Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 9:15
For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
15. For now, &c.] ‘had put forth’ is hypothetical: For else (i.e. except for the motive just stated) I should now have put forth, &c., would express the sense more clearly.
hadst ] i.e. wouldest have been.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 15. For now I will stretch out my hand] In the Hebrew the verbs are in the past tense, and not in the future, as our translation improperly expresses them, by which means a contradiction appears in the text: for neither Pharaoh nor his people were smitten by a pestilence, nor was he by any kind of mortality cut off from the earth. It is true the first-born were slain by a destroying angel, and Pharaoh himself was drowned in the Red Sea; but these judgments do not appear to be referred to in this place. If the words be translated, as they ought, in the subjunctive mood, or in the past instead of the future, this seeming contradiction to facts, as well as all ambiguity, will be avoided: For if now I HAD STRETCHED OUT ( shalachti, had set forth) my hand, and had smitten thee ( vaach otheca) and thy people with the pestilence, thou SHOULDST HAVE BEEN cut off ( ticcached) from the earth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Pestilence; not properly so called, but largely, as the word is used Hos 13:14, meaning with an utter and irrecoverable destruction. This relates partly to the killing of the first-born, which plague did more immediately and nearly concern both him and his people, and principally to their destruction in the Red Sea.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
For now will I stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence,…. Which yet we never find was done; for though this by many is referred to the slaying of the firstborn, yet it is not certain that this was done by the pestilence: besides, Pharaoh was not then smitten, nor his people, only their firstborn; wherefore these words are to be rendered, not in the future, but in the imperfect or preterpluperfect tense, thus; “for when now I stretched out my hand, or if now I had stretched out my hand to smite thee and thy people with pestilence” a; that is, at the time when he smote the cattle with the murrain or pestilence, when he could as well have smote him and his people with it; there was no want of power in God to do it, and had he done it, it would have been all over with him and them:
and thou shall be cut off from the earth; or “thou hadst been, or wouldest have been cut off from the earth” b must have perished out of it, and been no more in the land of the living.
a “modo enim cum extendi”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, “vel si extendissem”, Fagius, Cocceius so Jarchi, Gersom, Targ. Onk. & Jon. b “sic fuisses excisus”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(15) For now I will stretch out my hand.The words admit of this translation, but the context will not allow it. TranslateAnd now I might have stretched out mine hand, and smitten both thee and thy people with pestilence; and then thou hadst been cut off from the earth; but, &c.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. For now I will stretch out my hand The verb ( ) is here to be rendered as conditional past, (Ewald, Lehrb . , 358, a . ; Nordh . , Gram . , 991, 3, a.,) thus, For now I would have stretched out my hand and smitten. For a similar construction see 1Sa 13:13. So the Arabic, Fagius, Adam Clarke, Kalisch, Keil, Knobel, Stier and Theil, Murphy . The verse is closely connected to the following, thus: “For now I would have stretched out my hand and smitten thee but yet for this have I preserved thee, to show thee my power,” etc .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The apostle Paul makes the best comment upon this, when he applies it to the sovereignty of grace: Rom 9:17 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 9:15 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.
Ver. 15. For now I will stretch out. ] His former preservation was but a reservation: and he hath hitherto escaped with his life; not for any love that God bare to him, but “to show his power on him.” Wicked men may have common mercies and deliverances, but “the Lord Ioveth the righteous.” Psa 146:8
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
stretch: Exo 9:3, Exo 9:6, Exo 9:16, Exo 3:20
that: Exo 11:4-6, Exo 12:29, Exo 12:30
cut off: Exo 14:28, 1Ki 13:34, Pro 2:22
Reciprocal: 2Sa 4:11 – from 1Ki 8:42 – thy strong hand 2Ki 17:36 – a stretched 2Ki 19:19 – O Lord Isa 37:20 – that all Jer 21:5 – with an