Chapter Overview
Summary
Exodus 11 is the brief announcement of the tenth plague and the preparatory command to ask the Egyptians for silver and gold. LXX Exodus 11 tracks MT closely with one interpretive move: the 'firstborn of the slave woman behind the handmill' (11:5) is rendered with the LXX's standard slave-hierarchy vocabulary. The 'plundering of the Egyptians' continues the theme from 3:22 and 12:36, supplying vocabulary that early Christian writers read typologically as the church 'plundering' the wisdom of pagan learning.
Notable Variants
The scope of the tenth plague at 11:5 (every firstborn from Pharaoh's to the slave-girl's); the 'distinction' (diastellei) between Israel and Egypt at 11:7 continuing the chapter 8–9 theme; the LXX's specific rendering of 'not even a dog shall growl' (ou gryxei kyōn) with the hapax verb gryzō.
Structural Notes
LXX Exodus 11 preserves MT's 10-verse structure.
The LORD said to Moses, "One more plague I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. After that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you out completely.
The 'one more plague' announcement and the prediction of forced expulsion (ekbolē) tracks MT. The ekbolē vocabulary reappears at Matt 9:38 / Luke 10:2 ('the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers') — a different semantic field but the same LXX verbal root.
Speak now in the hearing of the people, and let each man ask of his neighbor and each woman of her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold."
The command to ask the Egyptians for silver and gold tracks MT. This echoes 3:22 and sets up the 12:36 'plundering' narrative.
The LORD caused the Egyptians to regard the people favorably. Moses himself had become a figure of great prominence throughout Egypt, respected by Pharaoh's officials and by the common people alike.
Masoretic (WLC)
גַם הָאִישׁ מֹשֶׁה גָּדוֹל מְאֹד
Moses himself had become a figure of great prominence
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπος Μωυσῆς μέγας ἐγενήθη σφόδρα
The man Moses became exceedingly great
The LXX's megas egenēthē sphodra ('became exceedingly great') is the same phrase used of David at 2 Samuel 5:10 LXX ('David became greater and greater') and of the cedars of Lebanon at Ezekiel 31:7 LXX. The vocabulary is a stock LXX trope for divinely-favored prominence.
Acts 7:22 ('Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in his words and deeds') echoes this LXX-Exodus portrait of the commanding Mosaic figure.
Moses said, "Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go out through the midst of Egypt,
The midnight-divine-passage announcement tracks MT. 'About midnight' (peri mesēn nykta) becomes the marker of the Passover-death visitation; it recurs at Job 34:20 and — most strikingly — at Acts 16:25 ('about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing') and Acts 20:7 (Eutychus's fall).
and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the slave woman who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the livestock.
The scope of the death — from Pharaoh's throne-heir to the slave-girl's child and livestock — tracks MT. The LXX's tautological 'firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne' preserves the Hebrew's hierarchical span.
There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been and such as there shall never be again.
The 'great cry' (kraugē megalē) tracks MT. The unique-in-Egyptian-history framing ('there has never been … never shall be again') is preserved.
But against any of the sons of Israel not even a dog shall growl, against neither man nor beast, so that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
Masoretic (WLC)
לֹא יֶחֱרַץ־כֶּלֶב לְשֹׁנוֹ
not even a dog shall growl
Septuagint (LXX)
οὐ γρύξει κύων τῇ γλώσσῃ αὐτοῦ
a dog shall not growl with its tongue
The Hebrew charatz lashon ('sharpen the tongue, growl') is rendered gryzō ('to growl, grumble') — a rare Greek onomatopoeic verb. The LXX preserves the Hebrew's distinctively tactile image: even the dogs of Egypt will hold silence for Israel's departure.
Judith 11:19 LXX uses the same verb (gryxei kyōn) — an internal LXX echo suggesting the Judith author knew LXX Exodus 11:7.
All these servants of yours shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, 'Go out, you and all the people who follow you.' After that I will go out." And he went out from Pharaoh in fierce anger.
Moses' prediction that Pharaoh's servants will bow before him tracks MT. His hot departure ('he went out from Pharaoh in fierce anger,' meta thymou) closes the pre-plague confrontation cycle.
The LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt."
The divine statement that Pharaoh's refusal serves to multiply divine wonders tracks MT. 'So that my wonders may be multiplied' (hopōs … plēthynōsin ta terata mou) is the pedagogical-plague-purpose theology of Exodus 7:3 and 10:1–2.
Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.
The summary-notice of all the hardening and signs tracks MT. The chapter closes with Pharaoh's refusal — setting the final stage for the Passover night.