Exodus 9:2

_THEN THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES, GO IN UNTO PHARAOH, AND TELL HIM, THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD OF THE HEBREWS, LET MY PEOPLE GO, THAT THEY MAY SERVE ME._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

2._But if thou refuse. _God again urges him to obedience through fear of punishment, as He usually deals with the froward. Yet he permits him a short space of time for repentance, (as before,) if perchance he may lay aside his perverse determination to refuse. And this Moses now relates more distinctly in the fifth verse, both to show the extreme obstinacy of his malice, because the tyrant mocks at God’s forbearance, and follows his own lust; and also to manifest more clearly from the circumstance of time, that the cattle of Egypt were smitten not by chance but by the hand of God. There is also an implied reproof of his senseless obstinacy, as though Moses said, that God was already enough, and more than enough, provoked; and therefore, unless he should desist, that God had new and more terrible plagues at hand, whereby He would overwhelm him. The murrain is appositely called God’s “hand...

1-7 God will have Israel released, Pharaoh opposes it, and the trial is, whose word shall stand. The hand of the Lord at once is upon the cattle, many of which, some of all kinds, die by a sort of murrain. This was greatly to the loss of the owners; they had made Israel poor, and now God would make them poor. The hand of God is to be seen, even in the sickness and death of cattle; for a sparrow falls not to the ground without our Father. None of the Israelites' cattle should die; the Lord shall sever. The cattle died. The Egyptians worshipped their cattle. What we make an idol of, it is just with God to remove from us. This proud tyrant and cruel oppressor deserved to be made an example by the just Judge of the universe. None who are punished according to what they deserve, can have any just cause to complain. Hardness of heart denotes that state of mind upon which neither threatenings...

EXPOSITION THE FIFTH PLAGUE. Hitherto the plagues had been directed rather against the persons of the Egyptians than against their property. Property had perhaps suffered somewhat in the preceding plague, if it was really one of the _Blatta orientalis; _but otherwise the various afflictions had caused nothing but pain and annoyance to the person. Now this was to be changed. Property was to be made to suffer. It remained to be seen whether the Pharaoh would be impressed more deeply by calamities which impoverished his subjects than by those which merely caused them personal annoyance and suffering. The hand of God was first laid upon the carrie, or rather upon the domesticated animals in general (Exodus 9:3). These were made to suffer from a "murrain" or epidemic pestilence, which carried off vast numbers. Such visitatio

FOR IF THOU REFUSE TO LET THEM GO,.... Continue to refuse, as he had done: AND WILT HOLD THEM STILL; in the land, and under his dominion and oppression....

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 9:1 J. 5°. MURRAIN UPON CATTLE. The word cattle is a wide term, and includes all domestic animals. The camels must have been those of visiting Bedouins, as they were not naturalised in ancient Egypt. Cattle plagues have been rare in Egypt, but there have been several in the last century. One of the most severe was traced to the Nile; and cattle on land far from the river escaped, as did the cattle of Israel in Goshen. All the cattle (Exodus 9:6) may mean all kinds of cattle, for some survived (Exodus 9:19)....

The announcement to the Pharaoh, worded analogously to those of the second and fourth plagues (Exodus 8:1-4; Exodus 8:20-23, both J)....

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....