Exodus — Chapter 11

God commands Israel to ask the Egyptians for vessels of silver and gold before the Exodus. Lapide deals with the moral problem: was this deception? He follows Augustine and Aquinas: the Israelites were owed wages for generations of forced labor; the silver and gold were rightful compensation, not theft. Moreover God commanded this as a just appropriation of what was morally due to His afflicted people. The Exodus with plunder is a figure of the soul departing from sin and taking with it the natural virtues (gold and silver) redeemed and sanctified.

Moses announces the final plague: \"At midnight the Lord will smite all the firstborn in Egypt.\" Lapide reflects on why God chose midnight and why the firstborn: midnight is the hour when security is greatest and terror is therefore most instructive. The firstborn represent the prime of human life and the hope of earthly succession; their destruction teaches that no earthly glory is secure. He notes prophetically that Christ, the true Firstborn of creation, would also die in the darkness of Calvary for the redemption of all.