to stretch or spread out · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
hand
יָד֖וֹya.Do
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
heaven
הַשָּׁמָ֑יִםha.sha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
thick
אֲפֵלָ֛ה'a.fe.Lah
H653
duskiness · noun, common feminine singular absolute
darkness
חֹֽשֶׁךְcho.shekh-
H2822
the dark · noun, common masculine singular construct
land
אֶ֥רֶץ'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular construct
Egypt
מִצְרַ֖יִםmitz.Ra.yim
H4714
Mitsrajim · proper noun, a place name
three
שְׁלֹ֥שֶׁתshe.Lo.shet
H7969
three · cardinal number, both genders singular construct
days
יָמִֽיםya.Mim
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 105:28 He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.
Revelation 16:10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for…
Exodus 20:21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
Deuteronomy 4:11 And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick…
Deuteronomy 5:22 These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a…
Joel 2:2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a s…
Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Amos 4:13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness,…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Exodus 10:21–end
Here is, I. The plague of darkness brought upon Egypt, and a most dreadful plague it was, and therefore is put first of the ten in Psa 105:28, though it was one of the last; and in the destruction of the spiritual Egypt it is produced by the fifth vial, which is poured out upon the seat of the beast, Rev 16:10. His kingdom was full of darkness. Observe particularly concerning this plague, 1. That it was a total darkness. We have reason to think, not only that the lights of heaven were clouded, but that all their fires and candles were put out by the damps or clammy vapours which were the cause of this darkness; for it is said (Exo 10:23), They saw not one another. It is threatened to the wic…
PLAGUE OF DARKNESS. (Exo 10:21-29)
Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness--Whatever secondary means were employed in producing it, whether thick clammy fogs and vapors, according to some; a sandstorm, or the chamsin, according to others; it was such that it could be almost perceived by the organs of touch, and so protracted as to continue for three days, which the chamsin does [HENGSTENBERG]. The appalling character of this calamity consisted in this, that the sun was an object of Egyptian idolatry; that the pure and serene sky of that country was never marred by the appearance of a cloud. And here, too, the Lord made a marked difference between Goshen and the rest…
Darkness which may be felt - Probably this was occasioned by a superabundance of aqueous vapors floating in the atmosphere, which were so thick as to prevent the rays of the sun from penetrating through them; an extraordinarily thick mist supernaturally, i.e., miraculously, brought on. An awful emblem of the darkened state of the Egyptians and their king.
John Gill on Exodus 10:22
And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness over all the land of Egypt three days. The eleventh, twelveth, and thirteenth days of the month Abib; with this compare the fifth vial, Revelation 16:10.
The Church Fathers
In the ninth plague, darkness fell. Either it means the blindness of their minds or that they should realize that the workings of the divine economy and of providence are most obscure. For God made darkness his hiding place. But they desired boldly and rashly to investigate it and, drawing one conclusion after another, fell into the dense and palpable darkness of ignorance.
We say, lest perhaps also the "palpable darkness" in Egypt was made in this manner for "three days", not from an eclipse of the sun, but either because dark clouds ran together into one, or because the air there then became thicker over the Egyptians only — for "to all the sons of Israel", as the scripture testifies, "there was light in all the places in which they were dwelling". For it is also impossible in an eclipse of the sun, which happens from the coming together of the moon to the sun, for darkness to be made for "three" continuous "days"; and it would be believed that there was some other cause of the darkness in Egypt, if the sun had even been named, or as though darkened at that time. But now the scripture of Exodus says nothing else except that "Moses stretched out his hand to heaven, and there was darkness and gloom and the rest over the whole land of Egypt for three days; and no one saw his brother, nor did anyone rise from his bed for three days". And just as, when Moses stretched out his hand "to heaven", "darkness was made over the Egyptians", who held the servants of God in servitude, an image of the future darkness which was to seize the Egyptians, similarly also when Christ at the sixth hour stretched out his hands on the cross to heaven over the people who had cried out: "take this man from the earth", and "crucify, crucify him", darkness was made, and they were deprived of all light. Likewise under Moses "there was darkness and gloom over the whole land of Egypt for three days; and no one saw his brother, nor did anyone rise from his bed for three days; but to all the sons of Israel there was light in all the places in which they were dwelling". But under Christ darkness fell over the whole earth of Judea for three hours, but there was light over all the rest of the earth. Which everywhere illumines the whole Church of God in Christ.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Plague — A “stroke” of affliction, or disease. Sent as a divine chastisement (Num. 11:33; 14:37; 16:46-49; 2 Sam. 24:21). Painful afflictions or diseases, (Lev. 13:3, 5, 30; 1 Kings 8:37), or severe calamity…
Plagues, The Ten — The occasion on which the plagues were sent is described in Exod 3-12.
Anger Of God, The · Exemplified against: Egyptians — Exemplified against: Egyptians
Darkness · .In Egypt — .In Egypt
Meteorology And Celestial Phenomena · .The plague of darkness — .The plague of darkness
Miracles Wrought Through Servants Of God · Moses and Aaron: Darkness brought — Moses and Aaron: Darkness brought
Plague · Darkness — Darkness
Sun · .Darkening of — .Darkening of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Exodus 10:12–end
Exodus 10:12-20
12. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.
12. Tunc dixit Jehova Mosi, Extende manum tuam super terram AEgypti pro locusta, ut ascendat super terram AEgypti, et depascat omnem herbam terrae, quicquid a grandine residuum est.
13. And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
13. Extendit itaque Moses virgam suam super terram AEgypti, et Jehova adduxit ventum…
Ninth plague: The Darkness. - As Pharaoh's defiant spirit was not broken yet, a continuous darkness came over all the land of Egypt, with the exception of Goshen, without any previous announcement, and came in such force that the darkness could be felt. חשׁך וימשׁ: "and one shall feel, grasp darkness." המשׁ: as in Psa 115:7; Jdg 16:26, ψηλαφητὸν σκότος (lxx); not "feel in the dark," for משׁשׁ has this meaning only in the Piel with בּ (Deu 28:29). אפלה חשׁך: darkness of obscurity, i.e., the deepest darkness. The combination of two words or synonyms gives the greatest intensity to the thought. The darkness was so great that they could not see one another, and no one rose up from his place. T…
The ninth plague was the plague of darkness (10:21). The chief god of Egypt through the centuries, who appeared under several different names, was the sun. At this time he was known as Amon-Re. He was supreme over all the other gods and was considered to be the ultimate source of life. The Lord showed that the sun’s light is completely under his control; he could shut it off from Egypt proper, while leaving it to shine in Goshen in the northeast part of the country (10:23; see study note on 9:1-7).
Rashi on Exodus 10:22
שלשת ימים denotes a triad of days. old French terziane; so, too, שבעת ימים everywhere it occurs denotes in old French a septaine of days (a period of seven days).
ויהי חשך אפלה … שלשת ימים — there was darkness of gloom when no man saw another during those three days, and there was moreover another period of three days’ darkness twice as thick as this when no man rose from his place: one who happened to be sitting when this second period of darkness began was unable to rise, and one who was then standing was unable to sit down. And why did He bring darkness upon them? Because there were wicked people amongst the Israelites of that generation who had no desire to leave Egypt, and these died d…
