Exodus 10:11, commentary and pictures

Moses had required that young and old, sons and daughters, flocks and herds all go to hold a feast to the Lord. In reply Pharaoh refused to let the wives, little ones and families go, permitting only the men to go and serve the Lord and holding back the rest of Israel. The permission was only a partial concession that still fell short of Israel's request, yielded only because Pharaoh was compelled by dreadful visitations of God's wrath and the pressure of God's judgments.

The proud and idolatrous king was very slow to meet the requirements of the God of Heaven, granting a little while under grievous affliction and taking it back when the affliction was removed, persisting in rebellion even after Egypt was ruined. This concession to let the men alone go stands between his first grant to sacrifice in the land of Egypt and his later grant, after the locusts nearly destroyed Egypt, to let the children and wives go while keeping the cattle. The verse shows Pharaoh's contempt for God's command to let all Israel go to worship Him.

Pharaoh pretended a special interest in the welfare of the Hebrews and tender care for their little ones, arguing that the children were not needed and that the journey into the wilderness was too dangerous an expedition for wives and little children to survive. His claim to protect the little ones hid his real purpose of holding the women and children behind as a pledge that the men would return, revealing the deceit of his hard, oppressive rule. He charged that a God who would require families to go into the wilderness should not be obeyed, because He would only lead them out to destroy them and leave their bodies lying in the wilderness.

After this answer Moses and Aaron were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. The verse belongs to the account of the plagues by which Jehovah broke Egyptian confidence in idols and pressed for Israel's release, showing that the idols could neither protect Egypt nor deliver its people, with the final judgment making clear that Jehovah executes judgment on the earth.