Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, Jehovah the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, hath appeared to me, saying, I have indeed visited you, and [seen] that which is done unto you in Egypt;
God speaks to Moses at the burning bush and gives him a message. It goes first to the elders of Israel, not to Pharaoh. The words He chooses are old: the names of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and a promise Joseph spoke as he lay dying.
God could have introduced Himself by sheer power. Instead He ties His name — Jehovah, which the ESV prints as "the LORD" — to three men long dead, and to the people who came from them.
God takes care to say another word: "Jehovah the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you… This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations." How infinitely gracious of God! The name He takes forever in connection with Israel is not the one that reduces every other creature to its own nothingness. It is not the name that makes everything merely the result of His word and His will. He loves and cherishes the name in which He has bound up the objects of His choice with Himself.
This title also has something to say about death itself.
God had sent Moses out from "the bush" to be their deliverer. He sent him under one title: "the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob," the "I am" who had looked on His people and cared for them. A living God in covenant with men meant life, not death; and if death were there, then a life supreme above it. So resurrection had to fill out such a declaration. The hand God held out to man was not going to clasp the limp fingers of a corpse.
Where the ESV reads "I have observed you," older translations have "I have surely visited you." Joseph used that same phrase as he lay dying in Egypt.
On his deathbed Joseph "took an oath of the sons of Israel, saying, 'God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here'" (Gen. 50:25)… To the natural eye there was little likelihood, when Joseph was dying, of his people leaving Egypt. But this dying saint rested on the sure word and promise of God… Nearly four hundred years passed away. Then God did visit His people, the oath still held, and Joseph's bones went with them when they left Egypt.
The message is not only that God will act. It is that He has watched, and knows the details.
He began to show more than His grace in giving His promises to the Seed, which faith could lay hold of. He showed His own thoughtful love, caring for the need and sorrows of His people… He took notice of every circumstance of their trouble and sorrow.
The promise does not stop at leaving Egypt. It runs on to a good land.
Salvation by such a One must be a complete salvation. It is not complete until the land of promise is their own… The land is good and large, flowing with milk and honey. It is not a land of narrowness, as Egypt is… There is all "fatness," which is the literal meaning of the word for milk. There is all sweetness, as the honey implies. Salvation for us must end in satisfaction, or it is not salvation.
God sends Moses to a small group, yet the message is for a whole nation. The elders stood in for everyone.
In Ex. 4:29, Moses and Aaron gathered the elders of the people. In verses 30 and 31 these same men are called "the people." So "the children of Israel" are seen here in the persons of their representatives, and get credit for what they do. Yet in fact they may have, and must have, been a small number compared with the whole nation. They were the heads of the people, and represented the people then and always.
The message reached the people, and their answer was worship.
Moses had said, "They will not believe me or listen to my voice." But the people did believe, just as the Lord had said. They heard how He had visited them and looked on their affliction. Touched by His grace, they bowed their heads and worshipped.
- Surely seen. God's first word about His people in Egypt is that He noticed. He already knew every detail of their trouble and sorrow.
- Surely visited. The phrase answers Joseph's dying oath, spoken four centuries before. Delay never cancelled the promise.
- Surely named. He comes as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — That name binds Him to His people forever, and it means life, not death.
- Surely gathered. The message goes to the elders, who stand in for the whole nation; what they receive, Israel receives.
- Surely brought in. Rescue is not the goal — a land of fatness and sweetness is. Salvation that stops short of satisfaction is not yet complete.
and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt, unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
God tells Moses what He plans to do for a nation still in slavery: take them out of Egypt's affliction and into a land where six peoples already live. So is rescue the whole of salvation, or only its first half?
The verse joins two acts, and they belong together. One writer warns against a message that stops halfway.
But those evangelists preach a very defective gospel who would only bring the sinner to the cross and leave him there. This is not deliverance. All this — the scarlet line, the true token, the gathering them to the house of Rahab — all this was only preparation for two things. The purpose of God was to bring them out, and to bring them in.
For Israel to settle for the first half would have been a slight on the God who promised both.
The Lord tells Moses what He intends, and speaks tenderly of having seen His people's affliction, heard their cry, and known their sorrow. So the purpose of grace included not only deliverance from slavery, but bringing them into the blessings of Canaan. For Israel to be content with the one and fall short of the other would dishonour that blessed purpose of God's grace, if not be presumptuous self-will.
The announcement leaves out the forty years that followed. One writer notes the silence.
He now announces His purpose to Moses... Not a word is said of the wilderness, and its forty years of endurance and toil. His plan was to test them there, which He did; but His purpose was to bring them to the place where He could dwell... He would bring us into a place where His own heart can be satisfied, and where He may dwell with and enjoy His people.
The desert was real, but it belonged to a different category — God's ways with His people rather than His purpose for them.
What was the purpose of God? To bring them out, and bring them in. The wilderness was no part of God's purpose, but it was part of the ways of God. They had to learn themselves.
The phrase is not decoration. Each word describes the land, and both set it against Egypt.
Six nations are named here to be overthrown — the full power of evil — and the land is good and large, flowing with milk and honey. It is not a cramped land, as Egypt is... There is all "fatness," which is what the word for milk means, and all sweetness, as the honey implies. Salvation for us must lead to satisfaction, or it is not salvation. Our Canaan is to be entered now by faith.
Another writer marks where the abundance came from:
The blessings of that land were earthly, but they came from the hand of God. They were not won by irrigation and hard work, as they were in Egypt.
God names the peoples already living in the land. One writer explains why they could not stay.
Ham's descendants were settled in the land when the children of Israel entered it. But God had set it apart for Israel, and the Canaanites had to be driven out of the land of promise.
Another writer reads their names as a picture of what still blocks our enjoyment of what God has given.
They suggest those powers of evil which preoccupy and would prevent our enjoyment of our God-given inheritance in Christ. The Hittite, "child of terror" — how spiritual dread makes cowards of us all!... The Amorite, "the talker," not the doer of the Word. The Canaanite, "the trafficker"... while the Jebusite, "the treader down," never rests until all divine things are trampled under foot. All of them must be cast out.
The instructions given with this promise already include Pharaoh's refusal and how God would break it.
These instructions are important for all time; for they place beyond doubt the exact foreknowledge of God. He knew whom He had to deal with, what resistance He would meet, and how it would be overcome. He saw all things from beginning to end. No difficulty or trial can come to us which our God has not foreseen, and for which His grace has not already made provision.
The people who first heard this promise never entered the land. One writer sets that beside what they missed:
Some must enter there, even though the people who first heard the good news of Canaan did not enter in because of unbelief. Those who did enter would be blessed in that exceedingly good land. There they would eat bread without shortage, and lack nothing in it.
- Out. God's first word is rescue from affliction — but rescue is the opening move, not the destination.
- In. He brought them out to bring them in. A rescue that stops at the border leaves God's purpose unfinished.
- Not through. The wilderness never appears in this promise. God tested His people there, but His purpose was the land where He could dwell with them.
- Full. Milk means fatness, honey means sweetness. The blessing came from God's hand, not from irrigation and toil as in Egypt.
- Held. Six nations hold the ground, and God will drive them out. One writer reads them as the powers that still crowd out our enjoyment of what God has given. Unbelief kept the first hearers outside.
And they shall hearken to thy voice. And thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, hath met with us; and now, let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God.
God gives Moses the exact words to say — first to the elders of Israel, then to the king of Egypt. The ask is small: permission for a three-day journey to offer sacrifice. Why that wording, why that distance, and why does God promise in advance that the elders will listen?
Before Moses meets a single elder, God tells him the outcome — the hearing, the refusal, the release.
God tells him in advance that they will listen to his voice. He and the elders will go together to Pharaoh. There they will ask permission to go three days' journey into the wilderness, so that they may sacrifice to the Lord their God. God also warns him of Pharaoh's stubborn opposition. But He tells him as well that God Himself would deal with the Egyptian king and force him to let them go... These instructions matter for all time. They put God's exact foreknowledge beyond doubt. He knew whom He had to deal with. He knew what resistance He would meet, and how He would overcome it.
That promise makes Moses' later objection hard to defend:
But Moses is still afraid. He asks what he will do if they do not believe him or listen to his voice (Ex. 4:1). Yet God had told him they would listen (Ex. 3:18). Why not believe Him?
The title God gives Moses carries weight. "Hebrew" holds the idea of crossing over — the mark of someone who has left one place for another.
It is significant that God is called... "the God of the Hebrews." The root of this word means "to pass over," as when one passes over a river or from one region to another. Genesis 14:13 calls Abraham "Abram the Hebrew." God told Abraham to leave his country and his relatives and go into the land of Canaan. Scripture does not use the word Hebrew until Abraham had left his country and was in the land of Canaan. There he was a sojourner in a strange country, living in tents.
The distance is not arbitrary. Behind it stands the one basis on which God can accept worship at all.
A three days' journey into the wilderness involves a complete separation from Egypt (the world). The three days symbolise the truth of death and resurrection. This is because the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the only basis of worship that God can allow.
Egypt left no room for this sacrifice.
Here is true separation from Egypt — "three days' journey." Nothing less than this could satisfy faith. The Israel of God must be separated from the land of death and darkness, in the power of resurrection... If they had stayed in Egypt, they would have had to sacrifice to the Lord the very things Egypt worshipped. This would never do. There could be no tabernacle, no temple, no altar, in Egypt.
Israel's stated reason for leaving was worship. The same reason runs through message after message to Pharaoh.
The Exodus is the separation of the people of God from the world. One feature of the scene struck me: Israel was to go out of Egypt to serve, or hold a feast to the Lord (Ex. 5:1; Ex. 3:18; Ex. 8:1, 20; Ex. 9:1, 13; Ex. 10:3, 9). They could not serve Him or sacrifice to Him in the land where they were slaves, in front of that people. Their religious service was of such a character that Egypt would not tolerate it.
Why ask for only three days, when Israel was to leave Egypt for good? Kelly follows what happened to that first small ask.
At first, when the signs were done, the people and Moses asked only for three days' leave. The king refused with contempt and made their oppression worse. So God gave His servant a fuller revelation of Himself for the people, who were now completely crushed. He also gave him a stronger commission in Egypt — armed not with signs only, but with judgments on their oppressors. Now the demand was for Israel to leave Egypt altogether. If the prince of the world made their burdens heavier, the certainty of deliverance grew clearer, and the short-term release vanished.
- Promised — God tells Moses ahead of time that the elders will listen. He tells him Pharaoh will refuse. He knows the hearing and the resistance before either happens.
- Named — "The God of the Hebrews" uses a word rooted in "to pass over." Abraham is first called a Hebrew after he had left his country and was living in tents as a sojourner.
- Measured — The three days' journey stands for death and resurrection. That is the only basis on which God accepts worship.
- Necessary — Egypt had no altar, no tabernacle, no temple. Sacrifice there would have meant offering up the very things Egypt worshipped.
- Enlarged — Once Pharaoh refuses, the small first ask becomes a demand to leave Egypt for good. Heavier burdens only made deliverance more certain.
But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a powerful hand.
God tells Moses in advance how his mission will begin: with a refusal. Before Moses says a word to Pharaoh, God announces the outcome: the king will hold on until a mighty hand forces his grip open.
The words "I know" are the heart of the verse. God saw the whole outcome before Moses set out.
Jehovah shows from the very first that every result of His raising up Moses and sending him to Pharaoh was already before His own mind. He was surprised by nothing.
God does not send His servant into Egypt with an optimistic forecast. He tells him how the king will react, and what will follow.
At the same time, Moses was to be under no illusion about the way the king would react to this request. So the last four verses of the chapter predict what would happen. As to Pharaoh, he would powerfully and stubbornly resist. But Jehovah would stretch out His hand in wonders and strike in judgment. Then the king's "mighty hand" would lose its might, and he would let them go.
Commentators differ over whose hand is meant. Hole takes it as Pharaoh's own strong hand, which God breaks. Others take it as the hand of God that compels him to let Israel go. An older translation reads "no, not by a powerful hand," where the ESV has "unless compelled by a mighty hand."
The signs came one at a time. One writer explains why God held back His full power at first.
Yet God had forewarned Moses that the king of Egypt would not let them go unless a mighty hand compelled him. For this reason God would increase the pressure on Pharaoh step by step. He would not show the power of His might at first. Instead He brought miraculous signs to bear on Egypt in a way that ought to awaken their conscience to listen seriously and obey the living God.
Pharaoh's resistance did not wreck the plan. It became the stage where God showed His power and made His name known across the earth.
Moses is then warned that "the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, unless it be by a powerful hand." God then assures Moses that He will show this clearly. Paul says the same thing: "For this very thing I have raised you (Pharaoh) up from among men, that I might show in you My power, and that My name should be declared in all the earth. So then He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills" (Rom. 9:17-18).
Did Pharaoh ever have a real chance? The order of events in Exodus answers that.
Mercy had been within his reach, but he refused it again and again. Six times over God solemnly warned him, through terrible plagues, about the folly of resisting Him, but each time he hardened his heart. (Exodus 7:13 should read, "And Pharaoh's heart was hardened (or strong) so that he did not listen." The Lord did not harden him in judgment until chapter 9.) Then came that terrible word, "In very deed, for this cause have I raised you up, to show in you My power." If people despise privilege and mercy, God hardens their hearts, and uses them as warning beacons of His power and wrath.
This is more than ancient politics. Pharaoh's refusal pictures how Satan holds people.
Then He sent Moses to Pharaoh to get His people out. Read the chapters from Exodus 3 onwards, and you will see all the difficulties that Pharaoh put in the way. Pharaoh gives us the illustration of Satan's power. "I will not let them go," he boldly says. And do you think the devil is going to let you go? Not if he can help it. You try to get away from him, and you will find he has a firm grip of you.
And the answer to that grip is the same as Israel's — a hand mightier than the one holding them.
Our blessed Lord has come and broken that strong man's power. One stronger than Satan has come and taken away the armour he trusted in. Man is set free.
- Known — "I know" is the key word: nothing Pharaoh would do took God by surprise.
- Told — God left Moses under no illusion. He predicted the king's resistance before Moses set out.
- Measured — the pressure rose step by step, so that conscience had every chance to hear and obey.
- Just — the hardening came after Pharaoh had refused mercy again and again, not before he had any responsibility.
- Broken — the mighty hand that opened Pharaoh's grip is the same Stronger One who sets Satan's captives free.
And I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof; and after that he will let you go.
Before Moses ever reaches Egypt, God tells him how it will end. The king will refuse, and God Himself will act. Pharaoh's resistance stands against God's own hand, and the wonders end in release.
God gives Moses these instructions before a single plague falls. They show how much He already knew.
These instructions are important for all time, because they put the exact foreknowledge of God beyond doubt. He knew who He was dealing with, the resistance He would meet, and how it would be overcome.
The verse before this one also speaks of a mighty hand. Older translations read that hand as Pharaoh's own strength, and the writer below follows that reading. Here God stretches out His hand, and the contrast is the point.
Pharaoh would resist powerfully and stubbornly. But the Lord would stretch out His hand in wonders, striking in judgment, so that the king's "mighty hand" would lose its might and he would release them. So these four verses give a prophecy that we see fulfilled as we read the next ten or eleven chapters.
God does not crush Egypt in one blow. The plagues come in order, and the pacing has a purpose.
God warned Moses that the king of Egypt would not let them go unless a mighty hand forced him. For this reason God would increase the pressure on Pharaoh step by step. He did not show the full power of His might at first. He brought miraculous signs to bear on Egypt in such a way that their conscience should be awakened to listen carefully and obey the living God. In the end the affliction from God's hand would be so dreadful that Pharaoh had to let them go.
Pharaoh had already declared that he did not know the Lord. The wonders answer that boast.
Pharaoh said he did not know the Lord, but Pharaoh must know Him. If Pharaoh would disown Him in His goodness, he must know Him in His righteousness. His judgments were now to be made plain, and the Lord makes Himself known by the judgment He carries out. God would be known in grace. But if Egypt refuses that lesson, she must know Him in the raised hand of power. And so she does know Him, until the strength and flower of her people lie on the banks of the Red Sea.
The verse ends with a promise: he will let you go. That is what happened, and no more than that.
There was nothing the people of Egypt, and at last even the king, would refuse to give. Later on they had every interest in keeping the children of Israel. Yet they were willing and eager for them to go, and not to go away empty. Their proud will was broken, although their hearts were by no means with God.
The chapters this verse predicts are full of God's power. Yet something more was needed before anyone went free.
It may seem strange that the Lord made so great a display of His power in Egypt, and yet not one soul was delivered... We have seen the tender compassion of God. We have heard His sweetest promises. We have witnessed His terrible power against the enemy. We have seen all this from chapters 3 to 11. But no soul is delivered from bondage until the blood of the Lamb is sprinkled. How very exact is the teaching of God in these types.
- Foretold — God announces the whole conflict with Pharaoh before it begins. He knew the resistance, and He knew how it would be overcome.
- Hand — Pharaoh's hand meets God's outstretched hand and loses its might. The ten chapters that follow are this verse coming true.
- Wonders — the signs come step by step. They press on Egypt's conscience before the last crushing blow.
- Known — Egypt refused to know God in His goodness, so she came to know Him in His righteousness, all the way to the Red Sea.
- Blood — the release comes, but a broken will is not a changed heart. No soul goes free until the blood of the Lamb is sprinkled.
And I will give this people favour in the eyes of the Egyptians, and it shall come to pass, when ye go out, that ye shall not go out empty;
God gives this promise to Moses at the burning bush, long before the first plague falls. He settles two things in advance: how the Egyptians will treat Israel, and what Israel will carry out of Egypt.
The promise is not new. God had made it long before Moses was born, and one writer points to where.
Then comes the commission to Moses. Jehovah tells him beforehand that the king of Egypt would not let them go. He also promises Moses that He would strike Egypt, and that when the exodus takes place they were not to go empty-handed. This is in fulfillment of a previous promise (Genesis 15:14).
So what Moses hears at the bush is not a new plan. God is acting on a promise He had already bound Himself to.
Israel does not win this goodwill. God says He will give it. And the change in the Egyptians goes deeper than politeness: in the end they want Israel to go, and to go loaded.
In the end there was nothing the people, and even the king of Egypt, were unwilling to give up. Later on, keeping the children of Israel was in their own interest. Even so, they were willing and eager that Israel should go, and that they should not go away empty. Their proud will was broken, although their hearts were by no means with God.
Israel is told to ask the Egyptians for what they need. Older translations said "borrow," as if the goods were taken on loan. One writer explains what the word really means.
There is no idea of "borrowing" in it. It means simply "to ask." The context shows why. God stepped in so plainly that the children of Israel had "favour in the sight of the Egyptians." The Egyptians were made to feel that they had wronged Israel. So they gladly gave them whatever they asked, perhaps as a way of making peace, knowing full well that they would never see the Israelites again. What they gave was therefore an unconditional gift.
This was justice, not just kindness. Israel had worked for centuries without pay. One writer treats the demand as a bill at last presented.
The children of Israel had served the Egyptians for 400 years, building the storage cities for Pharaoh (Exodus 1:11). So God had already told Moses that they were to demand these things as payment for their labours (Exodus 3:21-22). It was no more than they had a right to. The Egyptians seem to have known this, and that is why they answered the demand so eagerly. It was "spoil," but spoil they had earned.
God announces the whole story — Pharaoh's refusal, and Israel's loaded departure — before any of it happens. One writer draws comfort from that.
These instructions are important for all time, because they place the exact foreknowledge of God beyond doubt. He knew who He was dealing with, the resistance He would meet, and how it was to be overcome. He saw all things from the beginning to the end. How comforting for our weak hearts! No difficulty or trial can come to us that our God has not foreseen, and for which in His grace He has not made provision.
The silver and gold had a purpose beyond the journey. One writer shows what God meant it for, and what Israel did with it instead.
God had set apart the wealth that Israel took out of Egypt for His service in the Tabernacle. It had a proper use. God's claim was on the wealth that came out of the land with them. The misuse of it shows up in chapter 32, where the golden calf came before the dancing.
There was one more thing God wanted Israel to learn: who really owned the silver and gold.
Of course, in their years of slavery they had earned every bit of this. And God would also impress on them that the silver and gold were His. So they could receive these things as from His own hand.
- Promised — "you shall not go empty" is God keeping a promise He made long before Moses was born.
- Given — God gives the favour; Israel does not win it. Egypt's proud will broke, though their hearts stayed far from Him.
- Asked — the word is "ask," not "borrow." The Egyptians gave gladly, with no strings, knowing they would never see Israel again.
- Owed — 400 years of unpaid work lay behind the demand. It was spoil, but spoil Israel had earned.
- Returned — the silver and gold were God's all along, set apart for the tabernacle. Israel used them for a golden calf instead.
but every woman shall ask of her neighbour, and of her that is the inmate of her house, utensils of silver, and utensils of gold, and clothing; and ye shall put [them] on your sons and on your daughters, and shall spoil the Egyptians.
God's last word from the burning bush is not about the escape itself, but about what Israel would carry out: silver, gold and clothing from the people who had crushed them. For centuries readers have asked whether that was theft by God's command, and what all that wealth was for.
Much of the difficulty comes from the older word "borrow." One writer notes who was to do the asking, and says the wages were owed already:
In truth their wages were long overdue, never having been paid. It is mere folly to suppose there was any, even the smallest, breach of what was right and proper. Every woman was simply to ask her neighbour for objects of silver and gold, along with clothing, and these were to be put on Israel's sons and daughters. It was to spoil their oppressors by divine authority, and no question whatever of deceit or dishonesty. The impression of "borrowing" given in the Authorized Version is by no means necessary, nor does the connection justify it.
The word "spoil" sounds like plunder taken by force. Read against Israel's work record, it reads instead as a bill finally settled:
The word translated "borrowed" really means to "ask," and the word translated "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 explains the eager way in which they seemed to answer this demand. It was "spoil," but spoil they richly deserved.
Egypt handed the valuables over willingly. God had changed how the Egyptians saw Israel:
The context shows that God's clear intervention would put the children of Israel in "favour in the sight of the Egyptians." Feeling that Israel had suffered wrong at their hands, the Egyptians gladly gave them whatever they asked for — perhaps as a kind of appeasement — knowing full well that they would never see the Israelites again. What they gave was therefore an unconditional gift.
The promise reached beyond that one night. One writer traces it from the exodus to Israel's future:
God's promise included His judging the nation that oppressed Israel. He would not only set Israel free, but bless them with great substance. This was true at the exodus (Ex. 12:35-36). It also pictures the great blessing Israel will receive when the nation at last receives their Messiah. He will free them from the bondage to sin that has enslaved them for centuries.
The same gold later shows up in two very different places: the tabernacle and the golden calf. One writer faces that tension:
But why did God allow what later helped to produce the terrible sin of chapter 32? Chapter 25 throws much light on this question. God had set apart the wealth that Israel took out of Egypt for His service in the tabernacle. There was a proper use for it. God had a claim on the wealth that came out of the land with them. The abuse of it comes out clearly in the 32nd chapter, where the golden calf preceded the dancing.
Read as a picture, the transfer runs in one direction only. What is valuable does not stay behind with the oppressor:
But God does not intend His people to go out of Egypt empty. Instead, they are to leave it with the spoil of Egypt in their hands. Yet in taking this, they take only what is their own. Take out of the world today everything that comes from God's saving work. Take out of it all that Scripture has enriched it with. How poor it would be left!
- Ask — the older word "borrow" misleads. The command was to ask, and what Egypt handed over was an unconditional gift, not a loan.
- Owed — Israel built Pharaoh's treasure cities for four hundred years. They received no more than their right: spoil, but spoil they deserved.
- Given — God gave Israel favour in Egyptian eyes. Egypt gave gladly, feeling it had wronged them.
- Promised — God kept His word to judge Egypt and to send Israel out rich. The same promise pictures the blessing Israel will yet receive under their Messiah.
- Destined — the gold had a use already appointed: God's service in the tabernacle. Chapter 32 shows the alternative, when the same gold became a calf.