Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Exodus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God’s Identity and Power
Redemption and Deliverance
The Covenant
Mediators and the Priesthood
Summary
Analysis
The LORD tells Moses to go before Pharaoh again. He says that he has hardened Pharaoh’s heart and his officials’ hearts in order to show these signs, and so that Moses can tell his offspring how God made fools of the Egyptians, and so that he will know that God is the LORD. So Moses and Aaron approach Pharaoh and say that God wants to know how long Pharaoh will refuse to humble himself. If he still refuses to let the Israelites go, God will bring a plague of locusts, which will devastate the harvest and fill people’s homes.
The introduction to the ninth plague, locusts, emphasizes the purpose of these disasters: not simply to punish Pharaoh, but to show both Egyptians and Israelites God’s greatness. This is also why God “hardens” Pharaoh’s heart—the goal is to prolong Pharaoh’s natural resistance so there’s even more opportunity for God to make “fools” of his enemies. In fact, there’s a darkly comic undertone to the contrast between God’s might and Pharaoh’s pretentions of greatness.
Themes
Pharaoh’s officials beg him to let the Israelites go, because Egypt is obviously ruined. But when Pharaoh calls Moses and Aaron back, he refuses to let all the Israelites go, because they clearly have some evil purpose in mind; the men alone can go. After Moses and Aaron leave Pharaoh, the LORD tells Moses to stretch out his staff over the land, and he will send the locusts. By the next day, the entire land of Egypt appears black with the vast swarm of locusts, which gobble up all remaining greenery. Pharaoh quickly confesses his sin, and Moses prays accordingly; God sends a great wind that blows the locusts into the Red Sea. But he also hardens Pharaoh’s heart yet again.
As before, Pharaoh’s subordinates ask him to change his behavior, a desperately bold move. And again, Pharaoh appears to soften, but his so-called compromise is a non-starter—God didn’t order the men to worship him in the wilderness, but the entire people of Israel. Pharaoh’s stipulation shows that he still thinks that he—and not God—is in charge of the Israelites. So Moses lets loose another plague, this one so devastating that the audience must wonder what it will take to finally soften the despotic king.
Themes
Next, the LORD tells Moses to stretch his hand toward heaven so that Egypt will be covered with “a darkness that can be felt.” Moses does so, and for three days, Egypt is covered with such darkness that the people can’t move or see one another. Yet the Israelites have light in their homes. Pharaoh calls Moses and says that all the Israelites may go to worship, but they must leave their flocks and herds behind. Moses insists that the livestock must go, too, so that the Israelites can sacrifice to God. But God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, and Pharaoh orders Moses out of his presence.
The ninth plague, darkness, brings ordinary life in Egypt to a halt and also foreshadows the deadlier plague yet to come. Again, the Israelites are spared, set apart to show that they’re God’s special people. Pharaoh keeps looking for ways to retain the Israelites as a workforce, this time by holding onto their livestock. By hardening Pharaoh’s heart again, God shows that he intends for Israel to serve him exclusively—they can’t serve both God and Pharaoh.
Themes
