And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
At midnight the Lord smote. Dr. Pye Smith ('Scrip. Test.,' vol. 1:, p. 571) rejects the idea that the Messiah х Logos (G3056)] was the agent of destruction in the land of Egypt. But the Chaldee Paraphrast on this passage has: 'And the Word of the Lord slew all the first-born.' Many orthodox writers hold this opinion, (Bull, 'Defens. Nic.,' lib. 1:) He was the same Being who appeared to Moses in the bush (Exodus 3:2), and indeed, as the whole of those special proceedings were pursued by Him for vindication of the divine character, and for advancing the scheme of grace, there is no more incongruity with His personal attributes in inflicting the previous plagues, than the terrible catastrophe which closed the series (cf. Revelation 19:13-15).
First-born of the captive that was in the dungeon, х bªbeeyt (H1004) habowr (H953)] - in the house of the Bor, a subterranean prison (see the notes at Genesis 37:22; also 39:20; 41:14). The victims of this sweeping destruction did not include the first-born who were heads of households, but only the first-born in the various families on the night when the Israelites were observing the newly instituted feast in the singular manner described, the threatened calamity overtook the Egyptians. It is more easy to imagine than describe the confusion and terror of that people, suddenly roused from sleep and enveloped in darkness-none could assist their neighbours, when the groans of the dying and the wild shrieks of mourners were heard everywhere around. The hope of every family was destroyed at a stroke. This judgment, terrible though it was, evinces the equity of divine retribution. For eighty years the Egyptians had caused the male children of the Israelites to be cast into the river, and now all their own first-born fell under the stroke of the destroying angel. They were made, in the justice of God, to feel something of what they had made His people feel. Many a time have the hands of sinners made the snares in which they have themselves been entangled, and fallen into the pit which they have dug for the righteous. "Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth."
Rationalistic writers pronounce the destruction of the first-born to be a priori untrue. But if this narrative be unhistorical, then the Passover institution must be mythical also. Besides, dreadful as the destruction of life was, it was not more sweeping and sudden than what has frequently occurred during Providential visitations of pestilence.
In 1848-1849 there were in England and Wales no fewer than 144,360 persons attacked by cholera and diarrhea; 72,180 were cut off, and 34,397 of the victims were able-bodied persons, capable of making their own living, until overtaken and slain in a few hours by the great epidemic. Such seasons of sudden and widespread mortality, when pestilence walketh in darkness, and strikes down with an unseen blow the stoutest and healthiest in a moment, have always been awe-inspiring.
But it was the protracted series of plagues inflicted on Egypt-on the land and its produce-on the lives of cattle, and finally of men-it was these continued in a ratio of increasing severity, and apparently without end, which, giving rise to the belief that the country was lying under a curse, produced a supernatural horror, and extorted the cry of despair, "We be all dead men!"