Get thee from me. — This address is ruds, fierce, uncourteous. That a Pharaoh of the nineteenth (or eighteenth?) dynasty should have so spoken implies extreme and very uncommon excitement. Generally the Pharaohs of this polished period were as imper turbable as Chinese mandarins. We must suppose that up to this time the king had persuaded himself that he would be able to bring Moses to a compromise, but that now at last he despaired of so doing; hence his anger and rudeness.
Thou shalt die. — Egyptian kings had the power of life and death, but rarely exercised it arbitrarily, or without trial. Very long and elaborate judicial processes have been found among the Egyptian remains. Still, no doubt, a monarch could put to death whomsoever he pleased; and so Egyptian courtiers were wont to acknowledge that they had lived to old age “by the favour of the king” (Brugsch, History of Egypt, vol. i., p. 92).