| EXODUS |
| Explanatory Footnotes - page 2 |
| distinctions on questions of who caused what. 8:27 Oriental Bargaining Those who have lived in the Middle East recognize in Moses' encounters with Pharaoh an example of high-level Oriental bargaining. As the pressure increased, Pharaoh kept raising his offers: from allowing sacrifices within Egypt (verse 25), to permitting sacrifices nearby in the desert (verse 28), to letting only the adult males go (10:11), to releasing all people but no flocks (10:24). Finally, with the tenth and final plague Pharaoh agreed to all Moses' demands (12:32). 10:21 Attack on False Gods God used the ten plagues as a form of warfare against the gods of Egypt (12:12). Some scholars see in each individual punishment an attack against a specific Egyptian idol. Thus they believe the plague on the Nile Riber opposed the Egyptians' river god, the plague of flies flouted worship of the sacred fly, the plague of darkness attacked the sun god Ra, and the plague on livestock countered the sacred bull. 13:1 The Firstborn Principle At the time of the Passover and the exodus from Egypt, God introduced an important principle: every firstborn male, including animals, was to be dedicated to him. Later, the Levites were established as a symbolic firstborn for all the people, with very precise accounting (Numbers 3:40-51). 15:1 A Story for All Time Moses' song celebrates the event from which this book gets its name: "the exodus" from Egypt, when a band of slaves escaped from the most power civilization on earth. The psalmists never tired of celebrating that event in song (see, for example, Psalms 78 and 105), and the prophets later harked back to days of the exodus to stir the conscience of their nation. The Israelites' liberation gave inspiration to the slaves of the American South, who often memorialized the exodus in their spritiuals. |
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