he emphatic assertion now made is easy to
understand. The plague was especially to be expected in low flat ground:
the king may not even have been aware of the previous freedom of Israel;
and in any case its importance as an evidence had not been pressed upon
him. The spirit of the seventy-eighth Psalm, though not perhaps any one
specific phrase, contrasts the earlier as well as the later plagues with
the protection of His own people, whom He led like sheep (vers. 42-52).

After the appointed interval (the same which Pharaoh had indicated for
the removal of the frogs) the plague came. We are told that the land was
corrupted, but it is significant that more stress is laid upon the
suffering of Pharaoh and his court in the event than in the menace. It
came home to himself more cruelly than any former plague, and he at once
attempted to make terms: "Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land." It
is a natural speech, at first not asking to be trusted as before by
getting relief before the Hebrews actually enjoy their liberty; and yet
conceding as little as possible, and in hot haste to have that little
done and the relief obtained. They may even serve their God on the
sacred soil, so completely has He already defeated all His rivals. But
this was not what was demanded; and Moses repeated the claim of a three
days' journey, basing it upon the ground, still more insulting to the
national religion, that "We will sacrifice to Jehovah our God the
abomination of the Egyptians," that is to say, sacred animals, which it
is horror in their eyes to sacrifice. Any faith in his own creed which
Pharaoh ever had is surrendered when this argument, instead of making
their cause hopeless, forces him to yield--adding, however, like a
thoroughly weak man who wishes to refuse but dares not, "only ye shall
not go very far away: intreat for me." And again Moses concedes the
point, with only the courteous remonstrance, "But let not Pharaoh deal
deceitfully any more."

It is necessary to repeat that we have not a shred of evidence that
Moses would have violated his compact and failed to return: it would
have sufficed as a first step to have asserted the nationality of his
people and their right to worship their own God: all the rest would
speedily have followed. But the terms which were rejected again and
again did not continue for ever to bind the victorious party: the story
of their actual departure makes it plain that both sides understood it
t