2. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord--rather "Jehovah." Lord was
a common name applied to objects of worship; but Jehovah was a name he
had never heard of. Pharaoh estimated the character and power of this
God by the abject and miserable condition of the worshippers and
concluded that He held as low a rank among the gods as His people did
in the nation. To demonstrate the supremacy of the true God over all
the gods of Egypt, was the design of the plagues.
I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go--As his honor
and interest were both involved he determined to crush this attempt,
and in a tone of insolence, or perhaps profanity, rejected the request
for the release of the Hebrew slaves.
JFB.
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