Bible Strands
Exodus 10:22
So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and total darkness covered all the land of Egypt for three days.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses acts at God’s command to execute the ninth plague upon Egypt, immediately following the divine instruction to stretch out his hand toward heaven.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיֵּט (va-yēṭ) means “he stretched out,” describing Moses’ physical action toward the heavens. The noun חֹשֶׁךְ (chōšeḵ) denotes the “darkness” that falls upon the land.
The thread — This plague of darkness echoes the judgment in Psalm 105:28 and anticipates the fifth bowl judgment in Revelation 16:10, while the motif of thick darkness surrounding God’s presence recalls Exodus 20:21.
Why it lands — The text records that total darkness covered Egypt for three days while all the Israelites retained light in their dwellings, establishing a clear boundary between divine judgment and preservation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
Cross-references
- Psalms 105:28 He sent darkness, and it became dark—yet they defied His words.
- Revelation 16:10 And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and men began to gnaw their tongues in anguish
- Exodus 20:21 And the people stood at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
- Deuteronomy 4:11 You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.
- Deuteronomy 5:22 The LORD spoke these commandments in a loud voice to your whole assembly out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness on the mountain; He added nothing more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
- Joel 2:2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.
- Joel 2:31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.
- Amos 4:13 For behold, He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind and reveals His thoughts to man, who turns the dawn to darkness and strides on the heights of the earth—the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name.”