What Does Exodus 11:3 Mean?

(3) **The Lord gave the people favour**—i.e., when the time arrived. (See below, Exodus 12:36.) **The man Moses.**—At first sight there seems a difficulty in supposing Moses to have written thus of himself. “The man” is not a title by which writers of any time or country are in the habit of speaking of themselves; but it is far more difficult to imagine any one but Moses giving him so bald and poor a designation. To other writers he is a “prophet (Deuteronomy 34:10; Luke 24:27; Acts 3:22; Acts 7:37), or “a man of God” (Deuteronomy 33:1; Joshua 14:6; Psalms 90, Title; Ezra 3:2), or “the servant of the Lord” (Joshua 1:1; Hebrews 3:5); never simply “the man.” **Very great.**—It has been said that this expression does not comport well with the “meekness” of Moses. But it is the mere statement of a fact, and of one necessary to be stated for the proper understanding of the narrative. Moses, in the course of his long contention as an equal with Pharaoh, had come to be regarded, not only by the courtiers, but by the Egyptians generally, as a great personage—a personage almost on a par with the Pharaoh, whom they revered as a god upon earth. The position to which he had thus attained exerted an important influence on the entire Egyptian people at this time, causing them to be well-inclined towards his countrymen, and willing to make sacrifices in order to help them and obtain their good-will.