Exodus 10:23

They saw not one another,.... Not only the luminaries of heaven were covered and beclouded with the darkness, so that they were of no use to them; but the fogs and vapours which occasioned it were so

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.

They saw not one another, because these gross and moist fogs and vapours did not only quite shut out the light of the heavenly bodies, but also put out their candles, or other artificial lights, or at least so darken them that men could have no benefit by them. From his place. Place here may be taken, either, 1. More strictly and particularly; so the sense is, The horror of that darkness was so great that they durst not remove at all, but stood or sat where the darkness found them, like men astonished or affrighted, and therefore unmovable, having their minds disturbed, being terrified with their guilty consciences, which most affect men in the dark, and with the dreadful noises which they heard, /APC , and with the apparitions of evil angels, as may seem from where the plague of evil angels is put instead of this plague of darkness, which therefore is omitted in that place where all the rest are reckoned up. Or rather, 2. More largely, for their own houses or dwellings, for so the Hebrew word is certainly used, . So the sense is, They did not stir abroad out of their houses upon their most necessary occasions. Object. He saith not that they could not go, but that they could not rise from their place, which may seem to limit this expression to their particular places. Answ. The word to rise is commonly put for going about any business; and here it is a pregnant word, as they call it, and implies going in it, none arose, viz. to go or remove from his place. And rising cannot be properly taken here for that particular posture, unless we will suppose that this darkness found all men sitting, which is absurd to imagine. The children of Israel had light in their dwellings, whereby they might have conveyed themselves, and families, and goods away, as afterwards they did in haste; but they waited for Moses’ s orders, and he for God’ s command; and God intended to bring them forth, not by stealth, but in a more honourable and public manner, in spite of all opposition.

Exodus 10:23 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.Ver. 23. They saw not one another.] That they might know the worth of light, by the want of it. One being asked whether light was pleasant, answered, τυφλουτοερωτμηα, That is a blind man’ s question. Little do we prize this excellent creature.

(23) They saw not one another.—Heb., man did not see his brother. The darkness was absolute, equal to that of the darkest night. Neither rose any from his place.—Comp. Exodus 16:29. No one quitted his house. Mr. Millington imagines that they all sat “glued to their seats” (Plagues of Egypt, p. 159), but this savours of over-literalism. It is not necessary to suppose that they had no artificial light, or that they ceased to move from chamber to chamber. What the writer intends to note is that all business and all intercourse with neighbours was suspended. No one quitted the house in which he was when the darkness began. All the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.—The visitation, whatever it was, did not extend to the land of Goshen. (Comp. Exodus 8:22-24; Exodus 9:4-7; Exodus 9:26.)

Verse 23. They saw not one another] So deep was the obscurity, and probably such was its nature, that no artificial light could be procured; as the thick clammy vapours would prevent lamps, c., from burning, or if they even could be ignited, the light through the palpable obscurity, could diffuse itself to no distance from the burning body. The author of the book of Wisdom, chap. xvii. 2-19, gives a fearful description of this plague. He says, "The Egyptians were shut up in their houses, the prisoners of darkness: and were fettered with the bonds of a long night. They were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly astonished and troubled with strange apparitions for neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear; but noises as of waters falling down sounded about them; and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy countenances. No power of the fire could give them light-only there appeared unto them a fire kindled of itself very dreadful; for being much terrified, they thought the things which they saw to be worse than the sight they saw not. For though no terrible thing did scare them, yet being scared with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents, they died for fear: for whether he were husbandman, or shepherd, or a labourer in the field, he was overtaken; for they were all bound with one chain of darkness. Whether it were a whistling wind, or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running that could not be seen of tripping beasts, or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains, these things made them to swoon for fear." See Psalms 78:49. To this description nothing need be added except this circumstance, that the darkness, with its attendant horrors, lasted for three days. All the children of Israel had light] By thus distinguishing the Israelites, God showed the Egyptians that the darkness was produced by his power; that he sent it in judgment against them for their cruelty to his people; that because they trusted in him they were exempted from these plagues; that in the displeasure of such a Being his enemies had every thing to fear, and in his approbation his followers had every thing to hope.

23. but, &c.] What is here described is evidently miraculous: but it is said that the sand-clouds of the Ḥ ?amsîn (see below) sometimes travel in streaks, so that parts of the country may escape them. The darkness was no doubt occasioned really by a sand-storm, produced by the hot electrical wind called the Ḥ ?amsîn, which in Egypt blows in most years intermittently,—usually for two or three days at a time,—from the S., SE., or SW. during some 50 days in spring (hence its name, ḥ ?amsîn = fifty). These winds spring up for the most part suddenly: they are violent, and often as hot as ‘the air of an oven’; and they frequently raise such an amount of sand and dust as to darken the sun, and even to conceal objects a few yards off. Men and animals like are greatly distressed by the sand and heat: the sand penetrates everywhere; and while the storm lasts, people are obliged to remain secluded in their houses. On account of the sand and dust, the darkness is really such as ‘can be felt.’ See R. Pococke, Description of the East (1743), i. 195; Volney, Voyage en Syrie et en Égypte (1787), i. 55–7; DB. iii. 892a; A. B. Edwards, A thousand miles up the Nile2 (1889), ch. 5, p. 76 f.; Rosenm. Schol. ad loc. (a sandstorm, c. 1100, producing darkness so intense that it was thought the end of the world had come); Denon [above, p. 79], i. 285 f.; and a photograph in the Ill. London News, Feb. 17, 1906.

Had light in their dwellings - The sandstorm, if such were the cause, may not have extended to the district of Goshen; but the expression clearly denotes a miraculous intervention, whether accomplished or not by natural agencies.