And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
When I shall put thee out - when I shall extinguish thy light (Job 18:5). Pharaoh is represented as a bright star, at the extinguishing of whose light in the political sky the whole heavenly host are shrouded in sympathetic darkness. Here, too (as in Ezekiel 32:6 there was an allusion to the plague of turning the rivers into blood), there is an allusion to the supernatural darkness sent formerly (Exodus 10:21-23). The heavenly bodies are often made images of earthly dynasties (Isaiah 13:10, "The stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not give their light;" Matthew 24:29).