Exodus 11

This is a transitional chapter. To this point, Moses has been dealing with Pharaoh, but, with God's judgmental punishment of Egypt about to be completed, Moses' concern (beginning with Exodus 12) will focus upon Israel. The section of Exodus ending with this chapter may be called JUDGMENT; the rest of the book may be called DELIVERANCE. Even the Tenth Plague prophesied here will not require the instrumentality of Aaron or Moses. Without human instrument, God will slay the first-born, and Moses will be busy with instructions concerning what Israel is to do as their deliverance approaches.

Exodus 11:1-3 is parenthetical, resulting in ambiguity unless this is discerned, but, of course, any unusual or difficult arrangement of the text is always seized upon by critical scholars as an excuse for alleging interpolations, variable sources, or contradictions. No such things exist here. As Johnson expressed it, "The critical approach has made a great deal of unnecessary confusion in determining the proper sequence here."[1] As more fully explained below, this parenthesis is at once followed by the conclusion of the interview in progress at the conclusion of Exodus 10. There is no excuse for any scholar's misunderstanding of this, because the Samaritan text of Exodus arranges it in such a way as to prove this.[2]