Exodus 4:23

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁸ Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, "Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace." ¹⁹ Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, "Go, return into Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead." ²⁰ Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God's rod in his hand. ²¹ Yahweh said to Moses, "When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go. ²² You shall tell Pharaoh, 'Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn, ²³ and I have said to you, "Let my son go, that he may serve me;" and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.'"

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

Cross-References

Exodus 20:13
"You shall not murder.

Leviticus 19:18
You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am Yahweh.

Numbers 23:18
He took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; Listen to me, you son of Zippor:

Judges 9:7
When they told it to Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said to them, Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you.

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.