Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 9:13
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. Rise up early, &c.] cf. Exo 8:20.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
13 35. The seventh plague. The hail. From J, with short passages, probably, from E.
13, 17 18. The announcement of the plague: cf. Exo 8:1-3; Exo 8:20-23, Exo 9:1-4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
With the plague of hail begins the last series of plagues, which differ from the former both in their severity and their effects. Each produced a temporary, but real, change in Pharaohs feelings.
Exo 9:14
All my plagues – This applies to all the plagues which follow; the effect of each was foreseen and foretold. The words at this time point to a rapid and continuous succession of blows. The plagues which precede appear to have been spread over a considerable time; the first message of Moses was delivered after the early harvest of the year before, when the Israelites could gather stubble, i. e. in May and April: the second mission, when the plagues began, was probably toward the end of June, and they went on at intervals until the winter; this plague was in February; see Exo 9:31.
Exo 9:15
For now … – Better, For now indeed, had I stretched forth my hand and smitten thee and thy people with the pestilence, then hadst thou been cut off from the earth. Exo 9:16 gives the reason why God had not thus inflicted a summary punishment once for all.
Exo 9:16
Have I raised thee up – See the margin. God kept Pharaoh standing, i. e. permitted him to live and hold out until His own purpose was accomplished.
Exo 9:18
A very grievous hail – The miracle consisted in the magnitude of the infliction and in its immediate connection with the act of Moses.
Exo 9:19
In Egypt the cattle are sent to pasture in the open country from January to April, when the grass is abundant. They are kept in stalls for the rest of the year.
Exo 9:20
The word of the Lord – This gives the first indication that the warnings had a salutary effect upon the Egyptians.
Exo 9:27
The Lord – Thus, for the first time, Pharaoh explicitly recognizes Yahweh as God (compare Exo 5:2).
Exo 9:29
The earth is the Lords – This declaration has a direct reference to Egyptian superstition. Each god was held to have special power within a given district; Pharaoh had learned that Yahweh was a god, he was now to admit that His power extended over the whole earth. The unity and universality of the divine power, though occasionally recognized in ancient Egyptian documents, were overlaid at a very early period by systems alternating between Polytheism and Pantheism.
Exo 9:31
The flax was bolled – i. e. in blossom. This marks the time. In the north of Egypt the barley ripens and flax blossoms about the middle of February, or at the latest early in March, and both are gathered in before April, when the wheat harvest begins. The cultivation of flax must have been of great importance; linen was preferred to any material, and exclusively used by the priests. It is frequently mentioned on Egyptian monuments.
Exo 9:32
Rie – Rather, spelt, the common food of the ancient Egyptians, now called doora by the natives, and the only grain represented on the sculptures: the name, however, occurs on the monuments very frequently in combination with other species.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Exo 9:13-16
To show in thee My power.
The plagues of Egypt
I. characteristics.
1. Wonders. Filled men with astonishment and awe.
2. Signs. Instructive. Showed the power and anger of Jehovah. This, the finger, etc.
3. Punitive also. They punished the oppressor, while they opened the doors of the house of bondage.
4. Emblematical of the mission and career of Moses. Thunders of Sinai resounded through them all.
5. Various. Attacked both nature and man; animate and inanimate objects; mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms.
6. Numerous. Ten. Indeed more, for there was the undoing as well as the doing.
II. purpose.
1. To overthrow the deities of Egypt. Jehovah the only true God–Lord of lords.
2. To punish the oppressor. Those who long years had made the life of Israel bitter, now taste a worse bitterness than they had inflicted.
3. To confound the pride of Pharaoh. Though he was master in the land. Had need to be taught that there was One by whom kings rule.
4. To effect the deliverance of the captives. They gradually paved the way, and ultimately secured this.
III. effect.
1. Upon Pharaoh. Hardened his heart. In proportion as he set himself against the manifest will of God. So even the glorious gospel of the blessed God is, to some men, the savour of death unto death. At last even Pharaohs resistance was broken.
2. Upon the Egyptians. They were gradually subdued, till at length they entreated Pharaoh to let Israel go, as earnestly as ever Moses and Aaron did.
3. Upon Israel. They had dwelt secure while these terrors were abroad. God had hidden them in the chambers of His love and mercy. Their confidence restored. They organize their flight. They see the time is at hand. And at last wait for the final word.
Learn–
1. To stand in awe of the great God and sin not.
2. To admire the resources of infinite wisdom and power.
3. To take heed lest the gospel be a source of condemnation.
4. To expect no miracles, but turn to the sure word of prophecy.
5. To rejoice in our great deliverer, Jesus Christ. (J. C. Gray.)
The Divine name as manifested in the history of a wicked and rebellious soul
I. From the history of pharaoh we see that it is not the way of God to remove a wicked soul by the immediate stroke of power. The mercy of the Divine name is declared in the prolonged life of the sinner.
II. From the history of Pharaoh, we see that it is the way of God to surround the wicked soul by many ministries of salvation.
III. From the history of Pharaoh, we see that it is the way of God to follow the wicked soul with continued judgments. The sorrows of the wicked are not fortuitous or casual, but divinely arranged and continuous. Hence in the life of the sinner is seen the power of the Divine hand. Lessons:
1. That God permits wicked men to live in the universe, notwithstanding the continued rebellion against Him.
2. That a life of sin is a life of judgment.
3. That the sovereignty, mercy, power, and justice of God are seen in His dealings with men. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
God to be recognized in the events of life
In listening to a great organ, played by the hand of a master, there is often an undertone that controls the whole piece. Sometimes it is scarcely audible, and a careless listener would miss it altogether. The lighter play goes on, ebbing and flowing, rising and sinking, now softly gliding on the gentler stops, and now swelling out to the full power of the great organ. But amid all the changes and transpositions this undertone may be heard, steadily pursuing its own thought. The careless listener thinks the lighter play the main thing; but he that can appreciate musical ideas, as well as sounds, follows the quiet undertone of the piece, and finds in it the leading thought of the artist. So men see the outward events of life, the actions, the words, the wars, famines, sins; but underneath all God is carrying out His own plans, and compelling all outward things to aid the music He would make in this world. (Christian Age.)
Why Pharaoh was exalted
The words do not mean that the Almighty had created Pharaoh for this purpose; but that He had exalted him to worldly distinction, and preserved him alive, when the pestilence was ready to destroy, that he might serve as a beacon to warn the obstinate and rebellious in after times. It is a fearful thought, that God may allow us to reach positions of influence and authority, towards which our own selfish ambition has drawn us; and all this not for the purpose of imparting a blessing, but really for the manifesting a judgment, or for the display of His omnipotence. (J. H. Norton, D. D.)
Reprobation
I. I am to show that God did destroy Pharaoh. The Deity threatened to cut him off from the earth, which plainly implied something more than barely putting an end to his life, Had He permitted him to die by old age, or by sickness, or even by what is commonly called accident, we should have had no right to conclude from the manner of his dying that he was really destroyed. But there were two circumstances attending his death, which may be justly considered as denoting his destruction. He was cut off in the midst of his wickedness. And another is, that he died by the immediate hand of Divine justice. As God opened the Red Sea in mercy to Israel, so He shut it again in judgment to Pharaoh, whom He had threatened to destroy.
II. I am to show that God raised up Pharaoh to fit him for destruction. God worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. He never does anything without a previous design. If He destroyed Pharaoh in the manner which has been represented, there can be no doubt but that He previously intended to destroy him in such a manner. But the Divine declarations supersede the necessity of reasoning upon this head. God made known, from time to time, His purpose of destroying Pharaoh. Now, if we look into the history of Gods conduct towards Pharaoh, we shall find that He used all the proper and necessary means to form him a vessel of wrath, and fit him for that miserable end to which he was appointed.
1. He raised him up from nothing into being. He gave him a rational and immortal existence.
2. He raised him up to the throne of Egypt. In this splendid situation he was surrounded with everything that could please his taste, flatter his vanity, and inflame his ambition. And this was a natural and necessary step to prepare him for his final fate. For it is a Divine maxim, that pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
3. God not only raised Pharaoh to the pinnacle of human glory, but also removed from him outward restraints. Besides giving him the power of an unlimited monarch, was virtually setting him above all legal influence and control. But besides this, God removed Moses from his presence and kingdom, who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, and thoroughly acquainted with all the arts and intrigues of a court.
4. God endured this vessel of wrath with much long-suffering and forbearance. Instead of treating him according to his deserts, He waited long to be gracious. He used a variety of means to bring him to repentance. But mercies, as well as judgments, conspired to increase his stupidity and hardness of heart, which prepared him for a more unexpected and more aggravated doom.
5. God hardened his heart. All other methods, without this, would have failed of fitting him for destruction. It is now time to make it appear, if possible–
III. that God is to be justified in his treatment of Pharaoh. We must proceed upon the supposition that God did treat him in the manner which has been represented; and especially that He did, among other things, actually harden his heart.
1. That better judges than we can pretend to be, have approved of Gods treatment of Pharaoh. We find his own testimony in favour of God and against himself. 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. This Pharaoh said after God had raised him up, after He had taken off restraints from his mind, after He had sent severe judgments upon him, after He had hardened his heart, and after He had told him that He had raised him up to destroy him. By this time Pharaoh was nearly ripened for ruin, and properly prepared to judge whether God had injured him, or whether he had injured God. And he freely acknowledges that he was wicked, and had injured God, and that God was righteous, and had never injured him.
2. The sovereignty and justice of God allowed Him to treat Pharaoh in the manner which has just been described. The Deity had a sovereign right to bring Pharaoh into existence, to give him the powers and faculties of a moral agent, to place him at the head of a kingdom, and to operate upon his heart in the same manner in which He operates upon the hearts of other men. And when Pharaoh, under such circumstances, became extremely haughty, cruel, malevolent and obstinate, He had a right, in point of justice, to cut him off from the earth, and send him to endless perdition. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Pharaoh raised up
From all we can find out from a careful comparison of what Moses wrote with what Paul added in his letter (Rom 9:15-18), it would appear that a paraphrase like this might represent the truth: I selected thee for a strong and illustrious example of human insolence in power, its capabilities for wickedness, and the certainty of its final doom; and this I did in order that I might prove My own supremacy over the creatures of My hand, and thus declare My name in all the ages of the world.
1. Observe here that this king was perfectly intelligent concerning what Jehovah asked of him: Let My people go, that they may serve Me. That was the demand. Does any one say he could not let them go, if he tried? It was a simple measure of political economy; he would lose an unreckoned number of valuable slaves. So he made up his mind that the conflict must come on; he would not let them go. But there was in the struggle more than mere political economy; from the beginning it is an undenied fact that he knew it was God with whom he was contending; he was bracing himself for a fight which meant life or death. Why, then, did Menephtah take his stand in defiance of all? The real reason must be found in his wish to try his gods against Israels God; the issue, at first only economic, at last became only spiritual. Those who exercise their sympathy so extensively about this monstrous despot, steeped in conceit and superstition, and who claim that he was treated unfairly and had no chance, ought not to forget that Menephtah was permitted to choose his own forms of contending with Moses. Their weapons were miracles, and the orders of the Hebrew leader were issued in such slow details that for a while the king was able with his magicians to meet the demands of a very respectable rebellion in show. But enough of this.
2. It is more to the point now that we enter on an explanation of this expression about Pharaohs being raised up as an exhibition of Gods power and supremacy. For years of injustice in administration of the government, of tyranny in treatment of the Israelite working-people, and of superstitious idolatry in his worship, it is clear that Menephtah had been known and read of all men. Just then it pleased God to teach Israel, His chosen people, a lesson of dependence upon Himself; He determined to show His complete and irresistible supremacy over any one and every one else who was in a position to defy Him. The government of Israel was a theocracy; that is to say, God in person was the King of it, and Moses was the earthly representative before the people. He therefore needed a conspicuous antagonist. Menephtah was chosen. God might have selected the king of the Philistine nation or the Amorite; it is likely both were as bad as Pharaoh. What He did do was to choose this king of Egypt, the descendant of some awful generations of miscreant tyrants–himself as wicked as the worst. This king, Menephtah, the Lord took when he was at the height of his power. He kept him alive; He endured his defiance; He preserved a balance in His mind so that he should not go insane; He gave him an unbroken season of health; He guarded against any useless or unhelpful insurrection in his realm; He patiently bore with his blasphemy. Then, as the conflict grew more malignant, instead of cutting this rebel off in the midst of his daring impiety, God kept giving him more and harder disciplines–all calculated, mind you, to do him good, if he would only accept and improve them to good; thus kindling anew his passions with fresh fuel. The purpose seems to have been just to draw this one man out, to exhaust his tremendous powers and capabilities to the very utmost, so as to have the Hebrews understand that no king, not even at the highest conception of force and tyranny, was or could be a match for the great Jehovah who was their King and their God. In this sense Pharaoh was raised up, so as to become a recognized sinner for times and races in the unborn future, a shining shame before the world.
3. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him; as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. Menephtah does not stand alone in history, by any means. Cain, Saul, the king of Israel, Sihon, Belshazzar, Judas Iscariot, had a similar trial of human will against the Divine. These men were conspicuous; not all men are as much so; but all have the same human nature. Indeed, most of us are distinctly conscious of being perfectly unconstrained in all of our moral decisions. We should say, each one of us, if the inquiry were raised, that there never was a moment in all this mans career in which if he had turned and repented, he might not have been saved, no matter how far on in his guilt he might have advanced: so it seems now to ourselves. There is a theological doctrine called reprobation; the truth appears to be that at some period in the controversy with a human soul, God does judicially withdraw His Spirit, and then there is a solemn crisis reached for the experience of hardness; it looks as if a man could not repent, could not be saved, beyond that line of defiance and despair. Now, everything the Lord does to save a good man, if done to this reprobate, only makes him worse. How can that be helped? The free will is kept up, and the sovereignty does not yield. There is no defence, so far as can be discovered, against the power of an unrighteous man to make a vicious perversion of Gods most generous dealings.
4. There is a reprobation before death. The sentiment is not accurately true as some persons sing it: it is not always sure that while the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return. For in his heart there may be a hardness that will hinder him for ever from coming to ask for a pardon through Jesus Christ, and that is essential. After this point is reached, however, God goes right on doing as He did before. God never does anything to any soul with the intention of hardening it. He never raises up any man for the sake of casting him down again into hell. He has a right to choose as much as we have in any case. He chose Moses instead of Menephtah, and Israel instead of Egypt; He had mercy on whom He would have mercy. The ancient Thracian emblem of the Deity was a sun with three of its broadest beams proceeding from it: of these, one rested upon a sea of ice and was melting it; another, on a cliff of rock, and was causing it to flow; the third, on a dead mans body, and was rousing it to life. Now, just imagine each one of these, or any one of these, was so free-willed as to be able, and so spiteful as to wish, to resist, so a new chill went into the ice, and a fresh hardness into the rock, and a deeper corruption sunk into the dead body; would the warmth-giving and life-giving sun be to blame, if it still went on shining as before? (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
And the Lord said unto Moses, rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh,…. Who it seems used to rise early in the morning, and so was a fit time to meet with him, and converse with him; it might be one of the mornings in which he used to go to the water early, though not mentioned, unless that was every morning:
and say unto him, thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, let my people go, that they may serve me; thus had he line upon line, and precept upon precept, so that he was the more inexcusable, see Ex 9:1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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). does not signify “against thy person,” for is not used for , 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 (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.” forms the antithesis to , and means to cause to stand or continue, as in 1Ki 15:4; 2Ch 9:8 ( lxx). Causing to stand presupposes setting up. In this first sense the Apostle Paul has rendered it 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 ( 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).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
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, Exo 9:14; Exo 9:15. “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.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 13-21:
The seventh “stroke” apparently fell quickly after the sixth. The warning was that the previous plagues were mild compared to what would come. God would send “all his plagues,” or “every worst form of evil,” in rapid order. Each “stroke” would be directed against Pharaoh’s hardened heart. Proud Pharaoh would be brought low. He would humble himself and beg Israel to leave his land.
Verse 15: “Now I will stretch out my hand,” is literally, “Now I might have stretched out my hand.” This tells what God could have done, and would have done except for certain circumstances. He could easily have destroyed Pharaoh with pestilence. But He chose to allow Pharaoh to live, in order to fulfill His purpose, stated in verse 16.
Paul quotes verse 16, in Ro 9:17,18, as an example of God’s sovereignty. God did not arbitrarily decree that Pharaoh would be a rebel, and that the purpose of this rebellion would be to glorify Him. Pharaoh rejected the Word of God of his own volition. But God then used his rebellion to accomplish His purpose and to bring glory to Himself, see Pr 16:4; Ps 76:10.
The seventh “stroke” was a hail storm, of such severity as had not been experienced in all Egypt’s history to that time. This storm would be accompanied with violent thunder and lightning. Cattle grazing in the field would be in danger of death by this hail. For he has “his way in the whirlwind and the storm.”
Some of Pharaoh’s servants were doubtless convinced of Jehovah’s power, by the previous plagues. Those who feared the Lord believed Moses’ word, and quickly brought their livestock to safety from the fields.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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 (107) 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.
(107) The French Version supplies “avec menaces;” with threatenings.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 9:13-16
THE DIVINE NAME AS MANIFESTED IN THE HISTORY OF A WICKED AND REBELLIOUS SOUL
We must clearly understand the teaching of the sixteenth verse of this paragraph, or we shall be apt to have a wrong view of the character of God, and to indulge unholy thoughts in reference to the method of the Divine administration over the human soul. We must not imagine that God made Pharaoh obstinate on purpose that He might show His power on him, and thereby get glory to Himself; for God needs not mans malice for the setting forth of His glory. We must not understand by it that God decreed Pharaoh to be rebellious, and that it was therefore impossible for the proud monarch to be otherwise. The verse does not mean that God created Pharaoh for the purpose of manifesting His power in him. The king of Egypt had been passing through great afflictions, which were enough to be the death of him, and from these God had raised him up to manifest His power and mercy. The same word occurs in Jas. 5:15. We have here the principle clearly establishedviz., that God reveals His name, character, and method of moral government, in the lives of individual men. God not only reveals Himself in the inspired volume which He has caused to be written; not only in the material universe around us; but also in the experiences and soul-histories of the race. Human society gives us an insight into the character of God, and enables us to understand the method of the Divine procedure. We see the laws of heaven operating in the lives of men. This is an interesting study. It is likewise admonitory.
I. From the history of Pharaoh we see that it is not the way of God to remove a wicked soul by the immediate stroke of power. We know right well that the Divine Being need not have held any controversy with the king of Egypt in reference to the freedom of Israel; as far as power was concerned He could easily have stricken Pharaoh into the grave at the outset. But this would have been contrary to the ordinary method of the Divine government, which is not to subdue men by power, but to win them by moral considerations and by manifestation of Divine mercy. Force is a token of weakness in the moral sphere of life. Hence God does not annihilate the sinner. He does not immediately inflict death upon him, but mercifully prolongs his life through many retributions, until mercy is useless and justice is imperative. Then the sinner meets his just doom, which he might have averted by deep and true repentance. We sometimes wonder that God allows the criminally sinful to live, to reject His claims, and to pollute His universe. His mercy is the only explanation that can be given of their continued existence. Hence the mercy of the Divine name is declared in the prolonged life of the sinner.
II. From the history of Pharaoh, we see that it is the way of God to surround the wicked soul by many ministries of salvation. God did not make known His will to Pharaoh in reference to the freedom of Israel, and then leave him to his own rebellious inclination without further warning. But he sent messenger after messenger to the impious monarch. He sent Moses and Aaron time after time, who uttered the word of the Lord to him. He authenticated the word they uttered. He sent plagues to enforce it. But all in vain. Hence we behold the merciful manner in which God deals with the sinner. How many ministries has heaven sent to lead men to salvation and to the cross. There is the ministry of truth, the ministry of the pulpit, the ministry of conscience, and the ministry of daily events; the sinner is indeed surrounded by messengers who would lead him to repentance.
III. From the history of Pharaoh, we see that it is the way of God to follow the wicked soul with continued judgments. Pharaoh was followed by the judgments of heaven. They came in quick succession. They were grievous in their infliction, and awful in their retribution. The sinner cannot be happy. He is in conflict with God. All nature is against him. He is exposed to innumerable perils. Sin is always associated with plagues. It is punished in this life. But this is ever a merciful arrangement, in that the soul may be led to repentance, and thus escape the retribution of the life to come. We cannot but see in the entire history of Pharaoh, the disasters that overtake a wicked life, and that by Divine permission. The sorrows of the wicked are not fortuitous or casual, but Divinely arranged and continuous. No man need envy the penalties that follow sin. Hence in the life of the sinner is seen the power of the Divine hand. LESSONS:
1. That God permits wicked men to live in the universe, notwithstanding the continued rebellion against Him.
2. That a life of sin is a life of judgment.
3. That the sovereignty, mercy, power, and justice of God are seen in his dealings with men.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exo. 9:13-14. God pursues persecutors early in multiplying His plagues upon them.
Seven times, yea and seven, will God demand His church out of the hand of oppressors, until he deliver them.
God has a time of mustering up all His plagues together, when single ones are despised.
God makes hearts sick with smiting, when blows will do no good upon the outward man.
Heart-evils are more grievous plagues from God upon men.
Heart-plagues are signal to make proud sinners acknowledge the supremacy of God.
God will be known by His judgments to be the one Lord in all the earth.
HEART-PLAGUES
I. The time when they are sent. They are sent when the soul is rebellious to the claims of God, and when those claims have been continuously rejected. These heart-plagues follow other judgments less severe. They are the emphatic voices of heaven. They are indicative of the souls ruin. The time of their advent is generally predicted.
II. In what they consist. They consist in the inward suffering of mans moral nature. Not in external affliction, however terrible, but in the inner agony of the spirit. It is better to be tormented in the body and in the circumstances of life than in the thoughts, sentiments, and affections of the soul.
III. For what they are sent. They are sent to teach men the supremacy of God, and their duty in relation to the Supreme Being. How many are apparently unmindful of the only true God, and are only brought to acknowledge Him by agony of soul.
Exo. 9:15-16. Pestilence:
1. The outcome of Divine power.
2. The outcome of Divine anger.
3. The indication of final destruction.
Though God spares sinners a time, he will manifest His power in them at last.
God will have the whole earth know His name in his judgments.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Sinners self-will! Exo. 9:13-16. It is not Raised thee upbut made thee stand. The meaning is that Jehovah permitted him to live and hold out until His own purpose was accomplished This did not make the monarchs heart any worse. He might have let Israel go without being in the least degree better. The soil from which the hardness sprang would have been just the same. When the clay has not the sunbeams to indurate, it may yet be hardened quite as much by being placed in a furnace. Once hardened, it is easier to break than to soften a brick. Pharaoh had hardened his heart in the fire of self-will, and every fresh message from Godlike a warm sunbeamonly made it harder. Pharaoh afterwards could not relent. The fakirs of India keep their arm or leg stretched out, until it becomes stiff; and they are unable to draw it back again. The Egyptian tyrant held out his heart so long against God that at last it was unable to yield. Standing in the Divine way, it must either bend or break:
The whole creations strange and endless dealing,
In spite of shields, and veils, and arts concealing,
Proclaims that whosoeer is long a sinner,
Can only be by it of woe a winner.
Oriental.
Truths Power! Exo. 9:14. When Pilate was brought close to Incarnate Truth, there seems to have been a momentary giving way of his former scepticism. The personal presence of the Truth, his bearing under the long and terrible trialthe serenity of soulthe calm, unwearying patience under insultall seem to have awakened in Pilate a feeling as though he was dealing with a Being of superhuman powers. It was but a flash; for when the Truth uttered His testimony, the sceptic had gained the victory over the rising conviction, and with a sneer said: What is Truth? Equally transient were the emotions of conviction aroused in the heart of Pharaoh. All the miraclesconvincing though they werecould not effectually satisfy His prejudiced mind: Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?
I feel these piercing pains
Yet still I sinI sin.
Bonar.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(13) Early in the morning.Comp, Exo. 7:15; Exo. 8:20.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE SEVENTH PLAGUE.
(13-19) The plagues fall into triads, or groups of three. This is the first plague of the third group, and presents to us several new features. (1) It is ushered in with an unusually long and exceeding awful message (Exo. 9:13-19), in which Pharaoh is warned that God is now about to send all His plagues upon his heart, and that he has been raised up simply that God may show forth His power in his person. (2) It is the first plague that attacks human life; and this it does upon a large scale: all those exposed to it perish (Exo. 9:19). (3) It is more destructive than any previous plague to property. It not only slays cattle, like the murrain. but destroys plants and trees (Exo. 9:25), and ruins half the harvest (Exo. 9:31). (4) It is accompanied with terrible demonstrationsmighty thunderings, huge hailstones, rain, and fire that runs along upon the ground (Exo. 9:23). (5) It is made to test the degree of faith to which the Egyptians have attained, by means of a revelation of the way whereby it may be escaped (Exo. 9:20). Though the plagues do not form a regularly ascending series, each transcending the last, yet there is a certain progression observable. The earlier ones cause annoyance rather than injury; those which follow cause loss of property; then Gods hand is laid on mens persons, so as to hurt, but not to kill; lastly, life itself is attacked. The seventh plague was peculiarly astonishing and alarming to the Egyptians, because hail and thunder, even rain, were rare phenomena in their country; and a thunderstorm accompanied by such features as characterised this one was absolutely unknown. The hailstones must have been of an enormous size and weight to kill men and cattle. The fire infolding itself amid the hail must indicate a very unusual form of the electric fluid. It is not surprising that the visitation brought down the pride of Pharaoh more than any preceding one, and made him for the time consent unconditionally to the peoples departure (Exo. 9:28).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
SEVENTH PLAGUE THE HAIL, Exo 9:13-35.
The third triad of judgments is introduced with unusual formality and solemnity. Pharaoh was now a “vessel of wrath,” fit only for destruction. See note on Exo 9:12. He had resisted to that degree that repentance was now morally impossible; and he was preserved in life only to reveal God’s supremacy by punishment. It will be noticed that in these last judgments Aaron is not seen: it is Moses who lifts the rod that crushes Egypt to the dust.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Seventh Plague – The Plague of Great Hail Such as Had Never Been in Egypt ( Exo 9:13-35 ).
We now come to the third series of plagues which this time come as judgments from the heavens, the great hail and mighty thunderstorm, the huge cloud of locusts, and finally the plague of thick darkness. All are portents from the heavens. All bring darkness of one kind or another. It is a dark time for Egypt.
Pharaoh was now approached again and this time the warning is more severe. Disease has been rife and the cattle have been decimated but he is still unyielding. Now the attack is to be made on what cattle remain, on any man foolish enough to remain in the fields and on the crops of Egypt which had as yet not been largely affected. The food supply of Egypt was thus to be the next target, and death would visit the Egyptians, and other Egyptians would have to stand by helplessly and watch. And the judgment would come from the heavens.
While no mention is made of the Nile this seventh warning is to be given early in the morning. This links this opening plague of the third series with the opening plagues of the first two series and evidences the unity of the narrative (Exo 7:15; Exo 8:20).
a Early in the morning Moses is to stand before Pharaoh and tell him that Yahweh says, ‘Let my people go that they may serve Me.’ (Exo 9:13)
b If he does not then his very heart will be affected, and his grand officials and his people so that he will know that there is none like Yahweh on earth, for he intends to send ‘all my plagues’ on them (Exo 9:14).
c Let him remember that Yahweh could have put out His hand and smitten him and his people with pestilence, and he would have been cut off from the earth (Exo 9:15).
d Indeed he has been raised up for this very purpose so as to reveal Yahweh’s power, and so that His name might be declared throughout all the earth (Exo 9:16).
e And yet he still exalts himself against Yahweh’s people and will not let them go (Exo 9:17).
f On the morrow Yahweh intends to cause hailstorms such as have never been before in Egypt since the world began (Exo 9:18).
g And he warns him (and his people) that they must bring all their cattle, with themselves, into shelter, for the hailstorm will be such that all out in the open will die (Exo 9:19).
h Those who feared Yahweh among Pharaoh’s officials brought their beasts and their servants indoors (Exo 9:20).
h Those who did not regard Yahweh left them in the open field (Exo 9:21).
g Yahweh tells Moses to stretch forth his hand towards heaven so that there would be hailstorms throughout the land of Egypt on both man and beast out in the open (Exo 9:22).
f And Moses did so and there was thunder and hail, and lightning striking and running along the ground, hail and fire mingled with hail, very grievous such as had not been in Egypt since they were a nation (Exo 9:23-24).
e And the hail smote all that was outside in the open throughout the land of Egypt, man and beast, vegetation and trees, only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail (Exo 9:25-26).
d Pharaoh calls for Moses and Aaron and admits that he has erred, that Yahweh is righteous and that his people are wicked. He has had enough. Let them entreat Yahweh that there be no more of this thundering and hail and he will let them go and they need remain no longer (Exo 9:28).
c Moses declares that once he has left the city he will spread out his hands before Yahweh and there will be no more thunder and hail so that Pharaoh will know that the earth is Yahweh’s. Yet he knows that Pharaoh and his officials will not yet fear Yahweh God. And the flax and barley which were growing were smitten but the wheat and spelt which had not yet sprouted were untouched (Exo 9:31-32).
b And Moses left the city and spread out his hands to Yahweh, and the thunders and hail ceased and the rain ceased pouring down. And when Pharaoh saw this he sinned even more and hardened his heart, he and his officials (Exo 9:33-34).
a And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, nor would he let the children of Israel go, as Yahweh had spoken by Moses.
Note the contrasts. In ‘a’ Yahweh calls on Pharaoh to let His people go, in the parallel Pharaoh refuses to do so. In ‘b’ if he does not let Yahweh’s people go his ‘heart’ will be affected, and his officials and people, in the parallel Pharaoh hardened his heart and his officials did so also. In ‘c’ Yahweh could smite them with pestilence (which can include pestilence which affects crops and vegetation – see 1Ki 8:37), and cut them off from the earth, in the parallel He will yet spare them by stopping the thunder and hail, but they still do not fear God, (and are still therefore liable to be cut off) while the barley and flax are smitten, although the wheat and spelt are spared, for He is still deferring final judgment. In ‘d’ Pharaoh has been raised up so as to reveal Yahweh’s power and so that His name might be declared throughout all the earth, while in the parallel Pharaoh is seen as having admitted his error and failure to obey Yahweh along with all his people, and is yielding to His will. In ‘e’ he is still exalting himself against Yahweh’s people while in the parallel Yahweh’s people are spared while Egypt is punished. Yahweh is exalting Himself against Egypt. In ‘f’ Yahweh will send such hailstorms as have not been seen in Egypt since the world began, while in the parallel such hailstorms came, hailstorms such as had not been seen in Egypt since it was a nation. Two superlative ideas are compared. In ‘g’ Yahweh warns that all cattle must be brought into shelter while in the parallel all those not in shelter are to be subjected to the hailstorms. In ‘h’ we have the contrast between the Egyptians who feared Yahweh, heeded His words and kept their cattle in shelter, while in the parallel are those who did not do so.
Exo 9:13-14
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says Yahweh the God of the Hebrews. Let my people go that they may serve me. For I will this time send my plagues on your heart and on your servants and on your people that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.’
It is probably intended to be significant that Pharaoh no longer goes down to the Nile in the morning (compare Exo 7:15; Exo 8:20). He does not want to have any part of the insects and diseases that affect his land. But the forthcoming plagues were to affect him (‘on your heart’) as no previous plague has done.
Note that this is a new phase. Aaron now slips into the background, although still there to assist Moses (Exo 10:3; Exo 10:8; Exo 10:16), and from now on it is out and out confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh. The contest is ‘hotting up’.
“I will send my plagues.” God has in mind that there are a number of plagues yet to come. From this point of view we are to see these last plagues as together, for God and Moses know that Pharaoh will not listen and that the plagues are therefore inevitable (see Exo 9:30).
“On your heart.” This might refer to the heart of Pharaoh as affected by what he saw around him and what was happening to his people (as the parallel might suggest with its mentioning of the hardening of his heart), or it may have in mind that Egypt was Pharaoh’s ‘heart’. What is said refers first to the fact that the devastation wrought will hit Egypt as nothing before has done. It has been his heart, his innermost being, which has firmly resisted Yahweh and been hardened. Now it is to be severely attacked. It will be deeply affected (compare Psa 107:12) by what is to come. First Egypt’s very food supply and means of mummification (the flax) will be destroyed, and in a sense these are Pharaoh’s heart. But his heart will be even more deeply affected when the locusts and the thick darkness blot out the sun, and the sun god Re is seen to be helpless, for he was closely connected with Re. But finally he will be most deeply affected of all when ‘the firstborn of Pharaoh in the land of Egypt’ dies. Then and only then will his heart yield.
“On your servants and on your people.” The difference between the high officials and bureaucrats and the common people continues to be emphasised.
“That you may know that there is none like me.” Once Yahweh has finished what He is doing, His uniqueness will stand out unreservedly. The gods of Egypt will have been proved to be powerless against Yahweh. Note how Moses refuses even to give them credence.
Exo 9:15-18
“For now I could have put out my hand and smitten you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth, but, indeed, this is the reason I have made you to stand in order to show you my power and so that my name may be declared through all the earth. Do you as yet exalt yourself against my people so that you will not let them go? Behold tomorrow, about this time, I will cause it to rain a very severe hail such as has not been in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now.”
Yahweh points out that He is being merciful. Had He wished He could have destroyed both Pharaoh and his people totally with pestilence and disease. The word can also include pestilence on crops and vegetation (1Ki 8:37). He had the power of life and death. But the reason He has not done so is in order to demonstrate His power so that the whole world may know of it. And now because Pharaoh still exalts himself He is about to send a great hail unlike anything seen before in Egypt since its very beginning which will destroy all men and beasts in the open field and all crops and vegetation.
“So that my name might be declared.” And this is so that His name, that is His very self, might be made manifest to the nations. The knowing and declaring of His name is a theme of the first part of Exodus (3:13-16; 5:2; 6:3, 7; 7:5, 17; 8:10; 9:14; 10:2). By what happened in Egypt He would get great glory. Even Pharaoh’s repentance (Exo 9:27), brief though it was, would bring great glory to his name, and his final repentance (and his turning back from it) even greater glory.
“Tomorrow, about this time.” This is to make Pharaoh realise that it comes at Yahweh’s behest and under His control, and also to give an opportunity to anyone who will listen to protect what remains of the livestock.
Exo 9:19
“Now therefore send your instructions, hurriedly bring in your cattle and all that you have in the field, for on every man and beast who will be found in the field and will not be brought home, the hail will come down on them and they shall die.”
The words were being spoken before Pharaoh’s high officials. Both he and they could hear if they wished. And they had due warning. If they did not want their cattle and servants to die they must bring them to shelter. Now all were being faced up to the question as to whether they would believe the word of Yahweh.
Exo 9:20-21
‘He who heard the word of Yahweh among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses, and he who did not take any notice of the word of Yahweh left his servants and his cattle in the field.’
Yahweh was now seeking to sow dissension among the high officials in Egypt and making them take sides. Some took notice of His words and sheltered their servants and cattle, others ignored Him and did not do so, and it was to their cost. This was His prophetic and powerful word, the ‘dabar Yahweh’. Some of those who heard it recognised that the very speaking of the divine ‘word’ would be effective in bringing it about and brought everything in to shelter. They recognised that word and action went together.
Exo 9:22-24
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand towards heaven that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and on beast and on all vegetation throughout the land of Egypt.” And Moses stretched out his staff towards heaven, and Yahweh sent thunder and hail, and lightning (fire) ran down to the earth. And Yahweh rained hail on the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and lightning mingled with hail, very severe, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.”
It is now Moses himself who acts publicly and stretches out his staff towards heaven. Nut the sky god is clearly powerless and Yahweh takes control. He sends down huge hail in a massive hailstorm accompanied by fierce lightning covering large parts of Egypt. Indeed it was so severe that Egypt as a nation had never known its like. It must have been awesome to behold.
Exo 9:25-26
‘And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the open countryside, both man and beast, and the hail smote all vegetation and broke every tree in the countryside. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.’
The devastation was clearly dreadful. The hailstones were so large that they killed both men and animals, and the vegetation, and especially the flax and barley which was ripening in the fields, was destroyed. Trees were pulverised and broken. Looking for parallels is clearly difficult for we are told that nothing like it had ever been seen before, but even in our own day huge hailstones have been known which could kill a man. What caused it geographically speaking we can only surmise but the very fact of the previous plagues demonstrates that the weather patterns at the time were unusually severe.
“Only in the land of Goshen –”. Severe though it might be, God was in control of the hail. His people, many of whom would have been required still to work in the fields, were safely delivered.
The storms would not necessarily hit everywhere at the same time. Places further afield from Pharaoh’s palace would be hit later, possibly giving time for the warning that was given to Pharaoh’s officials to reach them.
Exo 9:27
‘And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned. Yahweh is righteous and I and the people are wicked. Entreat Yahweh, for there have been enough of these voices of God (or ‘mighty thunderings’) and hail, and I will let you go and you shall stay no longer.”
The dreadful devastation and awfulness of the storms fell on Pharaoh’s heart (Exo 9:14). He was deeply moved and for a short time conscious of sin and wrongdoing. He recognised that he and his people had been in the wrong in their treatment of the children of Israel. (Such flights of conscience sometimes strike the most evil of men). They could have been more reasonable and let them worship their God. But like most men he was unwilling to take all the blame on himself, and so he included his people who had suffered for his vanity.
“Pharaoh sent and called.” Previously it was ‘Pharaoh called.’ Possibly in mind is the advice in Exo 9:19 to send a message for the cattle to be brought to shelter. He now ‘sends’, but he sends too late and for the wrong reason. Had he ‘believed’ and sent then, and acted in accordance with that belief, many lives would have been saved. But now he has come to a form of belief and sends for Moses and Aaron. His call is not to be seen as peremptory.
“Yahweh is righteous and I and the people are wicked.” He accepts that Yahweh is in the right. All He had asked was the reasonable worship of His people. Thus Pharaoh admits that he was wrong for failing to allow it. But he sees the people of Egypt as incorporated in himself. They had after all agreed with his decision. Thus they must share joint responsibility.
“These voices of God.” In view of the context we cannot exclude this thought. It was not just the mighty thunderings Pharaoh was thinking of (which have not been previously mentioned), but the thunderings which spoke to him and his people as divine voices, as a mighty voice from Yahweh. They, and the devastation that accompanied them, had totally unnerved him.
Exo 9:29-30
‘And Moses said to him, “As soon as I am gone from the city I will spread abroad my hands to Yahweh. The thunderings will cease, neither will there be any more hail, in order that you may know that the earth is Yahweh’s. But as for you and you servants, I know that you will not fear Yahweh, God.”
Moses was not deceived. He knew what was really in Pharaoh’s heart. But he will stop the devastation because he knows that there is yet more to come. It is the final confrontation, and now directly between Moses and Pharaoh.
“As soon as I am gone from the city.” Moses and Aaron clearly did not live within the city. They appeared and disappeared to the great fear of the populace. They probably mainly lived among their own people. This may include the thought that while he is in the wicked city (for cities are regularly seen in the Old Testament as centres of wickedness) he will not act. He must be in God’s clean air.
“The thunderings will cease.” To us the hail would have been more frightening, but to Pharaoh the thunderings were the voice of Yahweh and to be feared the most.
“I will spread abroad my hands.” Pharaoh was to know that Moses was in control.
“That you may know that the earth is Yahweh” s.’ Pharaoh needed to learn also that Yahweh was over all. That Moses acted under His authority and power.
“As for you and your servants.” Moses has in mind that the high official were listening. They too needed to make up their minds.
“Yahweh, God. ” He was drawing attention to the fact that the gods of Egypt had been powerless to help them. It is Yahweh Who is ‘God’. (There is no definite article in Hebrew before God but the idea is clearly there that Yahweh is uniquely God).
Exo 9:31-32
‘And the flax and the barley were smitten, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. But the wheat and the spelt were not smitten for they had not begun to grow.’
This note demonstrates the writer’s knowledge of Egyptian agriculture. The flax and barley always preceded the wheat and spelt. They were devastated by the storms and the hail. The flax was needed in providing the material for mummification and for the priests’ garments. But this year there would be none. As is brought out in the analysis above this was the part of the partial pestilence which came as a warning of what could be (see Exo 9:15).
“Spelt”. A wheat-like product. The wheat and the spelt had been spared, but only to await the locusts.
Exo 9:33
‘And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands to Yahweh, and the thunders and hail ceased and the rain was no longer poured on the earth.’
At Moses’ visible plea to Yahweh (Pharaoh no doubt had his spies out) the dreadful storms and hail ceased throughout Egypt. We are now informed that there had been hail, lightning, thunder and dreadful rainstorms. But the hail was the most deadly and the constant thunder the most unnerving.
Perhaps Moses waited until he was out of the city because he suspected that otherwise Pharaoh planned to kill him, for he probably discerned that Pharaoh was in two minds, and in a state of extreme tension. Had he stayed in the city his life might well have been forfeit.
Exo 9:34-35
‘And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased he sinned yet more, and hardened (made heavy) his heart, he and his servants. And the heart of Pharaoh was made strong and he did not let the children of Israel go just as Yahweh had spoken by Moses.’
Once more Pharaoh revealed his obstinacy and his contempt of his promises. He had admitted that he was in the wrong (Exo 9:27), and now he added to his wrong, ‘he sinned yet more’. He broke his treaty with Yahweh. He hardened (made heavy) his heart. And this time the court officials were included. They too hardened their hearts. All were being given the opportunity to recognise and acknowledge Yahweh but with one accord they turned against Him. Their hearts could have been turned towards Him but instead they rejected Him. Pharaoh’s heart has truly been affected (see Exo 9:14).
There is a constant pattern to the final statements which follow each plague, even though there is a little variation. ‘He did not listen to them as Yahweh had said’ (Exo 7:13; Exo 7:22; Exo 8:15; Exo 8:19), ‘he did not let the people go’ (Exo 8:32; Exo 9:7), ‘he did not listen to them as Yahweh had spoken to Moses’ (Exo 9:12), ‘he did not let the children of Israel go as Yahweh had spoken by Moses (Exo 9:35), ‘he did not let the children of Israel go’ (Exo 10:20), ‘he would not let them go’ (Exo 10:27), ‘he would not let the children of Israel go’ (Exo 11:10). The first four are ‘did not listen to them’, the last four are ‘did not let them go (with variations)’, separated by ‘did not let them go’ (twice) and ‘did not listen to them’. It is thus emphasised that over and over again he did not listen, and that he did not let them go. He had been given every opportunity and had refused.
Compare also the very different pattern of the two different words translated ‘harden’ (meaning ‘made strong’ and ‘heavy’). ‘Pharaoh’s heart was made strong’ (Exo 7:13; Exo 7:22), ‘he made heavy his heart’ (Exo 8:15), ‘Pharaoh’s heart was made strong (Exo 8:19), ‘Pharaoh made heavy his heart’ (Exo 8:32), ‘Pharaoh’s heart was heavy’ (Exo 9:7), ‘Yahweh made strong Pharaoh’s heart’ (Exo 9:12), ‘he made heavy his heart’ and ‘Pharaoh’s heart was made strong’ (Exo 9:34-35), ‘Yahweh made strong Pharaoh’s heart’ (Exo 10:20; Exo 10:27; Exo 11:10). Here the pattern alternates to begin with, reverses and alternates and then solidifies. Made strong (twice), made heavy, made strong, made heavy, was heavy, made strong, made heavy, made strong (four times). It is a totally different pattern, and his heart is made strong to resist Yahweh twice as much as it is made heavy.
Thus the two connected patterns do not fit together. They are two different patterns which are part of the whole weave, revealing unity of authorship.
Note that the ‘making heavy’ of the heart is never directly imputed to Yahweh, while the ‘making strong’ of the heart always is. (‘Made strong Pharaoh’s/his heart’ also occurs in Exo 7:3; Exo 10:1 compare Exo 4:21. ‘Pharaoh’s heart is heavy’ in Exo 7:14). Yahweh strengthens the hardening, He does not make it happen.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Seventh Plague (Hail) – Exo 9:13-35 tells us about the seventh plague in which hail destroys the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:16 Comments – Exo 9:16 is quoted in the book of Romans when it uses two Old Testament examples of God’s sovereign will to show mercy to fulfil His divine plan of redemption for mankind. The second example that is quoted is the story of Jacob and Esau.
Rom 9:17-18, “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Hail Threatened
v. 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. v. 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. v. 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. v. 16. And, in very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up, v. 17. As yet exaltest thou thyself against My people that thou wilt not let them go? v. 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. v. 19. Send, therefore, now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field, v. 20. He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses; v. 21. and he that regarded not the word of the Lord,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THE SEVENTH PLAGUE. The sixth plague had had no effect at all upon the hard heart of the Pharaoh, who cared nothing for the physical sufferings of his subjects, and apparently was not himself afflicted by the malady. Moses was therefore ordered to appear before him once more, and warn him of further and yet more terrible visitations which were impending. The long message (Exo 9:13-19) is without any previous parallel, and contains matter calculated to make an impression even upon the most callous of mortals. First there is an announcement that God is about to send “all his plagues” upon king and people (Exo 9:14); then a solemn warning that a pestilence might have been sent which would have swept both king and people from the face of the earth (Exo 9:15); and finally (Exo 9:18) an announcement of the actual judgment immediately impending, which is to be a hailstorm of a severity never previously known in Egypt, and but rarely experienced elsewhere. Pharaoh is moreover told that the whole object of his having been allowed by God to continue in existence is the glory about to accrue to his name from the exhibition of his power in the deliverance of his people (Exo 9:16). A peculiar feature of the plague is the warning (Exo 9:19) whereby those who believed the words of Moses, were enabled to escape a great part of the ill effects of the storm. It is a remarkable indication of the impression made by the previous plagues, that the warning was taken by a considerable number of the Egyptians, who by this means saved their cattle and their slaves (Exo 9:20). The injury caused by the plague was very great. The flax and barley crops, which were the most advanced suffered complete destruction. Men and beasts were wounded by the hail-stones, which might have beenas hail-stones sometimes arejagged pieces of ice; and some were even killed, either by the hail (see Jos 10:11), or by the lightning which accompanied it. Even trees were damaged by the force of the storm, which destroyed the foliage and broke the branches.
Exo 9:13
Rise up early. Compare Exo 7:15, and Exo 8:20. The practice of the Egyptian kings to rise early and proceed at once to the dispatch of business is noted by Herodotus. It is a common practice of oriental monarchs. And say unto him. The same message is constantly repeated in the same words as a token of God’s unchangingness. See Exo 8:1-20; Exo 9:1; Exo 10:3; etc.
Exo 9:14
I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart. A very emphatic announcement. At this time contrasts the immediate future with the past, and tells Pharaoh that the hour of mild warnings and slight plagues is gone by. Now he is to expect something far more terrible God will send all his plaguesevery worst form of evilin rapid succession; and will send them against his heart. Each will strike a blow on that perverse and obdurate hearteach will stir his nature to its inmost depths. Conscience will wake up and insist on being heard. All the numerous brood of selfish fears and alarms will bestir themselves. He will tremble, and be amazed and perplexed. He will forego his pride and humble himself, and beg the Israelites to be gone, and even intreat that, ere they depart, the leaders whom he has so long opposed, will give him their blessing (Exo 12:32). That thou mayest know. Pharaoh was himself to be convinced that the Lord God of Israel was, at any rate, the greatest of all gods. He was not likely to desert at once and altogether the religion in which he had been brought up, or to regard its gods as nonexistent. But he might be persuaded of one thingthat Jehovah was far above them. And this he practically acknowledges in Exo 9:27 and Exo 9:28.
Exo 9:15
For now I will stretch out my hand. It is generally agreed by modern writers that this translation fails to give the true sense of the original God does not here announce what he is going to do, but what he might have done, and would have done, but for certain considerations. Translate, “For now might I have stretched out my hand, and smitten thee and thy people with pestilence; and then thou hadst been cut off from the earth.” Scripture shows that pestilence is always in God’s power, and may at any time be let loose to scourge his foes, and sweep them into the pit of destruction. (See Le Exo 26:25; Num 11:33; Num 14:12; Num 16:46; 2Sa 24:13-15, etc.) He had not done now what he might have done, and what Pharaoh’s obstinacy might well have provoked him to do; and why? On account of the considerations contained in the next verse.
Exo 9:16
And in very deed, etc. Rather, “But truly for this cause have I caused thee to stand,” i.e; “kept thee alive and sustained thee in the position thou occupiest” for to shew to thee my poweri.e; to impress thee, if it is possible that thou canst be impressed, with the greatness of my power, and the foolishness of any attempt to resist it, and also that my name may be declared throughout all the earthi.e; that attention may be called widely among the neighbouring nations to the great truth that there is really but one God, who alone can deliver, and whom it is impossible to resist.
Exo 9:17
As yet. Rather “still.” And the whole verse should be rendered”Dost thou still oppose thyself against my people, so as not to let them go.” The verb translated “oppose”(“exalt” in the A.V.)is strictly “to raise a mound, or bank,” thence “to obstruct,” “oppose.”
Exo 9:18
To-morrow about this time. As it might have been thought that Moses had done nothing very extraordinary in predicting a storm for the next day, a more exact note of time than usual was here given. Compare Exo 8:23; Exo 9:5. I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail. Rain, and, still more, hail are comparatively rare in Egypt, though not so rare as stated by some ancient authors (Herod, 3.10; Pomp. Mela, De Situ Orbis, 1.9). A good deal of rain falls in the Lower Country, where the north wind brings air loaded with vapour from the Mediterranean; particularly in the winter months from December to March. Snow, and hail, and thunder are during those months not very uncommon, having been witnessed by many modern travellers, as Pococke, Wansleben, Seetzen, Perry, Tooke, and others. They are seldom, however, of any great severity. Such a storm as here described (see especially Exo 9:23, Exo 9:24) would be quite strange and abnormal; no Egyptian would have experienced anything approaching to it, and hence the deep impression that it made (Exo 9:27). Since the foundation thereof. Not “since the original formation of the country” at the Creation, or by subsequent alluvial deposits, as Herodotus thought (2.5-11), but “since Egypt became a nation” (see Exo 9:24). Modern Egyptologists, or at any rate a large number of them, carry back this event to a date completely irreconcilable with the Biblical chronologyBockh to b.c. 5702, Unger to b.c. 5613, Mariette and Lenormant to b.c. 5004, Brugsch to b.c. 4455, Lepsius to b.c. 3852, and Bunsen (in one place) to b.c. 3623. The early Egyptian chronology is, however, altogether uncertain, as the variety in these dates sufficiently intimates. Of the dynasties before the (so-called) eighteenth, only seven are proved to be historical, and the time that the Old and Middle Empires lasted is exceedingly doubtful. All the known facts are sufficiently met by such a date as b.c. 2500-2400 for the Pyramid Kings, before whose time we have nothing authentic. This is a date which comes well within the period allowed for the formation of nations by the chronology of the Septuagint and Samaritan versions.
Exo 9:19
Thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field. During winter and early spring, the Egyptians kept their cattle “in the field,” as other nations commonly do. When the inundation began, they were obliged to bring them into the cities and enclosed villages, and house them. The time of the “Plague of Hail” appears by all the indications w have been the middle of February. They shall die. Human life was now for the first time threatened. Any herdsmen that remained with the cattle in the open field and did not seek the shelter of houses or sheds would be smitten by the huge jagged hailstones with such force that they would be killed outright, or else die of their wounds.
Exo 9:20
He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh. It is a new fact that any of the Egyptians had been brought to “fear the word of Jehovah.” Probably, the effect of the plagues had been gradually to convince a considerable number, not so much that Jehovah was the one True God as that he was a great and powerful god, whose chastisements were to be feared. Consequently there were now a certain number among the “servants of Pharaoh” who pro-fired by the warning given (Exo 9:19), and housed their cattle and herdsmen, in anticipation of the coming storm.
Exo 9:21
He that regarded not. If there were men who believed in the power and truthfulness of Jehovah, there were probably more who did not believe. As Lot “seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law” (Gen 19:14), so Moses and Aaron appeared to the great mass of the Egyptians. As observed above, a hail-storm that could endanger life, either of man or beast, was beyond all Egyptian experience, and must have seemed almost impossible.
Exo 9:22
Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven. The action was appropriate, as the plague was to come from the heaven. Similarly, in the first and second plagues, Aaron’s hand had been stretched out upon the waters (Exo 7:19, Exo 7:20; Exo 8:6); and in the third upon “the dust of the ground” (Exo 8:17). And upon every herb of the fieldi.e; upon all forms of vegetable life. (Compare Gen 1:30; Gen 9:3.)
Exo 9:23
Moses stretched forth his rod. In the last set of three plagues, the earthly agent was Moses (Exo 9:10; Exo 10:13, Exo 10:22), whose diffidence seems to have worn off as time went on, and he became accustomed to put himself forward. Thunder and hail. Thunder had not been predicted; but it is a common accompaniment of a hail-storm, the change of temperature produced by the discharge of electricity no doubt conducing to the formation of hailstones. The fire ran along upon the ground. Some very peculiar electrical display seems to be intendedsomething corresponding to the phenomena called “fireballs,” where the electric fluid does not merely flash momentarily, but remains for several seconds, or even minutes, before it disappears.
Exo 9:24
Fire mingled with the hail. Rather, “There was hail, and in the midst of the hail a fire infolding itself.” The expression used is the same which occurs in Eze 1:4. It seems to mean a fire that was not a mere flash, but collected itself into a mass and was seen for some considerable time.
Exo 9:25
The hall smote. It is to the hail and not to the lightning that the great destruction of men and beasts is attributed. Such lightning, however, as is spoken of, would probably kill some. All that was in the field. According to the warning given (Exo 9:19), the herdsmen and cattle left in the open air and not brought into the sheds were killed. The hail emote every herb of the field. Even in our own temperate climate, which is free from all atmospheric extremes, hailstorms occasionally do so much damage to crops that it has been found desirable to organise a special insurance against loss from this cause. Such hail as that described in the text would greatly injure every crop that was many inches above the soil, and entirely destroy such as had gone to ear. (See below, Exo 9:31.) Broke every treei.e; damaged the smaller branches and twigs, thus destroying the prospect of fruit.
Exo 9:26
Only in the land of Goshen, etc. Compare Exo 8:22; Exo 9:4; Exo 10:23.
HOMILETICS
Exo 9:13-19
The method of the Divine Rule over bad men illustrated by God’s message to Pharaoh.
The message illustrates,
1. THE LONG–SUFFERING OF GOD TOWARDS SINNERS. “For now might I have stretched out my hand and smitten thee and thy people with pestilence”(Exo 9:15). Pharaoh had opposed himself to God so long, had shown himself in various ways so wicked, that he well deserved to have been stricken with plague and made to perish miserably. He had been insolent and blasphemous, when first appealed to in the name of Jehovah (Exo 5:2); cruel and vindictive, when he increased the Israelites’ burdens (Exo 5:7-9); hard-hearted, when the taskmasters complained to him (Exo 5:15-18); obdurate and perverse, in resisting so many signs and wonders wrought for the purpose of moving him (Exo 7:10-13, Exo 7:20-23; Exo 8:5, Exo 8:6, Exo 8:16-19, Exo 8:20-24; Exo 9:6, Exo 9:7, Exo 9:10-12); pitiless and false, in twice breaking his promises (Exo 8:8-15, Exo 8:28-32). Yet God had spared him. He had “made him to stand” (Exo 9:16)i.e; preserved him in beingand had retained him in his high station, when he might readily have caused his overthrow by conspiracy or otherwise. So long-suffering was he, that he even now addressed to him fresh warnings, and gave him fresh signs of his power, thus by his goodness striving to lead him to repentance.
II. THE POWER OF GOD TO BREAK THE WILL EVEN OF THE MOST DETERMINED SINNER. God can so multiply, and vary, and prolong his judgments, that at last the power of endurance, even in the case of the most obdurate sinner, is worn out. First he sends comparatively slight afflictions, then more serious ones; finally, if the stubborn will still refuses to bend, he visits the offender with “all his plagues” (Exo 9:14). Man cannot triumph over God. Kings may oppose their wills to his, but they cannot make him succumb. He “refrains the spirit of princes,” and shows himself “wonderful among the kings of the earth” (Psa 76:12). Even the greatest monarchsthis present Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzarare powerless against him. He “refrains” them, breaks them, humbles them, works his will in spite of them. And at what a cost to themselves! Unfortunately kings, and even less exalted sinners, will rarely learn wisdom till too late. He has to send “all his plagues” upon them; whereas, if they had been wise, they might have escaped with a light chastisement.
III. THE FACT THAT ALL RESISTANCE OF GOD‘S WILL BY SINNERS TENDS TO INCREASE, AND IS DESIGNED TO INCREASE, HIS GLORY. “The fierceness of man turns to God’s praise; He has endowed men with free will, and allows them the free exercise of their free will, because, do as they like, they cannot thwart his purposes. Being, as he is, the God of order, and not of confusion or anarchy, he could not have allowed flee will at all to his creatures, if their employment of it prevented the accomplishment of his own designs and intentions. But it does not; it is foreseen, taken into account, provided for. And the only result of men’s opposition to his will is the increase of his glory and of his praise. Great kings are seen arraying themselves against God, determining to take Jerusalem, like Sennacherib (2Ki 18:35), or to destroy the infant Church, like Herod Agrippa (Act 12:1-3), or to rebuild Jerusalem, like the apostate Julian, or to crush the Reformation, like Philip II. of Spainand they do their utmost; they levy armies, or man fleets, or collect materials and engage thousands of workmen, or murder and imprison at their pleasure-but nothing comes of it. Their efforts fail utterly. And the sole result of all their exertions is, that men see and recognise God’s hand in their overthrow, and that his glory is thereby increased. All this is commonly declared in Scripture, and especially in the Psalms (Psa 2:4; Psa 5:10; Psa 7:11-17; Psa 9:15-20, etc.). The message sent by God to Pharaoh through Moses adds, that the result is designed. “For this cause have I made thee stand (marg.), for to show to thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth”(verse 16). Compare Exo 14:17, Exo 14:18; Exo 15:14-16; Jos 2:9-11.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Exo 9:13-35
The plague of hail.
This plague was introduced with ampler remonstrance. Moses was commanded to proceed to Pharaoh, and to warn him in stronger and more decisive language than he had yet employed of the folly of this insane resistance. Exo 9:15 should probably be translated, “For now indeed had I stretched forth my hand, and smitten thee and thy people with the pestilence, thou hadst then been out off from the earth;” and then Exo 9:16 will give the reason why God had not cut Pharaoh off, but had “made him stand” (marg.), viz.: that he might show forth in him his power. It does not follow that God would not have preferred to use Pharaoh for his glory in another way than that of destroying him. This strong representation of God’s purpose was itself designed to influence the king for good, and had a spark of sense remained to him, it would have wrought an immediate change in his volitions. In that case God’s procedure would have undergone a corresponding alteration. For God wills not the death of any sinner, and threatenings of this kind, as shown by the case of the Ninevites, are always conditional (Jon 4:1-11.). At the same time, God’s sovereignty is seen in the way in which he utilizes the wicked man whose persistence in his wickedness is foreseen by him. “God might have caused Pharaoh to be born in a cabin, where his proud obstinacy would have been displayed with no less self-will, but without any historical consequence; on the other hand, he might have placed on the throne of Egypt at that time a weak, easy-going man, who would have yielded at the first shock. What would have happened? Pharaoh in his obscure position would not have been less arrogant and perverse, but Israel would have gone forth from Egypt without eclat God did not therefore create the indomitable pride of Pharaoh as it were to gain a point of resistance, and reflect his glory; he was content to use it for this purpose” (Godet on Rom 4:17, Rom 4:18). Notice
I. THE TERRIBLE RAISING UP (Exo 9:16). We are taught,
1. That God can find a use even for the wicked (Pro 16:4).
2. That God places wicked men in positions in which their true character is manifested, and his own power and righteousness are glorified in their judgment.
3. That this is not the primary desire of God in relation to any wicked man. He would prefer his conversion. If it be urged that the situations in which men are placed are not always those most favourable to their conversion, this may be conceded. But they are not placed in these positions arbitrarily, but under a system of administration which regards each individual, not simply as an end in himself, but as a means to a yet higher end, the carrying forward of the world purpose as a whole. God cannot deal with the individual as if there were no such thing as history, or as if that individual constituted the sum-total of humanity, or as if his salvation were the only and the all-ruling consideration in the arrangement of the world. God disposes of the evil of the world, decrees the lines and directions of its developments, the persons in whom, and the situations under which, it will be permitted to reveal and concentrate itself, but he neither creates the evil, nor delights in it, and is all the while working for its final and effectual overthrow. No situation in which God places man nessitates him to be evil.
4. That the sinner‘s evil, accordingly, is his own, and his ruin self-wrought. This is shownand notably in the case of Pharaohby the fact that God’s dealings with him are fitted to change him if he will be changed (Mat 23:37).
II. A PLAGUE WITH APPALLING ATTENDANT CIRCUMSTANCES (Exo 18:23-26). This plague, like many of its predecessors, was,
1. Severe in its character (Exo 9:24).
2. Destructive in its effects (Exo 9:25).
3. Distinguishing in its range. It spared the land of Goshen (Exo 9:26). But the peculiar circumstance connected with itthat which marked it as the first of a new order of plagueswas,
4. Its combination of terror with sublimity, its power to appal as well as to punish. A last attempt was to be made to break down the opposition of the monarch by displays of God’s majesty and omnipotence which should shake his very heart (Exo 9:14). Instead of frogs, lice, flies, pestilence, and boils on man and beast, Pharaoh was now to be made to hear “voices of God” in the thunder (Exo 9:28, Hebrews); was to see dreadful lightnings, masses of fire, descending from the sky, and rolling in balls of fire along the ground (Exo 9:23); was to witness his land smitten with terrific hail “very grievous,” the like of which had never been seen in Egypt “since it became a nation” (Exo 9:24). A thunderstorm is at all times terrible, and when very severe, inspires an awe which few natures can resist. Accompanied by preternatural terrors, its effect would be simply overwhelming. This was the intention here. The strokes of God were to go to the king’s heart. They were to convince him that there was “none like Jehovah in all the earth” (Exo 9:14). They were to be plagues, as Calvin says, “that would not only strike the head and arms, but penetrate the very heart, and inflict a mortal wound.” The thunder is introduced as being “the mightiest manifestation of the omnipotence of God, which speaks therein to men (Rev 10:3, Rev 10:4), and warns them of the terrors of judgment” (Keil). On the peculiar effect of the thunderstorm in awakening the religious nature, see a paper on “God in Nature and History,” Expositor, March, 1881. To the superstitious minds of the heathen these unexampled terrors would seem of awful significance.
III. TWOFOLD EFFECTS OF WARNINGS (Exo 9:20, Exo 9:21).
1. God’s judgments, like his overtures of grace, are seldom wholly ineffectual. If the king was hardened, there were at least some in Egypt who had become alive to the gravity of the situation, “who feared the word of the Lord.” Such were to be found even among the servants of Pharaoh, in the palace itself. The preaching of the Gospel, even under the most unpropitious circumstances, will seldom fail of some fruit. There were “certain men” which “clave” to Paul, “and believed” at Athens; “among the which was Dionysius, the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them” (Act 17:34). There were “saints”mirabile dictueven in Nero’s palace (Php 4:22).
2. The division of men, in their relation to the Word of God, is a very simple one. There are those who fear and regard it, and there are those who disregard and disobey it. Paul speaks of those to whom Gospel-preaching is a savour of death unto death, and of those to whom it is a savour of life unto life (2Co 2:16). Between the two classes there is no third. The effects of his own preaching are thus summed up, “And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not” (Act 28:24).
3. Faith reveals itself in obedience. He that feared God’s word brought in his cattle; he that disregarded it left them in the fields.
4. The wisdom of regarding God, and the folly of disregarding him, were made manifest by the result.
IV. PHARAOH‘S CAPITULATION (Exo 9:27, Exo 9:28). The supernatural concomitants of this appalling visitation so unnerved the king that he was induced again to send for Moses. tie did not yield till the plague was actually on the land, and only then, because he could not help it. The terms in which he makes his submission show,
1. His undisguised terror.
2. His thorough conviction that he was in the hands of the God of the whole earth. Pharaoh had by this time had a course of instruction in the “evidences,” which left no room for further doubt. The most striking feature in his submission, however, is,
3. His confession of sin. “I have sinned this time; the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked” (Exo 9:27). It was good that Pharaoh should be brought to see that it was a righteous demand he was resisting, and that he was inexcusable in resisting it. This much at least the plagues had forced him to acknowledge, and it gave his hardening a yet graver character when subsequently he retracted his word given. But the superficiality of the repentance is very obvious. “I have sinned this time;“ there is here no adequate sense of the sin he had been guilty of. False repentances have their root in superficial views of sin. They may be produced by terror, under compulsion; but they are accompanied by no real change of heart; and renewed hardening is the only possible outcome of them. “As for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God”(Exo 9:30).
V. JUDGMENT TEMPERED WITH MERCY. God’s mercy in connection with this plague is conspicuous
1. In giving the warning, so that those who regarded his word had the opportunity of removing their servants and cattle (Exo 9:20, Exo 9:21).
2. In sparing the wheat and rye (Exo 9:31, Exo 9:32).
3. In removing the plague at the request of Pharaoh, presented through Moses (Exo 9:28, Exo 9:29).
VI. HARDENING NOTWITHSTANDING.
1. Pharaoh hardened himself (Exo 9:34, Exo 9:35). We ask, in surprise, how was such a thing possible? Pride, hate, anger, obstinacy furnish the explanation, though it is truly difficult to conceive how they could so madden a mind as to make it capable of persevering in a course of resistance. There is the fact, however, and it is full of terrible warning to us. The hardening was obviously now of the most serious possible kind. Pharaoh’s nature had been thoroughly awakened. He was no loner sinning in ignorance, but against clear light and conviction. He had confessed his sin, and promised to obey. Hardening, under these circumstances, was as nearly “sin against the Holy Ghost” as was then possible (Joh 9:41).
2. His servants hardened themselves (Exo 9:34). This is a fact which should be well pondered. It might have been thought that only a Pharaoh was capable of such fatuousness. We learn here that there were natures among his servants as susceptible of hardening as his own. We do not need to be Pharaohs to be capable of hardening our hearts against God. Persons in obscure positions can do it as readily as those on the pinnacles of greatness. The king’s influence, however, had doubtless much to do with his servants’ conduct. They took their cue from their lord. Had he submitted himself, they would have done so also. Because he hardened himself, they must follow suit. What folly! to destroy themselves for the sake of being like a kingof being in the fashion. Learn also the potency of example. Those in high positions have a powerful influence over those dependent upon them. Well for them if they use that influence for God’s glory, and not to ruin souls!J.O.
HOMILIES BY H. T. ROBJOHNS
Exo 9:16
The road to ruin.
“And in very deed for this cause,” etc. (Exo 9:16). The character and conduct of Pharaoh as a probationer under the moral government of the Ever Living God is worthy of special and separate consideration. That he was such a probationer should not be simply assumed, but made clearly manifest. All the great light of natural religion shone upon his path (Rom 1:19-25), like stars in heaven upon the path of every soul. Then there is the inward witness that speaks of the soul, of God, of duty, of immortality (Rom 2:14, Rom 2:15). Within the confines of his empire existed a nation of no less than two millions, to whom had already been confided a part, at least, of the “oracles of God.” They were the recipients of such revelations as God had already vouchsafed. Their beliefs ought not to have been unknown to him. Two missionaries, direct from God, Moses and Aaron, were his teachers. They Came with full credentials. Providential judgments, not untempered with mercy (for warning after warning came), spake with trumpet tongue. Some of his own people, convinced, probably penitent, pleaded for the right. And yet this soul went from bad to worse. We indicate the stages on the road to ruin. It is only necessary to premise that though the stages are broadly manifest enough, they, in so complicated a character, occasionally overlap, and are blended with each other.
I. UNBELIEF. Pharaoh’s of the blankest kind (Exo 9:2). [Read correctly, “Who is Jehovah“?] The man a God unto himself, as all infidels practically are. The representative of the Sun-God. Note the independent stand he takes all through this controversy, as against Jehovah. [On this see Kurtz, Hist. of Old Cov. 2:292.]
II. SUPERSTITION. So does the pendulum ever swing back from the extremes of belief or non-belief. No soul can rest in that infidelity which virtually deifies self. Hence Pharaoh played off against the representatives of Jehovah, the representatives of the polytheism of Egyptthe magicians. SO in modern times. There are the credulities of atheism. Men who will not believe in the sublime truths of revelation fall to intellectual drivelling. Notable instance, Comte’s “Religion of Humanity.” After all, this is a witness that man cannot live without religion. [In this connection note the connection between magic and idolatry, and of that, possibly, with demons, Kurtz, 2:246-259.]
III. ALARM. In Pharaoh’s case this was especially manifest after the second (Exo 8:8), fourth (Exo 8:25), seventh (Exo 9:27), and eighth (Exo 10:16) visitations.
IV. CONFESSION. After the seventh (Exo 9:27). No wonder, for God had said before this judgment, “I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart.“ Coming calamity was to be of a deeper and more searching kind. The man seems to have had an access of real and honest feeling. Sees the sin of the people as well as his own. Confesses. But the confession was not followed up.
V. PROMISEVIOLATION. After second (Exo 8:8-15), fourth (Exo 8:28-32), and seventh (Exo 9:28-35) plagues. A very common thing with sinners under Divine disciplinepromises of amendmentbut the sweep onward of the bias toward iniquity is like that of a mighty river, and carries the most earnest vows into the gulf of oblivion.
VI. DISPOSITION TO COMPROMISE. See Exo 8:25-28, Exo 10:8-11, Exo 10:24. Such penitence as Pharaoh had was one of conditions and compromise. Israel’s festival must be “in the land;” then not “far away; “then only the men should go; then all might go, but the cattle must stay behind. So “We will give up sin, but only part of it. We will yield ninety-nine points, not the hundredth. We will give up what we do not care for so much, but keep What we peculiarly like. We will keep all the commandments, but not give up our money.** We will gain the credit and reputation of religion, but shun the pain and denial of it.” (see on “Pharaoh,” in Munro’s “Sermons on Characters of the Old Testament,” vol. 1. ser. 15.)
VII. INDIFFERENCE. Stolidity in matters of such high import as religion is a very dangerous condition. Pharaoh assumed after fifth and sixth visitations an attitude of hardened indifference (Exo 9:7-12).
VIII. HARDNESS OF HEART. Except in the objective announcement made to Moses at the first, there is no statement that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart till after the sixth plague (Exo 9:12). Up to that time Pharaoh hardened his own heart, or the fact simply is stated, that his heart was hardened. In this matter man acts first sinfully, then God judicially.
IX. RESISTANCE TO APPEAL OF OTHERS. See Exo 9:20, and Exo 10:7.
X. RUIN.R.
HOMILIES BY HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Exo 9:13-16
The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness of it.
In this comprehensive message from Jehovah, standing as it does about midway in the course of his judgments upon Pharaoh, we have a peculiar and impressive application of the foregoing word of the Psalmist (Psa 24:1). The word “earth,” it will be noticed, stands in a very prominent position in each of the Exo 9:14, Exo 9:15, Exo 9:16. Evidently, then, we should give the word an equally prominent position in our thoughts, and connect with it the truths to be drawn out of this message. It will then be seen that Jehovah has many ways of showing that the earth is his and the fulness of it. It is all his; not Pharaoh’s, not any other potentate’s, not even Israel’sexcept as Israel is chosen by Jehovah, duly trained and prepared by him, subjected and obedient to him. We have to consider this message, then, under three heads, as suggested by the occurrence of the word “earth” in these three verses. Note, however, first, the way in which Moses approaches Pharaoh on this occasion. In Exo 7:15, he is told to get to Pharaoh in the morning and meet him by the river’s brink; thus there is a general indication of time and a particular indication of place. In Exo 8:20, he is told to go early in the morning, as Pharaoh comes forth to the water; thus there is a more particular indication of time, Now, in Exo 9:13, there is the same particular indication of time, but no reference to place. Thus it seems as if we got a gradation, a sign of increasing pressure and urgency upon Pharaoh. Moses has to be ready for Pharaoh at the very beginning of the day, and then, whenever and wherever he may meet with him, he can deliver his message at once. Pharaoh had the whole day to consider as to the things Which were about to happen on the morrow. And now
I. THERE IS NO ONE LIKE JEHOVAH IN THE WHOLE EARTH, AND PHARAOH 18 TO BE MADE TO KNOW THIS. Such is the statement of Exo 9:14; and of course the whole gist of it lies in the bringing of Pharaoh to a clear and unmistakable knowledge of the supremacy of God over all terrestrial powers. That there is none like God in all the earth may be true, but the thing wanted is to bring that truth distinctly and practically before our minds, and if profitably for us also, then so much the better This end had to be achieved in the instance of Pharaoh by persistent attacks of Jehovah upon him, attacks ever increasing in effective force, till at last they proved irresistible. It was not enough for others to be assured by Pharaoh’s doom that there was none like God in all the earth. Pharaoh must know it for himself, and confess it, not by the ambiguous channel of speech, but by a most decisive act, the committal of which he cannot avoid (Exo 12:31-33). And that he may be brought to such a knowledge is the reason of the severe plagues that remain. We might, indeed, count it enough to be told that Jehovah had sent all his plagues. We might rest upon Jehovah’s character, and say that whatever he does is right, even though there be much that at first staggers us, and that continues to perplex. But the reason for all these plagues is plainly stated, and if it be looked into ‘it will be seen an ample, cheering, and encouraging reason. Though Jehovah is Sovereign of the universe, he does not treat Pharaoh in an arbitrary way; he acts, not as one who says that might makes right, but as using his might in order to secure the attainment of right. Pharaoh’s way, on the contrary, is an arbitrary one, without the slightest mitigation or concealment. Everything rests simply on his will; and yet will is too dignified a wordwhim would be nearer the mark. And now that proud will is to be subdued and dissolved, so far, at least, as to flow forth in the liberation of Israel, even though immediately they be liberated it hardens again to its former rigidity. The announcement Moses was now to make to Pharaoh we may fairly say would have been inappropriate at an earlier time. It becomes God, in his first approaches to men, to draw them, if perchance for their own sakes they may willingly submit; afterwards, when they will not be drawn, then for the sake of others they have to be driven. It is not until Pharaoh fully manifests his selfishness, his malignity, and the reasonless persistency of his refusal, that God indicates the approach of all his plagues. The man has been humbled in his circumstances, but his pride of heart remains as erect as ever; and so the full force of Jehovah has to be Brought upon it in order to lay it low. tic is at last to feel in himself, whatever he may say, that the true question is not “Who is Jehovah, that Pharaoh should let Israel go?” but, “Who is Pharaoh, that he should keep Israel back?” He has gotten some rudiments and beginnings of this knowledge already, even though they have made no difference in his practice. Every time he has opened his eyes. he has seen something fresh, which, however quickly he might close his eyes again, he could not unsee. And now he is on the very point of getting more knowledge, and that in a way very disagreeable to a despot. With alarming rapidity, his people are about to be impressed with the supremacy of Jehovah (Exo 9:20; Exo 10:7).
II. Notice the peculiar reference in Exo 9:15 to THE DESTRUCTION OF PHARAOH. It is spoken of as a being cut off from the earth. It seems that our English version does not give the right tense-rendering in this verse, and that the reference is not to what will happen in the future, but to what might have already happened in the past. If Pharaoh was not already a dead man, and Israel a free people, there was nothing in this delay for Pharaoh to plume himself upon. Jehovah might have smitten him with pestilence, and slain the strong, proud man on his bed, amid humiliations and pains which would have been aggravated by the vanity of the regal splendours around him. tie might have made Egypt one great expanse of the dead, a land which the Israelites could have spoiled at their leisure, and then gone forth at any time most convenient to themselves. And if Jehovah did not thus slay Pharaoh and liberate Israel, it was because he had purposes of his own to accomplish by the lengthened life of the one and the intensified sufferings of the other. But apart from the question ,of time, what awful significance there is in the expression, “cut off from the earth!” To this separation, made most effectual, Pharaoh came at last. In considering this expression, notice first of all the suggestion of our connection with the earth. A thing cannot be cut off from the earth unless first of all it is connected with it. In respect of many things the connection may seem very slight and unimportant; but in the instance of a human being, the connection is evidently intimate and important; and, until our connection with heaven is established, not only important, but all-important. We are connected with the earth by what we get from it. The very limitations of our bodily constitution remind us of our dependence upon the earth. We are not like the birds with wings to soar away from it, nor like fishes who can breathe vital air under water; we are emphatically of the solid earth. To its kindly fruits we look for our sustenance, and out of it also comes our clothing and shelter. And then from the earth in its still larger sense, “the great globe itself,” consider what comes to us in the way of occupation, instruction, interest, pleasure, opportunities of getting and giving in all sorts of ways. From all this Pharaoh was at last cut off; and from all this we also must one day be cut off. Cut off from the earth, as the tree, at the roots of which the axe has long lain. When the tree has fallen it is still near the earth, but it gets nothing from it. The question for us to ask is, whether, while the tree of our natural earthly life still stands, we are having the roots of a nobler, richer life, even a Divine one, striking down into the heavenly places? The cutting off from earth will matter little, if the vanished life is found elsewhere, more flourishing and fruitful than ever it was here.
III. Notice from Exo 9:16 that THE VERY PURPOSE OF PHARAOH‘S EMINENCE IS TO MAKE A UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF THE POWER AND GLORY OF GOD. God did not treat Pharaoh differently from thousands of others, as far as the essence of his decling with him is concerned. All who act as Pharaoh acted will suffer as Pharaoh suffered. He was not a throned puppet, a mere machine in the hands of Divine power; if he had been, no instruction and no warning could be got from him for the guidance of voluntary beings like ourselves. But being a downright selfish, proud, malignant man, God put him in this high position that he might effectually publish both his folly and his doom, and the power and name of that great Being whom he had so pertinaciously defied. He was born a Pharaoh, put in royal prerogative and possessions by no choice of his own, but we may most truly say, by the sovereign disposal of Jehovah. Thousands have been as stubborn against chastisement as he, and have gone down to a destruction as real, even though its circumstances have not been miraculous, imposing and memorable. The difference is that Pharaoh’s career was to be known; and not only known, but known as is the course of the sun and the moon, all round the earth. One such career is enough to be recorded in a way so prominent; one capital instance of human folly and weakness and Divine wisdom and power, blazing up like a beacon-fire out of the darkness of that distant past. Little did Pharaoh dream that, by his very perversity and humiliation, he was making a name for himself such as none made who went before or followed him, either in peace or in war. His memory is dragged in a perpetual procession of triumph at Jehovah’s chariot-wheels. And as it is with evil men, so it is with good. As there have been many of the Pharaoh stubbornness, though only one of the Pharaoh notoriety, so there have been many meek and gentle as Moses, though only Moses has been set for the whole world to gaze upon. It is more important to have Abraham’s faith than it is to have Abraham’s fame; more important to have the spiritual susceptibilities, experiences and aspirations of David, than the power which could put them into immortal Psalms. A man is not to be reckoned more wicked because the story of his execrable deeds is borne on every wind. A man is not better because he is better known. A few are taken for examples and located in history, as only God in his wisdom is able to locate them. He is a God who presides not only over life, but over biography as well.Y.
HOMILIES BY G. A. GOODHART
Exo 9:13
Harden not your hearts.
Our position in considering the dealings of God with men, resembles the position of scholars in some school observing and criticizing the conduct of the master. Certain inferences cannot be drawn from partial knowledge. Moreover, God’s dealings with us resemble, to some extent, the dealings of a tutor with his scholars. Where intelligent appreciation is impossible through immaturity of intelligence, then action must seem arbitrary, however perfect may be the justification. Consider
I. GOD‘S DEALINGS WITH PHARAOH. We cannot, in this view, separate Pharaoh from the social conditions which shaped his life. Great king as he was, yet, in God’s sight, he was but a man with great influencea man intimately connected with other men whose training and destiny were as important as his own. [Illustration: In schoolone boy specially influential. The conduct of the master towards him must be regulated by considerations as to what is due to the whole body of scholars. The master must act for the general welfare, without partiality towards any.] Had Pharaoh been the sole occupant of Egypt, he might have been treated differently. As one amongst many, the treatment he received is justified, if it can be shown to have tended to the benefit of the community of which he formed a part. [Illustration: Suppose boy in school, bigger and stronger than other scholars, exerting a bad influence, bullying. Teacher will speak to him. Knowing, however, his character, may foresee that speech will irritate, make him more obstinate. Still, speech ignored, must go on to enforce it by punishment, well knowing, all the while, that punishment will increase the obstinacy of the individual recipient. Finally, may have to expel; yet, in justice to the rest, only finally, seeing that premature expulsion would but weaken his authority.] So God
(1) spoke to Pharaoh by Moses (Exo 5:1), then
(2) punished him again and again (Exo 9:14), only
(3) finally expelled him; foreseeing all the while that his treatment would but harden the offender, yet persisting in it for the good of others, to strengthen and maintain his own authority (Exo 9:16).
II. EFFECT ON PHARAOH OF GOD‘S DEALINGS WITH HIM. Keeping to illustration, the effect on Pharaoh was just what might have been, and was, anticipated.
1. Effect of speech. Warnings and threats alike disregarded. The man so full of his own importance that he would not listen; would not allow the existence of a superior; only irritated; made more obstinate (cf. Exo 5:1-23.).
2. Effect of punishment. Pain inflicted proves power to inflict pain. Pain felt prompts to any action which may bring relief. Hence we find:
(1) Verbal confession, “I have sinned”[just like boy, feeling punishment, ready to say anything which may remit the pain].
(2) A hardened heart. The disposition was not altered by the infliction. “I have sinned” only meant “I have suffered.” Once-remove the suffering, and the sufferer showed himself more obdurate than ever. It would have been easy to remove Pharaoh at once; but he occupied an exemplary position, and must, for the sake of others, be treated in an exemplary manner. Expulsion came at last, but God retained him in his position so long as it was needful thereby to teach others his power (Exo 9:16). Perfectly just to all; for even Pharaoh, though his conduct was foreseen, yet had it in his own power to alter it. Hardened like clay beneath the sun’s heat, his own self-determination made him like the clay; it might have made him like the snow, in which case his obduracy would have melted.
Apply. Many like Pharaoh, yet all do not act as he did under like treatment. (Cf. Jon 3:1-10.; Dan 4:31-34.) The same treatment may soften as well as harden. The heart, the self-will, the seat of the mischiefand there is a remedy for that (cf. Eze 36:1-38.), but not whether we will or no (Heb 3:7, Heb 3:8). Other ways in which hearts are hardenedPharaoh’s by active resistance, others by persistent inattention. [Illustrationthe disregarded alarum.] So Israel got used to God’s dealing with them; so, too often we do (cf. Rom 2:4, Rom 2:5; Psa 95:8).G.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Exo 9:17-35
The seventh plague-the hail mingled with fire.
I. CONSIDER THE PLAGUE ITSELF,
1. God has his “to-morrow“(Exo 9:18) as well as Pharaoh (Exo 8:10). Only when Pharaoh’s “to-morrow” comes, there comes with it the evidence that he means not what he says. But when God’s” to-morrow” comes there is the evidence of his perfect stability, how he settles everything beforehand, even to the very hour. “Tomorrow, about this time.” A whole twenty-four hours then Pharaoh gets for consideration, although really he needs it not, and cannot be expected to profit by it. But as we see presently, it is serviceable to protect the fight-minded among his people. Perhaps the very period of consideration would make Pharaoh even to despise the prediction. He would say to himself that a hailstorm, however severe, could be lived through, and the damage from it soon made right again.
2. This plague comes from a new direction. The heavens join the earth in serving God against Pharaoh. Our minds are at once directed to the opening of the windows of heaven (Gen 7:11), and the raining upon Sodom and Gomorrah of brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. But we see at once the great difference between these two visitations and this one. Terrible as it was, it was not destructive as they, nor was it meant to be. God never acts so that obliteration comes instead of chastisement, or chastisement instead of obliteration. He nicely graduates his agencies so as to attain the desired results. And yet, though this plague was not a Sodom experience, it was a sufficiently dreadful one. There was nothing in Egyptian annals to dwarf it. All the power which God has stored up in the atmosphere, and which, by its wide and minute diffusion, he makes such a blessing, is now concentrated so as to become correspondingly destructive. When man will not obey, God can show the rest of his creation in remarkable obedience. Man is seen becoming more and more repugnant to Divine control, while over against him other things are seen becoming more and more amenable. What an impressive reminder is thus given to us, concerning our departure from God, and the discord that departure has produced. God sent thunder, and hail, and lightning. Even a slight thunder-storm disturbs the mind, and what a profound commotion of the soul this unequalled storm must have produced. The sound of that thunder, one would think, remained in the ears of those who heard it down to their latest hour. As to the lightning, we know more of its causes than did the Egyptians; but all our science will never rob it of its wonder and terror. Franklin has taken away the mystery of it to our intellects, but God has taken care that its power over our hearts should remain. When flash after flash fills the heavens, the most vulgar and sensual of men is awed out of his sordid composure, at least, for the time.
II. CONSIDER THE REMARKABLE DISCRIMINATION OF GOD IN THIS PLAGUE,
1. The exemption of Goshen from the storm. “Where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.” This exemption now comes almost as a matter of course. How clear it thus becomes to those who receive this miracle of the hail in spirit and in truth, that God has complete power over all the order of the sky, sending rain, snow, hail, as it pleases him, gathering the most dreadful of tempests over one district, and leaving another district that skirted itperhaps even lay inside of it as an inner circleperfectly secure. In Goshen they heard the thunder, saw the lightning, marked the fall of the bruising hail-stones, but these things touched them not. Here is the oft quoted suave marl magno of Lucretius to perfection. God having thus shown here, as elsewhere, his control of the heavens, it is a rational thing enough to supplicate changes of the weather. We are then supplicating for what is quite possible of attainment, even though it might possibly be better in such things to take humbly and trustfully what God may send.
2. But much more notable here than the exemption of Goshen, is the discriminating way in which God treats the Egyptian people. More and more have they been getting the opportunity to discover whence and wherefore these visitations have come on their land. A certain preparation was necessary to give them the power fairly and fully to appreciate the appeal of Jehovah in Exo 9:19. The very exemptions of Goshen already would have done much to lead them to some perception of the real state of affairs, and all along indeed each wonder had said, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” There are some who are deaf, even to thunder, and others to whom the still, small voice speaks in the clearest of tones and the plainest of words concerning all truth and duty. Notice with what wisdom God acted in taking a plague of this sort to discriminate among the Egyptians. They had the chance of sheltering themselves from its worst consequences by a timely attention to his warning. The test was effectual as to who feared the word of Jehovah. All that he wanted was that the fear should lead to belief in the prediction, and action corresponding with the belief. When it becomes needful to exempt Goshen, then assuredly it is also just to give right-minded, open-minded, and prudent Egyptians the chance, if not of exemption, at all events, of relief. They are not all Egypt who are of Egypt, as they are not all Israel who are Of Israel. Among the nominal believers there are the worst of infidels; and among the nominal infidels there may be, not, of course, the best of believers, but those whose germinant faith may grow up into the most abundant and glorious fruit-bearing. Notice how this was the experience of the Apostles; they constantly found faith and unbelief side by side (Act 13:42-45; Act 14:1-4; Act 17:4, Act 17:12, Act 17:34; Act 19:8, Act 19:9). Nowhere is this stated more impressively and antithetically than at the very close of the apostolic story; “Some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not” (Act 28:24). Men themselves are continually making preliminary and unconscious separation between the sheep and the goats.
III. CONSIDER THE FRESH CONFESSION AND PROMISE WHICH THIS PLAGUE. AT LAST EXTORTS FROM PHARAOH. This confession has a very hopeful appearance upon the surface; but then we suddenly remember how hopeless God himself is of any permanent yielding from Pharaoh, any surrender of his entire nature. Nothing is easier than to say, “I have sinned;” nothing is harder than to say it with right knowledge of what sin is, and deep contrition and humiliation, because of its all-dominating presence in the life. Pharaoh uses strong words here, and there is a great appearance of spontaneity and sincerity, but God is not deceived; and we only need to look into the words to be very quickly undeceived ourselves. Indeed, as we examine Pharaoh’s utterance, we find that by a most effective contrast it shows us how to discern the elements of an adequate and acceptable confession of sin.
1. Such a confession must have reference to a permanent state of the character. Sin is not a mere outward act, so that a man may sometimes be sinning, and sometimes not sinning. “I have sinned this time.” This time! There you have the mark of a mere lip acknowledgment; of one who confounds the mere selfish dangers and discomforts that grow out of sin with sin itself. The right confession therefore, is the word of one who has come to a knowledge of the deep and accursed fountain within, of those reservoirs in the thoughts and intents of the heart whence all particular actions flow. He who rightly confesses knows that it is a life that needs to be cleansed, and not a mere limb that needs to be amputated.
2. It must be absorbingly personal. It must occupy in the most imperative fashion all the individual consciousness. If there is any time when, as one may say, it is a man’s duty to look on his own things, and not the things of others, it is when he is labouring to get the proper conviction of sin. He is not to lose himself in the crowd; he is to stand out before his own mind’s eyeself so unsparingly revealed to selfthat nothing less will do to say than, “I am the chief of sinners.” For not till a man knows what it is to be the chief of sinners is he in the way of discovering what it is to be the chief of saints. “I and my people are wicked,” says Pharaoh. It was a false unity; a claim of unity dictated even by pride, for he had become incapable of thinking of his people apart from himself. He calls them one in wickedness, when they were not one; for some had this possibility of goodness at least, that they feared Jehovah enough to follow his counsels (Exo 9:20). And later, when the mixed multitude went out with Israel (Exo 12:38), what then became of the boast, “I and my people”?
3. It must desire the removal of sin itself; of the guilty conscience, the depraved imagination, the unbrotherly and unneighbourly feelings, the intellect darkened with ignorance and error. Above all, it will desire to have the life reconciled, filial, and serviceable towards God. What is the avoidance of physical suffering and loss, compared with the sweeping away of far more intimate elements of misery? Only when there are such desires in the heart will the word “I have sinned” operate to secure an immediate reversal of the life. Israel said “we have sinned,” when they had rebelled against Jehovah because of the distasteful report of the spies. What their confession was worth is seen in the immediate sequel (Num 14:40 45). Balaam said to the angel in the way, “I have sinned,” but for all that he did not turn back; he was only too glad to go forward and work for the wages of unrighteousness (Num 22:34).
4. It must be a confession to God himself, and not a mere talk to others about God being righteous. All that Pharaoh wanted was to have Moses entreat for the withdrawal of present suffering. The acknowledgment, such as it was, was to Moses and not to Jehovah. Now confessions of this sort are useless. The thing wanted is, not a supplication to possible intercessors, but to the Holy One on high, seen through and above the mediating agent. It is not enough to be brought to a knowledge of Jesus as saving from sin; indeed we may only be deluding ourselves with mere words, except as we gain that glorious part of the salvation which consists in the knowledge of him whom Jesus himself knew so well, and desired, with such earnest desire, to reveal to his disciples also.Y.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART
Exo 9:13-21
Mercy in Judgment.
I. GOD‘S PURPOSE IN DEALING WITH THE WICKED BY CHASTISEMENT AND NOT BY JUDGMENT (13-16). God might have desolated the land, and let Israel pass unquestioned through the midst of it. But in Pharaoh and his people the Lord would, by foretold, continued, deepening chastisements, reveal the terror and resistlessness of his power. He would make the heart of the oppressor quail in every age and nation, and stir up the oppressed to hope and prayer. But for this prolonged contest with Pharaoh we should have lacked much that has gone to deepen holy fear of God and trust in him.
II. HOW GOD LEADS UP THE WEAKEST FAITH INTO STRENGTH (20, 21).
1. Warning was given, and those who had merely faith enough to believe that God’s word might be kept, had time to save their servants and their cattle.
2. In the after contrast between themselves and those who had despised the warning, faith would spring up into full assurance. The trust we give to God, like the seed we cast into the soil, is given back to us an hundredfold. How God answers the prayer, “Lord increase our faith.”U.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
G.The plague of the hail
Exo 9:13-35
13And Jehovah said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, God [the God] of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14For I will at [will] this time send all my plagues upon thine [into thy] heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15For now I will stretch [I would have stretched]2 out my hand, that I may smite [and smitten] thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be [wouldst have been] cut off from the earth. 16And in very deed [But] for this cause [for this] have I raised thee up [established thee] for to shew in thee [to shew thee] my power, and that my name may be declared [to declare my name] throughout all the earth. 17As yet exaltest thou [Thou art still exalting]3 thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let 18them go? [not to let them go]. Behold, to-morrow about [at] this time 1 will cause it to rain [I will rain] a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. 19Send therefore now [And now send], and gather [save] thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field; for upon [as for] every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought [gathered] home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die. 20He that feared the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses: 21And he that regarded not the word of Jehovah left his 22servants and his cattle in the field. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine [thy] 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. 23And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and Jehovah sent thunder and hail; and the fire [and fire] ran along upon the ground [came to the earth]; and Jehovah rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24So there was hail, and fire mingled with [continuous fire4 in the midst of] the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it [had not been] in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25And 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. 26Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. 27And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: Jehovah is righteous [is the righteous one], 28and I and my people are wicked [the wicked]. Entreat Jehovah (for it is enough) that there be no more [for it is too much that there should be]5 mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. 29And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone [When I go] out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto Jehovah: and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how [know] that the earth is Jehovahs. 30But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will [do] not yet fear Jehovah God. 31And the flax and the barley was smitten; for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled [in the blossom]. 32But the wheat and the rye [spelt] were not smitten; for they were not grown up [for they are late]. 33And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto Jehovah: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. 34And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more 35[again], and hardened his heart, he and his servants. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as Jehovah had spoken by Moses.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Exo 9:15-16. The Perf. and the following Imperfects with the Vav Consecutive certainly cannot be rendered (with the A. V.) by the Future. It is simply a case of apodosis with the protasis omitted. Precisely similar is the construction in 1Sa 13:13, , which the A. V. correctly renders: For now would the Lord have established thy kingdom. Comp. Ewald, Ausfuhrl. Gr. 358 a. Our translators seem in both these verses to have followed the LXX., the Vulg., and older versions, to the neglect of the Hebrew. Especially does this appear in Exo 9:16, where is rendered: for to show in thee. Literally; in order to cause thee to see. There is no possible ambiguity in the Hebrew. Gods power was to be shown to Pharaoh, not in him. Probably our translators were also influenced by the quotation of this verse in Rom 9:17, where Paul follows the LXX. In the translation of , however, the LXX. are more exact than Paul. In Exo 9:15 Jehovah says: I might have smitten thee, etc. But, he adds, for this I have preserved thee (literally, caused thee to stand) in order to show thee, etc. The LXX. have , in Rom 9:17 . means simply but, nevertheless, and not in very deed.Tr.]
[Exo 9:17. There is no interrogative particle here, and no need of translating the verse as a question. It might be translated as a conditional clause: If thou yet exalt thyself, etc., Exo 9:18 giving the conclusion.Tr.]
[Exo 9:24. The Hithp. of occurs, besides here, only in Eze 1:4, where it is also used of lightning, and is rendered in the A. V.: infolding itself (marg. catching itself). The idea seems to be that of different flashes of lightning coming so thickly that the one seemed to take hold of the other; or, perhaps, it is descriptive of chain-lightning. Lange, following De Wette, and others understand it to mean balls of fire. This seems hardly to be borne out by the phrase.Tr.]
[Exo 9:28. Lange renders: Pray to Jehovah, that it may be enough of Gods voices of thunder. So, substantially, Murphy, Keil, Knobel, Arnheim, Herxheimer, De Wette, Frst, Philippson, Rosenmuller, following LXX., Vulg. But it is hard to see what right we have to give the expression this turn, whereas the original simply says: and much. If we must supply a verb, we are hardly justified in making it Jussive. And if we were, by what right can the expression: let there be much of there being thunder and hail, be made to mean, let there be no more thunder and hail? for this is what enough is assumed to mean. But while sometimes does mean enough, that is a very different conception from no more. If one prays: let there be enough of thunder, the presumption is that he wants more rather than less. Furthermore, with the Inf., though often employed to denote the negation of a resul., yet is perhaps never used elsewhere to denote an object negatively, and is certainly no where else used after verbs of entreaty to denote the thing deprecated. There is also no analogy for the use of with the Inf. in a partitive sense, as Keil and others would here understand it. And even if did have the partitive sense (though even in the multitude of instances in which it is connected with nouns after it only onceEze 44:6has a partitive sense), the use of the Inf. would be pleonastic. In view of these considerations, there seems hardly to be any other way than to follow Kalisch, Glaire, and Ewald (Gram. 217 b, 285 d), and render: It is too much that there should be. Literally, much from being, or, this being the Hebrew method of expressing a comparison, more than being. But our idiom frequently requires more than to be rendered by too much for. E.g. Rth 1:12, , I am old from belonging to a husband, i.e. older than to belong to, or rather, too old to belong to. So here: it is much from [more than] there being thunder, etc. That is, It is too much that there be. A still more apposite case is to be found in 1Ki 12:28, , it is much to you from going up to Jerusalem, i.e. (as Luther, A. V., and Keil render it), it is too much for you to go up. A still more indisputable analogy is found in Isa 49:6, , It is light from thy being a servant, i.e. It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be a servant. So Eze 8:17. With this construction we get a clear and appropriate sense without forcing the original.Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Exo 9:13. The Seventh Plague. Hail and Thunder-storms.Rise up early in the morning.Even in reference to he forms of politeness there seems to be an intentional letting down. According to Exo 8:16 [20] Moses was to avail himself of that time in the morning when Pharaoh was going to the Nile. This consideration here disappears. The demand is more imperative; the threat more fearful.
Exo 9:14. This time all the plagues are to be directed, in a concentrated form, primarily to the heart of Pharaoh, to his own personal interests, affecting first himself, then his servants, then his people, beginning at the top, and going down. From the plural it appears that this threat relates not merely to the seventh plague, the hail, but to all the remaining ones (Keil). It appears also that now Pharaohs obduracy is to be regarded as quite determined. This is still more evident from the two following verses (see Comm. on Romans 9). From this time forward, therefore, ensue Jehovahs acts of hardening Pharaohs heart in the narrower sense of the term.That there is none like me.Comp. Exo 9:16. The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, following the last act of divine judgment upon Egypt, may be designated as the specific date of the victory of monotheism over the heathen gods, or of the theocratic faith over the heathen religions.
Exo 9:15. For now I would have stretched out my hand.If Pharaohs person and surroundings alone had been in question, Jehovah would have already destroyed him with the pestilence. We do not, with Keil, render: If I had stretched out my hand thou wouldest have been destroyed; for this would present a tautological sentence, obscuring the connection and fundamental thought. Jehovahs declaration means: Thou, considered by thyself alone, art already doomed to condemnation; but I establish thee, as it were, anew, in order to judge thee more completely and to glorify my name in thee. Vid. Comm. on Romans 9. This is the gift of divine forbearance which the godless enjoy on account of the pious. accordingly does not mean merely cause to stand; and Paul, quite in accordance with the sense of the text, chose a stronger expression, whereas the LXX. had weakened it, employing . The first spread of the news of Jehovahs victory is recorded in Exo 15:14.
Exo 9:17. A fine antithesis, analogous to that of Exo 8:17 [21]. The form of the thought likewise intimates that man, by the change of his disposition, may become different, and that then Jehovah may, as it were, present Himself to him as a different being.Exalting thyself.Properly, setting thyself up as a dam, . Israel, as the people of the future, is like a stream whose current the hostile powers of the world, like dams and dykes, are checking. First, it breaks through the power of Pharaoh with theocratic impetuosity amidst psalms of triumph. Something like this was true of the Reformation; in the highest sense, it was true of Apostolic Christianity; and it was no mere play of the fancy, when the great Egyptian plagues were associated with the great Christian martyrdoms.
Exo 9:19. And now send.Had Pharaoh done so, he would at the last moment have acknowledged Jehovahs power. But the word, which he himself without doubt disregarded, served to warn and preserve other God-fearing Egyptians.
Exo 9:22. Stretch forth thy hand toward heaven.Still another symbolic form, and that of the finest appropriateness. Here the outstretched hand is more important than the symbolic rod, though the latter serves for a sign this time also.
Exo 9:23. Sublime description of the hail and thunder-storm, like Psalms 18, 29; Job 37, 38. Thunder-storms are not frequent in Lower and Central Egypt, yet occasionally occur between December and April, and in connection with them hail sometimes falls, but seldom in considerable quantity. Comp. Hengstenberg, Egypt, etc., p. 121 sq. (Keil.) In Egypt the cattle are driven to the pastures from January to April. Vid. Hengstenberg, l. c., p. 123, where he quotes from Niebuhr and others.
Exo 9:25. in Exo 9:25, like the preceding balls of fire (for lightning), harmonizes with the hyperbolic style of the description.
Exo 9:26-27. In such a heavy storm the exceptional condition of Goshen must have been the more striking. Now even Pharaoh has recognized in the thunder the voice of Jehovah. The first declaration, that Jehovah is righteous, comes, remarkably enough, from his mouth. His repentance, however, soon shows itself to be a mere attritio, a transitory, slavish terror. The contritio is wanting; this was at once seen by Moses. The same is indicated in the characteristic utterance: I have sinned this time.
Exo 9:31-32. This specification gives a clue to the season of the year. It was towards the end of January. Vid. Hengstenberg. p. 124, and Keil, p. 492. The barley was an important article of food for men and cattle, although spelt and wheat furnished finer bread. The flax furnished the light linen which the hot climate made a necessity; according to Herodotus II. 81, 105, a very important product of Egypt (Keil).
Footnotes:
[2][Exo 9:15-16. The Perf. and the following Imperfects with the Vav Consecutive certainly cannot be rendered (with the A. V.) by the Future. It is simply a case of apodosis with the protasis omitted. Precisely similar is the construction in 1Sa 13:13, , which the A. V. correctly renders: For now would the Lord have established thy kingdom. Comp. Ewald, Ausfuhrl. Gr. 358 a. Our translators seem in both these verses to have followed the LXX., the Vulg., and older versions, to the neglect of the Hebrew. Especially does this appear in Exo 9:16, where is rendered: for to show in thee. Literally; in order to cause thee to see. There is no possible ambiguity in the Hebrew. Gods power was to be shown to Pharaoh, not in him. Probably our translators were also influenced by the quotation of this verse in Rom 9:17, where Paul follows the LXX. In the translation of , however, the LXX. are more exact than Paul. In Exo 9:15 Jehovah says: I might have smitten thee, etc. But, he adds, for this I have preserved thee (literally, caused thee to stand) in order to show thee, etc. The LXX. have , in Rom 9:17 . means simply but, nevertheless, and not in very deed.Tr.]
[3][Exo 9:17. There is no interrogative particle here, and no need of translating the verse as a question. It might be translated as a conditional clause: If thou yet exalt thyself, etc., Exo 9:18 giving the conclusion.Tr.]
[4][Exo 9:24. The Hithp. of occurs, besides here, only in Eze 1:4, where it is also used of lightning, and is rendered in the A. V.: infolding itself (marg. catching itself). The idea seems to be that of different flashes of lightning coming so thickly that the one seemed to take hold of the other; or, perhaps, it is descriptive of chain-lightning. Lange, following De Wette, and others understand it to mean balls of fire. This seems hardly to be borne out by the phrase.Tr.]
[5][Exo 9:28. Lange renders: Pray to Jehovah, that it may be enough of Gods voices of thunder. So, substantially, Murphy, Keil, Knobel, Arnheim, Herxheimer, De Wette, Frst, Philippson, Rosenmuller, following LXX., Vulg. But it is hard to see what right we have to give the expression this turn, whereas the original simply says: and much. If we must supply a verb, we are hardly justified in making it Jussive. And if we were, by what right can the expression: let there be much of there being thunder and hail, be made to mean, let there be no more thunder and hail? for this is what enough is assumed to mean. But while sometimes does mean enough, that is a very different conception from no more. If one prays: let there be enough of thunder, the presumption is that he wants more rather than less. Furthermore, with the Inf., though often employed to denote the negation of a resul., yet is perhaps never used elsewhere to denote an object negatively, and is certainly no where else used after verbs of entreaty to denote the thing deprecated. There is also no analogy for the use of with the Inf. in a partitive sense, as Keil and others would here understand it. And even if did have the partitive sense (though even in the multitude of instances in which it is connected with nouns after it only onceEze 44:6has a partitive sense), the use of the Inf. would be pleonastic. In view of these considerations, there seems hardly to be any other way than to follow Kalisch, Glaire, and Ewald (Gram. 217 b, 285 d), and render: It is too much that there should be. Literally, much from being, or, this being the Hebrew method of expressing a comparison, more than being. But our idiom frequently requires more than to be rendered by too much for. E.g. Rth 1:12, , I am old from belonging to a husband, i.e. older than to belong to, or rather, too old to belong to. So here: it is much from [more than] there being thunder, etc. That is, It is too much that there be. A still more apposite case is to be found in 1Ki 12:28, , it is much to you from going up to Jerusalem, i.e. (as Luther, A. V., and Keil render it), it is too much for you to go up. A still more indisputable analogy is found in Isa 49:6, , It is light from thy being a servant, i.e. It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be a servant. So Eze 8:17. With this construction we get a clear and appropriate sense without forcing the original.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Observe a renewed call to save from utter destruction. Deu 30:19 . Six times before the Lord had spoken and without being regarded; but yet a seventh is vouchsafed.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 9:13 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.
Ver. 13. Let my people go. ] See Exo 9:1 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mighty Thunderings and Hail
Exo 9:13-35
This paragraph recalls Rev 7:3. The great angel there commanded that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or upon any tree, until the servants of God had been sealed on their foreheads. Only when this had been effected did the trumpets give signal of the disasters that broke successively on the earth. See Rev 8:7, etc. The only spot in which the soul is safe is within the encircling provisions of the covenant. Israel stood there and was safe, not only from the hail but from the destroying sword. It was as safe a spot as the center of a cyclone is said to be. God had bound Himself by the most solemn sanctions to be a God to His people and deliver them. It was in pursuance of this pledge that He was their pavilion and canopy in this awful hour, catching the hailstones on His pinions, and securing them from hurt. Directly we trust in Christ He becomes our hiding-place from the storms of judgment and condemnation, Heb 13:20.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Exo 9:1, Exo 7:15, Exo 8:20
Reciprocal: Exo 3:18 – The Lord Exo 7:16 – The Lord 1Ch 16:21 – he reproved 2Co 11:22 – Hebrews
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 9:13 to Exo 35:7. A Devastating Hailstorm (Exo 9:13-21 J, Exo 9:22 f. E, Exo 9:24-30 J, Exo 9:31 f. E, Exo 9:33 f. J, Exo 9:35 ab E, Exo 9:35 c R).Into the announcement of the coming storm a short passage (Exo 9:14-16) has been with impressive effect inserted by an early expander of J. It accounts for the series of partial judgments, instead of one overwhelming doom, by the Divine purpose to illustrate more at length the object lesson of the vanity of human pride and resolution. Since Yahweh speaks of all my plagues, it may have been originally written for some other connexion, and probably should be read, I will . . . send all these my plagues upon thee, and upon . . ., thine head being a misreading of a letter by a scribe. In Exo 9:15 it would be clearer to render with Driver, For else I should now have put forth . . . and thou wouldst have been cut off. In Exo 9:16 I made thee to stand means I preserved thee, not as Paul, possibly following a late meaning of the Heb. verb, took it, I raised thee up, though the difference does not affect the argument in Rom 9:17. The very power of the Pharaoh makes his subjection to Yahwehs purpose more impressive, and the fame of it more widespread. In Exo 9:19 the idea is rather, As yet standest thou in the way of my people . . . A new feature about this plague is the chance given to Pharaoh and his servants of averting its perils by fearing the word of Yahweh, and hastening in the cattle. The repetitions in the description of the hailstorm are due to the combination of sources, as the suggested analysis shows. It was peculiarly the function of Yahweh to send thunder, Exo 9:23 (Heb. give voices, see Exo 9:28 mg.), cf. Psa 29:3-9, etc.: the cloud was His chariot, the lightning His dazzling robe, and the thunder His mighty voice. The fire was mingled with or flashing right through (cf. mg.) the hail, Exo 9:24. Goshen again escaped. Pharaohs admission (Exo 9:27) that he and his were wicked was a politic approach to a powerful but unfriendly deity. He anticipated Nietzsche in the doctrine that weakness is wickedness. Moses in promising to spread abroad his hands in prayer for removal of the plague (Exo 9:29; Exo 9:35*), was under no illusions: Pharaoh had but half learned his lesson. From Exo 9:31 f. it may be inferred that the hailstorm was dated in January, the flax being in bud and the barley ripe, but the wheat and spelt still immature. Egyptian flax was often very fine; linen was much used by those who could afford it. Sayce refers to a desolating thunderstorm with hail in the Nile valley in the spring of 1895. The presence of the cattle in the field would agree with the January date.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Hail (the seventh plague) 9:13-35
God sent the worst hailstorm Egypt had ever experienced (Exo 9:18; Exo 9:24) and accompanied it with thunder, fire (lightning?), and rain (Exo 9:23; Exo 9:34). [Note: See Robert B. Chisholm Jr., "The Polemic against Baalism in Israel’s Early History and Literature," Bibliotheca Sacra 151:603 (July-September 1994):271-74.]
"The recurring thunderclaps . . ., the lightning darting back and forth . . ., and the severity of the storm . . . all suggest the advent of Yahweh in theophany . . . and thus the Presence of Yahweh in a more dramatic and intense coming than anywhere in the mighty-act sequence to this point." [Note: Durham, p. 128.]
Pharaoh’s repentance was shallow; he acknowledged only his mistake and unfairness, but he did not repent of his blasphemy of Yahweh (Exo 9:27). Moses perceived Pharaoh’s true attitude. The king had not yet believed that Yahweh was sovereign (Exo 9:29). Fearing Him means bowing in submission to Him as sovereign over all the earth (Exo 9:30; cf. Exo 10:3).
"What would the worshippers of Nut have thought when they looked skyward not to see the blessings of the sun and warmth, but the tragedy of storm and violence. Nut was the sky goddess. It was from her domain that this tragedy originated. One reflects upon the responsibilities of both Isis and Seth who also had responsibilities relating to agricultural crops. The black and burned fields of flax were a silent testimony to the impotence and incapability of wooden and stone deities." [Note: Davis, p. 120.]
The Egyptians used flax (Exo 9:31) to make linen cloth that they preferred over wool. The Egyptian priests, among other people, dressed in linen. This plague was a judgment on them, therefore. The Egyptians used barley (Exo 9:31) to make beer and as animal food, but the poorer people also ate it. [Note: Kaiser, "Exodus," p. 363.] These two crops are in bud in late January and early February in lower (northern) Egypt, which enables us to identify the time of year when this plague took place.
This is the first miracle in which we see the presence of death.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
6. The seventh, eighth, and ninth plagues 9:13-10:29
Moses announced the purpose of the following plagues to Pharaoh "in the morning" (cf. Exo 7:15; Exo 8:20). This purpose was twofold: that Pharaoh personally might know God’s power (Exo 9:14) and that the whole world might know it (Exo 9:16; cf. Rom 9:17).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE SEVENTH PLAGUE.
Exo 9:13-35.
The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, we have argued, was not the debauching of his spirit, but only the strengthening of his will. “Wait on the Lord and be of good courage”; “Be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josadak the high priest; and be strong, all ye people” (Psa 27:14; Hag 2:4), are clear proofs that what was implied in this word was not wickedness, but only that iron determination which his choice directed in a wicked channel. And therefore it was no mockery, no insincere appeal by one who had provided against the mischance of its succeeding, when God again addressed Himself to the reason, and even to the rational fears of Pharaoh. He had only provided against a terror-stricken submission, as wholly immoral and valueless, as the ceasing to resist of one who has swooned through fright. Now, to give such an one a stimulant and thus to enable him to exercise his volition, would be different from inciting him to rebel.
The seventh plague, then, is ushered in by an expostulation more earnest, resolute and minatory than attended any of the previous ones. And this is the more necessary because human life is now for the first time at stake. First the king is solemnly reminded that Jehovah, Whom he no longer can refuse to know, is the God of the Hebrews, has a claim upon their services, and demands them. In oppressing the nation, therefore, Pharaoh usurped what belonged to the Lord. Now, this is the eternal charter of the rights of all humanity. Whoever encroaches on the just sphere of the free action of his neighbour deprives him, to exactly the same extent, of the power to glorify God by a free obedience. The heart glorifies God by submission to so hard a lot, but the co-operation of the “whole body and soul and spirit” does not visibly bear testimony to the regulating power of grace. The oppressor may contend (like some slave-owners) that he guides his human property better than it would guide itself. But one assertion he cannot make: namely, that God is receiving the loyal homage of a life spontaneously devoted; that a man and not a machine is glorifying God in this body and spirit which are God’s. For the body is but a chattel. This is why the Christian doctrine of the religious equality of all men in Christ carries with it the political assertion of the equal secular rights of the whole human race. I must not transfer to myself the solemn duty of my neighbour to offer up to God the sacrifice not only of his chastened spirit but also of his obedient life.
And these words were also a lifelong admonition to every Israelite. He held his liberties from God. He was not free to be violent and wanton, and to say “I am delivered to commit all these abominations.” The dignities of life were bound up with its responsibilities.
Well, it is not otherwise today. As truly as Moses, the champions of our British liberties were earnest and God-fearing men. Not for leave to revel, to accumulate enormous fortunes, and to excite by their luxuries the envy and rage of neglected brothers, while possessing more enormous powers to bless them than ever were entrusted to a class,–not for this our heroes bled on the field and on the scaffold. Tyrants rarely deny to rich men leave to be self-indulgent. And self-indulgence rarely nerves men to heroic effort. It is for the freedom of the soul that men dare all things. And liberty is doomed wherever men forget that the true freeman is the servant of Jehovah. On these terms the first demand for a national emancipation was enforced.
And next, Pharaoh is warned that God, who at first threatened to destroy his firstborn, but had hitherto come short of such a deadly stroke, had not, as he might flatter himself, exhausted His power to avenge. Pharaoh should yet experience “all My plagues.” And there is a dreadful significance in the phrase which threatens to put these plagues, with regard to others “upon thy servants and upon thy people,” but with regard to Pharaoh himself “upon thine heart.”
There it was that the true scourge smote. Thence came ruin and defeat. His infatuation was more dreadful than hail in the cloud and locusts on the blast, than the darkness at noon and the midnight wail of a bereaved nation. For his infatuation involved all these.
The next assertion is not what the Authorised Version made it, and what never was fulfilled. It is not, “Now I will stretch out My hand to smite thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.” It says, “Now I had done this, as far as any restraint for thy sake is concerned, but in very deed for this cause have I made thee to stand” (unsmitten), “for to show thee My power, and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth” (Exo 9:15-16). The course actually taken was more for the glory of God, and a better warning to others, than a sudden stroke, however crushing.
And so we find, many years after all this generation has passed away, that a strangely distorted version of these events is current among the Philistines in Palestine. In the days of Eli, when the ark was brought into the camp, they said, “Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all manner of plagues in the wilderness” (1Sa 4:8). And this, along with the impression which Rahab declared that the Exodus and what followed it had made, may help us to understand what a mighty influence upon the wars of Palestine the scourging of Egypt had, how terror fell upon all the inhabitants of the land, and they melted away (Jos 2:9-10).
And perhaps it may save us from the unconscious egoism which always deems that I myself shall not be treated quite as severely as I deserve, to mark how the punishment of one affects the interests of all.
Added to all this is a kind of half-ironical clemency, an opportunity of escape if he would humble himself so far as to take warning even to a small extent. The plague was to be of a kind especially rare in Egypt, and of utterly unknown severity–such hail as had not been in Egypt since the day it was founded until now. But he and his people might, if they would, hasten to bring in their cattle and all that they had in the field. Pharaoh, after his sore experience of the threats of Moses, would find it a hard trial in any case, whether to withdraw his property or to brave the stroke. To him it was a kind of challenge. To those of his subjects who had any proper feeling it was a merciful deliverance, and a profoundly skilful education of their faith, which began by an obedience probably hesitating, but had few doubts upon the morrow. We read that he who feared the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses; and this is the first hint that the plagues, viewed as discipline, were not utterly vain. The existence of others who feared Jehovah beside the Jews prepares us for the “mixed multitude” who came up along with them (Exo 12:38), and whose ill-instructed and probably very selfish adhesion was quite consistent with such sensual discontent as led the whole congregation into sin (Num 11:4).
To make the connection between Jehovah and the impending storm more obvious still, Moses stretched his rod toward heaven, and there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, such as slew man and beast, and smote the trees, and destroyed all the vegetation which had yet grown up. The heavens, the atmosphere, were now enrolled in the conspiracy against Pharaoh: they too served Jehovah.
In such a storm, the terror was even greater than the peril. When a great writer of our own time called attention to the elaborate machinery by which God in nature impresses man with the sense of a formidable power above, he chose a thunderstorm as the most striking example of his meaning.
“Nothing appears to me more remarkable than the array of scenic magnificence by which the imagination is appalled, in myriads of instances when the actual danger is comparatively small; so that the utmost possible impression of awe shall be produced upon the minds of all, though direct suffering is inflicted upon few. Consider, for instance, the moral effect of a single thunderstorm. Perhaps two or three persons may be struck dead within a space of a hundred square miles; and their death, unaccompanied by the scenery of the storm, would produce little more than a momentary sadness in the busy hearts of living men. But the preparation for the judgment, by all that mighty gathering of the clouds; by the questioning of the forest leaves, in their terrified stillness, which way the winds shall go forth; by the murmuring to each other, deep in the distance, of the destroying angels before they draw their swords of fire; by the march of the funeral darkness in the midst of the noonday, and the rattling of the dome of heaven beneath the chariot wheels of death;–on how many minds do not these produce an impression almost as great as the actual witnessing of the fatal issue! and how strangely are the expressions of the threatening elements fitted to the apprehensions of the human soul! The lurid colour, the long, irregular, convulsive sound, the ghastly shapes of flaming and heaving cloud, are all true and faithful in their appeal to our instinct of danger.”–Ruskin, Stones of Venice, III. 197-8.
Such a tempest, dreadful anywhere, would be most appalling of all in the serene atmosphere of Egypt, to unaccustomed spectators, and minds troubled by their guilt. Accordingly we find that Pharaoh was less terrified by the absolute mischief done than by the “voices of God,” when, unnerved for the moment, he confessed at least that he had sinned “this time” (a singularly weak repentance for his long and daring resistance, even if we explain it, “this time I confess that I have sinned”), and went on in his terror to pour out orthodox phrases and professions with suspicious fluency. The main point was the bargain which he proposed: “Intreat the Lord, for there hath been enough of mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.”
Looking attentively at all this, we discern in it a sad resemblance to some confessions of these latter days. Men are driven by affliction to acknowledge God: they confess the offence which is palpable, and even add that God is righteous and that they are not. If possible, they shelter themselves from lonely condemnation by general phrases, such as that all are wicked; just as Pharaoh, although he would have scoffed at the notion of any national volition except his own, said, “I and my people are sinners.” Above all, they are much more anxious for the removal of the rod than for the cleansing of the guilt; and if this can be accomplished through the mediation of another, they have as little desire as Pharaoh had for any personal approach to God, Whom they fear, and if possible repel.
And by these signs, every experienced observer expects that if they are delivered out of trouble they will forget their vows.
Moses was exceedingly meek. And therefore, or else because the message of God implied that other plagues were to succeed this, he consented to intercede, yet adding the simple and dignified protest, “As for thee and thy people, I know that ye will not yet fear Jehovah God.”[17] And so it came to pass. The heart of Pharaoh was made heavy, and he would not let Israel go.
Looking back upon this miracle, we are reminded of the mighty part which atmospheric changes have played in the history of the world. Snowstorms saved Europe from the Turk and from Napoleon: the wind played almost as important a part in our liberation from James, and again in the defeat of the plans of the French Revolution to invade us, as in the destruction of the Armada. And so we read, “Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasuries of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?” (Job 38:22-23).
FOOTNOTES:
[17] Except in one passage (Gen 2:4-25; Gen 3:1-23) these titles of Deity are nowhere else combined in the books of Moses.