Verse 1

Servants. They took occasion, from God's withdrawing his chastisements, to become more obdurate. (St. Augustine, q. 30, and 36.)

Verse 7

Scandal, or source of repeated misery; whether they meant their own resistance to God's orders, or Moses, with the Hebrew nation. (Calmet)

Verse 9

Herds. Out of which the Lord may choose what victims he requires. (Menochius) --- The people of Egypt kept solemnities of this description. (Herod. ii. 58, 59.)

Verse 10

So be. A form of imprecation mixed with scorn: as, I shall not let you go, so may God abandon you. (Calmet)

Verse 11

Desired. Moses had requested that all might go. He had not specified the men only, as the king boldly asserts. (Menochius) --- A partial obedience will not rescue him from the threatened plague. (Haydock)

Verse 13

Wind from "the south," (Septuagint) or "east," (Kadim) or perhaps blowing from the south-east. (Bonfrere) The locusts would come from Ethiopia, or from Arabia, in both which countries they abound. (Ludolf, &c.) They lay their eggs in autumn, and hatch in spring. Frequently they devastate one country after another. They are very large in the East, and sometimes will fasten upon the heads of serpents, and destroy them, as they did on this occasion the Egyptians, Wisdom xvi. 9. --- In Cyrene, bordering upon Egypt, it is requisite to encounter these creatures thrice in the year. (Calmet) (See Leviticus xi. 22.)

Verse 14

Hereafter. Joel i. 2, speaking of locusts which infested Judea, uses the same expressions to denote a very heavy judgment. Two events never perfectly agree. (Calmet)

Verse 17

Also. Hebrew, "only," and I will amend. --- Death, or plague. (Menochius)

Verse 18

Moses. The printed Hebrew and Chaldean do not read his name; but some manuscripts have it agreeably to the Septuagint and Syriac versions. (Kennicott)

Verse 19

West. Hebrew sea, (Mediterranean) to the north and west of Egypt. --- Red sea. Hebrew, "of suph," or green herbs, which abound there. It has also a reddish appearance in some places, from the coral branches of a saffron colour. It probably was called red from Edom, or Erythros, the son of Isaac. (Calmet) --- God drowned the locusts in this sea, by means of the wind, which often proves the destruction of those animals. (Pliny, Natural History xi. 29.)

Verse 21

Darkness upon the land of Egypt so thick that it may be felt. By means of the gross exhalations, which were to cause and accompany the darkness. (Challoner) --- Thus were the Egyptians punished for keeping the Hebrews in dark prisons. (Menochius) --- Philo says, even a lighted lamp or fire was extinguished. The Egyptians were affrighted with hideous spectres and evil angels. (Psalm lxxvii. 49; Wisdom xvii. 4.)

Verse 29

More. Of my own accord. (Menochius) --- Thou wilt send for me. (Calmet)

Verse 35

CHAPTER X.