Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Exodus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God’s Identity and Power
Redemption and Deliverance
The Covenant
Mediators and the Priesthood
Summary
Analysis
The LORD tells Moses that he is going to bring a final plague upon Egypt, after which Pharaoh will eagerly drive the Israelites away. He also tells Moses to instruct the people to ask their neighbors for silver and gold items. Moses tells Pharaoh God’s message for him: at midnight, the LORD will go throughout Egypt and kill every firstborn, from Pharaoh’s firstborn to the firstborn of the lowest slave to the firstborn of the livestock. Yet the Israelites will remain unharmed, in order to show that God makes a distinction between the two nations.
The final, most fearsome plague is contained within a more elaborate, even darker narrative which extends into the next chapter. This chapter focuses on Moses’s warning from God that all firstborn animals and human beings will be killed. As he warns Pharaoh, Moses also prepares the Israelites for departure from Egypt. (God foretold this “plundering” of the Egyptians at the burning bush, in Chapter 3.)
Themes
