בא אל פרעה כי אני הכבדתי את לבו, “come to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart.” G’d informed Moses that although, by natural processes, Pharaoh’s heart had already become softened, and he had even confessed his guilt, He, the Lord, had now hardened his heart again.

למען שיתי, “in order that I can demonstrate, etc.;” to give Me an opportunity to perform My miracles so that the Egyptians (and the Israelites) will become familiar with My power; Pharaoh will not, however, be subjected to additional punishment on account of My having hardened his heart.

ולמען תספר, “and in order that you will tell, etc.” What G’d said to Moses here, He said on behalf of the whole Jewish people, i.e. for the people to tell their children and grandchildren all that had happened to the Egyptians just before the Exodus, how G’d had made a mockery of the Egyptians. He mentions the hardness, obstinacy, of the Egyptians who were the servants of Pharaoh, seeing that the Torah had reported that both Pharaoh and his servants had (on their own) stiffened their attitude (9,34). This audience with Pharaoh had as its purpose to warn him of the impending plague of locusts if he would persist in reneging on his promise to let the Israelites depart. There would have been no point in sending Moses to Pharaoh unless he was meant to deliver a message. The Torah abbreviates the narrative of the first audience involving this warning, describing Moses as not waiting for any response from Pharaoh. The Torah sometimes chooses to be more succinct in its narrative than on other occasions. Midrash Shemot Rabbah 13,4 quotes G’d as having told Moses about the forthcoming plague by the hint that it would be something that would be talked about for many generations. The Midrash quotes Joel 1,3 which discusses another plague of locust, this time in Israel, as something that made an equally lasting impression.

ויבא משה ואהרן, “Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, etc.” Ibn Ezra writes that it was a known fact by now that whenever a plague was to be announced both Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh. Why then did the Torah see fit to single out this occasion by writing that both Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh? The reason may be that we hear later that Pharaoh dismissed both Moses and Aaron summarily. Had we not been told that they both had come to Pharaoh, this would have sounded strange. Pharaoh’s reaction to the warning on this occasion was out of character, seeing that he had clearly admitted being in the wrong. Had it not been for G’d stiffening his attitude to the point of being rude to Moses for the first time, his behaviour would be totally beyond comprehension.

הנני מביא מחר ארבה, “behold I will bring on a plague of locusts,” Nachmanides writes that some commentators believe that many months separated the plague of hail from that of the locusts. These scholars base themselves on the line (verse 5) ואכל את כל העץ הצומח לכם מן השדה, “it will consume every tree that grows for you in the field.” [seeing that the Torah had described the hail as ruining all the trees, (9,25) until they had been replaced how could the locusts eat their foliage? Ed.] Nachmanides himself disagrees with this view, claiming that only a few days elapsed between the plague of hail and that of locusts, seeing that the judgments visited upon the Egyptians did not exceed a period of 12 months. Moreover, it is clear from the Torah that there had been some residue which had not been harmed by the hail (again verse 5,ואכל את יתר הפלטה הנשארת לכם מן הברד, “it will consume any remnants left intact for you by the hail.”) This clearly shows that both plagues occurred in the same calendar year. The hail could not have occurred before the month of Adar, as no crop would have had advanced enough to be ruined; the plague of locusts, obviously, must have occurred before the middle of the month of Nissan, the month of the Exodus. The trees that the hail struck were the branches which had not yet sprouted blossoms or fruit. The trees struck by the locusts had already produced leaves, etc.

ויפן ויצא מעם פרעה, “he turned (without taking leave) and left the presence of Pharaoh.” Some commentators think that Moses turned to face the King and to retreat walking backwards, all the while facing the King. Other scholars, on the contrary, interpret our verse to mean that Moses turned his back on Pharaoh and marched out of the room. He indicated that he was angry and did not request permission to withdraw. The reason why Moses acted in this fashion was that he assumed that just as Pharaoh had once before demonstrated real fear during the plague of the hail, he would do so again now, and he would finally humble himself to prevent wholesale deaths from hunger of his subjects due to the locusts. By leaving at this moment, Moses wanted to afford Pharaoh and his advisors an opportunity to consult and agree on a course of action. Nachmanides writes that the correct interpretation of what the Torah narrates here is that this was Moses’ standard procedure after he had delivered a warning. The only reason why the Torah dwells on this detail here is that for the first time Moses and Aaron were recalled after they had left.

ויצא....ויאמרו עבדי פרעה, “after Moses had left the servants of Pharaoh said, etc.” They waited until Moses had left, as they did not want to challenge their King in Moses’ presence, and they did not want to give Moses the satisfaction to know that they were afraid of him.

מי ומי ההולכים?, “who are all those who are going?” Pharaoh wanted to know, that seeing the request of the Israelites had been for a leave of absence to offer sacrifices to their G’d, who would be the people involved in that other than adult males of superior rank, the ones normally performing such rites. Moses replied that seeing the occasion was happy one, a festival, the entire nation would participate in such celebrations.

ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם, “see here, your evil intent is staring you in the face.” The evil you plan to embark on, i.e. your attempt to flee from Egypt, is clear from the fact that you want to take even your small children with you. Another possible explanation for the above line is: you should face the fact that you will shortly be faced with retaliation by me, so that your illusion of freedom will be short-lived. Alternatively, the words ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם, could mean “the evil which you intend to do will boomerang and hit you in your faces.” I will forbid you to leave altogether, and you will be paid back tit for tat.

ורוח הקדים נשא את הארבה, “and this easterly wind carried the locusts.” Seeing that an east wind is a blast of hot air, as we know from Jonah 4,8, where the effect of this hot easterly wind on Jonah’s state of mind is described, and it is the custom of locusts always to make their appearance when it is hot, as we already know from the prophecy of Nachum 3,17 מנזריך כארבה וטפסריך כגוב גבי החונים בגדרות, ביום קרה שמש זרחה ונודד ולא נודע מקומו אים, “Your guards were like locusts, your marshals like piles of hoppers which settle on the stone fences on a chilly day; when the sun comes out, they fly away and nobody knows where they are.” When G’d would want the plague to disappear, all He had to do was to command a west wind to that region.

ואחריו לא יהיה כן, “and after it there will never be its equal.” The plague of locusts during the life of the prophet Joel could not be compared with the plague in Egypt, as the latter comprised a single species of locusts, whereas in Israel at the time of Joel there were a number of different species of locusts combining to make the experience so memorable. (compare Rashi) Nachmanides questions the above, quoting Psalms 78,46: “He gave their crops over to the grubs, their produce to the locusts.” He also quotes another verse in Psalms 105,34 “Locusts came at His command, grasshoppers without number.” According to both these verses there were more than one species of locusts that invaded Egypt during the plague described in our chapter. Perhaps, in order to reconcile the apparently conflicting statement by Rashi with the verses mentioned fro the Book of Psalms, Rashi meant to say that the species of locusts which invaded Egypt in our chapter was a much larger one than people had ever become familiar with, whereas the species that appeared in the time of Joel were larger than the several species which became manifest in the days of Moses. This attempt to resolve the problem is futile, as there is no question that when the Torah in our chapter discusses the uniqueness of this plague of locusts it means that neither prior to that time nor afterwards did such a plague ever again occur on such a scale. Rabbeinu Chananel, on this verse, writes first of all, that the Torah means that such a plague of locusts, which had been predicted by a prophet, never occurred again. The invasion of the land of Israel in the time of the prophet Joel had not been announced beforehand by a prophet. Furthermore, ever since the prayer of Moses to have the plague of locusts removed, Egypt was never again plagued by locusts. [My edition of Rabbeinu Chananel does not contain such a statement, Ed.] At any rate, Rabbeinu Chananel feels that just as Joshua requested the miracle of the sun and moon being arrested in their orbits until he had mopped up the opposing armies, Moses predicted the miracle of the plague of locusts, and he did not even have to request it.] It is possible to understand the plain meaning of our text differently. Just because a plague of locusts was something quite common in those regions in those times, and moreover, seeing that the one which occurred during the reign of Pharaoh, was orchestrated by a completely natural event, namely a strong east wind blowing, it was necessary for the Torah, i.e. in this instance Moses, to mention the fact that it would occur, to point out when and how it would occur, and that it would be disproportionately severe in the damage it would cause, so much so that it would be more severe than anything like it ever, before or after. This would bring home to the victims that this was not a natural disaster but a punitive act by the Creator.

חטאנו לה' אלוקיכם ולכם, “we have sinned against the Lord your G’d and against you.” He apologized to Moses and Aaron for having insulted them and banished them from his presence.

שא נא חטאתי, “please forgive my sin.” Pharaoh employed the singular mode when addressing Moses seeing he was the senior leader and was an elokim, Divine representative vis a vis Pharaoh. When appealing for their prayer on his behalf to G’d, he employed the plural mode, i.e. העתירו, not העתר. He did so as a form of courtesy, knowing full well that it was Moses who would pray for the cessation of the plague. We know this already from Moses’ offerלמתי אעתיר, “for when shall I pray,” during the plague of the frogs. He is also on record as having said: והעתרתי אל ה' “I shall entreat the Lord.”

לא נשאר ארבה בגבולך, “not a single locust remained behind within the boundaries of your country.” The locusts, as opposed to the frogs at the time, did not die, the reason being that they had not come into existence for the purpose of this plague. They had merely been transported across a great distance, away from their natural habitat [this is all based on the opinion that the wordsותעל הצפרדע in 8,2 appears in the singular mode as opposed to the other occasions when this word appears in the plural mode. According to this view, a single frog became converted into millions of frogs for the sake of the plague, but after it had already left the river Nile. The frogs would therefore not have been able to “return” to their habitat, not having had a habitat in the first place. Ed.]

וימש חשך, “the darkness will be tangible.” This expression describing touching something, as when Yaakov expressed his concern to his mother Rivkah that his father, being blind, would subject him to the ”touch-test.” (Genesis 27,12) The darkness was so opaque that the people could feel it with their hands. The reason was that this “darkness” was not merely the absence of light of the sun, but it was caused by the descent of “thick” air into the lower atmosphere covering Egypt. This layer of “thick” air extinguished any candles or other artificial means of lighting the Egyptians would use at night to see by.

צאנכם ובקרכם יוצג, “your flocks and herds will stay put.” Pharaoh, knowing that the Israelites’ original vocation was to be cattle herders, was convinced that if they meant to leave permanently, they would not leave their livestock behind. Even if he should have miscalculated, Pharaoh figured that the huge amounts of livestock left behind by the Israelites could be viewed as a compensation for the need to make do without their slave labour.

גם אתה תתן בידינו זבחים ועולות, “you too will give to us (from your own herds) meat offerings and burnt offerings.” Moses did not intend to use Pharaoh’s animals as sacrifices by the Jewish people, seeing that such offerings belonging to idolators, would be an abomination in the eyes of Hashem. He made these remarks to show Pharaoh that not only would he not benefit financially by the departure of the Israelites, but on the contrary, he would be so anxious for them to leave when the time came that he would compensate them financially in order to get rid of them sooner. The Lord’s hand would be felt so severely that Pharaoh would be willing, if only able, to offer all kinds of sacrifices to assuage the Lord’s feelings which he had hurt by his obstinate posture during this whole period. All he would be concerned with at that time would be to save his own life.

לא אוסיף עוד לראות פניך, “I shall never see your face again.” If, in apparent contradiction to this statement, the Torah described Pharaoh as calling Moses and Aaron (12,31), on that occasion Moses may have stopped short of entering Pharaoh’s palace, or, what he meant here was that instead of Moses coming to see Pharaoh, as had been the case lately, the next time Pharaoh would have to come to see Moses.