And Pharao arose in the night, and all his servants, and all Egypt: for there was not a house wherein there lay not one dead.

And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his bondmen, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house in which there was not one dead.

And Pharaoh riseth by night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there is a great cry in Egypt, for there is not a house where there is not one dead,

Then Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and a great cry went up from Egypt; for there was not a house where someone was not dead.

And Pharaoh rose up in the night, and all his servants, and all of Egypt. And there arose a great outcry in Egypt. For there was not a house in which no one lay dead.

Surrexit ergo Pharao nocte, ipse et omnes servi ejus, et omnes AEgyptii: fuitque clamor magnus in AEgypto, quoniam nulla erat domus ubi non esset mortuus.

There was a great cry - No people in the universe were more remarkable for their mournings than the Egyptians, especially in matters of religion; they whipped, beat, tore themselves, and howled in all the excess of grief. When a relative died, the people left the house, ran into the streets, and howled in the most lamentable and frantic manner. See Diod. Sicul., lib. i., and Herod., lib. ii., c. 85, 86. And this latter author happening to be in Egypt on one of their solemnities, saw myriads of people whipping and beating themselves in this manner, lib. ii., c. 60; and see Mr. Bryant on the Plagues of Egypt, where many examples are given, p. 162, etc. How dreadful then must the scene of horror and distress appear when there was not one house or family in Egypt where there was not one dead; and according to their custom, all the family running out into the streets bewailing this calamity!

And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for [there was] (o) not a house where [there was] not one dead.
(o) Of these houses, in which any first born lived, either of men of beasts.

And Pharaoh rose up in the night,.... Being awakened by the uncommon noise he heard:
he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; he and his nobles, and ministers of state, courtiers, and counsellors, and his subjects in common, perhaps everywhere in his kingdom, but particularly in the metropolis:
and there was a great cry in Egypt; throughout the whole land, the firstborn being everywhere slain, which caused a most dreadful lamentation of parents for their eldest son, of brethren and sisters for their elder brother, and of servants and maidens for the principal and heir of the family; a cry so loud and general as perhaps was never heard before or since, and under which distress they could have no relief, or any to be their comforter, since all were in the same circumstances: for there was not a house wherein there was not one dead; for if there was no firstborn in it, as it can hardly be thought there should be in every house, though some have been of opinion that it was so ordered in Providence that there should; yet the principal or most considerable person in the family, that is next to the master, might be called the firstborn, as Jarchi notes from Psalm 89:27. Though this may be taken as an hyperbolical expression, or, as Aben Ezra observes, it being usual with the Scripture to say that of all, which is true of the greatest part.

there was not a house where there was not one dead--Perhaps this statement is not to be taken absolutely. The Scriptures frequently use the words "all," "none," in a comparative sense--and so in this case. There would be many a house in which there would be no child, and many in which the first-born might be already dead. What is to be understood is, that almost every house in Egypt had a death in it.