Exodus 9 commentary

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 nor promise, neither judgements nor mercies, make any abiding impression. The conscience being stupified, and the heart filled with pride and presumption, they persist in unbelief and disobedience. This state of mind is also called the stony heart. Very different is the heart of flesh, the broken and contrite heart. Sinners have none to blame but themselves, for that pride and ungodliness which abuse the bounty and patience of God. For, however the Lord hardens the hearts of men, it is always as a punishment of former sins.

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.

Moses is here ordered to deliver a dreadful message to Pharaoh. Providence ordered it, that Moses should have a man of such a fierce and stubborn spirit as this Pharaoh to deal with; and every thing made it a most signal instance of the power of God has to humble and bring down the proudest of his enemies. When God's justice threatens ruin, his mercy at the same time shows a way of escape from it. God not only distinguished between Egyptians and Israelites, but between some Egyptians and others. If Pharaoh will not yield, and so prevent the judgment itself, yet those that will take warning, may take shelter. Some believed the things which were spoken, and they feared, and housed their servants and cattle, and it was their wisdom. Even among the servants of Pharaoh, some trembled at God's word; and shall not the sons of Israel dread it? But others believed not, and left their cattle in the field. Obstinate unbelief is deaf to the fairest warnings, and the wisest counsels, which leaves the blood of those that perish upon their own heads.

Woful havoc this hail made: it killed both men and cattle; the corn above ground was destroyed, and that only preserved which as yet was not come up. The land of Goshen was preserved. God causes rain or hail on one city and not on another, either in mercy or in judgment. Pharaoh humbled himself to Moses. No man could have spoken better: he owns himself wrong; he owns that the Lord is righteous; and God must be justified when he speaks, though he speaks in thunder and lightning. Yet his heart was hardened all this while. Moses pleads with God: though he had reason to think Pharaoh would repent of his repentance, and he told him so, yet he promises to be his friend. Moses went out of the city, notwithstanding the hail and lightning which kept Pharaoh and his servants within doors. Peace with God makes men thunder-proof. Pharaoh was frightened by the tremendous judgment; but when that was over, his fair promises were forgotten. Those that are not bettered by judgments and mercies, commonly become worse.

1. Then the Lord said. No complaint or expostulation of Moses is here recounted; and it is possible that he was quiet and silent, whilst God foresaw what it was necessary to do, and even commanded what He would have done. But since he only gives a brief summary of occurrences, we may probably conjecture that, as the evil grew worse, he had recourse from time to time to the remedy. In the denunciation, “the Lord God of the Hebrews” is no unmeaning repetition, that Pharaoh may learn that he, whom he thought to have repelled in the abundance of his pride, was still in the field against him. For God insults his ferocity, and by setting forth his name contemptuously defies his wrath. We have already said that Pharaoh is convicted of sacrilege, both in his oppression of God’s people and in defrauding God Himself of His due honor; therefore those words, “Let my people go, that they may serve me,” have the force of aggravating his sin.

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,” because it arose from His just judgment; for this expression is opposed to natural causes, to the arts and devices of men, and to accidental chances — as if Moses had said that the hand of God would appear in “the very grievous murrain,” that Pharaoh may perceive the Deity to be wroth with him. Moreover, though this might seem a lighter plague than those preceding it, yet it was doubtless more grievous and afflictive to the Egyptians, because it involved much greater injury at a future period. The hand of God had before been adverse to them for a short time, and the evil had been removed together with the infliction; but now the destruction of the cattle will affect them for many years. For this kind of gradation in the judgments of God must be observed, as the Law also denounces against transgressors punishments sevenfold greater, if they do not speedily return into the way. (See Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28.) As to his saying that “all the cattle died,” it is a comprehensive Lat., “synecdochica locutio.” Fr., “s’entend que par ci par la il y eut grande desconfiture;” it means that on every side there was great destruction. expression, for immediately it will appear that a considerable number of animals still remained. But he means that the herds were everywhere destroyed, and the flocks smitten by the murrain; or, if you prefer it, that the murrain was general in its attack, and that it reduced Egypt to a state of poverty by the destruction of their cattle and other animals. Finally, the universal term merely refers to this plague having been a remarkable proof of God’s anger, because the pestilence did not only kill a few animals, as it usually does, but made havoc far and wide of a vast number of herds and flocks.

7. And Pharaoh sent. I leave it undecided, whether he then first sent these inspectors; “It is asked, why he did not do so before? Resp., Because either, first, The roads were impassable on account of the frogs, lice, etc.; or secondly, It did not previously occur to him.” — Menochius in Pol. Syn. it may be, that, in the blindness of his obstinacy he neglected this, until he was reminded by Moses; for we know how the reprobate shut their eyes against the manifest marks of God’s wrath, and willfully indulge in their errors. Certainly there is no doubt that Pharaoh, whilst he seeks to harden himself in every way, deliberately passed over what it was very useful for him to know; but, since he was informed by Moses of the distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites, he is compelled, whether he will or no, to ascertain from actual inspection, what he would have gladly been in ignorance of. But this was no obscure demonstration of God’s paternal favor towards His chosen people; that the contagion should not have affected that part of Egypt, which was fullest of cattle, though it ravaged the whole surrounding neighborhood. Wherefore, the hardness of the king’s wicked heart was all the more base and marvelous, since he was not moved even by this extraordinary circumstance; for it was a token of horrible folly, that, when the matter was examined and discovered by his underlings, he still hardened his heart and would not obey God.

Exodus 9:8-12

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.

8. Tunc dixit Jehova ad Mosen et ad Aharon, Tollite vobis plenos pugillos vestros favillae fornacis, et spargat illam Moses per coelum (vel, per aerem) coram Pharaone.

9. And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.

9. Et erit in pulverem super totam terram AEgypti: et erit super hominem, et super jumentum ulcus producens tumores in tota terra AEgypti.

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.

10. Tulerunt ergo favillam fornacis, et steterunt coram Pharaone: et sparsit illam Moses per coelum, (vel, per aerem.) Et fuit ulcus tumorem producens in homine et in jumento.

11. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.

11. Et non poterant magi stare coram Mose propter ulcus: quia fuit ulcus in magis ut in omnibus AEgyptiis.

12. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had spoken unto Moses.

12. Et induravit Jehova cor Pharaonis: et non audivit eos: quemadmodum loquutus fuerat Jehova ad Mosen.

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 Havernick, in his Introduction to the Pentateuch, has a remarkable note on this plague. “The symbolical procedure,” he says, “employed by Moses, Exodus 9:8, etc., is striking, and has never yet been satisfactorily explained. It is, however, made completely intelligible to us by a statement of Manetho in Plutarch, De. Isaiah et Osir. p. 380: καὶ γὰρἐν ᾿Ειληθυίας πο·λει ζῶντας ἀνθρώπους κατεπίμπασαν, ὡς Μανέθων ἱστόρηκε, Τυφωνίους καλοῦντες, καὶ τὴν τέφραν αὐτῶν λικμῶντες ἠφάνιβον, καὶ διέσπειρον. In respect to this we may leave it undecided how far this statement should be connected with the residence of the Hyksos, a conclusion which there is much to favor; here we have only to do with the striking rite mentioned in the notice, which was certainly an ancient mode of expiation, indicating purification, which in antiquity was often symbolized by ashes. (V. Spencer, De legg, rituall., s. 3. diss. 3, c. 1.) We shall thus understand the entire significance, which the procedure had for the Egyptians, inasmuch as a rite which they regarded as sacred in the sense referred to, was here followed by the contrary effect, pollution, as is so expressively indicated by our text.” — Thomson’s Translation, p. 246. Edinburgh, 1850. 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 calamity which ensued was inflicted by Moses and Aaron. Moreover, God invested His servants with high and power, when He gave them command over the air, so that they should envelop it in darkness, and poison it with contagion. Hence we gather, that the devil’s are called the princes of the air, not because they govern it according to their will, but only so far as the permission D’y faire leurs efforts. — Fr. to wander in it is accorded to them.

11. And the magicians could not. Since the magicians were now also at hand, doubtless they were possessed by their former folly, so that they stood in readiness, as it were, in case an opportunity of contention should be offered them. And, in fact, since Satan, although ten times conquered, is still perpetually hurried forward with indefatigable obstinacy, so neither do his ministers desist from their madness, notwithstanding they have experienced how unsuccessful are their battles. These enchanters had lately confessed that their art availed no farther, and yet they embolden themselves to try all extremities, until the disease of the boils drives them back in disgrace. Wherefore, that we may not betray our madness by similar audacity, let us learn to give God His full glory by voluntary submission. But that Pharaoh, when not only deprived of their assistance, but even when abandoned, and without their presence, is neither changed nor softened, proves that he was not so much deceived by the impostures of others, as stupefied by his own malice and perversity; although Moses here repeats that “his heart was hardened by God;” because He desired, as if by an opposing barrier, to have an opportunity for manifesting His power. And here their ignorance is refuted, who imagine that God is endued with mere prescience; for when “as the Lord has spoken” is added, He attributes both in conjunction to Himself, viz., the effect as well as the foreknowledge. On this point we shall enlarge a little further on; yet let us remark that at the same time the tyrant was not absolved from crime, for that his hardness of heart was voluntary. The blains, which were epidemic on the cattle, are a proof that they did not all die in the former catastrophe.

Exodus 9:13-26

13. And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

13. Et ait Jehova ad Mosen, Surge mane et te siste in conspectu Pharaonis, et dic ei, Sic dicit Jehova Deus Hebraeorum, Dimitte populum meum ut serviant mihi.

14. For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.

14. Quoniam hac vice ego mittam omnes plagas meas in cor tuum, et in servos tuos, et in populum tuum: ut scias quod nemo sit similis mei in tota terra.

15. For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.

15. Nunc enim extendi manum meam, ut percutiam te et populum tuum peste: et excideris e terra.

16. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

16. Et certe ideo constitui te ut ostenderem tibi potentiam meam, et ut enarrent nomen meum in universa terra.

17. As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?

17. Tu adhuc to extollis inpopulum meum, ut non dimittas eos?

18. Behold, tomorrow about this time, I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

18. Ecce, ego pluam hoc tempore cras grandinem gravissimam, cui non fuit similis in AEgypto ab eo die quo fundata fuit hucusque.

19. Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field: for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.

19. Nunc igitur mitte, collige pecus tuum, et quicquid tibi est in agro. Omnes homines et jumentum qui inventi fuerint in agro, et non collecti fuerint intra domum, descendet super eos grando, et morientur.

20. He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:

20. Qui timuit ad sermonem Jehovae ex servis Pharaonis, confugere jussit servos suos et pecora sua domum.

21. And he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.

21. Qui vero non adjecit cor suum ad verbum Jehovae, reliquit servos suos et pecora sua in agro.

22. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.

22. Tunc dixit Jehova ad Mosen, Extende manum tuam versus coelum, et erit grando in tota terra AEgypti, super homines et super jumenta, et super cunctam herbam agri in terra AEgypti.

23. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground: and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt.

23. Extendit ergo Moses virgam suam versus coelum, et dedit Jehova tonitrua et grandinem: discurritque ignis per terram, et pluit Jehova grandinem super terram AEgypti.

24. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

24. Et fuit grando atque ignis grandine implicitus gravis valde: cui similis nulla fuit in tota terra AEgypti, ex quo fuit in gentem.

25. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.

25. Et percussit grando in tota terra AEgypti quicquid fuit in agro, ab homine usque ad jumentum. Et percussit grando cunctam herbam agri, atque omnes arbores agri confregit.

26. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.

26. Tantum in terra Gosen, ubi erant filii Israel, non fuit grando.

13. And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up. God returns again to threats, to try the mind of the wicked king; not that there is any hope of a cure, but that his obstinacy may be more and more discovered. For it was desirable as an example, that it should be known openly how madly those, who are cast into a reprobate state of feeling, and who are possessed by a spirit of willfulness, rush upon their own destruction. Surely it would be incredible, that any human being should have ever resisted God with such headstrong folly and obstinacy, unless this picture had been presented to us. How often was Pharaoh commanded to send the people away, and on every occasion a ratification of the command The French Version supplies “avec menaces;” with threatenings. was added! So that God no less thundered from heaven than He spoke on earth by the mouth of His servant and ambassador; yet still the mind of the tyrant was not subdued into obedience, because Satan alienates the minds of those, whom by God’s permission he holds in devotion, and bondage, to himself. Meanwhile, they heap up more terrible vengeance against themselves by their impious contempt of warnings.

14. For I will at this time. The unexpressed condition is implied, “unless he should submit himself to God.” The meaning is, that although he had already chastised his pride, yet that this had been done gently and in moderation; but that He now would use a heavier scourge, since the lighter rods had been unavailing. Thus his ingratitude is reproved, because he had not acknowledged that he had been spared, in order that, having suffered only some trifling losses, Dommages temporels. — Fr. he might return to his right mind. Wherefore, because God had proceeded gradually with his punishments, He now threatens that He will inflict many on him at once; as he is wont to act with the rebellious. On which account also David exhorts us not to be

“as the horse and mule — whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle when they are restive,” (Psalm 32:9;)

whence he concludes, that “many sorrows shall be to the wicked” and rebellious. But Moses here denounces plagues, which shall not only affect the head and arms, but which shall reach to the heart itself, and inflict a deadly wound in his very bowels; for Pharaoh was so obstinate that it was not enough to batter his sides. In flue, he is enjoined to make haste and provide against the awful judgement which impended, unless he chose rather to perish with all his (servants.) The expression, “all my plagues,” embraces whatever chastisement we shall hereafter see inflicted on him; and therefore the word, דבר, deber, designates every kind of death; as much as to say, that He would heap punishment upon punishment, until He had destroyed the tyrant together with his whole nation. What is afterwards added, “that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth,” implies that Pharaoh had hitherto struggled against Him, because he had never really and seriously apprehended the extent of the divine power; for wherever it is really felt, it is impossible but that pride must be humbled before it. And, doubtless, the reprobate, although in some measure they recognize the power of God, still rush on with a kind of frenzied impulse, and their wickedness is combined with blindness of heart, so that seeing, they do not see. Meantime we are reminded, that the reprobate only gain this by their stupidity, that God should proceed against them with all His forces, and drag and compel them against their will to understand His power, from which they fly. But that he may expect no longer truce, God affirms in the next verse that He is advancing with an outstretched hand. For God is not here commending His patience in the slowness of His procedure, as some prefer to explain it; but He rather admonishes him that the execution was nigh at hand, since He had armed Himself, and prepared His forces before He had spoken a word.

16. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up. The word, העמדתי, hagnemadthi, is variously explained; it properly signifies “to appoint;” some, therefore, refer it to his eminent position, as if God had placed Pharaoh on the throne, for the purpose of better manifesting His glory. העמדתיך. By the Greek interpreter we should generally understand the LXX. to be meant, but it has διετηρήθης, which is obviously a less close rendering than ἐξήγειρά σε, the version adopted by Paul. As the root עמד, means to stand up, it is perfectly regular that the Hiphil, or causal preterite, I have made thee to stand up, should be held equivalent to I have raised thee up, as in our A.V. S. M., I have preserved thee. — W.

Calvin’s Latin is “excitavi te.” See Rev. J. Owen’s note on Calvin’s Commentary on Romans 9:17. Cal. Soc. Transl., p. 360. The Greek interpreter extends the meaning, translating it ἐξήγειρά σε, “I have stirred thee up, as much as to say, that Pharaoh had been chosen by the secret counsel and providence of God that His power might be exercised upon him; as He is constantly said to stir up those whom He brings forward, to apply them to those objects for which he has destined them. Others think that this sentence depends on what has gone before, and interpret it “I have preserved thee,” or “chosen that thou shouldest survive.” For the Hebrew verb, which is transitive in Hiphil, is derived from עמד, gnamod, which means “to stand up.” Since, therefore, God had restrained Himself, He now assigns the cause of His moderation, because if Pharaoh had fallen in one trifling engagement, the glory of His victory would have been less illustrious. In fine, lest Pharaoh should flatter himself, or harden himself by vain confidence, God affirms that He does not want strength to destroy him immediately, but that He had delayed his ultimate punishment for another purpose, viz., that Pharaoh might slowly learn that he strove in vain against His incomparable power; and that thus this remarkable history should be celebrated in all ages. But although Paul follows the Greek interpreter, there is no reason why we should not embrace this latter sense; for we know that the Apostles were not so particular in quoting the words, but that they rather considered the substance. But, although we admit that by God’s long-suffering Pharaoh continued to hold out, until he became a clear and notorious proof of the madness and folly of all those who resist God, yet this also has reference to the eternal prescience of God; for therefore did God spare Pharaoh to stand for a time, because, before he was born, he had been predestinated for this purpose. Wherefore, also, Paul rightly concludes, that

“it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth.” (Romans 9:16.)

For whether God raises up or upholds the reprobate, He wonderfully manifests His glory by their perverseness. Thus is their ignorance refuted, who, by this cavil, endeavor to overturn the eternal predestination of God; because it is not said, that He created Pharaoh with this intention, but that he suspended His judgment for a. time. For this intermediate and progressive course of proceeding arose from this source, that Pharaoh was the organ or instrument of God’s wrath.

17. As yet exaltest thou thyself. The expression which Moses uses מסתולל. Part. Hithp. Raising up thyself like a rampart. C. found in S. M. that Kimchi had followed Aben-Ezra in interpreting the root סלל, to trample, a meaning not acknowledged by recent Lexicographers. — W denotes the pride of Pharaoh; because he too insolently exalted himself by trampling on the people. God therefore inquires, as if in astonishment, what this blinded fury meant, that the tyrant should hope that the injuries whereby he undeservedly afflicted God’s people, would be permitted with impunity? For he was already taught, by many miracles, that God had, as their protector, undertaken the cause of His people, so that He would be the avenger of all their unjust treatment. At the same time He ironically reproves the tyrant’s folly, in that he was not humbled by so many chastisements; as if He had said, that although, when intoxicated by prosperity, he might have raged against the wretched people with tyrannical and persevering arbitrariness, yet, after undergoing so many plagues, it was surely time to cease.

18. Behold, tomorrow about this time. God now indicates the kind of punishment which He was prepared to inflict, viz., that He would smite with hail both man and beast, and a part of the crops. It sometimes, indeed, happens that the corn is destroyed by hail, and occasionally that great injury is thus inflicted even on men and beasts; nay, it is regarded as an unusual blessing if ten or fifteen years pass by without such a calamity. But God makes it apparent by certain signs in the judgment, which he has determined to execute, that the hail did not arise from natural causes, but that the atmosphere was manifestly armed by Him for the battle. First, the morrow is fixed; nor is this enough, the hour also is added. But what astronomer or philosopher could thus measure the moments for storms and tempests? Then again, its unusual violence, such as had never been seen before, is appointed. Fourthly, its extent, from the extreme boundaries of Egypt, from the one side to the other, as well as its expansion over its whole breadth. Scarcely once in twenty years will a storm so widely prevail, flying, as this did, like an arrow; but, restrained within narrow limits, it; will not thus diffuse itself far and wide. Lastly, the distinction is added between Goshen and the rest of Egypt. Hence it is plain, that this hail was not produced by an accidental impulse, but made to fall by God’s hand; in a word, that it was not the drops of moisture frozen in mid air, but a portent which transcended the bounds of nature.

19. Sealed therefore now. He does not give this counsel as if he would spare His professed enemy, but he insults his mad confidence, because hitherto in his supine security he had despised whatever punishments had been denounced against him. He indirectly hints, therefore, that now is the time for fear. Secondly, that when God contends, the event is not a doubtful one; because He not only openly challenges him to the combat, but assures him that He shall have no difficulty in putting him to the rout. Finally, he shows him, that He has no need of deceit, or of any stratagems to overtake His enemy, but that, although he grants him a way of escape, still He should be victorious.

20. He that feared the word of the Lord. In these words Moses shows that there were some who were so far taught by experience as not altogether to despise what he had denounced; for hence arose their fear from the denunciation of the punishment, because they were persuaded that Moses was the servant of God, and a Prophet, as well as the herald of the Divine judgment. Although it likewise appears that they had not seriously repented so as to obey God, but were impelled to take these precautions by immediate and momentary terror. Thus, particular fear often makes the reprobate anxious either to deprecate or fly from the vengeance of God. Still Moses says, that their fear profited them, for they did not experience the same calamity as others, who were more insensible. In this way God bore witness, that in proportion as each one more obstinately despises His judgments, the more grievously and heavily is he afflicted; but that some unbelievers are in some degree spared from inconveniences, and more gently chastised, because they at least do not proudly exalt themselves to despise His power. Moreover, by this destruction the judgment of God more clearly shone forth, when among the Egyptians themselves, whosoever was most hardened received the sure reward of his contempt. Yet are we taught by this example, that it does not greatly profit unbelievers, though God may pardon them for a while when they are alarmed and humbled; because they ever remain under condemnation to eternal death.

22. And the Lord said. The rod of Moses is again employed to bring on the storm, not so much for Pharaoh’s sake, as that Moses may be the more encouraged to the remaining contests, when he sees the proof of his vocation renewed. In the meanwhile, we may observe the trial of his faith, since before he had received the command to stretch forth his rod toward heaven, he had not hesitated to predict to Pharaoh the grievous and miraculous hall. But if any one thinks that this is an ὕστερον πρότερον, and that what was first in order of time is related last, I will not debate it; but this seems more probable to me, and also to be rightly gathered from the text, that when the day had elapsed, Moses was commanded to execute that of which the means was before unknown to him. Hence, also, both Moses himself learnt, and we also ought now to learn, that all the elements, although without sense, are still ready to render any kind of obedience to their Maker; since, at the stretching forth of the rod the air was troubled in an incredible manner, so that it hurled down an abundance of hail for the destruction of beasts and men.

Exodus 9:27-35

27. And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.

27. Tunc misit Pharao ad vocandum Mosen et Aharon: et dixit ad eos, Peccavi hac vice, Jehova justas est: ego autem et populus meas scelerati.

28. Entreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.

28. Precamini Jehovam, et magnum erit si non sint tonitrua (vel, multum est quod sint tonitrua) Dei et grando: et dimittam vos, nec ultra manebitis.

29. And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord’s.

29. Tunc dixit Moses, Ubi egresses fuero ex urbe, extendam manus meas ad Jehovam: cessabunt tonitrua, et grando non erit amplius, ut scias quod Jehovae sit terra.

30. But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God.

30. Atqui de te et servis tuis cognosco quod nondum timeatis coram facie Jehovae Dei.

31. And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was boiled.

31. Linum et hordeum percussa sunt: nam hordeum maturescebat, et linum erat in calamo.

32. But the wheat and the rye were not smitten; for they were not grown up.

32. Triticum vero et zea non sunt percussa, eo quod abscondita essent.

33. And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the Lord; and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.

33. Et egressus Moses a congressu Pharaonis extra urbem, expandit manus suas ad Jehovam: et cessarunt tonitrua et grando, et pluvia non est eftusa super terram.

34. And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, and the hail, and the thunders, were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

34. Videns autem Pharao quod cessasset pluvia, et grando, et tonitrua, adjecit adhuc ad impie agendum, et aggravavit cor suum ipse et servi ejus.

35. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the Lord had spoken by Moses.

35. Et obduruit cor Pharaonis, nec dimisit filios Israel, sicut loquutus fuerat Jehova per manum Mosis.

27. And Pharaoh sent and called. If this confession had proceeded from the heart, it would have betokened repentance; but Moses immediately perceived that fear in the heart of the wicked is not a principle which governs them in lasting duty; “Et n’est maitresse que pour une minute;” and is only their mistress for a minute. — Fr. and this was more manifest in the result.

Although we must, at the same time, recollect, what I have already touched upon, that Pharaoh did not lie designedly; for when seized by terror, he caught at every means to appease God, but soon after relapsed into his former state of mind. For although with fox-like cunning the wicked pretend submission, when they see themselves caught, in order to escape from the snare, still they do not mean to mock God by their soft words; but rather under the pressure of necessity they are ready to do anything, and therefore offer propitiation’s and satisfactions; but when their fear has departed, because whatever they promised was forcibly extorted from them, they directly break out afresh. A very similar circumstance is related of Saul. He confesses to his own disgrace the innocence of David, and yet, as soon as he has escaped from the danger, and is freed from fear, he does not cease to persecute him cruelly. (1 Samuel 24:18, and 26:21.) But if we admit that this was mere dissimulation, Pharaoh had greater cause for fear, because, being experimentally convinced that God was his adversary, he was impelled by his fear to make any conditions whatever. But, first of all, he acknowledges that he had “sinned this time,” not to excuse the former cases, but. because, in such gross contempt, the crime of obstinacy was still more detestable. And this more fully appears in the following words, wherein he acknowledges the justice of God, and confesses the wickedness of himself and his people. It is just as if he had said, that he is deservedly punished, because he had too long provoked God, who is a just judge. Now since, as far as his words go, Pharaoh professes true repentance, we may gather from them, that, sinners do not attribute to God the honor due to His justice, unless they condemn themselves; and this must be more carefully observed, because there are few who think that, while they are endeavoring to rebut the accusations of guiltiness, they are dishonoring God. Yet, whosoever does not judge himself, and who does not frankly confess his sins, is assuredly murmuring against the judgment of God. Pharaoh, at length, has recourse to deprecation, in which he desires to have Moses and Aaron as his intercessors; not, I admit, without deception, (because hypocrites are always double-hearted;) yet it is certain, that because he was terrified by his troubles, he sought for peace with God, lest his rebellion should draw down upon him new and greater punishments; but as soon as, having obtained his desire, he ceased to be afraid, the secret wickedness which lay, as it were, stifled under the abundance of his miseries, burst forth out of the sense of security. What immediately follows is variously explained by the translators; some understand it negatively, “that there be not,” or “if there be not — thunderings;” and even these disagree among themselves; for some suppose that Pharaoh congratulates himself, because the thunders have ceased; but it is plain from the context that they are grossly mistaken. If, then, a negation is intended, the passage must necessarily refer to the future; as if Pharaoh had said, that he should be very graciously dealt with, if God should please to allay the thunderings. ורב, literally, and much A. V., It is enough. The LXX. and V. translators seem not to have found this expression in their copies of the Hebrew text. The Syriac amplifies it into And there is abundant room before him. S. M., Multum enim est ut fuerint tonitrua, etc.; and he adds, Onkelos sic vertit, Magnum coram me est tuorum, quod non sint super nos voces illae execrandae. — W. But the various reading is equally probable; “It is much, or a great thing, that there are, or have been thunderings;” as though he said, that he had been punished enough, or more than enough for his folly; or (as best pleases myself) that he is now subdued by terror, whilst he is alarmed by the continual rollings of the thunder and the beating of the hail; for he seems to desire to prove the truth of his conversion, because he is conquered by the terrible power of God.

29. And Moses said. In this answer Moses indirectly hints, that he leaves the presence of Pharaoh, in order duly and purely to supplicate God; since by his unbelief he would in a manner pollute the sacrifices. For, as he had already shown, that legitimate worship could not be offered by the people except away from Egypt, so now he seeks to be alone for prayer; and thus, by this change of place, he indicates that the place, in which Pharaoh dwells, is unholy. We have already said, that Moses promises nothing out of mere rash impulse, but that, taught either by the inspiration of the Spirit, or by sure revelation, he pronounces, with the authority of a prophet, what God is about to do. Moreover, it is not without reason that Moses exhorts Pharaoh to learn from the remission of the punishment, that the God of Israel is the Lord of Egypt also; for the word earth seems here to be limited to Egypt; although I do not deny that it may be properly understood of the whole world; but, whichever you may prefer, Moses rightly concludes, that the glory and dominion of God is perfectly manifested, not only when he appears as an avenger in the infliction of punishment, but that He also shows it in an opposite way, when all the elements are subservient to His mercy. Besides, His power is still more clearly shown forth, when He himself heals the wounds which He has inflicted; and, therefore, in Isaiah 41:23, and 45:7, in order to prove His divinity, He joins the two together, viz., that it is His prerogative and attribute both to “do good, or to do evil.”

30. But as for thee and thy servants, I know. Such freedom of reproof plainly proves with what magnanimity the holy Prophet was endued, who, without taking any account of the wrath of the imperious and cruel tyrant, does not hesitate to condemn the impiety of himself and his whole court. Nor can it indeed be questioned, that God miraculously restrained so many wild beasts to keep their hands off Moses; for it cannot be attributed either to their moderation or humanity, that men, otherwise worse than bloody-minded, did not kill him a hundred times over, when he so bitterly provoked them. But, from his firmness, it also appears how much he had profited by his novitiate; Tyrocinio. — Lat. Apprentissage. — Fr. because he, who had before fled far for refuge in fear of their darts, now has no alarm in the hottest conflict. But he justly affirms that the Egyptians do not “fear the Lord;” because alarm and terror do not always lead the mind to reverence and due obedience. For Moses speaks of true fear, which altogether attaches us to God, wherefore it is called “wisdom,” and “the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7, and Psalm 111:10.) But hypocrites, although they fear the name of God, are very far from willingly desiring to serve Him. Wherefore, lest we be deceived by empty imaginations, let us learn honestly to sift all our feelings, and diligently to examine into all those winding Arrieres boutiques. — Fr. recesses, wherewith human hearts are filled and incredibly entangled. A question arises, why Moses undertook the part of an intercessor, when he sees no repentance? my reply is, that he was not thus ready to spare, as if he had been persuaded; but that he gave a short intermission, until the king’s impiety should again betray itself, and thus God should fulfill what he had predicted respecting all the plagues. It is, then, absurd to gather, as some do, from this passage, that ministers of the word and pastors should be satisfied with a mere verbal confession; for Moses did not so much intend to pardon as to open a way for the remaining judgments of God.

31. And the flax and the barley. He relates the calamity which the hail inflicted; and shows that a part of the fruits of the earth was destroyed, viz., that which had already grown into stalk; but that the seeds which grow more slowly were spared. For God desired to give a remnant of hope, which might invite the king and his people to repentance, if only their wickedness were curable.

34. And when Pharaoh saw. Again, as usual, Pharaoh gathers audacity from the mitigation of his punishment, as security arms the reprobate against God; for as soon as the scourges of God rest for awhile, they cherish the presumption that they will be unpunished, and construe the short truce into an abiding peace. Pharaoh, then, hardens anew his heart, which he seemed to have somewhat changed, as soon as he is delivered from this infliction; as though he had not been warned that others remained behind, nay, that the hand of God was already stretched out against him. Therefore, at the end of the chapter, Moses amplifies the crime when he adds, that this had been foretold Ver. 35, A.V., marg. ref. “by the hand of Moses.” We have sometimes seen already that the wicked king was hardened, as God had said to Moses; now, more! is expressed, viz., that Moses had been the proclaimer of his indomitable and desperate obstinacy.

EXODUS 10

Exodus 10:1-6

1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened Ms heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might show these my signs before him:

1. Et dixit Jehovah ad Mosen, Vade ad Pharaonem: quia ego aggravavi cor ejus, et cor servorum ejus, ut ponerem signa mea haec in medio ejus.

2. And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the Lord.

2. Et ut narres in auribus filii tui et nepotis tui quae fecerimin AEgypto, et signa mea quae posuero inter eos: et sciatis quod ego sum Jehova.

3. And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me:

3. Venit ergo Moses et Aharon ad Pharaonem, et dixerunt ei, Sic dicit Jehova Deus Hebraeorum, Quousque renuis humiliari coram facie mea? Dimitte populum meum ut serviant mihi.

4. Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:

4. Quod si tu renuis dimittere populum meum, ecce, ego inducam cras locustam in terminos tuos.

5. And they shall cover the face of the earth, that. one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field.

5. Et operiet superficiem terrae, ut non possit videri terra: et comedet quod residuum est, quod evasit, quod relictum est vobis a grandine: et comedet omnem arborem quae fructificat vobis ex agro.

6. And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.

6. Et implebunt domos tuas, et domos omnium servorum tuorum, et domos omnium AEgyptiorum: quas non viderunt patres tui, et patres patrum tuorum, a die quo ipsi fuerunt super terram usque ad diem hunc. Et aversus, egressus est a Pharaone.

CHAPTER 9

Ex 9:1-7. Murrain of Beasts.

3-5. Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle--A fifth application was made to Pharaoh in behalf of the Israelites by Moses, who was instructed to tell him that, if he persisted in opposing their departure, a pestilence would be sent among all the flocks and herds of the Egyptians, while those of the Israelites would be spared. As he showed no intention of keeping his promise, he was still a mark for the arrows of the Almighty's quiver, and the threatened plague of which he was forewarned was executed. But it is observable that in this instance it was not inflicted through the instrumentality or waving of Aaron's rod, but directly by the hand of the Lord, and the fixing of the precise time tended still further to determine the true character of the calamity (Jr 12:4).

6. all the cattle of Egypt died--not absolutely every beast, for we find (Ex 9:19, 21) that there were still some left; but a great many died of each herd--the mortality was frequent and widespread. The adaptation of this judgment consisted in Egyptians venerating the more useful animals such as the ox, the cow, and the ram; in all parts of the country temples were reared and divine honors paid to these domesticated beasts, and thus while the pestilence caused a great loss in money, it also struck a heavy blow at their superstition.

7. Pharaoh sent ... there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead--The despatch of confidential messengers indicates that he would not give credit to vague reports, and we may conclude that some impression had been made on his mind by that extraordinary exemption, but it was neither a good nor a permanent impression. His pride and obstinacy were in no degree subdued.

Ex 9:8-17. Plague of Boils.

8. Take to you handfuls of ashes, &c.--The next plague assailed the persons of the Egyptians, and it appeared in the form of ulcerous eruptions upon the skin and flesh (Le 13:20; 2Ki 20:7; Job 2:7). 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. The attitude he assumed was similar to that of Eastern magicians, who, "when they pronounce an imprecation on an individual, a village, or a country, take the ashes of cows' dung (that is, from a common fire) and throw them in the air, saying to the objects of their displeasure, such a sickness or such a curse shall come upon you" [Roberts].

10. Moses took ashes from the furnace--Hebrew, "brick-kiln." The magicians, being sufferers in their own persons, could do nothing, though they had been called; and as the brick-kiln was one of the principal instruments of oppression to the Israelites [De 4:20; 1Ki 8:51; Jr 11:4], it was now converted into a means of chastisement to the Egyptians, who were made to read their sin in their punishment.

Ex 9:18-35. Plague of Hail.

18. I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, &c.--The seventh plague which Pharaoh's hardened heart provoked was that of hail, a phenomenon which must have produced the greatest astonishment and consternation in Egypt as rain and hailstones, accompanied by thunder and lightning, were very rare occurrences.

such as hath not been in Egypt--In the Delta, or lower Egypt, where the scene is laid, rain occasionally falls between January and March--hail is not unknown, and thunder sometimes heard. But a storm, not only exhibiting all these elements, but so terrific that hailstones of immense size fell, thunder pealed in awful volleys, and lightning swept the ground like fire, was an unexampled calamity.

20-21. He that feared the word of the Lord ... regarded not, &c.--Due premonition, it appears, had been publicly given of the impending tempest--the cattle seem to have been sent out to graze, which is from January to April, when alone pasturage can be obtained, and accordingly the cattle were in the fields. This storm occurring at that season, not only struck universal terror into the minds of the people, but occasioned the destruction of all--people and cattle--which, in neglect of the warning, had been left in the fields, as well as of all vegetation [Ex 9:25]. It was the more appalling because hailstones in Egypt are small and of little force; lightning also is scarcely ever known to produce fatal effects; and to enhance the wonder, not a trace of any storm was found in Goshen [Ex 9:26].

27-35. Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned--This awful display of divine displeasure did seriously impress the mind of Pharaoh, and, under the weight of his convictions, he humbles himself to confess he has done wrong in opposing the divine will. At the same time he calls for Moses to intercede for cessation of the calamity. Moses accedes to his earnest wishes, and this most awful visitation ended. But his repentance proved a transient feeling, and his obduracy soon became as great as before.

The Lord God of the Hebrews - It is very likely that the term Lord, יויה Yehovah, is used here to point out particularly his eternal power and Godhead; and that the term God, אלהי Elohey, is intended to be understood in the sense of Supporter, Defender, Protector, etc. Thus saith the self-existent, omnipotent, and eternal Being, the Supporter and Defender of the Hebrews, "Let my people go, that they may worship me."

The hand of the Lord - The power of God manifested in judgment.

Upon the horses - סוסים susim. This is the first place the horse is mentioned; a creature for which Egypt and Arabia were always famous. סס sus is supposed to have the same meaning with שש sas, which signifies to be active, brisk, or lively, all which are proper appellatives of the horse, especially in Arabia and Egypt. Because of their activity and swiftness they were sacrificed and dedicated to the sun, and perhaps it was principally on this account that God prohibited the use of them among the Israelites.

A very grievous murrain - The murrain is a very contagious disease among cattle, the symptoms of which are a hanging down and swelling of the head, abundance of gum in the eyes, rattling in the throat, difficulty of breathing, palpitation of the heart, staggering, a hot breath, and a shining tongue; which symptoms prove that a general inflammation has taken place. The original word דבר deber is variously translated. The Septuagint have θανατος, death; the Vulgate has pestis, a plague or pestilence; the old Saxon version, to die, any fatal disease. Our English word murrain comes either from the French mourir, to die, or from the Greek μαραινω maraino, to grow lean, waste away. The term mortality would be the nearest in sense to the original, as no particular disorder is specified by the Hebrew word.

The Lord shall sever - See Clarke on Exo 8:22 (note).

To-morrow the Lord shall do this - By thus foretelling the evil, he showed his prescience and power; and from this both the Egyptians and Hebrews must see that the mortality that ensued was no casualty, but the effect of a predetermined purpose in the Divine justice.

All the cattle of Egypt died - That is, All the cattle that did die belonged to the Egyptians, but not one died that belonged to the Israelites, Exo 9:4, Exo 9:6. That the whole stock of cattle belonging to the Egyptians did not die we have the fullest proof, because there were cattle both to be killed and saved alive in the ensuing plague, Exo 9:19-25. By this judgment the Egyptians must see the vanity of the whole of their national worship, when they found the animals which they not only held sacred but deified, slain without distinction among the common herd, by a pestilence sent from the hand of Jehovah. One might naturally suppose that after this the animal worship of the Egyptians could never more maintain its ground.

And Pharaoh sent, etc. - Finding so many of his own cattle and those of his subjects slain, he sent to see whether the mortality had reached to the cattle of the Israelites, that he might know whether this were a judgment inflicted by their God, and probably designing to replace the lost cattle of the Egyptians with those of the Israelites.

Handfuls of ashes of the furnace - As one part of the oppression of the Israelites consisted In their labor in the brick-kilns, some have observed a congruity between the crime and the punishment. The furnaces, in the labor of which they oppressed the Hebrews, now yielded the instruments of their punishment; for every particle of those ashes, formed by unjust and oppressive labor, seemed to be a boil or a blain on the tyrannical king and his cruel and hard-hearted people.

Shall be a boil - שחין shechin. This word is generally expounded, an inflammatory swelling, a burning boil; one of the most poignant afflictions, not immediately mortal, that can well affect the surface of the human body. If a single boil on any part of the body throws the whole system into a fever, what anguish must a multitude of them on the body at the same time occasion!

Breaking forth with blains - אבעבעת ababuoth, supposed to come from בעה baah, to swell, bulge out; any inflammatory swelling, node, or pustule, in any part of the body, but more especially in the more glandular parts, the neck, arm-pits, groin, etc. The Septuagint translate it thus: Και εσται ἑλκη φλυκτιδες αναζεουσαι· And it shalt be an ulcer with burning pustules. It seems to have been a disorder of an uncommon kind, and hence it is called by way of distinction, the botch of Egypt, Deu 28:27, perhaps never known before in that or any other country. Orosius says that in the sixth plague "all the people were blistered, that the blisters burst with tormenting pain, and that worms issued out of them." Alfred's Oros., lib. i., c. vii.

The boil was upon the magicians - They could not produce a similar malady by throwing ashes in the air; and they could neither remove the plague from the people, nor from their own tormented flesh. Whether they perished in this plague we know not, but they are no more mentioned. If they were not destroyed by this awful judgment, they at least left the field, and no longer contended with these messengers of God. The triumph of God's power was now complete, and both the Hebrews and the Egyptians must see that there was neither might, nor wisdom, nor counsel against the Lord; and that, as universal nature acknowledged his power, devils and men must fail before him.

For now I will stretch out my hand - In the Hebrew the verbs are in the past tense, and not in the future, as our translation improperly expresses them, by which means a contradiction appears in the text: for neither Pharaoh nor his people were smitten by a pestilence, nor was he by any kind of mortality cut off from the earth. It is true the first-born were slain by a destroying angel, and Pharaoh himself was drowned in the Red Sea; but these judgments do not appear to be referred to in this place. If the words be translated, as they ought, in the subjunctive mood, or in the past instead of the future, this seeming contradiction to facts, as well as all ambiguity, will be avoided: For if now I Had Stretched Out (שלהתי shalachti, had set forth) my hand, and had smitten thee (ואך אותך vaach otheca) and thy people with the pestilence, thou Shouldst Have Been cut off (תכחד ticcached) from the earth.

But truly, on this very account, have I caused thee to subsist - (העמדחיך heemadticha), that I might cause thee to see my power, (הראתך את כחי harotheca eth cochi), and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth, (or, בכל הארץ becol haarets, in all this land). See Ainsworth and Houbigant.

Thus God gave this impious king to know that it was in consequence of his especial providence that both he and his people had not been already destroyed by means of the past plagues; but God had preserved him for this very purpose, that he might have a farther opportunity of manifesting that he, Jehovah, was the only true God for the full conviction both of the Hebrews and Egyptians, that the former might follow and the latter fear before him. Judicious critics of almost all creeds have agreed to translate the original as above, a translation which it not only can bear but requires, and which is in strict conformity to both the Septuagint and Targum. Neither the Hebrew העמדחיך heemadticha, I have caused thee to stand; nor the apostle's translation of it, Rom 9:17, εξηγειρα σε, I have raised thee; nor that of the Septuagint, ἑνεκεν τουτου διετηρηθης, on this account art thou preserved, viz., in the past plagues; can countenance that most exceptionable meaning put on the words by certain commentators, viz., "That God ordained or appointed Pharaoh from all eternity, by certain means, to this end; that he made him to exist in time; that he raised him to the throne; promoted him to that high honor and dignity; that he preserved him, and did not cut him off as yet; that he strengthened and hardened his heart; irritated, provoked, and stirred him up against his people Israel, and suffered him to go all the lengths he did go in his obstinacy and rebellion; all which was done to show in him his power in destroying him in the Red Sea. The sum of which is, that this man was raised up by God in every sense for God to show his power in his destruction." So man speaks; thus God hath not spoken. See Henry on the place.

As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people - So it appears that at this time he might have submitted, and thus prevented his own destruction.

To-morrow about this time - The time of this plague is marked thus circumstantially to show Pharaoh that Jehovah was Lord of heaven and earth, and that the water, the fire, the earth, and the air, which were all objects of Egyptian idolatry, were the creatures of his power; and subservient to his will; and that, far from being able to help them, they were now, in the hands of God, instruments of their destruction.

To rain a very grievous hail - To rain hail may appear to some superficial observers as an unphilosophical mode of expression, but nothing can be more correct. "Drops of rain falling through a cold region of the atmosphere are frozen and converted into hail;" and thus the hail is produced by rain. When it begins to fall it is rain; when it is falling it is converted into hail; thus it is literally true that it rains hail. The farther a hail-stone falls the larger it generally is, because in its descent it meets with innumerable particles of water, which, becoming attached to it, are also frozen, and thus its bulk is continually increasing till it reaches the earth. In the case in question, if natural means were at all used, we may suppose a highly electrified state of an atmosphere loaded with vapors, which, becoming condensed and frozen, and having a considerable space to fall through, were of an unusually large size. Though this was a supernatural storm, there have been many of a natural kind, that have been exceedingly dreadful. A storm of hail fell near Liverpool, in Lancashire, in the year 1795, which greatly damaged the vegetation, broke windows, etc., etc. Many of the stones measured five inches in circumference. Dr. Halley mentions a similar storm of hail in Lancashire, Cheshire, etc., in 1697, April 29, that for sixty miles in length and two miles in breadth did immense damage, by splitting trees, killing fowls and all small animals, knocking down men and horses, etc., etc. Mezeray, in his History of France, says "that in Italy, in 1510, there was for some time a horrible darkness, thicker than that of night, after which the clouds broke into thunder and lightning, and there fell a shower of hail-stones which destroyed all the beasts, birds, and even fish of the country. It was attended with a strong smell of sulphur, and the stones were of a bluish color, some of them weighing one hundred pounds' weight." The Almighty says to Job: "Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?" Job 38:22, Job 38:23. While God has such artillery at his command, how soon may he desolate a country or a world! See the account of a remarkable hail-storm in Jos 10:11.

Send - now, and gather thy cattle - So in the midst of judgment, God remembered mercy. The miracle should be wrought that they might know he was the Lord; but all the lives both of men and beasts might have been saved, had Pharaoh and his servants taken the warning so mercifully given them. While some regarded not the word of the Lord, others feared it, and their cattle and their servants were saved, See Exo 9:20, Exo 9:21.

The Lord sent thunder - קלת koloth, voices; but loud, repeated peals of thunder are meant.

And the fire ran along upon the ground - ותהלך אש ארצה vattihalac esh aretsah, and the fire walked upon the earth. It was not a sudden flash of lightning, but a devouring fire, walking through every part, destroying both animals and vegetables; and its progress was irresistible.

Hail, and fire mingled with the hail - It is generally allowed that the electric fluid is essential to the formation of hail. On this occasion it was supplied in a supernatural abundance; for streams of fire seem to have accompanied the descending hail, so that herbs and trees, beasts and men, were all destroyed by them.

Only in the land of Goshen - was there no hail - What a signal proof of a most particular providence! Surely both the Hebrews and Egyptians profited by this display of the goodness and severity of God.

The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked - The original is very emphatic: The Lord is The Righteous One, (הצדיק hatstaddik), and I and my people are The Sinners, (הרשעים hareshaim); i.e., He is alone righteous, and we alone are transgressors. Who could have imagined that after such an acknowledgment and confession, Pharaoh should have again hardened his heart?

It is enough - There is no need of any farther plague; I submit to the authority of Jehovah and will rebel no more.

Mighty thunderings - כלת אלהים koloth Elohim, voices of God; - that is, superlatively loud thunder. So mountains of God (Psa 36:6) means exceeding high mountains. So a prince of God (Gen 23:6) means a mighty prince. See a description of thunder, Psa 29:3-8 : "The Voice Of The Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth; the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness," etc. The production of rain by the electric spark is alluded to in a very beautiful manner, Jer 10:13 : When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens. See Clarke's note on Gen 7:11, and Gen 8:1 (note).

I will spread abroad my hands - That is, I will make supplication to God that he may remove this plague. This may not be an improper place to make some observations on the ancient manner of approaching the Divine Being in prayer. Kneeling down, stretching out the hands, and lifting them up to heaven, were in frequent use among the Hebrews in their religious worship. Solomon kneeled down on his knees, and spread forth his hands to heaven; 2Chr 6:13. So David, Psa 143:6 : I stretch forth my hands unto thee. So Ezra: I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God; Ezr 9:5. See also Job Job 11:13 : If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thy hands towards him. Most nations who pretended to any kind of worship made use of the same means in approaching the objects of their adoration, viz., kneeling down and stretching out their hands; which custom it is very likely they borrowed from the people of God. Kneeling was ever considered to be the proper posture of supplication, as it expresses humility, contrition, and subjection. If the person to whom the supplication was addressed was within reach, the supplicant caught him by the knees; for as among the ancients the forehead was consecrated to genius, the ear to memory, and the right hand to faith, so the knees were consecrated to mercy. Hence those who entreated favor fell at and caught hold of the knees of the person whose kindness they supplicated. This mode of supplication is particularly referred to in the following passages in Homer: - Των νυν μιν μνησασα παρεζεο, και λαβε γουνων.

Iliad i., ver. 407.

Now therefore, of these things reminding Jove,

Embrace his knees.

Cowper.

To which the following answer is made: - Και τοτ' επειτα τοι ειμι Διος ποτι χαλκοβατες δω, Και μιν γουνασομαι, και μιν πεισεσθαι οΐω.

Iliad i., ver. 426.

Then will I to Jove's brazen-floor'd abode, That I may clasp his knees; and much misdeem Of my endeavor, or my prayer shall speed. Id. See the issue of thus addressing Jove, Ibid., ver. 500-502, and ver. 511, etc.

In the same manner we find our Lord accosted, Mat 17:14 : There came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him γονυπετων αυτον, falling down at his knees.

As to the lifting up or stretching out of the hands, (often joined to kneeling), of which we have seen already several instances, and of which we have a very remarkable one in this book, Exo 17:11, where the lifting up or stretching out of the hands of Moses was the means of Israel's prevailing over Amalek; we find many examples of both in ancient authors. Thus Homer: - Εσθλον γαρ Δυ χειρας ανασχεμεν, αι κ' ελεησῃ.

Iliad xxiv., ver. 301.

For right it is to spread abroad the hands To Jove for mercy.

Also Virgil: -

Corripio e stratis corpus,

Tendoque supinas ad coelum cum voce manus, et munera libo

Aeneid iii., ver. 176.

I started from my bed, and raised on high

My hands and voice in rapture to the sky;

And pour libations.

Ptt.

Dixerat: et Genua Amplexus, genibusque volutans Haerebat.

Ibid., ver. 607.

Then kneel'd the wretch, and suppliant clung around

My knees with tears, and grovell'd on the ground.

Id. - media inter numina divum Multa Jovem

Manibus Supplex orasse SUPINIS.

Ibid. iv., ver. 204.

Amidst the statues of the gods he stands,

And spreading forth to Jove his lifted hands.

Id.

Et Duplices cum voce Manus ad sidera

Tendit. Ibid. x., ver. 667.

And lifted both his hands and voice to heaven.

In some cases the person petitioning came forward, and either sat in the dust or kneeled on the ground, placing his left hand on the knee of him from whom he expected the favor, while he touched the person's chin with his right. We have an instance of this also in Homer: Και ρα παροιθ' αυτοιο καθεζετο, και λαβε γουνων Σκαιῃ· δεξιτερῃ δ' αρ' ὑπ' ανθερεωνος ἑλουσα.

Iliad i., ver. 500.

Suppliant the goddess stood: one hand she placed

Beneath his chin, and one his knee embraced.

Pope.

When the supplicant could not approach the person to whom he prayed, as where a deity was the object of the prayer, he washed his hands, made an offering, and kneeling down, either stretched out both his hands to heaven, or laid them upon the offering or sacrifice, or upon the altar. Thus Homer represents the priest of Apollo praying: - Χερνιψαντο δ' επειτα, και ουλοχυτας ανελοντο. Τοισιν δε Χρυσης μεγαλ' ευχετο, χειρας ανασχων.

Iliad i., ver. 449.

With water purify their hands, and take

The sacred offering of the salted cake,

While thus, with arms devoutly raised in air,

And solemn voice, the priest directs his prayer.

Pope.

How necessary ablutions of the whole body, and of the hands particularly, accompanied with offerings and sacrifices were, under the law, every reader of the Bible knows: see especially Exo 29:1-4, where Aaron and his sons were commanded to be washed, previously to their performing the priest's office; and Exo 30:19-21, where it is said: "Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands - that they die not." See also Lev 17:15. When the high priest among the Jews blessed the people, he lifted up his hands, Lev 9:22. And the Israelites, when they presented a sacrifice to God, lifted up their hands and placed them on the head of the victim: "If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord - of the cattle of the herd, and of the flock - he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering, and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him;" Lev 1:2-4. To these circumstances the apostle alludes, 1Tim 2:8 : "I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting." In the apostle's word επαιροντας, lifting up, there is a manifest reference to stretching out the hands to place them either on the altar or on the head of the victim. Four things were signified by this lifting up of the hands. 1. It was the posture of supplication, and expressed a strong invitation - Come to my help; 2. It expressed the earnest desire of the person to lay hold on the help he required, by bringing him who was the object of his prayer to his assistance; 3. It showed the ardor of the person to receive the blessings he expected; and 4. By this act he designated and consecrated his offering or sacrifice to his God.

From a great number of evidences and coincidences it is not unreasonable to conclude that the heathens borrowed all that was pure and rational, even in their mode of worship, from the ancient people of God; and that the preceding quotations are proofs of this.

The flax and the barley was smitten - The word פשתה pishtah, flax, Mr. Parkhurst thinks, is derived from the root פשט pashat, to strip, because the substance which we term flax is properly the bark or rind of the vegetable, pilled or stripped off the stalks. From time immemorial Egypt was celebrated for the production and manufacture of flax: hence the linen and fine linen of Egypt, so often spoken of in ancient authors.

Barley - שערה seorah, from שער saar, to stand on end, to be rough, bristly, etc.; hence שער sear, the hair of the head, and שעיר sair, a he-goat, because of its shaggy hair; and hence also barley, because of the rough and prickly beard with which the ears are covered and defended.

Dr. Pocock has observed that there is a double seed-time and harvest in Egypt: Rice, India wheat, and a grain called the corn of Damascus, and in Italian surgo rosso, are sown and reaped at a very different time from wheat, barley and flax. The first are sown in March, before the overflowing of the Nile, and reaped about October; whereas the wheat and barley are sown in November and December, as soon as the Nile is gone off, and are reaped before May.

Pliny observes, Hist. Nat., lib. xviii., cap. 10, that in Egypt the barley is ready for reaping in six months after it is sown, and wheat in seven. In Aegypto Hordeum sexto a satu mense, Feumenta septimo metuntur.

The flax was boiled - Meaning, I suppose, was grown up into a stalk: the original is גבעל gibol, podded or was in the pod.

The word well expresses that globous pod on the top of the stalk of flax which succeeds the flower and contains the seed, very properly expressed by the Septuagint, το δε λινον σπερματιζον, but the flax was in seed or was seeding.

But the wheat and the rye were not smitten - Wheat, חטה chittah, which Mr. Parkhurst thinks should be derived from the Chaldee and Samaritan חטי chati, which signifies tender, delicious, delicate, because of the superiority of its flavor, etc., to every other kind of grain. But this term in Scripture appears to mean any kind of bread-corn. Rye, כסמת cussemeth, from כסם casam, to have long hair; and hence, though the particular species is not known, the word must mean some bearded grain. The Septuagint call it ολυρα, the Vulgate for, and Aquila ζεα, which signify the grain called spelt; and some suppose that rice is meant.

Mr. Harmer, referring to the double harvest in Egypt mentioned by Dr. Pocock, says that the circumstance of the wheat and the rye being אפילת aphiloth, dark or hidden, as the margin renders it, (i.e., they were sown, but not grown up), shows that it was the Indian wheat or surgo rosso mentioned Exo 9:31, which, with the rye, escaped, while the barley and flax were smitten because they were at or nearly at a state of maturity. See Harmer's Obs., vol. iv., p. 11, edit 1808. But what is intended by the words in the Hebrew text we cannot positively say, as there is a great variety of opinions on this subject, both among the versions and the commentators. The Anglo-Saxon translator, probably from not knowing the meaning of the words, omits the whole verse.

Spread abroad his hands - Probably with the rod of God in them. See what has been said on the spreading out of the hands in prayer, Exo 9:29. See Clarke on Exo 9:29 (note).

He sinned yet more, and hardened his heart - These were merely acts of his own; "for who can deny," says Mr. Psalmanazar, "that what God did on Pharaoh was much more proper to soften than to harden his heart; especially when it is observable that it was not till after seeing each miracle, and after the ceasing of each plague, that his heart is said to have been hardened? The verbs here used are in the conjugations pihel and hiphil, and often signify a bare permission, from which it is plain that the words should have been read, God suffered the heart of Pharaoh to be hardened." - Universal Hist., vol. i., p. 494. Note D.

And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened - In consequence of his sinning yet more, and hardening his own heart against both the judgments and mercies of God, we need not be surprised that, after God had given him the means of softening and repentance, and he had in every instance resisted and abused them, he should at last have been left to the hardness and darkness of his own obstinate heart, so as to fill up the measure of his iniquity, and rush headlong to his own destruction.

In the fifth, sixth, and seventh plagues described in this chapter, we have additional proofs of the justice and mercy of God, as well as of the stupidity, rebellion, and wickedness of Pharaoh and his courtiers. As these continued to contradict and resist, it was just that God should continue to inflict those punishments which their iniquities deserved. Yet in the midst of judgment he remembers mercy; and therefore Moses and Aaron are sent to inform the Egyptians that such plagues would come if they continued obstinate. Here is mercy; the cattle only are destroyed, and the people saved! Is it not evident from all these messages, and the repeated expostulations of Moses and Aaron in the name and on the authority of God, that Pharaoh was bound by no fatal necessity to continue his obstinacy; that he might have humbled himself before God, and thus prevented the disasters that fell on the land, and saved himself and his people from destruction? But he would sin, and therefore he must be punished.

In the sixth plague Pharaoh had advantages which he had not before. The magicians, by their successful imitations of the miracles wrought by Moses, made it doubtful to the Egyptians whether Moses himself was not a magician acting without any Divine authority; but the plague of the boils, which they could not imitate, by which they were themselves afflicted, and which they confessed to be the finger of God, decided the business.

Pharaoh had no longer any excuse, and must know that he had now to contend, not with Moses and Aaron, mortals like himself, but with the living God. How strange, then, that he should continue to resist! Many affect to be astonished at this, and think it must be attributed only to a sovereign controlling influence of God, which rendered it impossible for him to repent or take warning. But the whole conduct of God shows the improbability of this opinion: and is not the conduct of Pharaoh and his courtiers copied and reacted by thousands who are never suspected to be under any such necessitating decree? Every sinner under heaven, who has the Bible in his hand, is acting the same part. God says to the swearer and the profane, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; and yet common swearing and profaneness are most scandalously common among multitudes who bear the Christian name, and who presume on the mercy of God to get at last to the kingdom of heaven! He says also, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt not covet; and sanctions all these commandments with the most awful penalties: and yet, with all these things before them, and the professed belief that they came from God, Sabbath-breakers, men-slayers, adulterers, fornicators, thieves, dishonest men, false witnesses, liars, slanderers, backbiters, covetous men, lovers of the world more than lovers of God, are found by hundreds and thousands! What were the crimes of the poor half-blind Egyptian king when compared with these! He sinned against a comparatively unknown God; these sin against the God of their fathers - against the God and Father of Him whom they call their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! They sin with the Bible in their hand, and a conviction of its Divine authority in their hearts. They sin against light and knowledge; against the checks of their consciences, the reproofs of their friends, the admonitions of the messengers of God; against Moses and Aaron in the law; against the testimony of all the prophets; against the evangelists, the apostles, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Judge of all men, and the Savior of the world! What were Pharaoh's crimes to the crimes of these? On comparison, his atom of moral turpitude is lost in their world of iniquity. And yet who supposes these to be under any necessitating decree to sin on, and go to perdition? Nor are they; nor was Pharaoh. In all things God has proved both his justice and mercy to be clear in this point. Pharaoh, through a principle of covetousness, refused to dismiss the Israelites, whose services he found profitable to the state: these are absorbed in the love of the world, the love of pleasure, and the love of gain; nor will they let one lust go, even in the presence of the thunders of Sinai, or in sight of the agony, bloody sweat, crucifixion, and death of Jesus Christ! Alas! how many are in the habit of considering Pharaoh the worst of human beings, inevitably cut off from the possibility of being saved because of his iniquities, who outdo him so far in the viciousness of their lives, that Pharaoh, hardening his heart against ten plagues, appears a saint when compared with those who are hardening their hearts against ten millions of mercies. Reader, art thou of this number? Proceed no farther! God's judgments linger not. Desperate as thy state is, thou mayest return; and thou, even thou, find mercy through the blood of the Lamb.

See the observations at the conclusion of the next chapter. See Clarke at Exo 10:29 (note).

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, shall 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 sparrow falls not to the ground without our father. And his providence is to be acknowledged with thankfulness in the life of the cattle, for he preserveth man and beast, Psa 36:6.

All the cattle died - All that were in the field. The creature is made subject to vanity by the sin of man, being liable, according to its capacity, both to serve his wickedness, and to share in his punishment. The Egyptians worshipped their cattle; it was among them that the Israelites learned to make a god of a calf; in that therefore this plague meets with them. But not one of the cattle of the Israelites died - Doth God take care for oxen? Yes, he doth, his providence extends itself to the meanest of his creatures.

A boil breaking forth with blains - A burning scab, which quickly raised blisters and blains.

Ashes of the furnace - Sometimes God shews 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. This is afterwards called the botch of Egypt, Deu 28:27, as if it were some new disease, never heard of before, and known ever after by that name.

The magicians were forced to retreat, and could not stand before Moses - To which the apostle refers, 2Tim 3:9, when he saith, that their folly was manifested unto all men.

Now 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 commonly punished with judicial hardness. Let us dread this as the sorest judgment a man can be under on this side hell.

I will find all my plagues upon thy heart - Hitherto thou hast not felt my plagues on thy own person, the heart is put for the whole man.

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 cause have I raised thee up to the throne at this time, and made thee to stand the shock of the plagues hitherto, to shew in thee my power - Providence so ordered it, that Moses should have a man of such a fierce and stubborn spirit to deal with, to make it a most signal and memorable instance of the power God has to bring down the proudest of his enemies; that my name, irresistable power, and my inflexible justice, might be declared throughout all the earth - Not only to all places, but through all ages while the earth remains. This will be the event. But it by no means follows, that this was the design of God. We have numberless instances in scripture of this manner of speaking, to denote not the design, but only the event.

As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people - Wilt thou not yet submit?

Since the foundation thereof - Since it was a kingdom.

The earth - The world, the heaven and the earth.

Bolled - Grown up into a stalk.

Moses went out of the city - Not only for privacy in his communion with God, but to shew that he durst venture abroad into the field, notwithstanding the hail and lightning, knowing that every hail - stone had its direction from God. Peace with God makes men thunder - proof, for it is the voice of their father. And spread abroad his hands unto the Lord - An outward expression of earnest desire, and humble expectation. He prevailed with God; but he could not prevail with Pharaoh; he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart - The prayer of Moses opened and shut heaven, like Elijah's. And such is the power of God's two witnesses, Rev 11:6. Yet neither Moses nor Elijah, nor those two witnesses, could subdue the hard hearts of men. Pharaoh was frighted into compliance by the judgment, but, when it was over, his convictions vanished.

3 Behold the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattel , which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.

In an immediate manner, not by my rod, that thou mayest know, it is not I, but the Lord, which doth all these things to thee.

Which they kept for their wool or milk, or manifold uses and services, though not for food and sacrifice.

6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattel of Egypt died, but of the cattel of the children of Israel died not one.

Either of all sorts; or a very great number of them, as the word all is frequently used; or rather, all that were in the field, as it is expresly limited, ver. 3. but not all absolutely, as appears from ver. 9. 19, 25. and chap. 14. 23.

Marginal references: Psal. 78. 48.

8 And the Lord said unto Moses, and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace , and let Moses sprinkle it towards the heaven, in the sight of Pharaoh.

To mind them of their cruel usage of the Israelites in their furnace, of which see Deut. 4. 20. Ier. 11. 4.

Both were to take them up, but M[illegible: 1+ letters]ses onely to sprinkle them, as at other times Aaron onely did the work, to shew that they were but instruments, which God could use as he pleased, and God was the principal Authour of it.

9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains , upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.

A burning scab, which quickly raised blains and blisters: whereby they were both vehemently inclined to scratch themselves, and yet utterly disenabled from it by its great soreness.

Marginal references: Rev. 16. 2.

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.

God multiplying that dust and heating it and then dispersing it over all the land and causing it to fall and rest upon the bodies of the Egyptians.

Marginal references: Deut. 28. 27.

11 And the Magicians could not stand before Moses , because of the boiles: for the boil was upon the Magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.

As they hitherto had done, both as spies and as adversaries, for though their understandings were convinced of Gods hand and infinite power, yet their hearts were not changed, but for their worldly interest they persisted to rebel against their light, and therefore are justly plagued. It was no favour to Pharaoh, that the plague was not upon him, but onely a reservation to a greater mischief, as it follows.

14 For I will at this time, send all my plagues upon thine heart , and upon thy servants, and upon thy people: that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.

Or, into thy heart: Thou hast hitherto not felt my plagues upon thy own person, or thy body, but I shall shortly reach and wound it, and that not onely in the skin; as the magicians and others are now smitten▪ but even to thy heart, such as shall make thy heart sick, Mic. 6. 13. such as shall give thee a mortal and irrecoverable wound. Some understand it of inward and spiritual judgments upon Pharaohs heart, such as hardness of heart. But that plague had been inflicted upon him, and is recorded before this time. And Pharaohs heart being here opposed to his servants and people seems rather to denote his person, the heart or soul being often put Synecdochically for the whole man.

15 For now I will stretch out mine hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence , and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.

(i. e.) Not properly so called, but largely, as the word is used, Hos. 13. 14. with an utter and irrecoverable destruction. This relates partly to the killing of the first-born, which plague did more immediately and nearly concern both him and his people, and principally to their destruction in the Red Sea.

16 And in very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up , for to shew in thee my power , and that my Name may be declared throughout all the earth.

So the Hebrew word is translated; Rom. 9. 17. I have raised thee up out of thy first nothing into thy being and life and kingdom, and upheld thy being and reign even in the midst of thy tyranny. Heb. I have made thee to stand, i. e. to remain alive and untouched, when thy Magicians could not [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1+ letters]1. I have preserved thee in life, not for want of power to destroy thee, as thou mayst fancy, nor for want of provocation from thee, but for my own glory.

In those mighty works which have been occasioned by thy rebellion, and obstinacy.

My being and providence, and my manifold perfections, my patience in bearing thee so long, my justice in punishing thee, my power in conquering thee, my wisdom in over-ruling thy pride and tyranny and cruelty to thy own destruction and the redemption of my oppressed people, and my faithfulness in making good my promises to them, and my threatnings to thee.

Marginal references: Heb. made thee stand.

17 As yet exaltest thou thy self against my people , that thou wilt not let them go?

(i. e.) Against me acting for my people. The gracious God takes what is done to or against his people, as done to or against himself. See Zech. 2. 8. Matth. 25. 40, 45. Act. 9. 4, 5.

18 Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof , even until now.

Since they were a Kingdom or a Nation.

19 Send therefore now, and gather thy cattel , and all that thou hast in the field: for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.

This forewarning God gives, partly to mitigate the severity of the judgment; partly that a considerable number of Horses might be reserved for Pharaohs expedition chap. 14. partly to shew the Justice of God in punishing so wicked and obstinare people, as would take no warning neither from Gods words, nor from his former works; and partly to make a difference between the penitent and the incorrigible Egyptians.

22 And the LORD said unto Moses, stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt upon man , and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout all the land of Egypt.

(i. e.) Upon those men that presumed to continue in the field after this admonition.

Marginal references: Rev. 16. 21.

23 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground , and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.

Devouring both Herbs and Cattle which were upon it, Ps. 78. 47, 48. and 105. 32, 33.

24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail , very grievous, such as there was none like it, in all the land of Egypt, since it became a Nation .

Which strange mixture much increased the miracle.

For that Hail and Rain did sometimes, though but seldom, fall in Egypt, is attested by divers eye witnesses.

25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast, and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field .

(i. e.) Most of them or Herbs and Trees of all sorts, as appears from chap. 10. 12, 15. See before ver. 6.

26 Onely, in the land of Goshen , where the children of Israel were, was there 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 more willing to lend their jewels to them, chap. 12▪ 35.

Marginal references: chap. 8. 22. and 11. 7.

27 And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time : the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.

I now plainly see and freely acknowledge my sin in striving with God. He seems not to deny that he had sinned before, for even the light of nature would discover his sin in breaking his Faith and the word of a King given to Moses for Israels dismission.

28 Intreat the LORD, (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thundrings and hail, and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.

Or, and let it be enough, (let God content himself that he hath punished me so long, and that I have confessed my sin and promised amendment) that there may be hereafter no more.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] of God.

29 And Moses said unto him, Assoon as I am gone out of the City, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD, and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail: that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORDS .

Or, that this land is the Lords, even his whom thou deniedst to have any jurisdiction in it, or over thee, Exod. 5. 2. Or the Earth is put for the World, the Heaven and the Earth, q. d. That thou mayst see that he can either cause the Heavens to send forth such Thunders and Hails, or restrain them, as he pleaseth.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 24. 1.

31 And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.

Which were not so necessary for humane life as the Wheat and Rye. Thus God still sends smaller judgments to usher in the greater.

32 But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up .

The Hebrew word may be rendred either dark or hid, to wit, under the ground, whereby it was secured from this stroke: or late, as divers of the Hebrews and other Interpreters render it. This kind of Corn coming later up, was now tender and hidden either in the ground, or in the Herb: whereby it was in some measure secured both from the fire by its greenness and moisture, and from the hail by its pliableness and yielding to it, whereas the stalks of Barly were more dry and stiff, and therefore more lyable to the Hail and Fire.

Marginal references: Heb. hidden or dark.

33 And Moses went out of the City from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the Earth.

That being solitary he might pour forth his heart in servent prayers.

Exo 9:1-2

The fifth plague consisted of a severe Murrain, which carried off the cattle (מקנה, the living property) of the Egyptians, that were in the field. To show how Pharaoh was accumulating guilt by his obstinate resistance, in the announcement of this plague the expression, “If thou refuse to let them go” (cf. Exo 8:2), is followed by the words, “and wilt hold them (the Israelites) still” (עוד still further, even after Jehovah has so emphatically declared His will).

Exo 9:3-5

“The hand of Jehovah will be (הויה, which only occurs here, as the participle of היה, generally takes its form from הוה, Neh 6:6; Ecc 2:22) against thy cattle...as a very severe plague (דּבר that which sweeps away, a plague), i.e., will smite them with a severe plague. A distinction was again made between the Israelites and the Egyptians. “Of all (the cattle) belonging to the children of Israel, not one (דּבּר Exo 9:4, = אחד Exo 9:6) shall die.” A definite time was also fixed for the coming of the plague, as in the case of the previous one (Exo 8:23), in order that, whereas murrains occasionally occur in Egypt, Pharaoh might discern in his one the judgment of Jehovah.

Exo 9:6

In the words “all the cattle of the Egyptians died,” all is not to be taken in an absolute sense, but according to popular usage, as denoting such a quantity, that what remained was nothing in comparison; and, according to Exo 9:3, it must be entirely restricted to the cattle in the field. For, according to Exo 9:9 and Exo 9:19, much of the cattle of the Egyptians still remained even after this murrain, though it extended to all kinds of cattle, horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep, and differed in this respect from natural murrains.

Exo 9:7

But Pharaoh’s heart still continued hardened, though he convinced himself by direct inquiry that the cattle of the Israelites had been spared.

Exo 9:8-12

The sixth plague smote man and beast with Boils Breaking Forth in Blisters. - שׁחין (a common disease in Egypt, Deu 28:27) from the unusual word שׁחן (incaluit) signifies inflammation, then an abscess or boil (Lev 13:18.; 2Ki 20:7). אבעבּעת, from בּוּע, to spring up, swell up, signifies blisters, φλυκτίδες (lxx), pustulae. The natural substratum of this plague is discovered by most commentators in the so-called Nile-blisters, which come out in innumerable little pimples upon the scarlet-coloured skin, and change in a short space of time into small, round, and thickly-crowded blisters. This is called by the Egyptians Hamm el Nil, or the heat of the inundation. According to Dr. Bilharz, it is a rash, which occurs in summer, chiefly towards the close at the time of the overflowing of the Nile, and produces a burning and pricking sensation upon the skin; or, in Seetzen's words, “it consists of small, red, and slightly rounded elevations in the skin, which give strong twitches and slight stinging sensations, resembling those of scarlet fever”. The cause of this eruption, which occurs only in men and not in animals, has not been determined; some attributing it to the water, and others to the heat. Leyrer, in Herzog's Cyclopaedia, speaks of the “Anthrax which stood in a causal relation to the fifth plague; a black, burning abscess, which frequently occurs after a murrain, especially the cattle distemper, and which might be called to mind by the name ἄνθραξ, coal, and the symbolical sprinkling of the soot of the furnace.” In any case, the manner in which this plague was produced was significant, though it cannot be explained with positive certainty, especially as we are unable to decide exactly what was the natural disease which lay at the foundation of the plague. At the command of God, Moses and Aaron took “handfuls of soot, and sprinkled it towards the heaven, so that it became dust over all the land of Egypt,” i.e., flew like dust over the land, and became boils on man and beast. הכּבשׁן פּיח: soot or ashes of the smelting-furnace or lime-kiln. כּבשׁן is not an oven or cooking stove, but, as Kimchi supposes, a smelting-furnace or lime-kiln; not so called, however, a metallis domandis, but from כּבשׁ in its primary signification to press together, hence (a) to soften, or melt, (b) to tread down. Burder's view seems inadmissible; namely, that this symbolical act of Moses had some relation to the expiatory rites of the ancient Egyptians, in which the ashes of sacrifices, particularly human sacrifices, were scattered about. For it rests upon the supposition that Moses took the ashes from a fire appropriated to the burning of sacrifices - a supposition to which neither כּבשׁן nor פּיח is appropriate. For the former does not signify a fire-place, still less one set apart for the burning of sacrifices, and the ashes taken from the sacrifices for purifying purposes were called אפר, and not פּיח (Num 19:10). Moreover, such an interpretation as this, namely, that the ashes set apart for purifying purposes produced impurity in the hands of Moses, as a symbolical representation of the thought, that “the religious purification promised in the sacrificial worship of Egypt was really a defilement,” does not answer at all to the effect produced. The ashes scattered in the air by Moses did not produce defilement, but boils or blisters; and we have no ground for supposing that they were regarded by the Egyptians as a religious defilement. And, lastly, there was not one of the plagues in which the object was to pronounce condemnation upon the Egyptian worship or sacrifices; since Pharaoh did not wish to force the Egyptian idolatry upon the Israelites, but simply to prevent them from leaving the country.

The ashes or soot of the smelting-furnace or lime-kiln bore, no doubt, the same relation to the plague arising therefrom, as the water of the Nile and the dust of the ground to the three plagues which proceeded from them. As Pharaoh and his people owed their prosperity, wealth, and abundance of earthly goods to the fertilizing waters of the Nile and the fruitful soil, so it was from the lime-kilns, so to speak, that those splendid cities and pyramids proceeded, by which the early Pharaohs endeavoured to immortalize the power and glory of their reigns. And whilst in the first three plagues the natural sources of the land were changed by Jehovah, through His servants Moses and Aaron, into sources of evil, the sixth plague proved to the proud king that Jehovah also possessed the power to bring ruin upon him from the workshops of those splendid edifices, for the erection of which he had made use of the strength of the Israelites, and oppressed them so grievously with burdensome toil as to cause Egypt to become like a furnace for smelting iron (Deu 4:20), and that He could make the soot or ashes of the lime-kiln, the residuum of that fiery heat and emblem of the furnace in which Israel groaned, into a seed which, when carried through the air at His command, would produce burning boils on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt. These boils were the first plague which attacked and endangered the lives of men; and in this respect it was the first foreboding of the death which Pharaoh would bring upon himself by his continued resistance. The priests were so far from being able to shelter the king from this plague by their secret arts, that they were attacked by them themselves, were unable to stand before Moses, and were obliged to give up all further resistance. But Pharaoh did not take this plague to heart, and was given up to the divine sentence of hardening.

Exo 9:13-16

As the plagues had thus far entirely failed to bend the unyielding heart of Pharaoh under the will of the Almighty God, the terrors of that judgment, which would infallibly come upon him, were set before him in three more plagues, which were far more terrible than any that had preceded them. That these were to be preparatory to the last decisive blow, is proved by the great solemnity with which they were announced to the hardened king (Exo 9:13-16). This time Jehovah was about to “send all His strokes at the heart of Pharaoh, and against his servants and his people” (Exo 9:14). אל־לבּך does not signify “against thy person,” for לב is not used for נפשׁ, and even the latter is not a periphrasis for “person;” but the strokes were to go to the king’s heart, “It announces that they will be plagues that will not only strike the head and arms, but penetrate the very heart, and inflict a mortal wound” (Calvin). From the plural “strokes,” it is evident that this threat referred not only to the seventh plague, viz., the hail, but to all the other plagues, through which Jehovah was about to make known to the king that “there was none like Him in all the earth,;” i.e., that not one of the gods whom the heathen worshipped was like Him, the only true God. For, in order to show this, Jehovah had not smitten Pharaoh and his people at once with pestilence and cut them off from the earth, but had set him up to make him see, i.e., discern or feel His power, and to glorify His name in all the earth (Exo 9:15, Exo 9:16). In Exo 9:15 וגו שׁלחתּי (I have stretched out, etc.) is to be taken as the conditional clause: “If I had now stretched out My hand and smitten thee...thou wouldest have been cut off.” העמדתּיך forms the antithesis to תּכּהד, and means to cause to stand or continue, as in 1Ki 15:4; 2Ch 9:8 (διετηρήθης lxx). Causing to stand presupposes setting up. In this first sense the Apostle Paul has rendered it ἐξήγειρα in Rom 9:17, in accordance with the purport of his argument, because “God thereby appeared still more decidedly as absolutely determining all that was done by Pharaoh” (Philippi on Rom 9:17). The reason why God had not destroyed Pharaoh at once was twofold: (1) that Pharaoh himself might experience (הראת to cause to see, i.e., to experience) the might of Jehovah, by which he was compelled more than once to give glory to Jehovah (Exo 9:27; Exo 10:16-17; Exo 12:31); and (2) that the name of Jehovah might be declared throughout all the earth. As both the rebellion of the natural man against the word and will of God, and the hostility of the world-power to the Lord and His people, were concentrated in Pharaoh, so there were manifested in the judgments suspended over him the patience and grace of the living God, quite as much as His holiness, justice, and omnipotence, as a warning to impenitent sinners, and a support to the faith of the godly, in a manner that should by typical for all times and circumstances of the kingdom of God in conflict with the ungodly world. The report of this glorious manifestation of Jehovah spread at once among all the surrounding nations (cf. Exo 15:14.), and travelled not only to the Arabians, but to the Greeks and Romans also, and eventually with the Gospel of Christ to all the nations of the earth (vid., Tholuck on Rom 9:17).

Exo 9:17-18

The seventh plague. - To break down Pharaoh’s opposition, Jehovah determined to send such a Hail as had not been heard of since the founding of Egypt, accompanied by thunder and masses of fire, and to destroy every man and beast that should be in the field. מסתּולל עודך: “thou still dammest thyself up against My people.” הסתּולל: to set one’s self as a dam, i.e., to oppose; from סלל, to heap up earth as a dam or rampart. “To-morrow about this time,” to give Pharaoh time for reflection. Instead of “from the day that Egypt was founded until now,” we find in Exo 9:24 “since it became a nation,” since its existence as a kingdom or nation.

Exo 9:19-23

The good advice to be given by Moses to the king, to secure the men and cattle that were in the field, i.e., to put them under shelter, which was followed by the God-fearing Egyptians (Exo 9:21), was a sign of divine mercy, which would still rescue the hardened man and save him from destruction. Even in Pharaoh’s case the possibility still existed of submission to the will of God; the hardening was not yet complete. But as he paid no heed to the word of the Lord, the predicted judgment was fulfilled (Exo 9:22-26). “Jehovah gave voices” (קלת); called “voices of God” in Exo 9:28. This term is applied to the thunder (cf. Exo 19:16; Exo 20:18; Psa 29:3-9), as being the mightiest manifestation of the omnipotence of God, which speaks therein to men (Rev 10:3-4), and warns them of the terrors of judgment. These terrors were heightened by masses of fire, which came down from the sky along with the hail that smote man and beast in the field, destroyed the vegetables, and shattered the trees. “And fire ran along upon the ground;” תּהלך is a Kal, though it sounds like Hithpael, and signifies grassari, as in Psa 73:9.

Exo 9:24

“Fire mingled;” lit., collected together, i.e., formed into balls (cf. Eze 1:4). “The lightning took the form of balls of fire, which came down like burning torches.”

Exo 9:25-28

The expressions, “every herb,” and “every tree,” are not to be taken absolutely, just as in Exo 9:6, as we may see from Exo 10:5. Storms are not common in Lower or Middle Egypt, but they occur most frequently between the months of December and April; and hail sometimes accompanies them, though not with great severity. In themselves, therefore, thunder, lightning, and hail were not unheard of. They also came at the time of year when they usually occur, namely, when the cattle were in the field, i.e., between January and April, the only period in which cattle are turned out for pasture (for proofs, see Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses). The supernatural character of this plague was manifested, not only in its being predicted by Moses, and in the exemption of the land of Goshen, but more especially in the terrible fury of the hail-storm, which made a stronger impression upon Pharaoh than all the previous plagues. For he sent for Moses and Aaron, and confessed to them, “I have sinned this time: Jehovah is righteous; I and my people are the sinners” (Exo 9:27.). But the very limitation “this time” showed that his repentance did not go very deep, and that his confession was far more the effect of terror caused by the majesty of God, which was manifested in the fearful thunder and lightning, than a genuine acknowledgment of his guilt. This is apparent also from the words which follow: “Pray to Jehovah for me, and let it be enough (רב satis, as in Gen 45:28) of the being (מהית) of the voices of God and of the hail;” i.e., there has been enough thunder and hail, they may cease now.

Exo 9:29-30

Moses promised that his request should be granted, that he might know “that the land belonged to Jehovah,” i.e., that Jehovah ruled as Lord over Egypt (cf. Exo 8:18); at the same time he told him that the fear manifested by himself and his servants was no true fear of God. יי מפּני ירא denotes the true fear of God, which includes a voluntary subjection to the divine will. Observe the expression, Jehovah, Elohim: Jehovah, who is Elohim, the Being to be honoured as supreme, the true God.

Exo 9:31-32

The account of the loss caused by the hail is introduced very appropriately in Exo 9:31 and Exo 9:32, to show how much had been lost, and how much there was still to lose through continued refusal. “The flax and the barley were smitten, for the barley was ear, and the flax was גּבעל (blossom); i.e., they were neither of them quite ripe, but they were already in ear and blossom, so that they were broken and destroyed by the hail. “The wheat,” on the other hand, “and the spelt were not broken down, because they were tender, or late” (אפילת); i.e., they had no ears as yet, and therefore could not be broken by the hail. These accounts are in harmony with the natural history of Egypt. According to Pliny, the barley is reaped in the sixth month after the sowing-time, the wheat in the seventh. The barley is ripe about the end of February or beginning of March; the wheat, at the end of March or beginning of April. The flax is in flower at the end of January. In the neighbourhood of Alexandria, and therefore quite in the north of Egypt, the spelt is ripe at the end of April, and farther south it is probably somewhat earlier; for, according to other accounts, the wheat and spelt ripen at the same time (vid., Hengstenberg, p. 119). Consequently the plague of hail occurred at the end of January, or at the latest in the first half of February; so that there were at least eight weeks between the seventh and tenth plagues. The hail must have smitten the half, therefore, of the most important field-produce, viz., the barley, which was a valuable article of food both for men, especially the poorer classes, and for cattle, and the flax, which was also a very important part of the produce of Egypt; whereas the spelt, of which the Egyptians preferred to make their bread (Herod. 2, 36, 77), and the wheat were still spared.

Exo 9:33-35

But even this plague did not lead Pharaoh to alter his mind. As soon as it had ceased on the intercession of Moses, he and his servants continued sinning and hardening their hearts.

The Plagues of Egypt. (b. c. 1491.)

1 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. 2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, 3 Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. 4 And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel. 5 And the Lord appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land. 6 And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. 7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

Here is, I. Warning given of another plague, namely, the murrain of beasts. When Pharaoh's heart was hardened, after he had seemed to relent under the former plague, then Moses is sent to tell him there is another coming, to try what that would do towards reviving the impressions of the former plagues. Thus is the wrath of God revealed from heaven, both in his word and in his works, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. 1. Moses puts Pharaoh in a very fair way to prevent it: Let my people go, v. 1. This was still the demand. God will have Israel released; Pharaoh opposes it, and the trial is, whose word shall stand. See how jealous God is for his people. When the year of his redeemed has come, he will give Egypt for their ransom; that kingdom shall be ruined, rather than Israel shall not be delivered. See how reasonable God's demands are. Whatever he calls for, it is but his own: They are my people, therefore let them go. 2. He describes the plague that should come, if he refused, v. 2, 3. 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. This was greatly to the loss of the owners: they had made Israel poor, and now God would make them poor. Note, The hand of God is to be acknowledged even in the sickness and death of cattle, or other damage sustained in them; for a sparrow falls not to the ground without our Father. 3. As an evidence of the special hand of God in it, and of his particular favour to his own people, he foretells that none of their cattle should die, though they breathed in the same air and drank of the same water with the Egyptians' cattle: The Lord shall sever, v. 4. Note, When God's judgments are abroad, though they may fall both on the righteous and the wicked, yet God makes such a distinction that they are not the same to the one that they are to the other. See Isa. xxvii. 7. The providence of God is to be acknowledged with thankfulness in the life of the cattle, for he preserveth man and beast, Ps. xxxvi. 6. 4. To make the warning the more remarkable, the time is fixed (v. 5): To-morrow it shall be done. We know not what any day will bring forth, and therefore we cannot say what we will do to-morrow, but it is not so with God.

II. The plague itself inflicted. The cattle died, v. 6. Note, The creature is made subject to vanity by the sin of man, being liable, according to its capacity, both to serve his wickedness and to share in his punishment, as in the universal deluge. Rom. viii. 20, 22. Pharaoh and the Egyptians sinned; but the sheep, what had they done? Yet they are plagued. See Jer. xii. 4, For the wickedness of the land, the beasts are consumed. The Egyptians afterwards, and (some think) now, worshipped their cattle; it was among them that the Israelites learned to make a god of a calf: in this therefore the plague here spoken of meets with them. Note, What we make an idol of it is just with God to remove from us, or embitter to us. See Isa. xix. 1.

III. The distinction put between the cattle of the Egyptians and the Israelites' cattle, according to the word of God: Not one of the cattle of the Israelites died, v. 6, 7. Does God take care of oxen? Yes, he does; his providence extends itself to the meanest of his creatures. But it is written also for our sakes, that, trusting in God, and making him our refuge, we may not be afraid of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, no, not though thousands fall at our side, Ps. xci. 6, 7. Pharaoh sent to see if the cattle of the Israelites were infected, not to satisfy his conscience, but only to gratify his curiosity, or with design, by way of reprisal, to repair his own losses out of their stocks; and, having no good design in the enquiry, the report brought to him made no impression upon him, but, on the contrary, his heart was hardened. Note, To those that are wilfully blind, even those methods of conviction which are ordained to life prove a savour of death unto death.

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. 9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. 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. 11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. 12 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had spoken unto Moses.

Observe here, concerning the plague of boils and blains,

I. When they were not wrought upon by the death of their cattle, God sent a plague that seized their own bodies, and touched them to the quick. If less judgments do not do their work, God will send greater. Let us therefore humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and go forth to meet him in the way of his judgments, that his anger may be turned away from us.

II. The signal by which this plague was summoned was the sprinkling of warm ashes from the furnace, towards heaven (v. 8, 10), which was to signify the heating of the air with such an infection as should produce in the bodies of the Egyptians sore boils, which would be both noisome and painful. Immediately upon the scattering of the ashes, a scalding dew came down out of the air, which blistered wherever it fell. Note, 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.

III. The plague itself was very grievous—a common eruption would be so, especially to the nice and delicate, but these eruptions were inflammations, like Job's. This is afterwards called the botch of Egypt (Deut. xxviii. 27), as if it were some new disease, never heard of before, and known ever after by that name, Note, Sores in the body are to be looked upon as the punishments of sin, and to be hearkened to as calls to repentance.

IV. The magicians themselves were struck with these boils, v. 11. 1. Thus they were punished, (1.) For helping to harden Pharaoh's heart, as Elymas for seeking to pervert the right ways of the Lord; God will severely reckon with those that strengthen the hands of the wicked in their wickedness. (2.) For pretending to imitate the former plagues, and making themselves and Pharaoh sport with them. Those that would produce lice shall, against their wills, produce boils. Note, It is ill jesting with God's judgments, and more dangerous than playing with fire. Be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. 2. Thus they were shamed in the presence of their admirers. How weak were their enchantments, which could not so much as secure themselves! The devil can give no protection to those that are in confederacy with him. 3. Thus they were driven from the field. Their power was restrained before (ch. viii. 18), but they continued to confront Moses, and confirm Pharaoh in his unbelief, till now, at length, they were forced to retreat, and could not stand before Moses, to which the apostle refers (2 Tim. iii. 9) when he says that their folly was made manifest unto all men.

V. Pharaoh continued obstinate, for now the Lord hardened his heart, v. 12. 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 a reprobate mind, and strong delusions, permitting Satan to blind and harden him, and ordering every thing, henceforward, so as to make him more and more obstinate. Note, Wilful hardness is commonly punished with judicial hardness. If men shut their eyes against the light, it is just with God to close their eyes. Let us dread this as the sorest judgment a man can be under on this side hell.

13 And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14 For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15 For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. 16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. 17 As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go? 18 Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. 19 Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die. 20 He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses: 21 And he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.

Here is, I. A general declaration of the wrath of God against Pharaoh for his obstinacy. Though God has hardened his heart (v. 12), yet Moses must repeat his applications to him; God suspends his grace and yet demands obedience, to punish him for requiring bricks of the children of Israel when he denied them straw. God would likewise show forth a pattern of long-suffering, and how he waits to be gracious to a rebellious and gainsaying people Six times the demand had been made in vain, yet Moses must make it the seventh time: Let my people go, v. 13. A most dreadful message Moses is here ordered to deliver to him, whether he will hear or whether he will forbear. 1. 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, v. 14, 15. "Now I will send all my plagues." Now that no place is found for repentance in Pharaoh, nothing can prevent his utter destruction, for that only would have prevented it. Now that God begins to harden his heart, his case is desperate. "I will send my plagues upon thy heart, not only temporal plagues upon thy body, but spiritual plagues upon thy soul." Note, God can send plagues upon thy soul." Note, God can send plagues upon the heart, either by making it senseless or by making it hopeless—and these are the worst plagues. Pharaoh must now expect no respite, no cessation of arms, but to be followed with plague upon plague, till he is utterly consumed. Note, When God judges he will overcome; none ever hardened his heart against him and prospered. 2. He must tell him that he is to remain in history a standing monument of the justice and power of God's wrath (v. 16): "For this cause have I raised thee up to the throne at this time, and made thee to stand the shock of the plagues hitherto, to show in thee my power." Providence ordered it so that Moses should have a man of such a fierce and stubborn spirit as he was to deal with; and every thing was so managed in this transaction as to make it a most signal and memorable instance of the power God has to humble and bring down the proudest of his enemies. Every thing concurred to signalize this, that God's name (that is, his incontestable sovereignty, his irresistible power, and his inflexible justice) might be declared throughout all the earth, not only to all places, but through all ages while the earth remains. Note, God sometimes raises up very bad men to honour and power, spares them long, and suffers them to grow insufferably insolent, that he may be so much the more glorified in their destruction at last. See how the neighbouring nations, at that time, improved the ruin of Pharaoh to the glory of God. Jethro said upon it, Now know I that the Lord is greater than all gods, ch. xviii. 11. The apostle illustrates the doctrine of God's sovereignty with this instance, Rom. ix. 17. To justify God in these resolutions, Moses is directed to ask him (v. 17), As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people? Pharaoh was a great king; God's people were poor shepherds at the best, and now poor slaves; and yet Pharaoh shall be ruined if he exalt himself against them, for it is considered as exalting himself against God. This was not the first time that God reproved kings for their sakes, and let them know that he would not suffer his people to be trampled upon and insulted, no, not by the most powerful of them.

II. A particular prediction of the plague of hail (v. 18), and a gracious advice to Pharaoh and his people to send for their servants and cattle out of the field, that they might be sheltered from the hail, v. 19. Note, When God's justice threatens ruin his mercy, at the same time, shows us a way of escape from it, so unwilling is he that any should perish. See here what care God took, not only to distinguish between Egyptians and Israelites, but between some Egyptians and others. If Pharaoh will not yield, and so prevent the judgment itself, yet an opportunity is given to those that have any dread of God and his word to save themselves from sharing in the judgment. Note, Those that will take warning may take shelter; and those that will not may thank themselves if they fall by the overflowing scourge, and the hail which will sweep away the refuge of lies, Isa. xxviii. 17. See the different effect of this warning. 1. Some believed the things that were spoken, and they feared, and housed their servants and cattle (v. 20), like Noah (Heb. xi. 7), and it was their wisdom. Even among the servants of Pharaoh there were some that trembled at God's word; and shall not the sons of Israel dread it? But, 2. Others believed not: though, whatever plague Moses had hitherto foretold, the event exactly answered to the prediction; and though, if they had had any reason to question this, it would have been no great damage to them to have kept their cattle in the house for one day, and so, supposing it a doubtful case, to have chosen the surer side; yet they were so foolhardy as in defiance to the truth of Moses, and the power of God (of both which they had already had experience enough, to their cost), to leave their cattle in the field, Pharaoh himself, it is probable, giving them an example of the presumption, v. 21. Note, Obstinate infidelity, which is deaf to the fairest warnings and the wisest counsels, leaves the blood of those that perish upon their own heads.

22 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. 23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. 27 And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. 28 Intreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. 29 And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord ; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord 's. 30 But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God. 31 And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled. 32 But the wheat and the rye were not smitten: for they were not grown up. 33 And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the Lord : and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. 34 And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35 And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the Lord had spoken by Moses.

The threatened plague of hail is here summoned by the powerful hand and rod of Moses (v. 22, 23), and it obeys the summons, or rather the divine command; for fire and hail fulfil God's word, Ps. cxlviii. 8. And here we are told,

I. What desolations it made upon the earth. The thunder, and fire from heaven (or lightning), made it both the more dreadful and the more destroying, v. 23, 24. Note, God makes the clouds, not only his store-houses whence he drops fatness on his people, but his magazines whence, when he pleases, he can draw out a most formidable train of artillery, with which to destroy his enemies. He himself speaks of the treasures of hail which he hath reserved against the day of battle and war, Job xxxviii. 22, 23. Woeful havoc this hail made in the land of Egypt. It killed both men and cattle, and battered down, not only the herbs, but the trees, v. 25. The corn that was above ground was destroyed, and that only preserved which as yet had not come up, v. 31, 32. Note, God has many ways of taking away the corn in the season thereof (Hos. ii. 9), either by a secret blasting, or a noisy hail. In this plague the hot thunderbolts, as well as the hail, are said to destroy their flocks, Ps. lxxviii. 47, 48; and see Ps. cv. 32, 33. Perhaps David alludes to this when, describing God's glorious appearances for the discomfiture of his enemies, he speaks of the hailstones and coals of fire he threw among them, Ps. xviii. 12, 13. And there is a plan reference to it on the pouring out of the seventh vial, Rev. xvi. 21. Notice is here taken (v. 26) of the land of Goshen's being preserved from receiving any damage by this plague. God has the directing of the pregnant clouds, and causes it to rain or hail on one city and not on another, either in mercy or in judgment.

II. What a consternation it put Pharaoh in. See what effect it had upon him, 1. He humbled himself to Moses in the language of a penitent, v. 27, 28. No man could have spoken better. He owns himself on the wrong side in his contest with the God of the Hebrews: "I have sinned in standing it out so long." He owns the equity of God's proceedings against him: The Lord is righteous, and must be justified when he speaks, though he speak in thunder and lightning. He condemns himself and his land: "I and my people are wicked, and deserve what is brought upon us." He begs the prayers of Moses: "Entreat the Lord for me, that this direful plague may be removed." And, lastly, he promises to yield up his prisoners: I will let you go. What could one desire more? And yet his heart was hardened all this while. Note, The terror of the rod often extorts penitent acknowledgments from those who have no penitent affections; under the surprise and smart of affliction, they start up, and say that which is pertinent enough, not because they are deeply affected, but because they know that they should be and that it is meet to be said. 2. Moses, hereupon, becomes an intercessor for him with God. Though he had all the reason in the world to think that he would immediately repent of his repentance, and told him so (v. 30), yet he promises to be this friend in the court of heaven. Note, Even those whom we have little hopes of, yet we should continue to pray for, and to admonish, 1 Sam. xii. 23. Observe, (1.) The place Moses chose for his intercession. He went out of the city (v. 33), not only for privacy in his communion with God, but to show that he durst venture abroad into the field, notwithstanding the hail and lightning which kept Pharaoh and his servants withindoors, knowing that every hail-stone had its direction from his God, who meant him no hurt. Note, Peace with God makes men thunderproof, for thunder is the voice of their Father. (2.) The gesture: He spread abroad his hands unto the Lord—an outward expression of earnest desire and humble expectation. Those that come to God for mercy must stand ready to receive it. (3.) The end Moses aimed at in interceding for him: That thou mayest know, and be convinced, that the earth is the Lord's (v. 29), that is, that God has a sovereign dominion over all the creatures, that they all are ruled by him, and therefore that thou oughtest to be so. See what various methods God uses to bring men to their proper senses. Judgments are sent, judgments removed, and all for the same end, to make men know that he Lord reigns. (4.) The success of it. [1.] He prevailed with God, v. 33. But, [2.] He could not prevail with Pharaoh: He sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, v. 34, 35. The prayer of Moses opened and shut heaven, like Elias's (Jam. v. 17, 18), and such is the power of God's two witnesses (Rev. xi. 6); yet neither Moses nor Elias, nor those two witnesses, could subdue the hard hearts of men. Pharaoh was frightened into a compliance by the judgment, but, when it was over, his convictions vanished, and his fair promises were forgotten. Note, Little credit is to be given to confessions upon the rack. Note also, Those that are not bettered by judgments and mercies are commonly made worse.

CHAP. IX.

AND Iehovah said unto Moses; Goe in unto Pharaoh, and speake unto him, Thus saith Iehovah the God of the Hebrewes, Send away my people, that they may serve me. For if thou refuse to send them away, & thou still wilt hold them: Behold, the hand of Iehovah is upon thy cattel which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheepe: a very grievous murraine. And Iehovah will marvellously sever betweene the cattell of Israel and the cattell of Egypt; and there shall not dye any thing of all that is the sons of Israel. And Iehovah appointed a set time, saying, To morrow Iehovah will doe this thing in the land. And Iehovah did this thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of the Egyptians dyed, but of the cattell of the sons of Israel died not one. And Pharaoh sent, & behold, there was not any one of the cattell of Israel dead: and the heart of Pharaoh was made heavy, and hee sent not away the people. And Iehovah said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you your hands full of ashes of the fornace, and let Moses sprinkle it towards the heavens, in the eyes of Pharaoh. And it shall be (turned) to small dust, upon all the land of Egypt; and it shall bee upon man and upon beast, to a boile breaking forth with scalding blaines, in all the land of Egypt. And they tooke ashes of the fornace, and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled it towards the heavens, and it was boyle [illegible: 1 word] standing blaines breaking forth up on man and upon beast. And the Magicians could not stand before Moses, because of the boyle; for the boyle was upon the Magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. And Iehovah made strong the heart o[illegible: 1 letter] Pharaoh, and he [illegible: 1 word] not unto them, even as Iehovah had spoken unto Moses. And Iehovah said unto Moses, Rise eately in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith Iehovah, the God of the Hebrewes; Send away my people, that they may serve me. For at this time I will send all my plagues into thy hart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, that thou maist know that there is none like me in all the earth. For now [illegible: 1 word] sent out my hand, and I had smitten thee and thy people with the pestilence, and thou hadst beene cut off from the earth. But in very deed, for this have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power, and that my name may be declared in all the earth. As yet exaltest thou thy selfe against my people, that thou wilt not send them away? Behold, I will raine, about this time to morrow, a very heavie haile, such as hath not beene the like in Egypt since the day it was founded, even untill now. And now send and speedily gather thy cattell and all that thou hast in the field: every man and beast which shall bee found in the field, and shall not bee gathered into the house, the haile shall even come downe upon them, and they shall die. Hee that feared the word of Iehovah, amongst the servants of Pharaoh, made his servants and his cattell flie into the houses. And hee that set not his heart unto the word of Iehovah, he left his servants and his cattell in the field. And Iehovah said unto Mosis, Stretch forth thine hand towards the heavens, and there shall bee haile in all the land of Egypt, upon man and upon beast, and upon every herbe of the field, in the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod towards the heavens, and Iehovah gave voices, and haile; and fire went upon the ground: and Iehovah rained haile upon the land of Egypt. And there was haile, and fire catching it selfe among the haile, very heavie, such as there was not the like in all the land of Egypt, since it was a nation. And the haile smote in all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, from man even unto beast: and the haile smote euery herbe of the field, and brake every tree of the field. [illegible: 1 word] the [illegible: 1 word] of [illegible: 1 word], where the [illegible: 1 span] And P[illegible: 1 span] and called for M[illegible: 1 letter]ses and for [illegible: 1 word], and said [illegible: 1 span], I have sinned th[illegible: 2 letters] [illegible: 1 word]: [illegible: 1 span] and [illegible: 1 word] and my peopl[illegible: 1 letter] [illegible: 1 word] quicked▪ [illegible: 1 span], for [illegible: 1 word] is [illegible: 1 word], that [illegible: 2 words] no [illegible: 1 word] voices of God, [illegible: 1 word], and I will send you away, and [illegible: 1 word] shall [illegible: 1 span] ▪ And Moses said u[illegible: 1 span], When b[illegible: 1 span] [illegible: 1 letter]one out of the citie, I will [illegible: 2 words] my hands unto Iehovah▪ the voices shall cease, and the haile shall be no more; that thou [illegible: 2 letters]ist know that the earth is Iehovahs. But thou and thy servants▪ I know that ye will not yet feare before Iehovah God. And the flaxe and the ba[illegible: 1 letter]ey was smitten, for the barley was in the eare, and the flaxe was bolled. But the wheat and the [illegible: 1 word] were not smitten, for they were hidden. And Moses went out of the citie, from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto Iehovah; and the voices and the haile ceased, and the raine was not poured upon the earth. And Pharaoh saw that the raine, and the haile, and the voices were ceased; & he added for to sin, & made heavie his hart, he and his servants. And the heart of Pharaoh waxed strong, and hee sent not away the sons of Israel, even as Iehovah had spoken, by the hand of Moses.

Annotations. HEbrewes] in Chaldee, Iewes: so in v. 13. and usually in other places. For they which of old were called Hebrewes of Heber the Patriarch, Gen. 14. 13. were after called Iewes, E[illegible: 1 letter]th. 3. 6. of Iu[illegible: 1 letter]as the Patriarch, Iakobs fourth sonne: see Gen. 29. 35. and 49. 8. V. 3. the [illegible: 1 letter]and] The Chaldee expounds it, a plague f[illegible: 1 letter]om before the Lord. sheepe] or flocks, both sheep and goats. gri[illegible: 1 letter]v[illegible: 3 letters] [illegible: 1 word]] or heavie pestil[illegible: 4 letters] ▪ the Chaldee and the Greeke calleth it, a very great death. See the notes on Exod. 5. 3. for it is the same word therensed. V. 4. sever] In the Greeke, will glorifie: see Exod. 8. 22. any thing] Hebr. a word; that is, ought [illegible: 1 word] may be spoken of; 10 word, is for thing, in v. 5. & 6. V. 6. all the cattell] that is, of all sorts some: for other some renamed for an after plague, v. 19. 25. And this was the fift judgement, of which Asaph saith, God weighed out [illegible: 1 word] path to his anger, &c. and gave up their beasts to th[illegible: 1 letter] [illegible: 3 letters]rraine, (or pestilence:) Psal. 78. 50. V. 7. made heavie] and so, obstinate: see Exodus [illegible: 2 words]. Ver. 8. your hands full] Hebrew, the fulnesse of your [illegible: 1 word] ▪ Here againe, the sixt plague is brought upon Egypt, without warning given them before: see the notes on Exod. 8. 16. [illegible: 1 letter]s[illegible: 1 letter]es] or, embers. The matter of this plague is from the fire; as of the former, from the earth and water; of the next from the aire. the heavens] as signifying this punishment to come upon them from God above; in speciall manner. to a boyle] or, as the Greeke translateth, boyles or sores, bo[illegible: 1 letter]ches. Of such oft times leprosie did breed, as Lev. 13. 18. 19. 20. scalding blaines] or, [illegible: 2 letters]yling blisters, a word not used but in this Egyptian plague, and it was an extraordinary & uncurable byle, such as Moses threatned among other curses, for the breach of Gods law, Deut. 28. 27. the Lord will smite thee with the boyle of Egypt, &c. wherof thou canst not be healed. The Holy Ghost expresseth it in Greeke, by an evill and a malignant boyle, Rev. 16. 2. V. 10. it was] or there was, as the Greeke translateth there were boyles. Thus the plagues come neerer unto Pharaoh, to his skin and flesh: but greater follow, even into his heart, v. 14. Vnto this sixt plague of Egypt, answereth the first plague of the spirituall Egypt, where there was an evill and malignant boyle, upon the men which had the marke of the beast, and which worshiped his image, Rev. 16. 2. V. 11. couldnot stand] as hitherto they had withstood Moses, and Pharaoh would have had them done so stille[illegible: 1 letter] but now their follie was manifested unto all men: see 2 Tim. 3. 8. 9. Exod. 7. 11. 12. and 8. 18. Compare also here with, Rev. 6. 17. where it is said, the great day of the Lambes) wrath is come and who shall be able to stand? Ver. 12. made strong:] and as the Greeke translateth it, hardned. See Ex[illegible: 1 letter]d. 4. 21. A like event is seene in the latter Egyptians; they blaspheme the God of heaven, for their paines and for their boyles; but repent not of their workes, Rev. 16. 11. Vers. 15. I send out my hand] by the pestilence or mu[illegible: 1 letter]raine among the beasts, v. 3. 6. and I had smitten thee with the same pestilence; and thou hadst beene cut off, for so thy sinnes deserved; but for another cause, (which after is declared in v. 16.) I have spared thee. This seemeth to be the proper meaning of these words. Otherwise taking the time past, for that which is to come, (for more certainty) it may be read, I will send, namely, if thou submit not. And so the Greek expounds it, I will send; and the Chaldee thus, for now it is neere before me, that I will send out my powerfull plague. pestilence] in the Greeke and Chaldee, death. V. 16. But in very deed] or, And verily. for this] the Apostle (Rom. 9.) addeth a word of intention, for this same: meaning cause, or purpose; as the Greeke expounds it, for this cause. raised thee up] so the Apostle (in Rom. 9. 17.) expounds the Hebr. I have made thee stand up; or I have constituted (and se[illegible: 1 letter]) thee. The common Gr. version hath, thou hast beene reserved (or kept alive) which thought it be true, yet doth it not express the whole meaning of God, who had not onely kept him alive frō the former plagues, but even raised, set and constituted him for a vessell of wrath; and an example of Gods justice and [illegible: 1 letter]eve[illegible: 1 letter]itie; as Paul applieth it to that argument. And that standing may imply the constitution or being of a thing, the Scripture elsewhere sheweth; as where one Prophet saith, the Angell of the Lord stood by the threshing floore, 1 Chron. 21. 15. another saith, the Angell was by it, 2 Sam. 24 16. for to shew] or, that I may shew: as Paul explaineth it. See the notes on Gen. 6. 19. in thee:] or, shew thee: but both the Greeke translation and the Apostle (Rom. 9. 17.) addeth the word in. Which is often to bee observed in words compounded as this is; as Gen. 30. 20. dwell with me, Psal. 5. 5. so journe with thee, Psal. 42. 5. resorted with them; Sinne against me, Prov. 8. 36. and sundry the like. bee declared] Hebr. for to declare (or tell) my name: See the notes on Gen. 6. 20. The Chaldee translateth, that they may declare the power of my name. From hence the Apostle inferreth, Therefore God hath mercie on whom he will; and whom he will he hardneth, Rom. 9. 18. Vers. 18. about this time:] Greeke at this houre, (or time) for the Greeke useth these two indifferently; as, In that houre, Luk. 10. 21. whereas Matthew saith, In that time, Matt. 1[illegible: 1 letter]. 25. very heavy,] or, vehemently weighty; that is, sore and grievous. This plague proceedeth from the ayre as the former did from other elements. founded] that is, the foundation of it laid: as the Greeke saith, created. Vers. 19. speedily gather] gather for to flee, or to retire, as the word signifieth, Ier. 4. 6. and 6. 1. This warning, as it implyed great danger to come; so, no lesse mercie in God, towards such ill deserving people. even come downe] Hebrew, and shall come downe, and they shall dye; meaning with the haile, so soone as it should fall. Vers. 20. made to flie,] the Greeke and Chaldee translate, gathered; this explaineth the former word, in verse 19. Verse 21. set not his heart,] that is, regarded not. See Exod. 7. 23. he left,] or, he also left. But the word also (or and) may be omitted, as is shewed on Gen. 8. 6. Vers. 23. gave voices,] that is, sent noyses of thunder: so the Scripture elsewhere speaketh of the voice (or noise) of thunder, Rev. 6. 1. and thunders uttered their voices, Revel. 10. 3. And although sometime voices and thunders are mentioned distinctly, as in Rev. 4. 5. and 8. 5. yet here by voices, seeme to be meant thunders. So at the giving of the Law, Exod. 19. 16. and 20. 18. haile] with such God killed also the Canaanites, Ios. 10. 11. And unto Iob he saith; Hast thou seene the treasures of the Haile, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battell and war? Iob. 38. 22. 23. Vnto this seventh plague of Egypt, the Lord compareth the seventh plague of the Antichristians; where, upon the viall poured out into the aire, there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, and a great haile of talent weight fell upon men, for which they blasphemed God, Rev. 16. 17. 18. 21. fire went,] that is, ranne along on the ground, as the Greeke translateth it; which was extraordinary and most terrible: so that not the haile onely, but the lightnings and fierie flames, consumed their cattle; as the Psalmist witnesseth, Psal. 78. 47. 48. and 105. 32. 33. So in other judgements, haile and fire is mentioned, in the destruction of Davids enemies, and of the Assyrians, Psal. 18. 13. 14. 15. Esay 30. 30. 31. Vers. 24. catching it selfe;] that is, one flash of lightning taking hold of another, & so the flames infoulding themselves, did increase and burne more terribly. This word is used onely here, and in Ezek. 1. 4. The Greeke translateth it, inflaming, (or setting on fire, which word the Apostle useth, I am. 3. 6.) and so the Chaldee saith, inflaming it selfe. And David calleth it, fire of flames, Psal. 1 5. 32. a nation] or, to a nation: which the Greek explaineth, since there was a nation upon it. A like phrase is in Re 16. 18. since men were upon the earth. Ver. 25. from man &c.] that is, both men & beasts. every tree] the Gr. saith, all the trees, meaning of all sorts; for there were some left remaining for an after plague, Exod. 10. 5. A like phrase is in Act. 10. 12. all four footed beasts &c. & before in verse 6. Vers. 26. no haile] So God had preserved them from former plagues, v. 6. and ch. 8 ver 22. and so God promiseth to preserve his people in quiet resting places, when it shall haile on the forrest, Esa. 32. 18. 19. Ver. 28. for it is enough,] or, and let it be enough: so the Greeke Interpreters tooke it, t[illegible: 1 letter]anslating, and let it cease. voices of God,] that is, thunders from God, or mighty loud thunders: as mountaines of God, Psal. 26. 7. are high and strong mounts; see the notes on Gen. 30. 5. and 23. 6. The Greeke retaineth the Hebrew phrase. no longer stay] Hebr. ye shall not adde to stand: that is, to stay, or remaine, as the Greek translateth: or as the Chaldee expounds it, be delaied. V. 29. my hands] Hebt. my palmes; that is, as the Chaldee explaineth it, my hands in prayer. So in v. 33. The spreading out of the palmes of the hands, was a common gesture used in prayer, as kneeling also was; signifying a desire that they might receive from God, the things they craved: so Salomon did when he prayed, 2 Chron. 6. 13. and David, Psal. 143. 6. and Ezra, Ezr. 9. 9. and others, Iob 11. 13. Like this was the lifting up of the hands; where of see Exod. 17. 11. is Iehovah's] or belongeth to Iehovah, as the Creator, Possessor, Governor of all things; doing whatsoever he pleaseth, in heavens, earth, seas, &c. Psal. 135. 6. Of this sentence there is often mention and great use in the Scriptures: see Deut. 10. 14. 15. Psal. 24. 1. &c. 1 Cor. 10. 26. 28. V. 30. will not yet feare] this the event shewed to be true, v. 35. Hereby it appeareth, that the prayers of the faithful may remove temporary plagues, even from the wicked and impenitent. Compare 1 King. 18. 42. 45. Exod 32 11. 14. 34. 35. V. 31. in the eare] the Hebrew Abib, signifieth a greene eare of corne with the stalke, Levit. 2. 14. Of it, the month when corde was newly ripe, is called Abib, where of see Exod. 13. 4. bolled,] or in the stalke: the Greeke translateth it seeding. V. 32. [illegible: 1 letter]ye:] or the graine called Zea, or Spelt, in Hebrew Cussemeth: of this is mention also in Ezek. 4. 9. Esay 28. 25. The Hebrew Doctors count it a kinde of wheat: as Maimony sheweth in treat of Leven, ch. 5. S. 1. hidden:] Hebrew darke, or, obscure, that is, hid under ground, not to be seen: the Greeke translateth it, lateward. Vers. 33. haile ceased] This sheweth the effect of Moses faith and prayer: the Apostle noteth the like of Elias, who prayed, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three yeeres and sixe moneths: and he prayed againe, and the heaven gaveraine. Iam. 5. 17. 18. This is written for our comfort, for they were men, subject to like passions as we are. The same is to be observed in Exod. 10. 18. 19. and the other plagues which Moses by prayer tooke away. Vers. 34. made heavie] that is, obstinate and hard. See Exod. 7. 14. Vers. 35. waxed strong] was made fast and hard: see Exod. 4. 21. by the hand] that is, by the ministerie or prophesie of Moses, who had signified so much before, verse 30. So Gods word came by the hand of Haggai. Hag. 1. 1. by the hand of Malachy, Mal. 1. 1. and by the hand of all the Prophets, 2 King. 17. 13. that is, by them as his ministers and instruments. And the hand of the Lord, sometime is the spirit of prophecie, 2 King. 3. 15.