Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 11:3

"And Jehovah gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. 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." — Exodus 11:3 (ASV)

The Lord gave the people favour —that is, when the time arrived. (See below, Exodus 12:36.)

The man Moses. —At first sight, there seems to be a difficulty in supposing Moses wrote this way about himself. “The man” is not a title by which writers of any time or country typically speak of themselves.

However, it is far more difficult to imagine anyone but Moses giving him such a plain and meager designation. To other writers, he is a “prophet” (Deuteronomy 34:10; Luke 24:27; Acts 3:22; Acts 7:37), “a man of God” (Deuteronomy 33:1; Joshua 14:6;Psalms 90:0, Title; Ezra 3:2), or “the servant of the Lord” (Joshua 1:1; Hebrews 3:5)—never simply “the man.”

Very great. —It has been said that this expression does not align well with the “meekness” of Moses. But it is merely the statement of a fact, and one that needs to be stated for the proper understanding of the narrative.

In the course of his long contention with Pharaoh as an equal, Moses had come to be regarded not only by the courtiers but by the Egyptians generally as a great personage—a personage almost on par with the Pharaoh, whom they revered as a god on earth.

The position he had thus attained exerted an important influence on the entire Egyptian people at this time. This caused them to be well-inclined toward his countrymen and willing to make sacrifices to help them and obtain their goodwill.