1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:Once again, God unleashes plagues on the Egyptian people after ensuring their leader's non-compliance with his previous terms. In my day, nice deities didn't do that sort of thing.
2 And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the LORD.
3 And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.
4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.
7 And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?
8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go?
9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD.
10 And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you.
11 Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.
13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
14 And the locust went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
16 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you.
17 Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the LORD your God, that he may take away from me this death only.
18 And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD.
19 And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.
20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.
21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.
22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
24 And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you.
25 And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the LORD our God.
26 Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the LORD our God; and we know not with what we must serve the LORD, until we come thither.
27 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go.
28 And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die.
29 And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more.
In verse #2, he seems proud of his plaguey signature.
And now for something a little different, the famous plague of locusts.
Time for an Ogden Nash break:
Hark to the locusts in their shrill armadas.The Egyptians under Pharaoh tire of their resolute leader, who won't admit the war is lost. I can relate.
Locusts aren’t locusts. Locusts are cicadas.
To seals in the circuses I travel on bee lines.
Seals aren’t seals. Seals are sea lions.
I’m a buffalo hunter. Want to see my license?
Buffaloes aren’t buffaloes. Buffaloes are bisons.
I’m too old to be pedantically hocus-pocused.
I’ll stand on the buffalo, the seal and the locust.
But perhaps we should feel sorry for Dubya — maybe God just keeps hardening his heart. Ah, so much for free will.
Verse #9 reminds us that all this pestilence and carnage is so a big-shot can have a tribute dinner. Rank has its privileges.
The God's Word translation makes Verse #10 a little more direct:
Pharaoh said to them, "The LORD would have to be with you if I would ever let you take your women and children along. I know you're up to no good!"Verse #14 tells us that these weren't just any locusts, they were sui generis super-locusts. Way cool!
Then YHWH ups the ante with three days of darkness, or as Anita Bryant would say, "three days without orange juice."
Pharaoh tells Moses that the Hebrews can go, but they haggle about Moe's "No Hoof Left Behind" plan. That would ensure there's plenty of cattle on hand to ritually slaughter, 'cause God gets off on that stuff.
This chapter ends with an intriguing cliffhanger. Pharaoh tells Moses this town ain't big enough for the both of us, and Moses answers with what sounds like a prophecy or mysterious threat: "Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more."
Finally, I hope my anonymous-comment friend can explain this redaction from the King James Version. Last week, Stephen Colbert related the following passage, which was nowhere to be found in Jimmy's translation:
Some Bible scholars know God had a pet chimp named Beppo, as seen in Exodus 10: “And The Lord said unto Moses. “Go in unto Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart that I may show these my signs before him.” And then did Beppo knock over the jar of locusts. And The Lord did cry. “Beppo!!” And Beppo did eat his top-hat in shame.”What are the Bible-istas trying to hide?
10 comments:
Some modern translations such as the one Colbert quoted conflate the LORD with other latter-day religious figures, such as this verse, which conflates the unknown primate of YHWH with Bonzo, of late 20th century deity Ronald Reagan. Since only Republicans supposedly had knowledge of this translation, it's a bit of a mystery how Colbert is familiar with it...
Note that the locusts were so numerous that the swarm brought darkness to the sky (verse 15). That's the Jahwist version. In the Elohist version, the locusts and the darkness have become split into two different plagues, and its "darkness" plague appears in verse 21.
Again with the Jahwist its God doing the plague, Pharaoh recanting, and Moses praying for the plague to be lifted; the Elohist, on the other hand, has Moses doing the plague. Notice how the magicians have disappeared, and God stops asking Aaron to help with the Plagues; that's because the narrative from the priestly source isn't present - it halted in the previous chapter when the Magicians were defeated, its version of the story (which is little more than a magic competition between the Egyptian magicians and God) has already concluded (the repeated formula "YHWH hardened Pharaoh's heart..." is just a redaction to join the sources a little better).
Note how with the Jahwist passages, although Pharaoh keeps refusing to let the people go, he only does so after the plagues are lifted; and before they get lifted he shows willingness to let them go, and this willingness greatens with each plague. By verse 24-27, for example, he is willing to let the Israelites leave and sacrifice in the desert, but still insists on the cattle remaining, and so when Moses refuses to negotiate, Pharaoh's heart hardens (unsurprising really, and somewhat reasonable). Yet in verse 28-29 Moses is told by Pharaoh to go, and Moses is content about it; that doesn't quite fit with the previous verses - that's because 28-29 is the Elohist story - Pharaoh definitely decides to let the Israelites go, but verses 24-27 are the Yahwist version, where Pharaoh is still refusing to accede to all the conditions Moses is imposing.
Cliffhangers and the ending of Chapters. Well, the Bible wasn't originally written with chapters or verses marked out. It was just a long continuous text. The verse/chapter divisions are a medieval invention; the priests and rabbis responsible just chose what looked like obvious places to put the partitions, or if the story was very long, then they usually broke it into scenes. Here the divisions are each of the related groups of plagues. The cliffhanger isn't intentional, its just because the subsequent verses aren't about the same group of plagues (the locust & darkness group).
As to Beppo, the Acts of John (dating from a similar era to the Gospel of John) is probably the closest historic example of biblical bathos, which mentions that at a point during the famed last supper of Jesus, the apostles and Jesus all decide to hold hands in a circle, and do a little dance. (Sorry for raising Jesus again).
I will be very relieved when the Hebrews finally get out of egypt and get all the commandments down. Then I can get rid of this desire to watch Charlton Heston movies again.
Krankor,
So let it be written, so let it be done. :v)
The problem isn't the bible; it's the fundamentalist doctrine of "inerrancy," which, to give it all the unvarnished credibility it deserves, basically goes "God said it... it MUST be true!!!"
It's just a really really silly way to read the bible.
If you are faced with a fundamentalist Christian, quote Jeremiah 8:8 at them:
"How can you say, 'We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD', when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?"
And if you are wondering why Jeremiah would write that, scholars think its because Jeremiah was writing against advocates of the Priestly Source - Jeremiah ended up writing Deuteronomy to counteract the influence of what is now Leviticus (and bits of Numbers and Exodus) [and you might like to look up 2 Kings 22:8, where the high priest in Jeremiah's time "finds" Deuteronomy, which hadn't been known about before].
the hardening of pharoah's heart would mean that pharoah was going to be stubborn as the Hebrew notion of heart corresponds to our brain. it isn't until the 3rd century c.e. that the heart is recognized by the Hebrews a pumping system that is sort of important.
also most commentators say that all this stuff pre-Exodus is just leading up to Mt Sinai as all the rest of the pentateuch takes place there.. just somethings to think on as we continue (or i continue to catch up).
Luke,
Naturally, I get that "hardening his heart" means making Pharaoh more stubborn. We still use this phrase today, no?
God's doing so makes the punishments unleashed on all the Egyptians especially repugnant, since it is He that is keeping the situation from resolving itself, keeping Pharaoh from letting the Israelites go.
Perhaps He is still hardening hearts in the Middle East today, to keep Israelis and Palestinians from resolving their problems. What a swell God!
it's a very weird passage and everyone in their right mind has questioned this... so what's the use of having a god that does this?
well the original hebrew has God saying "look, i wanna get you out but pharoah is gonna be a bastard, so i gotta show him I AM WHO I AM to get ya out". it is only before the last plague that God steps in and actually hardened pharoah's heart.. there has been much ado about this as well.. including ppl using the plagues as allegories of YWHW beating the egyptian gods.. so far better ppl than i have far better answers.
as to what God may or maynot be doing over in the middle east today, i can tell you it isn't because anyone sinned or liked to disliked homosexuals, women, or other races. that would be what the fundamentalists would say and that is just plain silly.
but the point of my writing was that i just wanted to say that you have a fair look at exodus so far and you've really touched on all the soft spots of the text! keep up the good work!
Luke,
Thanks for your kind note.
I'm in the middle of writing up Leviticus 10, arguably the most disturbing chapter thus far. Still hoping to see things turn around and for Yahweh to become someone I admire....
Post a Comment