_A.M. 2513. B.C. 1491._ In this chapter we have an account of three more plagues. (1,) _ Murrain among the cattle, Exodus 9:1._ (2,) _ Biles upon man and beast, Exodus 9:8._ (3,) Hail, with thunder and lightning. 1, Warning is given of this plague, Exodus 9:13; Exodus 9:2, It is inflicted, to the... [ Continue Reading ]
The hand of the Lord - Immediately, without the stretching out of Aaron's hand; _is upon the cattle_ Many of which, some of _all kinds_, should die by a sort of pestilence. The hand of God is to be acknowledged even in the sickness and death of cattle, or other damage sustained in them; for a _sparr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall nothing die of the children's of Israel_ This was the greater miracle, because the Israelites and the Egyptians were mingled together in the land of Goshen; so that their cattle breathed the same air, and drank the same water. By which it appeared that this pestilence was not natural, but pro... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord appointed a set time_ This appointing of a set or particular time, both for bringing on the plagues and removing them, and that at as short a distance as the nature of the appointment would admit, and the leaving it once, at least, to Pharaoh himself to fix it, seems to have been intended... [ Continue Reading ]
_All the cattle of Egypt died_ All that were in the field, Exodus 9:3; or a great number of every kind, so that the Egyptians saw that even the animals which they worshipped as gods could not save themselves. Bishop Warburton, in his _Divine Legation of Moses_, has given it as his opinion, that, in... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pharaoh sent_ It seems as if Pharaoh, notwithstanding all he had seen, could not conceive that such a distinction could be made between cattle feeding together in the same or similar pastures, that those of the Egyptians alone should be stricken, while those of the Israelites were not affected; and... [ Continue Reading ]
_Take you handfuls of the ashes of the furnace_ Sometimes God shows men their sin in their punishment. They had oppressed Israel in the furnaces, and now the ashes of the furnace are made as much a terror to them as ever their task masters had been to the Israelites. “The matter of this plague,” say... [ Continue Reading ]
_The magicians could not stand before Moses_ We do not read of any attempt they made to vie with Moses in miracles since the plague of the lice. But it would seem from this passage that they still continued about Pharaoh, and endeavoured to settle him in his resolution not to let Israel go: persuadi... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart_ Before he had _hardened his own heart_, and resisted the grace of God; and now God justly gave him up to his own heart's lusts, to strong delusions, permitting Satan to blind and harden him. Wilful hardness is generally punished with judicial hardness. Let us... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will at this time send all my plagues_ Either these verses relate to what was to happen some time afterward, namely, the slaying of the firstborn, or the latter verse is to be read as follows, a translation which is equally agreeable to the Hebrew: “For now I had stretched out my hand, to smite t... [ Continue Reading ]
_For this cause have I raised thee up_ A most dreadful message Moses is here ordered to deliver to him, whether he will hear, or whether he will forbear. He must tell him that he is _marked_ for _ruin:_ that he now stands as the butt at which God would shoot all the arrows of his wrath. _For this ca... [ Continue Reading ]
_As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people?_ Against me, acting for my people. God takes what is done for or against his people as done for or against himself. _Behold, tomorro_ w The time is precisely marked, that it might not be said to have fallen out by chance. Besides, God hereby demonstra... [ Continue Reading ]
_Send now therefore and gather thy cattle_ This warning God gives to mitigate the severity of the judgment, to show his justice in punishing so wicked and obstinate a people as would not hearken either to his words or former works, and especially to make a difference between the penitent and the inc... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh_ By this time it appears that these terrible judgments had not been executed entirely in vain. A few, at least, were hereby brought to stand in awe of God and perhaps truly to turn to him. Such persons, believing the discoveries whic... [ Continue Reading ]
_Upon man_ Upon those men that presumed to continue in the field after this admonition. _The Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt_ This was the more extraordinary, as rain seldom falls in Egypt, and in some parts of the country is scarcely known at all. And snow and hail are still more rare, the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Fire mingled with hail_ Which strange mixture much increased the miracle. The Hebrew is, fire _infolding_ or _catching itself among the hail;_ “One flash of lightning,” says Ainsworth, “taking hold on another, and so the flames, infolding themselves, increased and burned more terribly.” The same He... [ Continue Reading ]
_Every herb of the field: every tree_ That is, most of them, or herbs and trees of all sorts, as appears from Exodus 10:12; Exodus 10:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the land of Goshen there was no hail_ It seems the Egyptians that dwelt there were spared for the sake of their neighbours the Israelites; which great obligation probably made them the more ready to give them their jewels, Exodus 12:35.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pharaoh said, I have sinned; the Lord is righteous_ These, professions were only produced by his fears: his heart was still untouched with any true veneration for, or humiliation before, the God of Israel, or with compunction and sorrow for his own obstinacy.... [ Continue Reading ]
_That the earth is the Lord's_ That is, the whole world, the heavens and the earth. This is one great point that the Scriptures are intended to establish, that the whole universe, and all creatures therein, belong to the Lord, and are under his government. This truth, the foundation of all religion,... [ Continue Reading ]
_The flax and barley were smitten_ Which were not so necessary for human life as the wheat and rye. Thus God sends smaller judgments before the greater. _The flax was bolled_ Grown into a stalk.... [ Continue Reading ]
_They were not grown up_ Were _hidden_, or _dark_, as the margin reads it; or _late_, as many interpreters render the expression. This kind of corn, coming later up, was now tender, and hidden, either under ground, or in the herb, whereby it was secured both from the fire, by its greenness and moist... [ Continue Reading ]
_Moses went out of the city_ Not only for privacy in his communication with God, but to show that he durst venture abroad into the field, notwithstanding the _hail and lightning_, knowing that every hail- stone had its direction from God. _And spread abroad his hands unto the Lord_ An outward expres... [ Continue Reading ]