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Exodus 11 Bible study: One more plague

Moses gave the last warning to Pharaoh's face, after saying he would see it no more, and it was the warning God gave Moses before the first plague: the firstborn. Egypt would hear "a great cry", the same Hebrew word as Israel's cry God heard at the bush, while against Israel "a dog won’t even bark". Paul calls Christ "our Passover", the feast that came out of this night.

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“But against any of the children of Israel a dog won’t even bark or move its tongue, against man or animal, that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel.”
Exodus 11:7 · World English Bible

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“Moses gave the warning about the firstborn to Pharaoh in person.”

Is that in Exodus 11, or not? Make your call.

What's really going on

The ending, told first

In the text

The chapter opens with the LORD telling Moses how it will end: "I will bring yet one more plague on Pharaoh, and on Egypt; afterwards he will let you go. When he lets you go, he will surely thrust you out altogether" (11:1). He had said it before the plagues began: "by a strong hand he shall drive them out of his land" (6:1). And it happens just as he said: "they were thrust out of Egypt, and couldn’t wait" (12:39).

Where it leads to Jesus

Christ, our Passover

Interpretation

Exodus 11:5leads to1 Corinthians 5:7

This link is an interpretation. This chapter announces that "all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die" (11:5). The next gives Israel the Passover: "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" (12:13), to be remembered as "the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and spared our houses" (12:27). Hebrews says Moses "kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them" (Hebrews 11:28). Paul writes, "For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place" (1 Corinthians 5:7). Neither Hebrews nor Paul cites Exodus 11; both speak of the Passover of Exodus 12. Many read the Passover sacrifice, whose blood kept Israel's firstborn from the plague announced here, as the picture Paul points to in Christ; others keep to what Paul says in his own passage, where "our Passover" is part of a call to "keep the feast" without "the yeast of malice and wickedness" (1 Corinthians 5:8).

Honest questions

Questions people ask about Exodus 11

That was a taste

The rest of Exodus 11 is waiting in Favor

  • The warning given before the first plague
  • A cry in Egypt, and quiet in Israel
  • Not empty-handed
  • Two cries
  • The wonders begin and end with the same words
  • 8 questions as you read
  • 9 more Hebrew words
  • A short check at the end
  • Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it

בְּכוֹרbekhorsay be-KHOR

"First-born" (Brown-Driver-Briggs). Verse 5 uses it four times: all the firstborn in Egypt, "the firstborn of Pharaoh", "the firstborn of the female servant", and "all the firstborn of livestock" (11:5). It is the word of God's first warning: "Israel is my son, my firstborn… I will kill your firstborn son" (4:22-23). When the plague comes, verse 12:29 uses it four times too. Afterward the LORD says, "Sanctify to me all the firstborn" (13:2), and Israel is to say, "all the firstborn of my sons I redeem" (13:15).

For your group

Exodus 11 Bible study questions

  1. 1Before the first plague, God gave Moses a warning for Pharaoh about the firstborn (4:22-23), and Pharaoh still refused to let Israel go (11:10). Why do you think people keep going past warnings they have heard many times?
  2. 2"The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians." When have you been given favor you didn't earn or arrange yourself?
  3. 3Moses once fled from Pharaoh (2:15); now he stood before Pharaoh and gave him the LORD's warning (11:4-8). What would it take for you to face something you once ran from?

Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Exodus 11 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.

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Questions

What is Favor?

Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home