Bible Strands
Exodus 10:4
But if you refuse to let My people go, I will bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses delivers this warning to Pharaoh immediately after demanding the release of the Israelites for worship. The declaration follows Pharaoh’s repeated defiance and precedes the execution of the next plague.
The words — The Hebrew מָאֵן (ma'En) denotes active, stubborn refusal, and אִם ('im) functions as a conditional marker introducing the consequence. Together they frame the threat as a direct response to Pharaoh’s deliberate choice.
The thread — The locust plague reappears as a symbol of divine judgment in Revelation 9:3 and is referenced in Joel 2:25 regarding restoration after agricultural ruin. The timing of the threat echoes Pharaoh’s own concession in Exodus 8:10.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that continued defiance triggers inevitable, time-bound consequences. It requires the reader to treat divine warnings as precise declarations rather than abstract possibilities.
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
Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
Cross-references
- Revelation 9:3 And out of the smoke, locusts descended on the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth.
- Joel 2:25 I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.
- Exodus 8:10 “Tomorrow,” Pharaoh answered. “May it be as you say,” Moses replied, “so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.
- Exodus 8:23 I will make a distinction between My people and your people. This sign will take place tomorrow.’”
- Exodus 9:5 The LORD set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this in the land.”
- Exodus 9:18 Behold, at this time tomorrow I will rain down the worst hail that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded until now.
- Exodus 11:4 So Moses declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt,
- Proverbs 30:27 the locusts have no king, yet they all advance in formation;
- Joel 1:4 What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.
- 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.