Exodus 10, Locusts, Darkness, and...

Pharaoh continues to resist YHWH, Moses and Aaron. And so the plagues continue. There will be three more, two of them in this chapter.

Exodus 10:1-2, "For your children and grandchildren"

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD."

Note the long-term view – telling the story to one's children and grandchildren. The eventual results in Egypt will be dramatic. The news about YHWH's work in Israel will spread. Forty years later, a woman, Rahab, will describe (in Joshua 2: 8-11) the terror that came over Jericho when they heard the news about the actions of the God of Israelites, first in Egypt and later, in the desert.

Exodus 10:3-6, A threat of locusts

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: `How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians--something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.'" Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh.

The text records YHWH saying, "How long will you refuse me?" while also stating that God "hardens" Pharaoh's heart!

Exodus 10:7-11, Pharaoh refuses

Pharaoh's officials said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?"    

    

Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. "Go, worship the LORD your God," he said. "But just who will be going?"

    

Moses answered, "We will go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a festival to the LORD."

     

Pharaoh said, "The LORD be with you--if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil. No! Have only the men go; and worship the LORD, since that's what you have been asking for." Then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh's presence.

By this time everyone but a spoiled and stubborn Pharaoh sees the wisdom in giving in to the Israelites.

The Hebrew at the end of verse 10 is difficult. It translates, word-for-word, as "beware for evil is before the face." The NIV translates it as "Clearly you are bent on evil" but allows that it could be translated, "Be careful, trouble is in store for you!" Alter argues that Pharaoh's statement includes a threat -- that Moses and Aaron are walking into trouble.

The Hebrew word for evil, ra' (רַע), sounds very much like the name of the Egyptian god Ra, whom we first encountered in the name of Joseph's father-in-law in Genesis 41:45. It is possible (says Alter) that the ambiguous statement by Pharaoh involves wordplay on that name.

Exodus 10:12-15, The locusts arrive

And the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts will swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail."

    

So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the LORD made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail--everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.

And so there is another plague, the eighth. A swarm of locusts, in smaller doses, was a fairly common plague of that region. But this swarm is dramatically bigger than any previous swarm.

Exodus 10:16-20, Repentance and then hardening -- again

Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you. Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me."

    

Moses then left Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD.

    

And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt. 

    

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.

The locusts are carried into the Sea of Reeds by a strong wind.

"Not a single...  survives". This phrase will reappear when the Egyptians attempt to follow the Israelites across the Sea of Reeds.

Exodus 10:21-23, Darkness!

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt--darkness that can be felt."

    

So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

Here is the ninth plague. Darkness! It is so deep that it "can be felt." It lasts for three days, so it is not something simple like a solar eclipse.

This reverses Day 1 of Creation, un-creating light.  Quite a number of the plagues "undo" creation, reversing the chaos-to-order progress of Genesis 1.

Exodus 10:24-29, "Do not appear before me again!"

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, "Go, worship the LORD. Even your women and children may go with you; only leave your flocks and herds behind."

    

But Moses said, "You must allow us to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to the LORD our God. Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind. We have to use some of them in worshiping the LORD our God, and until we get there we will not know what we are to use to worship the LORD."

    

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to let them go. Pharaoh said to Moses, "Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die."

    

"Just as you say," Moses replied, "I will never appear before you again."

Moses makes it clear that they will not speak again.  The last plague will be extreme and final, indeed indicative of a deep spiritual, universal event. We will build up to that final plague over the next two chapters.

Some Hebrew vocabulary

The Hebrew word erets ,

אֶרֶץ

a feminine noun meaning "earth" or "land." It appears over 2500 times in the Old Testament. It is translated as "earth"in Genesis 1:1 and as land" in Exodus 8:5 but here, in verse 5, it is best translated "ground", as the locusts will be numerous enough to cover the ground.

Some Random Thoughts

The two signs/plagues in this chapter are:

• Locusts
• Darkness

These are plagues eight and nine of the infamous ten.

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First published March 11, 2023; updated March 11, 2026