Exodus 10:16, commentary and pictures

The words were spoken in the midst of the grievous plague of locusts that darkened the land and ate every herb and every fruit left by the hail. The whole kingdom lay under dreadful miraculous judgments that nearly destroyed Egypt and pressed upon his people with threatening death, so that the Egyptians feared the insects would next attack and devour the people themselves. In haste he called for Moses and Aaron and admitted he had sinned against the LORD their God and against them. He asked them to forgive him only this once and begged them to plead with God to take away this death and remove the deadly plague from him.

The humility of that confession was driven only by danger and fear of death, lasting only while he felt threatened. It was without remorse and without true submission to God, not sincere and lasting repentance, and it did not end his stubborn resistance. At Moses' entreaty of the LORD the plague was removed when a mighty west wind cast all the locusts into the Red Sea. Once the plague ended he hardened his heart, broke his promise, and refused to release Israel. He remained proud and unwilling to submit, continuing in stubborn resistance and choosing to endure further plagues rather than yield.

This yielding only as far as dreadful affliction compelled him fit his repeated pattern, in which under most grievous affliction he would yield a little and when relief came would take back what he had granted. Here, after Egypt had been nearly destroyed and ruined by the locusts, he granted that the wives and children of Israel might go while still refusing to let their cattle go. He persisted in proud and idolatrous rebellion against the requirements of the God of Heaven even after Moses and Aaron had told him beforehand the nature and effect of each plague and he had seen each come exactly as told. The setting shows the plagues were designed to prove that Egypt's idols could neither protect their worshipers nor deliver them. For the locust plague exposed the powerlessness of Serapis, whom the Egyptians trusted to protect the land from locusts, since the insects came and left at Moses' command, showing that protection belonged to Jehovah and not to an idol.