What Does Exodus 10:9 Mean?

Moses said, "We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD." Moses' answer in verse 9 is the fullest statement of the demanded exodus in the plague narrative: everyone goes. Young and old, sons and daughters, flocks and herds: no subset, no hostages, no partial compliance.

The feast-to-the-LORD purpose requires the whole community: a feast that leaves behind the children (who are the future of the community) or the animals (which provide the sacrificial system's offerings) is not the feast YHWH demanded. Moses defines compliance in total-community terms that leave no negotiating room: either everyone and everything goes, or the demand has not been met.

The inclusion of "sons and daughters" alongside "young and old" makes explicit what the original demand implied: this is not a pilgrimage of adult males but a complete community movement. Egypt's interpretation of "let my people go to worship" may have been the limited departure of the male workforce for religious observance at a distance; Moses' definition in verse 9 shatters that interpretation. ALL of Israel, children, elderly, animals, all, is the demanded departure group. Nothing that belongs to Israel will be left in Egypt.

Moses' "we must hold a feast to the LORD" grounds the scope of the demanded exodus in the theological purpose: the feast requires the full community. A feast-to-the-LORD with the men only is not the feast YHWH is calling; it is a performance of a fraction of the demanded act. The totality of the demand is theologically derived: YHWH has claimed all of Israel ("my people"), so the feast of "my people" requires all of them. Moses is not expanding the demand strategically; he is specifying what YHWH's demand has always meant.