Exodus 9:10

_AND THEY TOOK ASHES OF THE FURNACE, AND STOOD BEFORE PHARAOH; AND MOSES SPRINKLED IT UP TOWARD HEAVEN; AND IT BECAME A BOIL BREAKING FORTH WITH BLAINS UPON MAN, AND UPON BEAST._ They took ashes of the furnace, х_ PIYACH_ (H6368) _ HAKIBSHAAN_ (H3536); Septuagint, teen aithaleen tees kaminaias]. It is supposed by others, that there is here a reference to an old Egyptian usage of sacrificing human victims to Typhon, the demon of evil, as a mode of expiating offences, and that, by scattering the debris of the immolated victims into the air, every person and place on which a flake alighted would have an immunity from all danger (Plutarch, quoting Manetho, 'de Is. et Osir.,' p. 380). No occasion, it is alleged, would be more likely to induce a resort to these horrid rites, as the appalling visitations under which Egypt was then suffering; and it was while the Egypt

8-12 When the Egyptians were not wrought upon by the death of their cattle, God sent a plague that seized their own bodies. If lesser judgments do not work, God will send greater. 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 a terror to them. The plague itself was very grievous. The magicians themselves were struck with these boils. Their power was restrained before; but they continued to withstand Moses, and to confirm Pharaoh in his unbelief, till they were forced to give way. Pharaoh continued obstinate. He had hardened his own heart, and now God justly gave him up to his own heart's lusts, permitting Satan to blind and harden him. If men shut their eyes against the light, it is just with God to close their eyes. This is the sorest judgment a man can be under out of hell....

EXPOSITION THE SIXTH PLAGUE. The sixth plague was sent, like the third, without notice given. It was also, like the third, a plague which inflicted direct injury upon the person. There was a very solemn warning in it; for the same power that could afflict the body with "boils and blains," _i.e; _with a severe cutaneous disease accompanied by pustulous ulcers—could also (it must have been felt) smite it with death. It is uncertain what exactly the malady was. Some have supposed elephantiasis, some "black leprosy," some merely an eruptive disease such as is even now common m Egypt during the autumn. But it is, at any rate, evident that the malady was exceedingly severe—"the magicians could not stand before Moses" because of it (Exodus 9:11). If it was "the botch of Egypt" ...

AND THEY TOOK ASHES OF THE FURNACE,.... Which was near at hand, perhaps in Pharaoh's kitchen: AND STOOD BEFORE PHARAOH; not in his palace, or in any covered room, but in some place open to the heaven, a courtyard or garden adjoining to the palace: and Moses sprinkled it up towards heaven; cast it up in the air; this being again ascribed to Moses, seems to confirm the notion of those who think he only did it; but, for the reasons before given, both may be thought to be concerned: AND IT BECAME A BOIL BREAKING FORTH WITH BLAINS, UPON MAN, AND UPON BEAST; these failing down in the manner before described, on whomsoever they lighted, whether man or beast, produced sore boils and inflammations, and raised blisters and blotches; and hence arose those lying scandalous stories of the Israelites being a scabby people, and of their being driven out of Egypt on that account, affirmed by Manetho,...

CHAPTER 9 THE FIFTH, SIXTH, AND SEVENTH PLAGUES _ 1. The fifth plague: the grievous murrain (Exodus 9:1)_ 2. The sixth plague: boils (Exodus 9:8) 3. The warning given (Exodus 9:13) 4. The seventh plague: hail (Exodus 9:22) In the demand God calls Himself “the Lord God of the Hebrews” (see also Exodus 9:13 and Exodus 10:3). The fifth plague strikes animal creation. cattle, such as mentioned in the opening of this chapter, formed the most important part

EXODUS 7:14 TO EXODUS 12:36. THE TEN PLAGUES. How deeply this series of events imprinted itself on the mind and heart of the nation is shown by the fulness with which the three sources report them. J 1° 2° 4° 5° 7° 8° 9° 10° E 1° 7° 8° 9° 10° P 1° 2° 3° 6° 10° 1°, river turned to blood; 2°, frogs; 3°, fice (gnats); 4°, flies; 5°, murrain; 6°, boils; 7°, hail; 8°, locusts; 9°, darkness; 10°, death of firstborn. A sound historical judgment will conclude, both from this fact and from the nature of the occurrences mentioned, as well as from the need for _some_ such group of causes to account for the escape of the tribes, that the traditions have a firm foothold in real events. But since not less than four centuries intervened between the events and the earliest of our sources, it is not to b

ASHES OF THE FURNACE: i.e. one of the altars on which human sacrifices were sometimes offered to propitiate their god _Typhon (i.e._ the Evil Principle). These were doubtless being offered to avert the plagues, and Moses, using the ashes in the same way, produced an- other plague instead of averting it....

Exodus 7:14 to Exodus 11:5 _The first nine Plagues_ The narrative of the Plagues, like that of the preceding Chapter s, is composite. The details of the analysis depend partly upon literary criteria, partly upon differences in the representation, which are not isolated, but recurrent, and which moreover _accompany_the literary differences and support the conclusions based upon them, the differences referred to often also agreeing remarkably with corresponding differences in the parts of the preceding narrative, especially in Exodus 3:1 to Exodus 7:13, which have already, upon independent grounds, been assigned to P, J, and E, respectively. N

THE TEXT OF EXODUS TRANSLATION 9 Then Je-ho-vah said unto Mo-ses, Go in unto Pha-raoh, and tell him, Thus saith Je-ho-vah, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. (2) For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, (3) behold, the hand of Je-ho-vah is upon thy cattle which are in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the herds, and upon the flocks: _there shall be_ a very grievous murrain. (4) And Je-ho-vah shall make a distinction between the cattle of Is-ra-el and the cattle of E-gypt; and there shall nothing die of all that belongeth to the children of Is-ra-el. (5) And Je-ho-vah appointed a set time, saying, To-morrow Je-ho-vah shall do this thing in the land. (6) And Je-ho-vah did that thing on the morrow; and all the cattle of Egypt died; but of the cattle of the children of Is-ra-el died not one. (7) And Pha-raoh s...

THE FIFTH, SIXTH, AND SEVENTH PLAGUES 1-7. The Fifth Plague:—Murrain, i.e. cattle plague. Visitations of cattle plague are not uncommon in Egypt. An outbreak in 1842 carried off 40,000 oxen. The miraculous nature of the plague recorded here consisted in its occurring at a set time (Exodus 9:5), and in the exemption of the cattle of the Israelites, and of the cattle that were housed. This plague was, so far, the most destructive in its effects, entailing a much more serious loss of property than the former....