Chapter Nine

1–7. The fifth plague — mortality of livestock. 8–11. The sixth plague — inflammation with boils. 12–26. Warning of the seventh plague and the plague itself — hail. 27–35. Pharaoh’s repentance and renewed hardening.

Exodus 9:1. And the Lord said to Moses: “Go to Pharaoh and say to him: Thus says the Lord, God of the Hebrews: ‘Release my people so that they may serve me.’ Exodus 9:2. For if you refuse to release [my people] and continue to detain them, Exodus 9:3. Behold, the hand of the Lord will be upon your livestock in the field — upon the horses, upon the donkeys, upon the camels, upon the cattle and upon the sheep: there will be a very grievous pestilence. Exodus 9:4. And the Lord will divide [at that time] between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, and none of [all the] livestock of the sons of Israel will die. Exodus 9:5. And the Lord appointed a time, saying: “Tomorrow the Lord will do this in this land. The fifth plague — a grievous pestilence upon the livestock of the Egyptians alone, which has its analogy in what is known from ancient Egyptian monuments and in the testimony of modern travelers of cases of epizooty, cannot be identified with these latter and explained by natural causes. All the circumstances of the plague — the prediction of its coming (verse 3), the swiftness of that coming (verse 5), the liberation of the land of Goshen from it (verse 4), as well as its destructive power (verse 3) — all these are unmistakable signs of a supernatural, miraculous phenomenon.

Exodus 9:6. And the Lord did this on the next day, and all the livestock of Egypt died; but of the livestock of the sons of Israel, not one died. As is evident from verses 9–10 and 19 of this chapter, the expression: “all the livestock of Egypt died” cannot be understood literally. It refers either to the livestock that was in the field, or indicates all kinds of livestock (verse 3), the striking of which distinguishes the plague from ordinary epidemics, which are limited to one particular kind of animal.

Exodus 9:7. And Pharaoh sent, and behold, none of the livestock [of the sons] of Israel had died. But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not release the people. Despite this confirmation of the might of Jehovah, which had preserved, according to the prediction, the livestock of His people, Pharaoh does not release the Hebrews. The reasons for this lie most likely in the fact that, being painful for the poor, the new plague did not inflict particular harm on the state of Pharaoh himself. In light of this he prefers to bear the lesser affliction rather than expose himself to the greater — the loss of free workers.

Exodus 9:8. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: “Take handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and let Moses throw it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh [and his servants]. Exodus 9:9. And dust will spread throughout all the land of Egypt, and there will be inflammation with boils upon men and upon beasts throughout all the land of Egypt. Exodus 9:10. They took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses threw it toward the sky, and there was inflammation with boils upon men and upon beasts. In contrast to the Hebrew word “tanur,” meaning a bread oven (Exod 8:3, Lev 2:4), the expression “kibshan” used in this case means a furnace for burning lime or smelting metals (Gen 19:28, Exod 19:18). The command to throw upward the ashes taken from that furnace has, on one hand, a relation to the condition of the Hebrews in Egyptian slavery, and on the other hand, to one of the ancient religious customs of Egypt. As in the first three plagues the natural sources of Egyptian prosperity (the Nile and the earth) are turned into instruments of God’s judgment over Egypt, so the new plague originates, by God’s will, from one of those workshops which served as a source of monumental Egyptian buildings, which were the pride of the Pharaohs. The symbolic act was meant to point out to Pharaoh that the God of the Hebrews has the power to turn even the smelting furnaces, as the center of labor, into a source of affliction for Egypt and to make their ashes an instrument of a new plague. According to another explanation, ashes scattered by the wind of sacrifices in honor of the god Typhon averted, according to Egyptian belief, evil from all those regions where it fell. But now the ashes thrown by Moses toward the sky spread, in refutation of superstition, not well-being but a curse, causing a disease consisting of inflammations and boils. Since it struck both men and animals, it could not be leprosy, which the latter do not catch.

Exodus 9:11. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the inflammation, for the inflammation was upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. The magicians’ consciousness of their powerlessness is at the same time proof of the powerlessness of the Egyptian gods-healers, headed by the goddess Isis. They are unable to prevent the coming affliction and to end the affliction that has come.

Exodus 9:12. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said to Moses. Exodus 9:13. And the Lord said to Moses: “Rise early tomorrow and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him: Thus says the Lord, God of the Hebrews: ‘Release my people so that they may serve me.’ Exodus 9:14. For this time I am sending all My plagues upon your heart, and upon your servants, and upon your people, so that you may know that there is none like Me on all the earth. The coming of a new plague is preceded by a prediction that all further afflictions will be directed against the stubborn heart of Pharaoh with the purpose of arousing repentance in him (Exod 9:27) — they will reach his soul, will touch his hardened heart. With the arising of the latter, Pharaoh will humble himself before God — “there is none like Me on all the earth” — will acknowledge His almightiness.

Exodus 9:15. For now I have stretched out My hand, I could have struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been wiped from the earth. Divine power has been demonstrated to Pharaoh by all the preceding plagues and can manifest itself in a deadly pestilence, but in that case the purpose of divine action upon the king would not be achieved.

Exodus 9:16. But for this reason I have kept you alive, so that I might show you My power, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout all the earth. He is kept alive so that he himself may experience the power of the Lord, God of Israel, and at the same time serve as an instrument for the glorification of His name throughout all the earth (Exod 15:14-16).

Exodus 9:17. You still oppose my people, refusing to release them. Exodus 9:18. Behold, tomorrow I will send a very great hail, such as has not been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. If such is the result of further plagues, then, being forewarned of it, Pharaoh could have prevented their coming through his humility before God — consent to release the Hebrews. And only his stubbornness makes the coming of a new affliction — hail, such as Egypt has never experienced — inevitable.

Exodus 9:19. Now send, therefore, and gather in your livestock and all that you have in the field: all men and beasts that remain in the field and are not brought to shelter — the hail will fall upon them, and they will die. Exodus 9:20. Those of Pharaoh’s servants who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their servants and their livestock into shelter. The concern for reducing the consequences of the strong hail (“send, gather your livestock”) related not to Pharaoh personally but to those of his subjects who were completely innocent and could have suffered for the stubbornness of the king (verses 20–21). The time that passed from the moment of the prediction of the plague to its coming (verse 18) could serve as sufficient time for the awakening in Pharaoh’s soul of a feeling of humility, fear before God (verse 20), but since this did not follow, the new affliction appears to be fully deserved punishment.

Exodus 9:22. And the Lord said to Moses: “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and hail will fall upon all the land of Egypt, upon men, upon beasts, and upon all the vegetation of the field in the land of Egypt. Exodus 9:23. And Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran along the ground; and the Lord sent hail upon [all] the land of Egypt. Exodus 9:24. And there was hail and fire among the hail, [very severe hail, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since the time it was inhabited. Exodus 9:25. And the hail struck down all that was in the field throughout all the land of Egypt, from man to beast, and the hail struck down all the vegetation of the field, and broke all the trees of the field. Exodus 9:26. Only in the land of Goshen, where the sons of Israel dwelt, was there no hail. Hail, accompanied by the voice of God, that is, thunder (Exod 19:16, Ps 28:3-9), united with fire spreading along the ground in whole streams (“et mitlakkhot,” Ezek 1:4), which struck down all that was in the field, all the grass, all the trees, the grapes and the sycamores (Ps 77:47), is compared by some to the rainstorms known in ancient and modern Egypt. But in reality, bearing a supernatural character (Wis 16:17-18), the seventh plague proves, like the preceding ones, the powerlessness of the Egyptian gods. “The Lord sent upon them hail and thunder,” says the blessed Theodoret, “thus showing that He is the master of all the elements. Since the Egyptians and Greeks thought that some gods were heavenly, others earthly, and still others underground, the God of all necessarily instructed them by signs not only on the river and on the earth, but also in the air and in the sea, sending upon them thunder from the sky, teaching them that He is the Creator and Master of all things.” And indeed, fire, recognized by the Egyptians, according to the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, as a great god, and water, esteemed above all other elements, now produce devastation.

Exodus 9:27. And Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: “This time I have sinned; the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty. Exodus 9:28. Pray [for me] to the Lord: let the thunders of God and the hail [and fire upon the earth] cease, and I will release you and will hold you no longer. The limiting of his sin merely shows again how shallow Pharaoh’s repentance is. The cause of it is slavish fear before the almightiness of God, as shown by the words: “enough of the manifestations of the thunders of God and of the hail,” but not in a complete consciousness of his sinfulness — resistance to God’s will. With such a disposition, the words: “and I will hold you no longer,” cannot be taken as an expression of firm resolve to release the Hebrews.

Exodus 9:29. Moses said to him: “As soon as I leave the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord [in heaven], the thunders will cease, and there will be no more hail and [rain], so that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s. Exodus 9:30. But I know that you and your servants do not yet fear the Lord God. Fully understanding the true character of the repentance, knowing its brevity (verse 30), Moses agrees to fulfill Pharaoh’s request: to pray to the Lord for him, in order to prove that “the earth is the Lord’s.” In the cessation of the hail, as in the driving out of the frogs, the almightiness of the Most High is manifest. “He has wounded — and He will heal” (Hos 6:1).

Exodus 9:31. The flax and barley were struck, because the barley was in the head and the flax was in bloom. Exodus 9:32. But the wheat and spelt were not struck, because they are late. See the explanation of verses 22–23 of chapter 7.