Keluaran 10:22

10:22 So Moses extended his hand toward heaven, and there was absolute darkness ¹  throughout the land of Egypt for three days. ² 

Yesaya 5:30

5:30 At that time ³  they will growl over their prey, ⁴ 

it will sound like sea waves crashing against rocks. ⁵ 

One will look out over the land and see the darkness of disaster,

clouds will turn the light into darkness. ⁶ 

[10:22]  ¹ tn The construction is a variation of the superlative genitive: a substantive in the construct state is connected to a noun with the same meaning (see GKC 431 §133.i).

[10:22]  ² sn S. R. Driver says, “The darkness was no doubt occasioned really by a sand-storm, produced by the hot electrical wind…which blows in intermittently…” (Exodus, 82, 83). This is another application of the antisupernatural approach to these texts. The text, however, is probably describing something that was not a seasonal wind, or Pharaoh would not have been intimidated. If it coincided with that season, then what is described here is so different and so powerful that the Egyptians would have known the difference easily. Pharaoh here would have had to have been impressed that this was something very abnormal, and that his god was powerless. Besides, there was light in all the dwellings of the Israelites.

[5:30]  ³ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[5:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “over it”; the referent (the prey) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “like the growling of the sea.”

[5:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “and one will gaze toward the land, and look, darkness of distress, and light will grow dark by its [the land’s?] clouds.”

[5:30]  sn The motif of light turning to darkness is ironic when compared to v. 20. There the sinners turn light (= moral/ethical good) to darkness (= moral/ethical evil). Now ironically the Lord will turn light (= the sinners’ sphere of existence and life) into darkness (= the judgment and death).