Exodus 10:8

The officials did not have royal honor to protect. So they were willing to learn from what had happened and to let the men go.

Pharaoh resisted again. He wanted to protect his public honor. He said the men could go only if they left their families behind. In this way, he hoped they would be forced to return.

Moses had never said they would come back. They said they were going into the wilderness to worship God. But once slaves are free, they do not willingly return to those who oppressed them. Pharaoh understood this.

The eighth plague was the plague of locusts (10:4). Enough time had passed since the previous plague for the wheat and spelt to sprout (see 9:32).

The Egyptian god Osiris was highly honored by the people in Egypt. Egyptians believed he went down into the underworld and brought plant life back in the spring. For them, he was connected with renewal and life after death.

This second and climactic attack on plant life showed that even Osiris had no power before the Lord. God alone controls life and death.

New plants that grow in the spring do not give eternal life. True life comes from the Lord, not from nature or from any false god.