Speak now in the ears of the people, that they ask every man of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, utensils of silver and utensils of gold.
This command comes just before the final plague: slaves are to ask their Egyptian neighbours for silver and gold. Two questions follow: was this honest, and why would God care about jewellery on the eve of a rescue?
Older English versions used the word "borrow," and critics have built a charge of dishonesty on it. Commentators answer that the charge rests on a translation, not on the text.
Unbelievers have seized on the word "borrow" in Exodus 3:22. They object that it presents God as telling the people to practise deceit, pretending to borrow what they never intended to repay. The word occurs again in Exodus 11:2 and Exodus 12:35. But the word really is "ask," and is translated that way in Darby's version. The people had been only slaves, working for a bare living. Now the whole position would turn round: their former masters would fear them and give them what they asked. All they could carry out of Egypt would be a mere fraction of what was really due to them.
Others put the same point in one line, refusing even to treat it as a difficulty needing defence.
Ex. 11:2, 35, 36. — The real meaning is not "borrow," but "ask." There is no need to explain or apologise. Deceit did not exist. They asked, and the Egyptians gave.
This was not a favour begged. It was payment for centuries of unpaid labour.
It may help first to point out that the word rendered "borrowed" really means to "ask," and the word rendered "lent" means "gave." The concordance will show that it really means "demanded." The children of Israel had served the Egyptians for 400 years, building the treasure cities for Pharaoh (Ex. 1:11). So God had already told Moses that they were to demand these things as payment for their work (Ex. 3:21-22). It was not more than they had a right to, and it seems the Egyptians knew this. That would explain how eagerly they answered this demand. It was "spoil," but spoil they richly deserved.
The command works because God had already changed how Egypt saw Israel.
So God prepared Moses for this "one plague more," which was very soon to fall. It was to be of such a kind that panic-stricken Pharaoh would not merely let them go but would hurry to thrust them out. So he was to tell the people, both men and women, to ask their Egyptian neighbours for "jewels," or vessels, of gold and silver. By this time fear and respect filled Egyptian hearts, and Moses himself had become very great in their eyes. So they freely gave everything the people asked for. The acts of God often impress humbler, simpler people while the great ones of the earth see nothing.
This wealth answered a promise God made to Abraham long before. It also paid for the tabernacle, the tent of worship Israel would later build.
When God told Abram that his descendants would suffer in Egypt for four hundred years (Gen. 15), He said, "Afterward they shall come out with great substance." Where would they have got all the material for the tabernacle, if they had not had "great substance"? They could receive it all from the Lord, and the best thing we can do with what He gives us is to give it back to Him.
One writer traces the same wealth into two very different chapters.
God had specially intended the wealth Israel took out of Egypt for His service in the Tabernacle. There was a right use for it. God's claim rested on the wealth that went out of the land with them. The abuse of it comes out clearly in chapter 32, where the golden calf came before the dancing.
One writer reads this scene as a picture of the world today.
But God does not intend His people to go out of Egypt empty. They are to leave it rather with the spoil of Egypt in their hands; and yet, in taking this, they take only what is their own. Take out of the world today all that comes from God's saving work, or goes with it. Take out all that Scripture has enriched it with. How poor it would be left!
- Asked — the verb is "ask," not "borrow"; there was no pretence of repayment and so no deceit to defend.
- Earned — they asked for unpaid wages: four centuries of forced labour. The Egyptians seem to have known it.
- Given — Israel seized nothing. God turned Egyptian fear into willingness and made Moses great in their eyes.
- Promised — the "great substance" God spoke of to Abraham arrived here, and no one left empty.
- Devoted — the gold had a purpose: it built the tabernacle. The golden calf shows what happens when people turn God's gift to other use.
And Jehovah gave the people favour in the eyes of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt -- in the eyes of Pharaoh's bondmen, and in the eyes of the people.
Just before the last plague, God tells Moses two surprising things about Egypt. The nation that had enslaved Israel now looks on them kindly, and Egypt holds Moses himself in high honour. Both come from the same hand that was about to strike the land.
One writer reads these opening lines as a look back at what God had already told Moses. On this view God did both things Himself: He made the Egyptians willing, and He raised Moses in their eyes.
Verses 1-3 form a parenthesis, and verse 1 should read, "And the Lord had said to Moses"... So Moses was told to tell the Israelites to ask (not borrow) their Egyptian neighbours for jewels of silver and gold. Israel had certainly earned this by their long years of slavery, and the Lord made the Egyptians willing to give the Israelites what they asked for. On top of this, the Lord had made Moses highly respected among Pharaoh's servants and among the people (v. 3).
Some readers use the old translation "borrow" to accuse God of backing a swindle. Commentators answer that the word means only "to ask," and that Israel was asking for what it was already owed.
"And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and when you go, you shall not go empty." Their wages had been owed for a long time and had never been paid. It is foolish to suppose there was even the smallest breach of what was right and fitting... They were to plunder their oppressors by God's own authority, and there was no question at all of deceit or dishonesty. The Authorized Version gives the impression of "borrowing," but nothing requires that impression, and the context does not support it.
That wealth was not just back pay to spend as they liked. God had already marked it for a purpose.
God had set apart the wealth that Israel took out of Egypt for His own service in the tabernacle. It had a proper use, and God's claim rested on the wealth that came out of the land with them.
Verse 3 names two groups who honoured Moses: Pharaoh's officials and the ordinary people. The king is missing from that list.
By now fear and respect had taken hold of their hearts, and Moses himself had become very great in their eyes. So they gladly handed over everything they were asked for. It often happens that humbler, simpler people are struck by the acts of God while the great ones of the earth see nothing.
The standing of Moses in Egypt also counts as evidence against the king. God was working out His own purpose. Even so, Pharaoh had warning after warning from inside his own household, and this verse is the last.
Yet the king of Egypt was responsible, and his own people and the nations around him were witnesses. First, Exodus 8:19: "Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, 'This is the finger of God.'" Second, Exodus 9:20: "Then whoever feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses." Third, Exodus 10:7: "Pharaoh's servants said to him, 'How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God.'" Fourth, Exodus 11:3: "Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt..."
Scripture gives a second verdict on the same man. Side by side, the two show what forty years of God's training had done in him.
Envy might have found a place in Joshua's heart, but it had no place in the heart of Moses. The desire to be first, which is so deeply rooted in the natural human mind, had no place with him... At 40 he was not very meek, as Exodus 2:12 shows. Now, after 40 years of God's discipline in Midian, he is "very meek," though in the eyes of the world he had become "very great" (Ex. 11:3).
Critics argue that no man writes down his own praise, so a later editor must have added the line to Moses' five books. One writer answers that the objection would only hold if the Bible were a human book.
If the Bible were a human book, texts like Exodus 11:3 and Numbers 12:7 might seem strange. But the history proves they are strictly true, and what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11 may make one hesitate before treating them as later additions by Ezra or some other approved hand... None of this touches in the slightest the claim that Moses himself wrote those five books by inspiration.
- Timing. Verses 1-3 look back at what God had already told Moses, before He announced the last plague.
- Wages. Israel asked for the silver and gold; they did not borrow it. Years of unpaid slavery had earned it, and nothing about it was dishonest.
- Favour. God Himself turned the hearts of the Egyptians, and He later claimed what Israel carried out for the tabernacle.
- Greatness. Ordinary Egyptians and Pharaoh's own officials respected Moses. The king stayed blind, so he had no excuse.
- Meekness. Scripture calls the same man "very great" in Egypt and "very meek" in the wilderness. God's training had already taken the love of being first out of him.