EXODUS 3:21-22: PLUNDERING THE EGYPTIANS

  “And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians; And it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and rainment. And so you shall plunder the Egyptians” (KJV)

This is a passage whose dubious ethics has bothered people for years. It seems to imply that the Israelites lied to their neighbors in order to steal their jewelry. The solution boils down to the proper understanding of the two underlined words. The first has two possible meanings:

         s'l = borrow: Exodus 22:13; II Kings 4:3 and 6:5

        s'l = ask for: Judges 8:24; I Samuel 1:27-28

The context is all-important in deciding which meaning to go with. Because of this, all modern translations render the word in Exodus 3 as “ask for,” not “borrow.” (Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., Toward an Old Testament Ethics, pp. 265-266) Brevard Childs (The Book of Exodus) agrees: “There is no indication that a pretext was involved.” And Durham (Exodus) adds, “Each of the four occurrences of the 'despoiling' narrative in the OT [the others are Exodus 11:1-3; Exodus 12:33-36; and Psalms 105:36-38] ...makes plain that the Egyptians gave their precious possessions to the Israelites gladly, because of Yahweh's intervention.”

The second problem word is nasal, often translated as “plunder” or “despoil.” It is a strong word, whose meaning in this case may be profitably compared with two other occasions in which in appears:

        Allen Ross (Creation and Blessing, p. 530) notes that in Genesis 31:14-16 nasal describes how Jacob, with God's help, took back from Laban the wages Jacob had been defrauded of.

        Childs compares the Exodus passage to II Chronicles 20:25 (another appearance of nasal), which describes the taking of spoils from a defeated army after a military battle.

Either of these two contexts may also apply to the case of Exodus 3:21-22.

Two major comments have been offered regarding this story:

    Josephus felt that after the plagues, the Egyptians were glad to give the Israelites anything they requested just to get rid of them as soon as possible. This is especially clear in the parallel passage, Exodus 12:33-36.

    A number of other scholars note that what the Israelites received was only due to them as wages for their years in slavery. This is the interpretation given in several early Jewish writings such as the Wisdom of Solomon and Jubilees. (P. Enns, Dictionary of NT Background, p. 163) There is a reflection of this idea built into the Deuteronomic legislation (Deuteronomy 13-15) whereby a released slave is to be given enough to establishing “himself as a full and independent member of Israelite society.” (Mayes, Deuteronomy)

In closing, it is instructive that these same valuables obtained from the Egyptians would subsequently be utilized both for evil purposes (making the golden calf) and godly ones (decorating the tabernacle and the priests' garments).