John Gill Commentary Exodus 10

And the Lord said to Moses, go in to Pharaoh, for I have
hardened his heart
Or, as some render it, "though I have hardened his heart" ^F21 ; or otherwise it would seem rather to be a reason he should not go, than why he should; at least it would be discouraging, and he might object to what purpose should he go, it would be in vain, no end would be answered by it; though there was an end God had in view, and which was answered by hardening his heart,

and the heart of his servants ;
whose hearts also were hardened until now; until the plague of the locusts was threatened, and then they relent; which end was as follows:

that I might show these my signs before him ;
which had been shown already, and others that were to be done, see (Exodus 7:3) or in the midst of him ^F23 , in the midst of his land, or in his heart, see (Exodus 9:14) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F21: (yk) "quamvis", Piscator; so Ainsworth.
• F23: (wbrqb) "in medio ejus", Pagninus, Drusius; "in interioribus ejus", Montanus.

And that you may tell in the ears of your son, and of your
son's son
Not of his sons and grandsons only; for Moses here, as Aben Ezra observes, was in the stead of Israel; and the sense is, that it should be told to their posterity in all succeeding ages:

what things I have wrought in Egypt ;
the plagues that he inflicted on the Egyptians:

and my signs which I have done amongst them ;
meaning the same things which were signs:

that you may know how that I am the Lord ;
that their God is the true Jehovah, and the one only living and true God; the Lord God omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, infinite, and eternal.

And Moses and Aaron came in to Pharaoh
As the Lord commanded them, for what is before said to Moses was designed for Aaron also, his prophet and spokesman:

and said to him, thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews ;
as the ambassadors of the God of Israel, and in his name said:

how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me ?
to acknowledge his offence, lie low before God, and be subject to his will; he had humbled himself for a moment, but then this did not continue; what God expected of him, and complains of the want of, was such a continued humiliation before him, and such a subjection to him, as would issue in complying with what he had so often demanded of him, and is as follows:

let my people go, that they may serve me ;
see (Exodus 9:1Exodus 9:13) .

Else, if you refuse to let my people go
He threatens him with the following plague, the plague of the locusts, which Pliny ^F24 calls "denrum irae pestis":

behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into your coast ;
according to Bishop Usher ^F25 this was about the seventh day of the month Abib, that this plague was threatened, and on the morrow, which was the eighth day, it was brought;

but Aben Ezra relates it as an opinion of Japhet an Hebrew writer, that there were many days between the plague of the hail, and the plague of the locusts, that there might be time for the grass and plants to spring out of the field; but this seems not necessary, for these locusts only ate of what were left of the hail, as in the following verse.

FOOTNOTES:

• F24: Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29.
• F25: Annales Vet. Test. p. 21.

And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be
able to see the earth
Or, "cover the eye of the earth" ^F26 ; either the appearance and colour of the earth, so as they could not be discerned for the multitude of the locusts on it; so the word is used in (Numbers 11:7) or the eye of man looking upon the earth, which would not be able to see it, because the locusts would be between his eye and the earth.

The Targum of Onkelos is, ``and shall cover the eye of the sun of the earth,'' so that its rays shall not reach the earth; and so Abarbinel interprets it of the sun, which is the light of the earth, when it casts forth its rays, as the eye upon the object that is seen; and the meaning is, that the locusts should be so thick between the heavens and the earth, that the eye of the earth, which is the sun, could not see or cast its rays upon it, as in (Exodus 10:15) , and so Pliny says ^F1 , that locusts came sometimes in such multitudes as to darken the sun:

and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which
remaineth unto you from the hail ;
particularly the wheat and the rye, or rice, which was not grown, (Exodus 9:32) and the herb or grass of the land, (Exodus 10:12)

and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field ;
such fruit trees as escaped the hail, and such boughs and branches of them which were not broken off by it, (Exodus 10:15) and locusts will indeed eat trees themselves, the bark of them, and gnaw everything, even the doors of houses, as Pliny ^F2 relates.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: (Urah Nye) "oculum terrae", Montanus, Piscator; so Ainsworth.
• F1: Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29.
• F2: Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29.