Essay zu Schemot 10:78

Anticipating Pharaoh’s eventual capitulation, the Egyptians now urge their king to release the Israelites, before Egypt is truly “lost” (v.7). The request occurs before the plague does. This longest plague is in many ways the most devastating of all, affecting as it does the very soil itself. Here the last two plagues are anticipated (v.15, “the ground became dark”; and v.17, “this death”), and the previous one is echoed (vv.6, 14, with the reference to past history). Also foreshadowed, in the locusts’ removal, is the final victory at the Sea of Reeds (Chap. 14), through the mention of the location and the use of a powerful wind.

Little is new here; darkness foreshadows the final plague, death. Yet at the end of the brief episode, as well as in 11:8, we are given a glimpse into the human element, as Moshe and Pharaoh rage in anger against each other.