Against Israel not a dog moves his tongue, which Adam Clarke reads as a proverb for going out without so much as a disturbance. The difference named here is the fifth the plagues have drawn, after the division at 8:23, the severing of the cattle at 9:4, the hail that missed Goshen at 9:26 and the light in Israel's dwellings at 10:23. Chapter 12 says what makes the difference on this particular night, and it is blood on a doorpost rather than descent.
Exodus 11:6
“There shall be a great cry - Of the dying and for the dead. See more on this subject, Exo 12:30 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel: Then you will know is spoken to Pharaoh and his officials, and the plague account has used the same formula since 7:17. Charles Spurgeon sets the distinction against the years of the whip, when Egyptians lived in houses the sons of Jacob had built. One night reverses that order.
Exodus 11:7
“THE DIFFERENCE between the Egyptians and Israel was exceedingly manifest. At first sight it seemed to be very greatly to the advantage of Egypt. They had the whip in their hand, and poor Israel smarted under the lash. Egypt possessed the toil of the Israelites. the sons of Jacob made bricks, and the subjects of Pharaoh inhabited the houses which the sons of Jacob builded. How soon, however, were the tables turned! God wrought plagues in Egypt. but Goshen was spared.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 11:7
“Not a dog move his tongue - This passage has been generally understood as a proverbial expression, intimating that the Israelites should not only be free from this death, but that they should depart without any kind of molestation. For though there must be much bustle and comparative confusion in the sudden removal of six hundred thousand persons with their wives, children, goods, cattle, etc., yet this should produce so little alarm that even the dogs should not bark at them, which it would be natural to expect, as the principal stir was to be about midnight.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Moses tells Pharaoh that his own officials will bow and beg him to leave, and 12:31 to 12:33 reports it, with Pharaoh calling for Moses by night and Egypt urgent upon the people. This is the first place the text records Moses angry, and his anger returns at 16:20 over the manna kept overnight and at 32:19 over the calf. The speech that began at verse 4 is the tail of the audience in chapter 10, where at 10:29 Moses had said he would see Pharaoh's face again no more, and he walks out with no further interview.
Exodus 11:8
“And all these thy servants shall come - A prediction of what actually took place. See Exo 12:31-33.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 11:8
“But it had not that effect; his proud heart would not yield, no, not to save all the firstborn of his kingdom: no marvel that men are not deterred from vicious courses by the prospects given them of eternal misery in the other world, when the imminent peril they run of the loss of all that is dear to them in this world will not frighten them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 11:9-10
The word wonders goes back to the bush at 3:20, where God said he would smite Egypt with all my wonders, and verse 10 reports that Moses and Aaron did all of them. The order of the hardening across the book is checkable in the text, since God announces it at 4:21 and 7:3, the first five plagues put the act on Pharaoh or leave the verb stative, and 9:12 is the first place the words read that the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, after which the subject stays the same through 14:17. Romans 9:17 quotes Exodus 9:16 and draws the conclusion at 9:18, whom he will he hardeneth. Sproul reads sovereignty and human responsibility as two true descriptions of one act, while the free will reading takes the sequence as God confirming a man in the direction he had already chosen, and both are held by teachers this site honours.
Exodus 11:9
“Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you - Though shall and will are both reputed signs of the future tense, and by many indiscriminately used, yet they make a most essential difference in composition in a variety of cases.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: Verse 10 sums up every wonder Moses and Aaron did before Pharaoh, from the first plague to the ninth. The clause on the hardened heart repeats 10:20 almost exactly. John Wesley reads the long order of plagues as the LORD's slowness to wrath, with lighter judgments tried first that could have spared Egypt this one.
Exodus 11:10
“And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, Which are related in the preceding chapters: and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart: one time after another, and yet more and more: so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land; until the last plague, the slaying of the firstborn, was brought upon him and his people, related in the following chapter.”
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 11:10
“Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people. The high favour Moses and Israel were in with God. Moses was a favourite of Heaven, for God will not hide from him the thing he will do.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 11:10
“The death of the first-born had been threatened, chap. iv, 23, but is last executed, and less judgments tried, which, if they had done the work, would have prevented this. See how slow God is to wrath, and how willing to be met in the way of his judgments, and to have his anger turned away! That sitteth upon his throne - That is to set.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A warning speech set inside the plague narrative, delivered to Pharaoh and reported to Israel, as Henry classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The one speech, given face to face and then walked out of | Verses 4 to 8 are Moses speaking in the second person to Pharaoh and his officials, and they are the only speech in the chapter. The speech ends with Moses leaving the presence hot with anger, which is the one line in Exodus that describes his temper in that room. | Exodus 11:4, Exodus 11:8 |
| The dead counted from the throne down to the hand mill | Verse 5 lists the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, the firstborn of the servant girl behind the hand mill, and the firstborn of the cattle. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown describe the two portable millstones the servant girl worked at, which sets the lowest rank in Egypt beside the highest in one line.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Exodus 11:5. | Exodus 11:5 |
| The great cry set against the dog that stays silent | Verse 6 puts an outcry over all the land of Egypt such as has never been heard, and verse 7 answers it with a camp where not even a dog will snarl at man or beast. The two lines are built to be heard together, and the distinction they draw is the point the speech makes. | Exodus 11:6, Exodus 11:7 |
| The chapter opened and closed by the same word to Moses | Verse 1 opens with the LORD telling Moses that one more plague is coming and that Pharaoh will then drive them out. Verses 9 and 10 close with the LORD telling Moses that Pharaoh will refuse to listen, and with the hardening that keeps him from listening. The chapter is bracketed by the same speaker on the same subject. | Exodus 11:1, Exodus 11:9, Exodus 11:10 |
The chapter stands at the hinge of the plague narrative that runs from chapter 7 to chapter 12. Nine plagues have fallen and Pharaoh has held. The tenth is the one the whole sequence has been driving at, and this chapter is where it is put into words.
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
The pattern inside the chapter is a steady narrowing of who is safe. Verse 5 reaches every house in Egypt from the palace to the mill. Verse 6 makes the cry national. Verse 7 draws the one line that holds, which runs between Egypt and Israel and runs nowhere else. Verse 8 predicts that the officials of Egypt will do what Pharaoh has refused to do for nine chapters, which is ask Israel to leave.
The announcement also settles an old account. Pharaoh had ordered Hebrew sons drowned in the Nile at the opening of the book, and the plague announced here takes Egyptian sons.
The New Testament's use
No verse of Exodus 11 is quoted in the New Testament. The night it announces is taken up at Hebrews 11:28, which says that by faith Moses kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch Israel, and the hardening of verse 10 belongs with the argument Paul makes at Romans 9:17 and 18, where the text he quotes is Exodus 9:16.
The debated point
Who hardens Pharaoh's heart is contested, and this chapter carries one of the places where the LORD is named as the agent. The site's own dossier sets out the two positions with their holders and stamps no verdict (src/components/book/dossier-content/exodus.ts). The majority evangelical reading has Pharaoh hardening his own heart first at 8:15, 8:32 and 9:34, with the hardening of God confirming a settled refusal. The reading held within parts of the Reformed tradition has sovereign hardening from the start, leaning on Romans 9:17 and 18. The same entry lists the places where no agent is named, at 7:13, 7:22 and 8:19, and the places where the LORD hardens directly, at 4:21, 9:12, 10:1, 10:20, 11:10, 14:4, 14:8 and 14:17. Verse 10 of this chapter is one of the direct ones.
A second point is lighter and older. Adam Clarke records that commentators have asked whether the midnight visitation came by a good angel or an evil one, and he treats the question as one of little importance beside the plain statement that the LORD went out.
Where to go deeper
The sequence this chapter closes is set out at the ten plagues. The claim the night creates on every eldest son is set out at the firstborn. The country and its gods are set out at Egypt, and the going out itself at the exodus.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Exodus 11:1; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Exodus 11:10 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Exodus 11:5.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Charles Spurgeon; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Leviticus and R.C. Sproul, Chosen by God.