Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 11:8

Charles Ellicott Commentary

Exodus 11:8

1819–1905
Anglican
Charles Ellicott
Charles Ellicott

Charles Ellicott Commentary

Exodus 11:8

1819–1905
Anglican
SCRIPTURE

"And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger." — Exodus 11:8 (ASV)

All these your servants—that is, the high officers of the Court who were standing around Pharaoh. These grandees would come to Moses when the blow fell, and prostrate themselves before him as if he were their king, and beseech him to depart with all his nation. The details are given more fully and more graphically here than in the subsequent narrative (Exodus 12:31).

In a great anger.—Hebrew, in heat of anger: that is, burning with indignation. Moses had not shown this in his speech, which had been calm and dignified; but he records here what he had felt. For once his acquired “meekness” failed, and the hot natural temper of his youth blazed up. His life had been threatened—he had been ignominiously dismissed—he had been deprived of his right of audience for the future (Exodus 10:28). Under such circumstances, he “did well to be angry.”