HEBREW WORD STUDY – COME WITH ME – BO בו   

Exodus 10:10: “Then he said to them, “Thus may the LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Take heed, for evil is in your mind.” NASB

Exodus 10:10: “And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you.” KJV

Every Saturday morning on our Learning Channel we have a Sabbath Torah Portion Study. Some say the Sabbath is on Saturday, some say on Sunday, I prefer to celebrate both days as the Sabbath so hence we follow the Jewish model where we study a particular Torah Portion that has been assigned for that particular Sabbath. The first five books of the Bible are divided into 52 portions and every Jew in the world follows a study on the same portion each Sabbath.  This week the Torah Portion called Bo starts off with Exodus 10. This relates the story of the last three plagues before Pharaoh released the children from slavery. 

What I found interesting in this study was in verse 10 where Moses is negotiating with Pharaoh for the release of the children of Israel.  It is interesting what Pharaoh tells Moses, in fact even warns Moses in the KJV.  “For evil is before you.”  Actually, in the Hebrew it literally reads: “See, there is evil before you.”   That is a very curious statement.  “You go in the wilderness and you will face evil.”  At first you would think it is a threat, you go and I am going to get you. But that is not the case for in verse 8 Pharaoh has agreed to let the people go under certain conditions.  So, it makes no sense to say, “If you go I will come and get you.”

Clearly this is warning.  Pharaoh is telling Moses that evil awaits the people if they go into wilderness.  Now how does he know that?  Bible translators assume this is not a warning but a statement from Pharaoh giving his reason for not wanting the people to go accusing Moses that he has an ulterior motive and that is if he lets Moses take the people in the wilderness to celebrate their faith, he will hot tail out of there and never return. Hence every Modern English translation, with a few exceptions translates this as. “You have evil on your mind,” or you are bent on evil or you have an evil plan.  The only problem with that translation is that is not what the Hebrew is saying, it is clearly saying that if they go into the wilderness they will face evil. Yet, translators do not see that as making any sense so they declare the passage ambiguous in the Hebrew and translate it according to their understanding of the context. 

Yet, let’s really look at the context here.  Starting with the first verse we face another example of translators walking in lock step with the ambiguity of the Hebrew and giving the Hebrew word bo as go.  It does not mean go unless that is all that will fit the context for the word really means come.  Yet, does that make sense that God says to Moses “come to Pharaoh?”  Obviously, it means go to Pharaoh and that is how every modern English translation translate this. But let’s stay with the actually meaning of the word bo that is “Come to Pharaoh.” 

​These words were spoken to Moses by God before the first, second, fifth and eighth plague.  Why did God say “Go” and not “Come?”  Does it really matter?  It pretty much means the same thing.  But the Jewish sages, such as Rashi, indicate that this is very telling of Pharaoh.  Let me put it in words understandable to Christians. In just a couple words, Pharaoh was demon possessed.  In fact Ezekiel 29:3: “Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I [am] against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river [is] mine own, and I have made [it] for myself.” Pharaoh literally declares that he himself is a god. The real sin of Pharaoh was not so much idolatry, paganism, shedding the blood of innocent children, but that he had given himself entirely over to the enemy itself – hasatan.  To be referred to as a great dragon is to refer to someone who is literally possessed by  hasatan the enemy himself as hasatan is clearly defined in Scripture to be the enemy himself. The word satan when referred to the devil always has a definite article in front of it which means it is not a proper name.  Not even Scripture gives the old buzzard a proper name so why should I.  

This would explain why God told Moses “Come to Pharaoh.”  The Hebrew scholar and commentator, as well as sage Rashi teaches this should be rendered as “Come with Me to Pharaoh.”  The point being that God was going to confront the old dragon himself as Moses confronted the enemy’s avatar Pharaoh.  The enemy should have fled before the presence of God but the Bible say; “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”  This is in a Hiphil form which is causative. God caused the enemy to stay put, embodied in Pharoah which keep Pharoah’s heart hardened.

Thus, the words “See, there is evil before you” were spoken by the enemy himself. He was literally putting a curse on Israel.  I go into greater detail on this in our Learning Channel under our In Depth Study entitled the Pharoah’s Curse.  In that study, I show that whenever the Children of Israel were disobedient they faced death and destruction from Pharoah’s curse.  The curse was finally lifted when they entered the Promised Land – Joshua 5:9: “This day I will remove from you the reproach (curse) of the Egyptians.”  When they were finally in complete obedience to God the curse was lifted. 

If you are serving God faithfully you can bet that the enemy has one of his minions putting a curse on you. You are in no danger of that curse, God will protect you as He did with Israel, but it was not until they were in total obedience to God was that curse finally lifted.  So long as you remain in complete obedience to God any curse upon you is nullified. 

I served under a deliverance minister for many years and I know there are those who would disagree with my conclusion here.  But one thing I think we can all agree upon is that the only real safe place for believers to be, particular as we enter 2021, is to be in the very center of God’s will in obedience. 

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