Exodus 9

Chap. IX. Ver. 1—35. The plagues of murrain, boils, and tempest.—We have now done with the magicians, and have only to attend to Moses, and to the terrible judgments inflicted on the Egyptians. The next plague is called a murrain, which is a pestilence among cattle, (and, indeed, the same word is rendered pestilence, (Exodus 10)a This is said to be “very grievous,” insomuch that we are told, “all the cattle of Egypt died.” Here is a clear instance, that the term ALL must be sometimes taken in a sense very limited; for immediately after we read, that not only men, but also the beasts, (no doubt including cattle,) were visited with boils; in the following verses we read that many were killed with hail; and in the last plague, all the first-born of cattle, as well as man, were slain; and yet, after all, when the Israelites passed the Red Sea, Pharaoh pursued them with “all his horses, and his chariots, and his horsemen.”

((Exodus 14:23).) The word all, therefore, must be here and elsewhere used in the sense of many, as is customary in all languages. The visitation was, however, very severe, and very general, as we have sometimes seen the disease among horned cattle in Europe; and probably much more fatal. Among the children of Israel, however, not one died, as Pharaoh found, when his curiosity led him to inquire. The next plague was introduced in a peculiar manner. Instead of Aaron stretching forth his rod, Moses is commanded to go to the furnace—that fiery furnace, which was the type and image of their bondage ((Deuteronomy 4:20).)—and taking a handful of the hot ashes, to sprinkle them toward heaven; and as they fall in dust, lo!

“boils and blains” (or blisters) break out upon man and beast throughout the land; and it is particularly stated, that the boil was so sore upon the magicians, that they could not stand before Moses. Bryant says, here is an allusion to human sacrifices, that used to be offered on certain occasions on this furnace, the victims of which, he thinks, were taken from the Israelites. “At the close of the sacrifice, the priests gathered together the ashes of these victims, and scattered them upwards in the air, with the view, probably, that where any atom of this dust was carried, a blessing might be entailed. The like was, therefore, done by Moses, though with a different intention, and to a more certain effect.”

Egypt abounded with physicians, and that for every distemper separately: many of whom were probably enrolled among the magicians, who had now to try their skill upon themselves. They also worshipped many gods who presided over the medical art, and especially Esculapius, its supposed founder. The seventh plague was a most tremendous tempest of rain and hail, thunder and lightning, to which the Egyptians are very rarely subject: the sun, with them, was seldom obscured, even by a passing cloud, and was, therefore, a favourite object of their idolatry. The hail is said to have been “‘very grievous,” such as that there had never been the like in that country; and was not only destructive to the produce of the earth, but capable of destroying both man and beast.

Surely “‘it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! ((Hebrews 10:31).) But let us listen to the effects of these judgments. There were some, it seems, even of the servants of Pharaoh, who feared the word of the Lord, and ‘“made their servants and cattle flee into their houses; but he that regarded not the word of the Lord, left his servants and cattle in the field” to perish. But what said Pharaoh? When visited by the former plagues, Pharaoh was willing to negotiate with Moses, and professed his readiness to let the people go upon certain conditions; but no sooner were those plagues removed, than he returns to his former obstinacy; for the Lord now hardened Pharaoh’s heart. “The Lord (says Scott) had twice declared that he would harden the heart of Pharaoh; ((Exodus 4:21, 5); vii. 3.) but this is the first time in which it is expressly said, that ‘the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart;’ though the expression is several times repeated. Hence we may infer, that as God had before permitted a variety of events, which had a tendency to confirm Pharaoh’s obduracy, so now, in punishment of his presumptuous rebellion, he totally gave him up to his own lusts, and to the power of Satan.” (See Scott’s Notes on ch. vii.) According to Bp. Patrick, “The sentence of destruction was (now) mercifully denounced against him; and God resolved so to dispose things, that he…. - should run headlong to his ruin.” Hitherto he had been the subject of divine forbearance, but, resites and remissions of punishment having only hardened him, he is now “set up as a monument”

of vengeance and of justice. (See note on verse 15.) For man’s obduracy exempts him neither from obligations to obedience, or to punishment. The next plague, however, was so terrible, that Pharaoh puts on the semblance of penitence, and uses the language of contrition. “I have sinned this time (also): the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.” From the weight of several of these judgments, it is likely Pharaoh had personally suffered little; but the thunder had now rolled over his palace, the hail had rattled on his domes, and the fire of heaven had played in awful vividness before his eyes, and he is alarmed in earnest. “Now,” says he, “I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.”

Yet the tempest no sooner ceased, than “Pharaoh sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.”

Notes on the verses

Chap. IX. Ver. 3. Grievous murrain.—We may observe a particular scope and meaning in this calamity, if we consider it in regard to the Egyptians, which would not have existed in respect to any other people.—They held in idolatrous reverence almost every animal, but some they held in particular veneration; as the ox, cow, and ram. Among these Apis and Mnevis are well known; the former being a sacred bull worshipped at Memphis, as the latter was at Heliopolis. A cow or heifer had the like honours at Memphis; and the same practice seems to have been adopted in most of the Egyptian nomes. By the infliction of this judgment, the Egyptian deities sank before the God of the Hebrews. See Bryant.

—Bagster. Ver. 8. Ashes.—“Hot embers,” says Bishop Lowth, in which fire may yet be excited by blowing.—Lectures.—A boil breaking forth with blains.—“It is, in (Deuteronomy 28:27)., emphatically called the ulcer of Egypt; and is now most supposed to be that species of leprosy called elephantiasis.” —Dr. Oothroyd. Ver. 15. For now I will stretch, &c.—Here appears to be a mistranslation, for the Hebrew is in the past tense, and might be thus translated: “For now I had stretched out my hand, and had smitten thee and thy people with the pestilence, and thou hadst been cut off from the earth: but my very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up, [or made thee to stand (Marg.) as a monument,] for to show in thee my power; and that my name might be declared through all the earth.—See Ainsworth.

Ver. 18. Very grievous hail.—(This must have been a circumstance of all others the most incredible to an Egyptian; for in Egypt there fell no rain, the want of which was supplied by dews, and the overflowing of the Nile. The Egyptians must, therefore, have perceived themselves particularly aimed at in these fearful events, especially as they were very superstitious. There seems likewise a propriety in their being punished by fire and water, as they were guilty of the grossest idolatry towards these elements. Scarcely anything could have distressed the Egyptians more than the destruction of the flax, as the whole nation wore linen garments. The ruin of their barley was equally fatal, both to their trade, and to their private advantage.

See Bryant.]—Bagster. Ver. 29. I will stretch forth my hands.—Namely, in prayer, of which this was a usual attitude, (2 Chronicles 6:13). Ps. exliii. 6. (Ezra 9:5). (Job 11:13). Ver. 31. The flax and the barley was smitten.—‘In Egypt, they did not sow (as we do) wheat and rye in autumn, and barley and flax in spring, but both in autumn; so that barley and flax would be forwarder than wheat or rye, which is otherwise with us. ‘Their barley must be almost ripe, for this was about the beginning of Abib, in which month (at the passover) barley is ripe in those countries.” Dr. Wall’s Crit. N.—The flax was rolled.—That and. Ver. 4, Locusts.—(The word arbeh, Locust, is derived from ravah, to multiply, be numerous, &c.

because they are more prolific than any other animal, and because of the immense swarms of them by which different countries, especially the East, are infested. ‘The locust, in entomology, belongs to a genus of insects known among naturalists by the name of Grylli; which includes three species, crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts. The common great brown locust is about three inches in length; has two antennæ about an inch long, and two pair of wings. The head and horns are brown; the mouth and inside of the larger legs bluish; the upper side of the body and upper wings brown, the former spotted with black, and the latter with dusky spots. ‘The back is defended by a shield of a greenish hue; the under wings are of a light brown, tinctured with green, and nearly transparent.

It has a large open mouth; in the two jaws of which it has four teeth, which traverse each other like scissors, being calculated, from their mechanism, to gripe or cut. The general form and appearance of the insect is that of the grasshopper, so well known in this country. —Bagster. Thevenot says, they come in vast clouds, which extend from fifteen to eighteen miles in length, and from nine to twelve in breadth, so as to obscure the brightest day. ‘This is confirmed by other travellers. —Orient. it. See (Joel 2:20) Lit. See (Joel 2:10). Ver. 5. The face of the earth.—The Hebrew reads, “Thee.” The Chaldee explains this of the sun, which is often called by way of ease of heaven, and may be here called the eye of the earth, as essential to our seeing material objects.

A cloud of locusts, as just mentioned, shades the sun. Jer. 6. a thy houses.—Dr. Shaw, speaking of the locusts, like dark clouds, says, “they entered into our houses, and bed-chambers, like as many bees.” Ver. 13, East wind.—{These fearful insects are described by both ancient and modern writers as being brought by one wind, and carried off by another, in such clouds, as to darken the sun, covering the earth, wherever they alight many leagues round, and six or eight inches in depth; and devouring every thing with such rapidity, that fire itself eats not so fast; and winter instantly succeeds to the bright scenes of spring. The Egyptians had gods in whom they trusted to deliver them from these terrible invaders; but by this judgment they were taught, that it was impossible to stand before Moses, the ‘servant of Jehovah.

See Bryant.|—Bagster. Ver. 19. A strong west wind.—In the Hebrew it is “A strong sea-wind;”* i.e., from the Mediterranean Sea, which was N. W. of Egypt. The fact is, a S. E. wind, from the Red Sea, blew them hither, and a N. W. drove them back. Ver. 21. Darkness which may be felt.—Margin, “That one may feel darkness.” [As the Egyptians not only worshipped the light and sun, but also paid the same veneration to night and darkness, nothing could be more apposite than this punishment of palpable and coercive darkness, such as their luminary Osiris could not dispel. See Bryant.]—Bagster. Taylor (the late editor of Calmet) understands this of a remarkably dense fog, such as we have in London, and which has been sometimes so thick, that it has been said proverbially, “it may be cut with a knife.”

This would appear to the Egyptians as miraculous as any of the former visitations. Three days, among the Hebrews, often means one whole day, with some part of the preceding and following; as in the cases of Jonah in the whale’s belly, and our Lord in the tomb; and possibly it may be so used here,