The Tenth Plague (Exodus 12:29-32)

29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. [The Egyptians, who killed the Hebrew boys, now receive God’s judgment, a case of justice meted out on those who deserved it, against an entire society whose religious beliefs led them to practice such horrible treatment of others, thinking it was appropriate.] 31 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. 32 Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!” [Israel left Egypt on sudden notice, freely, rapidly, and comparatively wealthy. The last time an Israelite blessed a pharaoh was when Jacob blessed the pharaoh whom Joseph served as prime minister. This pharaoh, at least for the time being, has made some kind of shift in respect to the God of the Hebrews. Moses now stands in relation to Pharaoh in the position that Jacob once held. Where Jacob and his son, Joseph, once represented a way out of death to the pharaoh who was blessed, Moses represents a way out of death to this pharaoh.]