Exodus 10:7 - Exposition

And Pharaoh's servants said unto him . This marks quite a new phase in the proceedings. Hitherto the courtiers generally had been dumb. Once the magicians had ventured to say—"This is the finger of God" ( Exodus 8:19 ); but otherwise the entire court had been passive, and left the king to himself. They are even said to have "hardened their hearts" like him ( Exodus 9:34 ). But now at last they break their silence and interfere. Having lost most of their cattle, and a large part of the year's crops, the great men became alarmed—they were large landed proprietors, and the destruction of the wheat and doora crops would seriously impoverish, if not actually ruin them. Moreover, it is to be noted that they interfere before the plague has begun, when it is simply threatened, which shows that they had come to believe in the power of Moses. Such a belief on the part of some had appeared, when the plague of hail was threatened ( Exodus 9:20 ); now it would seem to have become general. A snare to us — i.e. "a peril"—"a source of danger," the species being put for the genus.