(4) The Lord shall sever.—Comp. Exodus 8:22. Apparently Israel had been subjected to the first, second, and third plagues, which caused annoyance only, and not loss. Their exemption began with the fourth plague, and then probably continued without intermission, though it is not always mentioned.

(5) The Lord appointed a set time.—As murrain is not uncommon in Egypt, especially in the Delta, and the coming affliction might therefore be ascribed by the Egyptians to natural causes, God took care to mark its miraculous character (1) by appointing a time; (2) by exempting the cattle of Israel; (3) by making the disease fatal to all the cattle of the Egyptians that were left “in the field.”
Tomorrow.—The delay allowed any Egyptians who believed Moses to save their cattle by housing them.

(7) Pharaoh sent.—The Pharaoh evidently did not believe it possible that there should be such a widespread destruction of the Egyptian cattle without the Hebrew cattle suffering at all. He therefore sent persons to inquire and report on the facts. These persons found the announcement of Moses fulfilled to the letter. This was the more surprising, as Goshen consisted mainly of the low flat tract bordering on the Menzaleh marshes.
The heart of Pharaoh was hardened.—Even the exact correspondence of the result with the announcement did not soften the heart of the king. It remained dull and unimpressed—literally, “heavy” kâbêd). Loss of property would not much distress an absolute monarch, who could easily exact the value of what he had lost from his subjects.

(8) Ashes of the furnace.—Furnaces in Egypt were either for the melting of metal, the preparing of lime, or the baking of bricks. It was probably from a furnace of this last kind that the ashes were now taken. Much of Goshen had been converted into a brick-field (Exodus 1:14; Exodus 5:7-13); and though most of the bricks made would be simply dried in the sun, a portion would be subjected to artificial heat in brick-kilns. When ashes from one of these kilns were made the germs of a disease that was a sore infliction, their own wrongdoing became to the Egyptians a whip wherewith God scourged them.

(10) Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven.—Presenting it, as it were, to God, in evidence of His people’s wrongs.
A boil breaking forth with blains.—Heb., an inflammation, producing pustules. Diseases of this character are not uncommon in Egypt (comp. Deuteronomy 28:27), but they are not often very severe; nor do they attack indifferently man and beast. The miraculous character of the plague was shown (1) by its being announced beforehand; (2) by its severity (Exodus 9:11); (3) by its universality (Exodus 9:11); and (4) by its extension to animals.

(11) The magicians could not stand before Moses.—It is uncertain whether the magicians were present accidentally, or had come for the express purpose of “withstanding Moses” (2 Timothy 3:8). The latter may be suspected, as the plague was made to fall with special violence upon them.

(12) The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh.—The judicial punitive hardening of Pharaoh’s heart by God Himself now began. As with the heathen in later times, “because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (Romans 1:28), so now with Pharaoh: because he had twice hardened himself—i.e., resisted an impression made upon him, and crushed his inclination to yield to it (Exodus 8:15; Exodus 8:32), God hardened him. (See the comment on Exodus 4:21.)

(13) Early in the morning.—Comp, Exodus 7:15; Exodus 8:20.

(14) I will . . . send all my plagues upon thine heart.—The naturally obdurate heart of Pharaoh, which he had further indurated by his own voluntary action (Exodus 8:15; Exodus 8:32), and which God had begun to harden penally (Exodus 9:12), was now to be softened by a repetition of blow after blow, until it should finally succumb, and yield, and humble itself under the mighty hand of God, and consent to the departure of the whole people, with flocks, and herds, and “little ones.”

(15) For now I will stretch out my hand.—The words admit of this translation, but the context will not allow it. Translate—And 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.

(16) And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up.—Rather, but truly on this account have I made thee stand—i.e., kept thee alive, not for thy deserts, not even in pity, but only “for to show in thee My power.” Thou hast provoked Me so that long since thou wouldst have been “cut off from the earth,” only that My glory will be the more shown forth by thy continuance in life, and by the further plagues and punishments whereto thou wilt be subjected.
That my name may be declared.—Comp. Exodus 14:17; Exodus 15:14-16, &c.

(17) As yet exaltest thou thyself?—Heb., Dost thou still exalt, or oppose, thyself against My people?—i.e., Art thou not tired of the contest? Dost thou still, in thy folly, continue it?

(18) Such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof.—Rain, and even hail, are not unknown at the present day in Lower Egypt, though they are, comparatively speaking, rare phenomena. Thunderstorms are especially uncommon, and when they occur are for the most part mild and harmless. A thunderstorm which killed a man in Thevenot’s time (Voyages, vol. i., p. 344) was regarded as most extraordinary, and “spread universal consternation.” There is hail from time to time between November and March; but it very seldom does any considerable damage.

(19) Gather thy cattle.—The peculiar circumstances of Egypt, where the whole country was overflowed by the Nile during some months of each year, caused the provision of shelter for cattle to be abnormally great. Every year, at the time of the inundation, all the cattle had to be “gathered” into sheds and cattle-yards in the immediate vicinity of the villages and towns, which were protected from the inundation by high mounds. Thus it would have been easy to house all the cattle that remained to the Egyptians after the murrain, if the warning here given had been attended to generally.

(22) Upon every herb of the field.—The damage that hail can do to crops is well known, and has given rise among ourselves to a special form of insurance. Such a storm as that here described would necessarily have destroyed all vegetation that was more than a few inches high, and must have greatly injured shrubs and fruit-trees. (See Exodus 9:25; Exodus 9:31.)

(23) The fire ran along upon the ground.—Heb., fire walked earthwards. Kalisch and Knobel understand by this mere ordinary lightning, but Aben-Ezra, Canon Cook, and others think that the phenomenon was such as our Version well expresses. There is no doubt that the electric fluid occasionally takes a form which has something of permanency, continuing several seconds, or even minutes, either stationary or with a slow motion. Appearances of this kind have been called “fire-balls,” and indicate an excessive electrical disturbance, involving great peril to life and property. If the expression “fire walked earthwards” does not imply anything of this kind, yet the peculiar phrase of Exodus 9:24 would seem to do so.

(24) Fire mingled with the hail.—Heb., a fire infolding itself in the midst of the hail. (Comp. Ezekiel 1:4; and see the comment on Exodus 9:23.)

(25) The hail . . . brake every tree of the field.—What is meant is, not that the hail “brake the mightiest trees to fragments” (Millington, Plagues of Egypt, p. 135), but that it broke off the small boughs and twigs, so damaging the trees and, if they were fruit-trees, destroying the prospect of fruit.

(27) Pharaoh sent.—It is evident that the Pharaoh was more impressed by this plague than by any preceding one. This may have been partly because it caused destruction of human life, partly on account of its extraordinary and awful character. It must be borne in mind that the storm was still continuing, and gave no sign of coming to a natural end (Exodus 9:29; Exodus 9:33).
I have sinned this time—i.e., This time I confess that I have sinned in resisting Jehovah; I do not any more maintain that I have acted right.
The Lord is righteous.—Heb., Jehovah is the Just One—a form of speech implying that Jehovah, and He alone, was just.
Wicked.—Heb., the sinners. “I and my people” stand in contrast with God and His people. Previously Pharaoh had denounced the Israelites as idlers and hypocrites (Exodus 5:8; Exodus 5:17); now he admits that it is only he and his people that are to blame. The confession is satisfactory, except in so far as it divides between Pharaoh and the Egyptians the blame which was almost wholly his.

(29) That thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord’s.—Comp, Exodus 9:15. It was the general belief of the Egyptians, as of most ancient nations, that each country had its own god or gods. Pharaoh had already admitted Jehovah’s power (Exodus 8:8), and now regarded Him as the God of the Hebrews (Exodus 8:28). God desired to have it generally acknowledged that He was the God of the whole earth.

(31) The flax and the barley was smitten.—Flax was grown largely in Egypt, since linen garments were very generally worn by the people, and were the necessary attire of the priests (Herod. ii. 37). Mummies also were swathed in linen bandages (Herod. ii. 86); and soldiers wore linen corselets (Herod. ii. 182, 3:47). Barley was grown as food for horses, as an element in the manufacture of beer, and as a material for an inferior kind of bread. The flax is “bolled”—i.e., forms its seed-vessel—towards the end of January or beginning of February, and the barley comes into ear about the same time. These facts fix the date of this plague, and help to fix the dates both of the earlier and the later ones.

(32) The wheat and the rie.—“Rie,” or rye, is a wrong translation. It is a grain which has never been grown in Egypt. The only three kinds of grain cultivated were wheat, barley, and the holcus sorghum, or doora. There is no doubt that this last is intended by the Hebrew cussemeth, which is a word derived from the Egyptian. The wheat is a full month later than the barley in Egypt, and does not come into ear till March. The holcus sorghum may be grown at any time, except during the inundation. If sown with the wheat, it would ripen about the same period.
They were not grown up.—Heb., they were late, or dark. The ear was undeveloped, and lay hid in the low tufts that grew like grass.

(33) Moses went out of the city . . . and spread abroad his hands.—Moses did not fear the storm. Though it still raged, he quitted the shelter of the city, and went out into the midst of it, and spread out his hands to God, when lo! at once the rain, and hail, and thunder ceased at his bidding, and soon “there was a great calm.” As Millington observes—“Moses knew that he was safe, though all around might be destroyed; the very hairs of his head were all numbered, not one of them could perish. Standing there under the tempestuous canopy of heaven, bareheaded, in the attitude of prayer, he spread abroad his hands unto the Lord, and the thunder and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth” (Plagues of Egypt, p. 135).

(34) Pharaoh . . . sinned yet more, and hardened his heart.—As Pharaoh had never been so much moved previously, so it now required a greater effort of his will to “harden his heart” than it had ever done before; and thus he now “sinned yet more” than he had as yet sinned. It seems strange that the mercy of God should still have allowed him one other chance (Exodus 10:3-6).