Exodus 9:8

_AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES AND UNTO AARON, TAKE TO YOU HANDFULS OF ASHES OF THE FURNACE, AND LET MOSES SPRINKLE IT TOWARD THE HEAVEN IN THE SIGHT OF PHARAOH._ Take to you handfuls ... The next plague assailed the persons of the Egyptians, and it appeared in the form of ulcerous eruptions upon the skin and flesh (Leviticus 13:20; Job 2:7; 2 Kings 20:7). That this epidemic did not arise from natural causes was evident from its taking effect from the particular action of Moses done in the sight of Pharaoh. Various explanations have been given of this plague. By one class of writers it is said, the attitude which Moses and Aaron assumed was similar to that of Eastern magicians, who, 'when they pronounce an imprec

8._And the Lord said unto Moses. _God does not now postpone the time of the punishment, but redoubles the plagues in a continuous series; nor does he threaten Pharaoh, but, leaving him, executes the judgment which He decreed; both because it was now more than sufficiently manifested that admonitions were of no avail with him, and also that his desperate wickedness might be reproved in every way. For although I have lately said that all which happened is not fully related, still the narrative of Moses rather leads us to infer, that nothing about the boils was previously told to Pharaoh, but that the ashes (105) were sprinkled, when he had no suspicion of anything of the kind. But it did not happen naturally that the heaven was darkened by the dust, and that the disease arose from thence; for how could a few ashes cover the whole air? But by this visible sign the tyrant was taught that the...

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....

_THE_ SIXTH _PLAGUE - THE_ BOILS _AND_ BLAINS Verse Exodus 9:8. _HANDFULS OF ASHES OF THE FURNACE_] As one part of the oppression of the Israelites consisted In their labour in the brick-kilns, some have observed a congruity between the _crime_ and the _punishment_. The _furnaces_, in the labour of which they oppressed the Hebrews, now yielded the instruments of their punishment; for every particle of those _ashes_, formed by unjust and oppressive labour, seemed to be a boil or a blain on the tyrannic king and his cruel and hard-hearted people....

This marks a distinct advance and change in the character of the visitations. Hitherto, the Egyptians had not been attacked directly in their persons. It is the second plague which was not preceded by a demand and warning, probably on account of the special hardness shown by Pharaoh in reference to the murrain. ASHES OF THE FURNACE - The act was evidently symbolic: the ashes were to be sprinkled toward heaven, challenging, so to speak, the Egyptian deities. There may possibly be a reference to an Egyptian custom of scattering to the winds ashes of victims offered to Typhon....

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 THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES AND UNTO AARON,.... This very probably was the day following, on the third day of the month Abib, about the eighteenth of March, that orders were given to bring on the following plague: TAKE TO YOU HANDFULS OF ASHES OF THE FURNACE; either in which the bricks were burnt, or rather in which food was boiled, since it can scarcely he thought there should be brickkiln furnaces so near Pharaoh's court; though perhaps some reference may be had to them, and to the labour of the children Israel at them, and as a just retaliation for their oppression of them in that way. These ashes were such as were blown off the coals, and though fresh, yet not so hot but that they could take and hold them in their hands: AND LET MOSES SPRINKLE IT TOWARDS THE HEAVEN, IN THE SIGHT OF PHARAOH; this was to be done before Pharaoh, that he might be an eyewitness of the miracle, he himse...

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

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