4 And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: 

5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. 

6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.

God revealed His plan to Moses. He would pass through the land of Egypt, consigning every firstborn to death. The word used for firstborn is a masculine noun, which suggests it was specifically the eldest male of each household that would die. This, of course, would have disrupted the Egyptian legacy, as their culture passed the estate and right to rule to each firstborn son, just as in the Israelite culture.

Furthermore, the application of this curse was absolute. God declared that the rich and mighty would die, even the firstborn of Pharaoh, but also the poor and lowly, such as the firstborn of the maidservant. And not just the firstborn of the people either, but every firstborn animal as well.

And what was the reason for taking all of the firstborn? God Himself declared it when He called Moses to this cause. God explained that His message for Pharaoh was, “Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.” Thus, Pharaoh had already been warned that this was how the Lord would even things out if the Israelites were not let go. God had been merciful in making Pharaoh perfectly aware of the stakes at hand, and also in demonstrating through the prior curses that He was absolutely capable of making good on His threat. Pharaoh had every reason to surrender, but he continued to defy God anyway.

Pharaoh’s decisions might seem incredulous if we didn’t have so many examples around us today of people jeopardizing their happiness, their families, and their very lives for false destructive lifestyles. People are often willing to lose it all rather than surrender to the God that they’ve rejected.

2 Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold.

3 And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the sight of the people.

Thus far God’s demands to the Pharaoh had been that every man, woman, and child of the Israelites would depart into the wilderness, and that they would bring all of their cattle as well. But today we see this was not all the Israelites would carry with them. The Lord instructed the Israelites to borrow jewels and precious metals from their Egyptian neighbors. “Borrow,” of course being a very loose term. These things were being “borrowed” with no intention ever returning them!

The point of this seems to be to finish the signs of war against the Egyptians. Though the Israelite people did not raise a single sword against their slavers, by the end of this sequence the Egyptians would have had all their firstborn slain, their fields razed to the ground, lost their commercial industries, and all of their valuables would be taken. It would appear exactly as if the Egyptians had been conquered by a great army, but the battles were fought entirely by God, not man.

I can only assume that the devastation of the prior plagues was what caused the Egyptians to so freely part with their treasures. We are told that “Moses was very great in the land,” which seems to suggest that all the people understood where all these curses were coming from. We also know that Pharaoh’s counselors had been advising him to just let the Israelites go, and it seems likely that the sentiment was held by the local populace as well. So whether they trusted the Israelites or not, the Egyptians were likely anxious to appease them and be rid of them.