Keluaran 10:21-23

The Ninth Blow: Darkness

10:21 ¹ The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward heaven ²  so that there may be ³  darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness so thick it can be felt.” ⁴ 

10:22 So Moses extended his hand toward heaven, and there was absolute darkness ⁵  throughout the land of Egypt for three days. ⁶  10:23 No one ⁷  could see ⁸  another person, and no one could rise from his place for three days. But the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

Keluaran 30:13-19

30:13 Everyone who crosses over to those who are numbered ⁹  is to pay this: a half shekel ¹⁰  according to the shekel of the sanctuary ¹¹  (a shekel weighs twenty gerahs). The half shekel is to be an offering ¹²  to the Lord. 30:14 Everyone who crosses over to those numbered, from twenty years old and up, is to pay an offering to the Lord. 30:15 The rich are not to increase it, ¹³  and the poor are not to pay less than the half shekel when giving ¹⁴  the offering of the Lord, to make atonement ¹⁵  for your lives. 30:16 You are to receive the atonement money ¹⁶  from the Israelites and give it for the service ¹⁷  of the tent of meeting. It will be a memorial ¹⁸  for the Israelites before the Lord, to make atonement ¹⁹  for your lives.”

The Bronze Laver

30:17 ²⁰ The Lord spoke to Moses: ²¹  30:18 “You are also to make a large bronze ²²  basin with a bronze stand ²³  for washing. You are to put it between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it, ²⁴  30:19 and Aaron and his sons must wash their hands and their feet from it. ²⁵ 

[10:21]  ¹ sn The ninth plague is that darkness fell on all the land – except on Israel. This plague is comparable to the silence in heaven, just prior to the last and terrible plague (Rev 8:1). Here Yahweh is attacking a core Egyptian religious belief as well as portraying what lay before the Egyptians. Throughout the Bible darkness is the symbol of evil, chaos, and judgment. Blindness is one of its manifestations (see Deut 28:27-29). But the plague here is not blindness, or even spiritual blindness, but an awesome darkness from outside (see Joel 2:2; Zeph 1:15). It is particularly significant in that Egypt’s high god was the Sun God. Lord Sun was now being shut down by Lord Yahweh. If Egypt would not let Israel go to worship their God, then Egypt’s god would be darkness. The structure is familiar: the plague, now unannounced (21-23), and then the confrontation with Pharaoh (24-27).

[10:21]  ² tn Or “the sky” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[10:21]  ³ sn The verb form is the jussive with the sequential vav – וִיהִי חֹשֶׁךְ (vihi khoshekh). B. Jacob (Exodus, 286) notes this as the only instance where Scripture says, “Let there be darkness” (although it is subordinated as a purpose clause; cf. Gen 1:3). Isa 45:7 alluded to this by saying, “who created light and darkness.”

[10:21]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term מוּשׁ (mush) means “to feel.” The literal rendering would be “so that one may feel darkness.” The image portrays an oppressive darkness; it was sufficiently thick to possess the appearance of substance, although it was just air (B. Jacob, Exodus, 286).

[10:22]  ⁵ tn The construction is a variation of the superlative genitive: a substantive in the construct state is connected to a noun with the same meaning (see GKC 431 §133.i).

[10:22]  ⁶ sn S. R. Driver says, “The darkness was no doubt occasioned really by a sand-storm, produced by the hot electrical wind…which blows in intermittently…” (Exodus, 82, 83). This is another application of the antisupernatural approach to these texts. The text, however, is probably describing something that was not a seasonal wind, or Pharaoh would not have been intimidated. If it coincided with that season, then what is described here is so different and so powerful that the Egyptians would have known the difference easily. Pharaoh here would have had to have been impressed that this was something very abnormal, and that his god was powerless. Besides, there was light in all the dwellings of the Israelites.

[10:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “a man…his brother.”

[10:23]  ⁸ tn The perfect tense in this context requires the somewhat rare classification of a potential perfect.

[30:13]  ⁹ sn Each man was to pass in front of the counting officer and join those already counted on the other side.

[30:13]  ¹⁰ sn The half shekel weight of silver would be about one-fifth of an ounce (6 grams).

[30:13]  ¹¹ sn It appears that some standard is in view for the amount of a shekel weight. The sanctuary shekel is sometimes considered to be twice the value of the ordinary shekel. The “gerah,” also of uncertain meaning, was mentioned as a reference point for the ancient reader to understand the value of the required payment. It may also be that the expression meant “a sacred shekel” and looked at the purpose more – a shekel for sanctuary dues. This would mean that the standard of the shekel weight was set because it was the traditional amount of sacred dues (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 333). “Though there is no certainty, the shekel is said to weigh about 11,5 grams…Whether an official standard is meant [by ‘sanctuary shekel’] or whether the sanctuary shekel had a different weight than the ‘ordinary’ shekel is not known” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:181).

[30:13]  ¹² tn Or “contribution” (תְּרוּמָה, tÿrumah).

[30:15]  ¹³ tn Or “pay more.”

[30:15]  ¹⁴ tn The form is לָתֵת (latet), the Qal infinitive construct with the lamed preposition. The infinitive here is explaining the preceding verbs. They are not to increase or diminish the amount “in paying the offering.” The construction approximates a temporal clause.

[30:15]  ¹⁵ tn This infinitive construct (לְכַפֵּר, lÿkhapper) provides the purpose of the giving the offering – to atone.

[30:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the silver of the atonements.” The genitive here is the result (as in “sheep of slaughter”) telling what the money will be used for (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 11, §44).

[30:16]  ¹⁷ sn The idea of “service” is maintenance and care of the sanctuary and its service, meaning the morning and evening sacrifices and the other elements to be used.

[30:16]  ¹⁸ sn S. R. Driver says this is “to keep Jehovah in continual remembrance of the ransom which had been paid for their lives” (Exodus, 334).

[30:16]  ¹⁹ tn The infinitive could be taken in a couple of ways here. It could be an epexegetical infinitive: “making atonement.” Or it could be the infinitive expressing result: “so that atonement will be made for your lives.”

[30:17]  ²⁰ sn Another piece of furniture is now introduced, the laver, or washing basin. It was a round (the root means to be round) basin for holding water, but it had to be up on a pedestal or base to let water run out (through taps of some kind) for the priests to wash – they could not simply dip dirty hands into the basin. This was for the priests primarily to wash their hands and feet before entering the tent. It stood in the courtyard between the altar and the tent. No dimensions are given. The passage can be divided into three sections: the instructions (17-18), the rules for washing (19-20), and the reminder that this is a perpetual statute.

[30:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “and Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying.”

[30:18]  ²² sn The metal for this object was obtained from the women from their mirrors (see Exod 38:8).

[30:18]  ²³ tn Heb “and its stand bronze.”

[30:18]  ²⁴ tn The form is the adverb “there” with the directive qamets-he ( ָה).

[30:19]  ²⁵ tn That is, from water from it.