No one could see anyone else or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived. The contrast is stark: total darkness in Egypt, light in Goshen. Not partial darkness, not dim light — no one could see anyone. And Israel had light. John 1:5 says the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The ninth plague enacts this verse physically over geography: Israel is the light, Egypt the darkness, and the boundary between them visible from above. Revelation 21:23 describes the new Jerusalem having no need for sun or moon because the glory of God gives it light — the ultimate version of what Goshen experiences in miniature during the ninth plague. Where God's covenant people are, there is light; where His covenant is rejected, there is darkness of a kind that can be felt.

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