Exodus 4:23

Nova Vulgata

Dico tibi: Dimitte filium meum, ut serviat mihi; si autem non vis dimittere eum, ecce ego interficiam filium tuum primogenitum".

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Dixitque Lamech uxoribus suis Adæ et Sellæ : Audite vocem meam, uxores Lamech ; auscultate sermonem meum : quoniam occidi virum in vulnus meum, et adolescentulum in livorem meum.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Dixi tibi: Dimitte filium meum ut serviat mihi; et noluisti dimittere eum: ecce ego interficiam filium tuum primogenitum.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Exodus 11:5, Exodus 12:29, Psalms 78:51, Psalms 105:36, Psalms 135:8

Reciprocal: Genesis 6:2 - the sons Exodus 7:14 - he refuseth Exodus 9:1 - General Exodus 9:2 - General Exodus 14:17 - I will Deuteronomy 14:1 - the children 2 Kings 1:16 - Forasmuch 1 Chronicles 2:42 - his firstborn Isaiah 63:8 - Surely Jeremiah 2:3 - all that Malachi 1:6 - if then

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me,.... Worship God according to his will in the place he had designed for him, and where he might be safe and free; and which service was due from him as a son, and to be performed not in a servile way, but in a filial manner, and therefore as a servant he could demand his dismission, and much more as his son; and this is required in an authoritative way, for saying is here commanding, insisting on it as a point of right to be done:

and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn; meaning, not only in a strict and literal sense Pharaoh's firstborn son, and heir to his crown, but the firstborn of all his subjects, which in a civil sense were his. This was not to be said to Pharaoh at the first opening of his commission to him, but after all methods had been tried, and the several other plagues designed were inflicted on him to no purpose, he was to be told this, which was the last plague, and succeeded; but this is told to Moses before hand, that when other messages he should be sent with to him, and all that should be done by him would prove ineffectual, this, when sent with and performed, would have the desired effect.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 4:23. Let my son go, that he may serve me — Which they could not do in Goshen, consistently with the policy and religious worship of the Egyptians; because the most essential part of an Israelite's worship consisted in sacrifice, and the animals which they offered to God were sacred among the Egyptians. Moses gives Pharaoh this reason Exodus 8:26.

I will slay thy son, even thy first-born. — Which, on Pharaoh's utter refusal to let the people go, was accordingly done; see Exodus 12:29.