Exodus 12:36

And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(36) They lent.—Rather, “they, gave.” It is that the Egyptians neither expected nor wished the Israelites to return.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:29-36 The Egyptians had been for three days and nights kept in anxiety and horror by the darkness; now their rest is broken by a far more terrible calamity. The plague struck their first-born, the joy and hope of their families. They had slain the Hebrews' children, now God slew theirs. It reached from the throne to the dungeon: prince and peasant stand upon the same level before God's judgments. The destroying angel entered every dwelling unmarked with blood, as the messenger of woe. He did his dreadful errand, leaving not a house in which there was not one dead. Imagine then the cry that rang through the land of Egypt, the long, loud shriek of agony that burst from every dwelling. It will be thus in that dreadful hour when the Son of man shall visit sinners with the last judgment. God's sons, his first-born, were now released. Men had better come to God's terms at first, for he will never come to theirs. Now Pharaoh's pride is abased, and he yields. God's word will stand; we get nothing by disputing, or delaying to submit. In this terror the Egyptians would purchase the favour and the speedy departure of Israel. Thus the Lord took care that their hard-earned wages should be paid, and the people provided for their journey.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Lent - Or gave. The word in the Hebrew means simply "granted their request." Whether the grant is made as a loan, or as a gift, depends in every instance upon the context. Here the word "spoiled" ought to be regarded as conclusive that the grant was a gift, a moderate remuneration for long service, and a compensation for cruel wrongs.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

36. the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians—Such a dread of them was inspired into the universal minds of the Egyptians, that whatever they asked was readily given.

spoiled the Egyptians—The accumulated earnings of many years being paid them at this moment, the Israelites were suddenly enriched, according to the promise made to Abraham (Ge 15:14), and they left the country like a victorious army laden with spoil (Ps 105:37; Eze 39:10).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, i.e. inclined their hearts to do it willingly, and not only out of fear.

So that they lent unto him; Heb. and they lent them, to wit, the jewels or vessels mentioned Exodus 12:35.

They spoiled the Egyptians, to wit, of their ornaments.

Quest. Was not this unjustly done of the Israelites to borrow these jewels which they never paid again?

Answ. No,

1. Because they did nothing in this matter but by God’s appointment, Exodus 11:1,2; so that if there be any injustice, it must be in God, in whom there neither can be in any thing, nor is in this thing, the least blot or shadow of injustice, as well because he hath an unquestionable right in and power to dispose of all persons and things, as being the Maker, and Giver, and Lord of all; as because there was great and evident reason both why the Israelites should be recompensed for all their hard labours and sufferings, and why the Egyptians should be spoiled for their idolatry, luxury, and cruelty to the Israelites, and the great benefits which they had received from Joseph, and from the service of the Israelites.

2. Because the supreme Lord of all forbad them to restore what they borrowed, and gave them the entire right and sole propriety therein.

3. Because though there was a form and appearance of borrowing and lending, yet indeed the Israelites did not so much borrow as desire, as the Hebrew word rendered borrow Exodus 12:35 signifies; and the Egyptians did not reckon these thing; as lent, and to be restored, but as given, and never to be expected again; even as Pharaoh and his people rightly judged, that if the Israelites were once permitted to go out of the land with their whole families and estates, they would never return again, Exodus 14:5. And in truth the Egyptians did and might esteem it a good bargain to give these things to redeem their lives, and to engage the Israelites to a speedy departure, knowing that otherwise both their persons and all their estates were in extreme hazard.

4. Because, if these jewels were properly borrowed, yet the Egyptians, by their causeless and hostile pursuit after the Israelites with intent to destroy them, did fully discharge them from all obligations to restitution, and give them a right not only to keep these goods, but to take ally other which they could from the Egyptians, according to the known and approved laws of war.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians,.... Their minds were disposed towards them, and their hearts were inclined to grant their request, and did grant it:

so they lent unto them: such things as they required; or "they gave unto them" (b); made presents of them freely to them; and so Josephus says (c), that they honoured them with gifts:

and they spoiled the Egyptians; stripped them of their substance and riches, of their most valuable things; in doing which they were in no wise criminal, since they did it by the direction and authority of God, who has a right to dispose of all the things in the world; and to take of them from one, and give to another, as he pleases; nor was any injustice done to the Egyptians, who owed all this, and perhaps abundantly more, to the Israelites, for the labour and service they had served them in for many years; besides, they were the avowed enemies of Israel, and the Lord had now put himself at the head of the armies of Israel, and was contending with them, and they with him, who should overcome; and this was doing no other than what, acceding to the law of nations, is lawful to be done in time of war; to spoil, plunder, and distress an enemy, in whatsoever way it can be done. And thus the promise made to Abraham, that his posterity should come out with great substance, was fulfilled, Genesis 15:14. This circumstance is taken notice of by some Heathen writers, as Artapanus (d); who says they borrowed many cups of the Egyptians, and not a little raiment, besides a great quantity of other treasure and riches; and so Ezekiel the tragedian (e) speaks of a vast deal of gold and silver, raiment, and other things, the Israelitish women had of the Egyptians at their departure, and who relates the history of Moses and the above plagues very agreeably to the sacred writings.

(b) "ut petita darent", Tigurine version, "ut dederint", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Ainsworth, Cartwright. (c) Antiqu. l. 2. c. 14. sect. 6. (d) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 436. (e) Apud Euseb. ib. c. 29. p. 443.

Geneva Study Bible

And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

36. let them have] lit. let them ask (viz. successfully), i.e. granted them, let them have, not necessarily ‘lent’ them. So Exo 1 Samuel 1:28 (lit. ‘let one ask him for Jehovah’), correlative of ‘ask’ in vv. 17, 27, as of the same word here in v. 35. Still, it is remarkable that the ordinary word for ‘gave’ is not used: and it cannot be denied that ‘let ask’ may, as in Syriac (Luke 11:5 Pesh.), have had in Heb. the meaning lend. In this case, we must suppose that the things were ‘lent’ for use at the festival in the wilderness; Pharaoh’s subsequent pursuit of the Israelites put their return out of the question, and so they ‘spoiled’ the Egyptians (Ewald, Hist. ii. 66). Dillm. writes: ‘In reality the fundamental idea of the narrative is this: God, in His contest for the oppressed and against the oppressor, brings it about by His judgements that the enemy is obliged not only to allow the people to hold their festival in the wilderness, but also at their request to provide them willingly with garments and ornaments to wear at it (cf. on Exodus 3:21 f.); and eventually even to give these things up to them, as lawful spoil, and also, probably, as a reward for long and hard service (so Jubilees 48:18, Philo, Vit. Mos. i. p. 103, Clem. Al. Strom. i. p. 345, Iren. iv. 49, and other Fathers), and as partial compensation for what the Hebrews left behind them in Egypt.’

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 36. - So that they lent unto them such things as they required. Rather, "So that they granted them what they asked." They spoiled the Egyptians. See the comment on Exodus 3:22, ad fin. The result was that the Israelites went forth, not as slaves, but as conquerors, decked with the jewels of the Egyptians, as though they had conquered and despoiled them

CHAPTER 12:37-39 Exodus 12:36

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This urgency of the Egyptians compelled the Israelites to take the dough, which they were probably about to bake for their journey, before it was leavened, and also their kneading-troughs bound up in their clothes (cloths) upon their shoulders. שׂמלה, ἱμάτιον, was a large square piece of stuff or cloth, worn above the under-clothes, and could be easily used for tying up different things together. The Israelites had intended to leaven the dough, therefore, as the command to eat unleavened bread for seven days had not been given to them yet. But under the pressure of necessity they were obliged to content themselves with unleavened bread, or, as it is called in Deuteronomy 16:3, "the bread of affliction," during the first days of their journey. But as the troubles connected with their departure from Egypt were merely the introduction to the new life of liberty and grace, so according to the counsel of God the bread of affliction was to become a holy food to Israel; the days of their exodus being exalted by the Lord into a seven days' feast, in which the people of Jehovah were to commemorate to all ages their deliverance from the oppression of Egypt. The long-continued eating of unleavened bread, on account of the pressure of circumstances, formed the historical preparation for the seven days' feast of Mazzoth, which was instituted afterwards. Hence this circumstance is mentioned both here and in Exodus 12:39. On Exodus 12:35, Exodus 12:36, see Exodus 3:21-22.