Moses Offers a Prayer on Behalf of Pharaoh (Exod 8.8-9, 12)

Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, “Pray to the LORD to take away the frogs from me and my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.” Moses said to Pharaoh, “Kindly tell me when I am to pray for you and for your officials and for your people, that the frogs may be removed from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.”

Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and Moses cried out to the LORD concerning the frogs that he had brought upon Pharaoh.

Background

The second prayer in Exodus is the third intercession that appears the Bible. Moses offered this prayer on behalf of the Egyptian Pharaoh. It takes place after the second of the ten plagues brought on the Egyptians by God. 

Moses, directed by God, goes before the Pharaoh to ask that the Israelites be allowed to go out into the desert to worship and sacrifice to their God. Before Moses appears before the Pharaoh, God tells him what will happen. The Pharaoh will refuse, which will allow God to reveal his power, both to the Israelites and to the Egyptians. God needs to re-introduce Himself to the Israelites, but He also wants the Egyptians to know that He is the one, true God (7:5). Despite the way this story ends for the Egyptians, God is not primarily concerned about punishment, but about giving people the opportunity to come to Him.

The events at the palace unfold just as God described. The Pharaoh refuses to let the Israelites go out into the desert to worship. Again directed by God, Moses and Aaron perform some miracles to show the power of their God. The Pharaoh is not impressed and directs his wizards perform similar, if less impressive, feats, to demonstrate the power of the Egyptian Gods. God then brings the first plague to the land, and the waters of Egypt becomes blood-red. Pharaoh’s wizards perform a similar act, so the Pharaoh refuses to let the Israelites go.

Moses then repeats his demand. When Pharaoh refuses again, the second plague begins and frogs appear over the land. Though the wizards again perform a similar feat, the overwhelming inundation of the country by amphibians seems to weaken the Pharaoh’s will. In the passage quoted above, he asks Moses to pray that the plague end. Moses asks whether he will allow Israelites to go worship. The Pharaoh tells him that they can go worship their God the following day. Moses agrees. He leaves the palace and “cried” out to the Lord about the frogs. The word translated as “cried” is the Hebrew word yitzach, which means “to cry for help,” “to cry out in need,” or just “to cry out in prayer.”

God answers immediately. The frogs die, and the people gathered them up and burn them. True to form, when everything is back to normal, the Pharaoh becomes stubborn and refuses to let the Israelites go—as he would do eight more times.

Meaning