And Jehovah said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and set thyself before Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews Let my people go, that they may serve me.
God speaks again to a king who has already refused Him, and the demand has not changed by a word. Two questions follow. Why does God keep sending the same message to a hardened man? And what does "serve me" mean for a nation of slaves?
Moses did not need an appointment. One writer points out how quickly this visit followed the last plague, and how little room Pharaoh had left to hide.
God's messengers, we presume, could enter the palace when the Lord commanded them. No place Pharaoh could go would put him beyond the reach of a message from God. Uninvited, Moses could appear, and very likely unexpectedly too. This proved true again. Moses sprinkled the ashes in front of the king on one day, and appeared early on the next. If Pharaoh had slept during the night, he must have been unsettled to face Moses and Aaron the next morning.
God names Himself by a despised, enslaved people.
"Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, 'Let my people go, that they may serve me.'" The God of the Hebrews was persistent. He would take no denial. The slaves of Pharaoh, of Israel's race, had One who took up their cause. True, no invasion from beyond Egyptian territory threatened the security of the land. But a power did threaten its peace again. Pharaoh had felt that power before, and all the might of his armies could not deal with it, or even touch it.
But the name meant nothing to Pharaoh. He judged this God by the state of His people.
He knew nothing of the Lord, the invisible and eternal God, and he laughed at the idea of His power. Were not the Lord's people Pharaoh's own slaves?
The demand is never just "let them go." Each time, it is release for something.
And note, it is "that they may hold a feast to me." If they were to leave Pharaoh behind, it was so that they might begin with God. This was a great change. Instead of toiling under Pharaoh's taskmasters, they were to feast in the company of the Lord.
Why did they have to leave the country at all? The service God asked for had no place in Egypt.
The Exodus is the separation of the people of God from the world. One feature of the scene struck me. Israel was to go out of Egypt to serve the Lord, or hold a feast to Him. They could not serve Him or sacrifice to Him in the land of their slavery, in front of that people. Their religious service was of such a character that Egypt would not tolerate it.
God's own reputation was bound up in getting them out.
A salvation which would have left them still in Egypt could not possibly be God's salvation. We must also keep in mind the Lord's purpose in saving Israel and in destroying Pharaoh. It was "that His name might be declared throughout all the earth." What declaration of that name or character could there be if His people were to try to worship Him in Egypt?
The message that starts here goes on to say why Pharaoh was still alive.
A third time the word of the Lord came to Moses: "Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh." A protest followed. The words should be read to mean this: though God had stretched out His hand, He had not yet cut Pharaoh off. He kept him alive, so that Pharaoh might magnify God's name, either by humbling himself or by rejecting the divine warning.
- Demand. The same words come again, unchanged. God takes no denial, and no palace puts a man beyond the reach of His message.
- Owner. He calls Himself the God of the Hebrews. The slaves Pharaoh counted as property had One who took up their cause, and the king's armies could not touch His power.
- Purpose. They are not just let go, they are let go to serve. They leave Pharaoh's taskmasters to begin with God, and trade toil for a feast.
- Distance. That service could not happen inside Egypt. A salvation that left them there would not be God's salvation, and would tell the world nothing true about His name.
- Mercy. Pharaoh was still alive only because God kept him alive. He had space to humble himself, or else to become proof of the power he refused.
For I will at this time send all my plagues to thy heart, and on thy bondmen, and on thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.
Plague after plague has already struck Egypt. Now Moses returns with the heaviest warning yet: this time God will strike Pharaoh himself, so the king who boasted that no one was like him will learn there is no one like God.
The wording itself sets this warning apart from the ones before it.
The way this solemn announcement is made in Exodus 9:14 points to a special and singular character in these grave events. Nothing in the history of nations, then or since, has matched them.
God kept the threat of "all my plagues" open. Pharaoh heard that more was coming, but not what.
He had no rest. No one could bribe or ignore the God of the Hebrews. God demanded unconditional surrender, and sooner or later the king had to give it. Severe plagues had already come. More could follow, and would, if the king stayed stubborn. "All My plagues," said God. What would they be? They came one by one, and God announced the next only when the last had failed to break the king's obstinacy.
God aims the plagues at Pharaoh himself, not only at his land. Older translations read "to your heart" where the ESV has "on you yourself." One writer sets God's words to Pharaoh beside His words to Moses about the same events.
To the proud Pharaoh, who in his haughtiness had said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go" (Ex. 5:2), God showed him his own nothingness. He was one of the inhabitants of the earth who are counted as nothing before Him… God said to Pharaoh, "I will at this time send all My plagues to your heart." But to Moses He says, "I will… multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt."
Pharaoh could come to know God in one of two ways, and his refusal decided which.
Pharaoh said he did not know the Lord, but Pharaoh must know Him (Ex. 5:2; Ex. 9:14). If Pharaoh would disown Him in goodness, he must know Him in righteousness. His judgments were now coming into full view, and "the Lord is known by the judgment which He executes." As His holy prophet says to Him, "When your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness." God would be known in grace. But if Egypt refuses that lesson, she must know Him in the raised hand of power.
God's closing phrase was Egypt's own claim for its king.
He was the god made flesh. He was actually divine, and at times would appear in a local group of three as one of its deities. In his own kingdom, and by flattering rulers abroad, he was addressed as a "god" — he even offered incense to himself! There was deep meaning in Pharaoh's enormous statues. They towered above temples and obelisks in city and plain, looking down on ordinary mortals… the mightiest, the most terrible, the supreme, none like him in all the earth.
The plagues then showed who really controls the natural world.
By His plagues, God showed that the heavenly bodies were only His servants. He called up darkness and hid the sun and moon from human sight. He also showed that the animal and vegetable kingdoms obeyed Him. He commanded, and insects, reptiles, fish and animals either arose or died, and at His word the trees and the fruit of the field perished… He proved Himself to be God, both creating and overruling.
One writer explains why God, who delights in mercy, still had to act.
God was about "to do His work, His strange work, and perform His act, His unusual act." Judgment is His "strange work." He delights in mercy, but He must act consistently with all that He is. He had borne with great patience the many provocations of this proud and insolent monarch. By refusing to let God's people go, that king had made himself the declared enemy of God. So he brought on himself the necessity of learning that "Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished."
- Refusal. Pharaoh said he did not know the Lord. The plagues are God's answer to that claim.
- Reach. The blow falls on the king himself, not only on his land. Older translations read that God sends the plagues "to your heart."
- Rival. Egypt called Pharaoh a god with none like him on earth. God claims that phrase for Himself, commanding darkness, insects, animals and trees at will.
- Reluctance. Judgment is God's strange work. He delights in mercy, and acts only after long patience.
- Result. Pharaoh will know the Lord either way — in grace if he receives it, or in the raised hand of power.
For now shall I put forth my hand, and I will smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
Just before the plague of hail, God sends Moses to Pharaoh with the sharpest message the king had yet heard. It tells him what God could already have done to him — and had not done. The words look back, not forward. Pharaoh stands at the height of his power, yet he is alive only because God has held back His hand.
The point of the words is that Pharaoh's survival was never his own achievement. He had defied God again and again, yet God had not carried out the sentence he deserved.
God tells him that his life was completely in God's hands. He could cut him off, but He had not… And why was he kept alive? It was to show him God's power, and to declare God's name throughout all the earth (15-16).
Pharaoh's cruelty did not begin with Moses' visits. He had been crushing Israel for years before God moved to rescue them. Judgment would have been just at any point along the way.
God could rightly have cut him off in his sin against Him at that time. Instead He bore with the wicked king. In the end He hardened his heart in His government of the world, so that Pharaoh rushed headlong into the jaws of death in a way designed to show God's power.
If God did not strike him down, He had a reason. God had raised Pharaoh to that height. The fall of a man so high would carry much further than the fall of an ordinary man.
God knew the stubborn self-will and pride of this man. Working behind the scenes, He raised him up to a place where he could keep mistreating His people, and even step it up, and so bring matters to a head. The time was now right for God to deal with him, and in doing so to display His power in such a way that His name would be declared throughout all the earth. A scripture like Joshua 2:8-11 bears witness that the name of Jehovah was declared that way in those days. And even in our day, 3,500 years later, the fame of it has not died away.
That raises an obvious worry. If God kept Pharaoh alive for His own purposes, was Pharaoh's wickedness God's doing? Commentators are firm on this. The evil was already there. God's part was to expose it and at last to seal it.
God never makes a man bad. Pharaoh was already a bad man, and he grew worse by resisting God's most striking appeals. What God did was put him on show. He had been raised from among men to such a height that his downfall would strike consciences far and wide throughout the world. He was hard from the start, and at last God sealed him up in a judicial hardening.
That distinction matters. God's patience with a man He could have destroyed does not mean the man was ever chosen for ruin.
The wicked are not chosen for eternal misery. Far from it. We find that God bears with them — vessels of wrath — with great patience. They are fitted for destruction not by Him, but by their own deeds.
Pharaoh read God's restraint as weakness. Each pause looked to him like proof that nothing final would ever come. That mistake is what makes this verse a warning, not a comfort.
God showed His power at least in part when His dreadful judgment finally fell on Egypt. It came after much patience and many earlier steps, and through them all Pharaoh clearly told himself that nothing could touch him. God is patient today too, sending warning after warning to a stubborn world. Yet He will show His power, suddenly and terribly, to a world that is startled and still hard.
- Spared. The verse is God telling a king that he is alive on borrowed time. God could have cut him off already. He chose instead to hold back His hand.
- Purposed. God kept him alive for a reason — to show His power in him and to spread His name through the whole earth. That report has still not died away.
- Endured. Pharaoh's cruelty long predates Moses' mission. What looks like slowness is God's patience with a man He could rightly have destroyed.
- Responsible. God never made Pharaoh bad. He exposed a wickedness already there, and at last sealed it in judicial hardening. Their own deeds, not God's choice, fit those who perish for destruction.
- Warned. Pharaoh mistook the delay for immunity. The same patience runs on today, warning after warning — and it ends the same way, when God shows His power suddenly.
And for this very cause have I raised thee up, to shew thee my power; and that my name may be declared in all the earth.
God pauses to tell Egypt's king why he is still alive and still on his throne. The answer has nothing to do with Pharaoh's greatness. These few words also raise one of the hardest questions in the Bible: how do God's sovereignty and human responsibility fit together?
The words follow a warning: God could have wiped Pharaoh out already. So "raised you up" starts with keeping him alive.
God tells him that his life was wholly in divine hands. He might cut him off, but He had not. God, of whom Pharaoh had known nothing at all, controlled his destiny... And why was he kept alive? It was to show him God's power, and that God's name might be declared throughout all the earth.
The height of the throne mattered too.
If Pharaoh had been an ordinary man in Egypt, no one would have seen his stubborn heart in public. But God raised him to a high place... Every fresh show of Pharaoh's stubborn will only brought out a fresh show of the mighty power of God. His pursuit of Israel only put before people the mighty power that could dry up the Red Sea, save His people, and destroy Pharaoh and his army.
The verse says God raised Pharaoh up. It does not say God made him evil. Commentators are firm on that line.
God never made any man bad. But He may give people up to the consequences of their own folly and evil, and in certain cases He does. That is, He hardens in judgment those who disregard and reject His grace... Pharaoh was wicked, and his wickedness grew in proportion to the patience God displayed. In the end the God he had despised blinded him in judgment and made him an example. All are responsible. Sin destroys the capacity, not the responsibility of obeying God.
So the hardening is not God picking a victim at random. It is a sentence that fits the man.
Pharaoh was already resisting God. He was already treating the people of God with cruel brutality. So the hardening of Pharaoh's heart was an act of God's government, and it was deserved. It was not at all an arbitrary use of sovereignty. What is more, we find Pharaoh hardening his own heart again and again. Who can fault God for doing to him what he deliberately did for himself?
Egypt was the leading world power of its day, and its king met God's claim with defiance.
The king stood in proud defiance of the LORD. "Who is the LORD?" he said... But God was carrying on His purpose. He was showing that man at his best was a failing creature, and that when he received power and authority he used it against God. It was right that God should show man for what he is, and set him aside to make room for the only Man who is able to rule. For this reason God raised Pharaoh up, so that in him the power of the world would be set aside.
God aimed at an audience far beyond Egypt, and the fame of it has lasted for thousands of years.
God knew the stubborn self-will and pride of this man. Working behind the scenes, He raised him up to a place where he could carry on the ill-treatment of His people, and even make it worse, and so bring things to a head. The hour was now ripe for God to deal with him, and to display His power in such a way that His name would be declared throughout all the earth. A scripture such as Joshua 2:8-11 bears witness that in those days the name of the Lord really was declared. And even in our day, 3,500 years later, the fame of it has not died away.
Paul's line "the Scripture says to Pharaoh" is itself striking, since no Bible existed in Pharaoh's day — God spoke through Moses, and the record is God's own Word.
The words of Moses would die away as soon as they were spoken, and if there had been no record of them, God's words could not have been recalled; but being recorded, it can be said, "The Scripture says to Pharaoh." This claims for Scripture that it is the Word of God.
Israel deserved judgment as much as Egypt did. Why one received mercy and the other hardening was not a question of merit.
Both were wicked — Israel and Pharaoh. Simple righteousness would have condemned both. He has mercy on one, and hardens the other. This is sovereignty. He proves Himself not only righteous — the day of judgment will prove that — but proves Himself God. This matters for us all: without it none would be saved.
Holding both truths does not mean solving them.
We believe both statements — divine sovereignty and human responsibility — but we are not pretending to reconcile them in a logical way. Perhaps, as finite beings, we are never meant to do so in this world.
- Spared. Pharaoh's life was in God's hands. God could have cut him off, but kept him alive on purpose.
- Raised. God set a stubborn man high, so that everyone could see his defiance and God's answer.
- Not corrupted. God never made him bad. The hardening was judgment on a man who kept refusing grace, and the responsibility stayed his.
- Displayed. God set aside the world's strongest kingdom, showing what man does with power and making room for the only Man fit to rule.
- Declared. God's name travelled far beyond Egypt, and 3,500 years later the fame of it has still not died away.
Dost thou still exalt thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?
The plagues have already battered Egypt. Before the hail falls, God puts one charge to Pharaoh. The words name the real issue behind his refusal: self-exaltation against a people God calls His own.
The dispute did not start with this verse. It goes back to God's first demand, and to one word in it: "My".
The word to him was, "Let My people go …" So the Lord at once claimed the people as His. But for a century or two the Pharaohs of Egypt had regarded the people as theirs, and as their slaves. So from the outset the issue was joined. Jehovah claimed the people that Pharaoh regarded as his own. Which claimant would prevail? The issue could not be in doubt for one moment.
Pharaoh thought he was holding down slaves. God counts it differently. The same principle later stopped a persecutor in his tracks.
We must take note of verse 17. In it we find an early example of a principle: God accepts what is done against His people as done against Himself. It came to light most clearly when these words stopped Saul of Tarsus: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" … By exalting himself against the children of Israel, Pharaoh was exalting himself against God. So he was hurrying on to his doom.
One commentator puts a picture behind the words "exalting yourself". He also answers a question the verse raises: why is this man still alive at all?
A protest followed. The words should read like this: God had stretched out His hand, yet He had not cut Pharaoh off. He kept him alive, so that Pharaoh might be the means of magnifying God's Name — either by humbling himself, or by rejecting the divine warning. "You are still exalting yourself" — like a dam set to hold back the waters.
Moses does not flatter the king. The tone of the message tells Pharaoh — here called Meneptah — where he really stands.
But more. God tells him that his life was wholly in divine hands. He might cut him off, but He had not. Meneptah had known nothing at all about God, yet God controlled his destiny… No Pharaoh had ever been spoken to like this before, we may be sure. Courtiers might flatter and cringe before the king. Moses and Aaron did neither… This was the language of One who claimed to be above all. He had raised up Pharaoh, and He had absolute power over every living thing. It was the language of God, the one true God, speaking to His creature. And that creature was really a disobedient worm of the dust, though he might think of himself as an absolute ruler.
The order of events matters here. God's hardening answers a testimony already refused; it does not cause the refusal.
God had dealt with Pharaoh graciously. He gave him chance after chance to agree to what He asked. Still Pharaoh hardened his heart, and showed his deep-seated hatred and hostility to God and His people. Now this proud enemy is to come under the judicial hardening of God… Unbelief never starts as the result of judicial hardening on God's part. But let there be no doubt that there is such a thing as hardening. Two errors are equally wrong. One says this hardening comes before God first gives His testimony to men. The other denies that God may righteously use His sovereign right and harden a man after he has refused that testimony.
The charge in verse 17 leads straight into a judgment. But the warning itself is an offer, and even the animals could be spared.
Pharaoh kept exalting himself against God's people, and so against God Himself. So God tells him that the next day He would send a very heavy hail, such as Egypt had never known before (v. 18). But God graciously warns him that animals left outside would be killed. Some of Pharaoh's servants feared the Word of the Lord and took the warning. Of course their animals were safe. Others had no respect for God's Word, and they suffered for it.
- Claim. God's demand rests on ownership. Israel are His people, though Egypt had held them as its property for generations.
- Challenge. Pharaoh stands against that claim like a dam against a flood. The verse names his sin: self-exaltation, not just stubbornness.
- Identification. God takes what is aimed at His people as aimed at Himself — the same principle heard later in "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"
- Patience. Pharaoh still breathes only because God spared him. His life lay wholly in God's hands, and the hardening came only after he refused God's testimony.
- Outcome. Even the threat of hail held out shelter. Those who feared God's word kept their animals; those who despised it lost them.
Behold, to-morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since its foundation until now.
God gives Pharaoh a full day's notice of the seventh plague. The hail will be worse than any Egypt has known since it became a nation. Why announce a judgment instead of just sending it? What is that one day for?
The threat follows a charge: Pharaoh is still setting himself up against God's people. One writer explains the line just before the hail is named:
Then came a rebuke. The words should be read like this: God had stretched out His hand, yet Pharaoh was not cut off. God spared him, so that either by humbling himself or by rejecting God's warning, he might be the means of making God's Name great. "You are still exalting yourself against my people" — like a dam holding back the waters.
Another writer draws out the reason Pharaoh is still alive — and the way Moses spoke to him.
And why was he preserved in life? It was to show him God's power, and that God's name might be declared throughout all the earth (15-16). Never before had a Pharaoh been so addressed, we may be sure. Courtiers might flatter and cringe before the king. Moses and Aaron did neither.
"About this time tomorrow" was not a vague threat. Pharaoh had watched this pattern play out before.
Moses had said "tomorrow" for the swarms of flies (8:23). The next day they came. He had said "tomorrow" for the cattle plague. The next day came, and the cattle plague appeared (9:5). He had said "tomorrow" for the hail (9:18). On the next day the Lord rained hail on the land. Each time, God sent the plague He had foretold. It did not delay a single day. Just one night came between the warning and the plague each time.
God announced this storm before He sent it. What came showed how far His power reached.
The storm was terrifying. It thundered; it hailed; and the lightning fire ran along the ground. There was hail, and fire mixed with hail, such as no one had ever seen. The One who had power over the waters, the dust, and even over people's bodies had power over the air as well. The God of the Hebrews was almighty.
The announcement is not only a sentence. It hands the Egyptians something to do about it.
God threatens a very heavy hail to fall on man and beast; it would kill everything left out in the open field... God dealt with Pharaoh in this way so that he might know Jehovah and His power. He also acted so that what Jehovah did would make His name known throughout the earth... It was loving and gracious advice God gave through Moses (verse 19). No doubt there were many Egyptians who believed and escaped. The unbelieving suffered. Divine mercy still lingered.
The warning split Pharaoh's own court in two. The dividing line was how each man treated God's word.
Some among Pharaoh's servants feared the Word of the Lord and took the warning to heart. Of course their animals were safe. Others had no respect for God's Word, and they suffered the consequences.
One writer points back to this storm when he describes a judgment yet to come.
The seventh plague in Egypt was one of "hail and fire," a tempest without parallel in the history of that most ancient of kingdoms (Ex. 9:18-25). The coming judgment announced in Revelation will be of a more terrible character, more ruinous and widespread.
One writer finds the same order — warning first, judgment after — at the city of Sodom, where a man named Lot lived.
Before God judges He always warns; and have not you, my friend, had many a warning note falling on your ear? Look at the grace of God in this chapter. The angels find their way to Sodom. They are, if I may say so, evangelists to the house of Lot. They announce what is coming, and they point out a place of safety.
- Pride — Pharaoh kept lifting himself up against God. God left him alive on purpose: to show His power and spread His name through all the earth.
- Notice — every "tomorrow" Moses announced arrived on time. One night stood between the warning and the storm.
- Shelter — the threat came with instructions for escape. Commentators call that real mercy: many Egyptians believed and escaped.
- Divide — the same word split Pharaoh's servants. Those who feared it kept their animals safe. Those who ignored it lost them.
- Preview — a storm without equal in Egypt's history points ahead to a judgment more terrible and more widespread.
And now send, [and] secure thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field all the men and the cattle that are found in the field, and are not brought home -- on them the hail shall come down, and they shall die.
Egypt has already suffered six plagues, and now Moses announces a hailstorm worse than anything the land has known. Yet God tells Pharaoh how to keep his people and animals alive — so why does judgment come with an escape route?
The instruction to bring livestock in from the field is not a taunt. It is help, offered to the very court that had been resisting God.
It was loving and gracious advice that God gave through Moses (verse 19). No doubt there were many Egyptians who believed and escaped. The unbelieving suffered. Divine mercy still lingered.
The same writer suggests where those believers ended up when Israel finally left Egypt:
Those Egyptians who believed the divine warning must have belonged to the mixed multitude that went out with Israel (chapter 12:38).
This verse puts people in the same sentence as the animals. Until now, no plague had taken human life. The danger is real, but it turns on one thing: shelter.
It was the merciful One whose message Moses delivered. He would spare the lives of His creatures, even the least of the cattle, if only they were sheltered from the coming judgment. The hail touched no living creature that was housed (19-21). Up to now we have not read of human life taken by any of the plagues. Now there was that risk, but only if people despised or denied shelter (20-21).
The warning went out to everyone in Pharaoh's household, and it split them. What divided them was not what they heard but what they did with it.
Some of the court believed and took the advice to house their cattle and their servants. Others despised the counsel and lost everything.
An obvious difficulty sits in this verse. The fifth plague killed "all the livestock of the Egyptians" (verse 6) — so what animals are left to rescue here? Commentators differ. One looks again at that word "all":
The answer may be that the word "all" in verse 6 is not meant to be absolute, but is used in a general sense. Or else the Egyptians may have brought in other livestock after the fifth plague.
Another starts with the word for cattle, and then with where the animals were kept:
A word here about the cattle. We learn from 9:3, and also from Genesis 47:16-17, that the Hebrew word covered far more than people would suppose from the language we use today. We suggest the explanation may lie in a difference between two kinds of cattle. Some were left out in the field day and night. Others were housed at times in stalls or other places prepared for them. Exodus 9:3 mentions only cattle in the field, and says nothing about any refuge provided for them at the homesteads. Verse 19, however, shows that cattle could be kept in shelters — a difference that may throw light on the matter. The disease killed all the cattle turned out for grazing. The hail would strike any cattle that had shelters, if they were not brought back to them.
Why hail, and not some other weapon? Because no one can mistake where it comes from. One writer, commenting on hail elsewhere in Scripture, looks back to this chapter:
Hail is a symbol of sharp, crushing judgment, sent straight from heaven. It comes so plainly from heaven that no one can put it down to anyone but God. We believe that history records storms of exceptional violence in which stones weighing a pound, or even a little more, fell with terrible effect, similar to what Exodus 9 records.
- Warned. God announced the hail before it fell, and told Egypt how to survive it. Judgment came with an escape route.
- Sheltered. The escape was simple: bring what you value indoors. The hail touched nothing that was under a roof.
- Divided. One warning reached the whole court and split it. Some believed and housed their people and animals. Others despised the counsel and lost everything.
- Rescued. The Egyptians who believed escaped. Some may have been among the mixed multitude that later walked out of Egypt with Israel.
- Unmistakable. Hail falls from the sky, so no one can put it down to chance. That is why the warning before it was such mercy.
He that feared the word of Jehovah among the bondmen of Pharaoh made his bondmen and his cattle flee into the houses.
The hail was the seventh plague. God announced it a day ahead, and the announcement told people how to survive it. What happened next split Pharaoh's own court in two. Some of his officials acted on what God said. Others ignored it. The only difference between them was what each man did with a word he had heard.
Moses announced judgment. But the message also carried a way out. One writer finds the mercy of God in that offer, down to the care it takes over farm animals.
It was the merciful One whose message Moses delivered — One who would spare the lives of His creatures, even the lowliest of the cattle, if only they were sheltered from the coming judgment. The hail touched no living creature that was under shelter (19-21). Up to this point we have not read of human life taken by any of the plagues. Now there was that risk, but only if a man despised or refused shelter (20-21).
The verse does not say these men feared the hail. It says they feared the word. That fear showed itself in what they did: they moved their servants and animals indoors before the storm came.
Some among Pharaoh's servants feared the word of the Lord and heeded the warning. Of course their animals were safe. But others had no respect for God's word, and they suffered the consequences.
Pharaoh could not claim he did not know. The people closest to him kept telling him the truth. One writer strings together the moments when that happened. This verse is the second.
The Lord always acts for His own glory, for His own name. Yet the king of Egypt was responsible, and his own people and the surrounding nations were witnesses of it. First, the magicians told Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God" (Exodus 8:19). Second, in this verse, those among Pharaoh's servants who feared the word of the LORD hurried their slaves and their livestock into the houses (Exodus 9:20). Third, Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God" (Exodus 10:7). This is evidence enough that the judgments were having their effect on people of every class.
Where did these men end up? Commentators can only infer. One suggests that some of them later walked out of Egypt with Israel.
No doubt there were many Egyptians who believed and escaped. The unbelieving suffered. Divine mercy was still lingering. Those Egyptians who believed the divine warning must have belonged to the mixed multitude that went out with Israel (chapter 12:38).
Readers often stop here with a question. An earlier plague killed the livestock of Egypt, so how were there any left to rescue? One writer faces it head on.
A difficulty may arise when we compare Exodus 9:6 with verse 19. If all the cattle died in the plague, what was left of them for the hail to endanger? We may be quite sure that Moses knew what he was writing... We would suggest here that the explanation may lie in a difference. Some cattle were left out in the field day and night. Others were housed at times in stalls or other places prepared for them. In verse 19 we learn that people could provide shelters for their cattle. The disease killed all the cattle turned out for grazing. The hail would attack any cattle that had shelters, if they were not brought back to them.
Here God offers Egyptians a way out of a plague. One writer notes that a later plague came with no such offer.
Moses told Pharaoh and his princes about the blow that would fall on them. This time he did not offer any of them a chance of escaping it, as he had in the earlier plague of the hail.
The same pattern still holds. One writer applies it directly to the reader.
But we are warned so that we may escape. For there is a way of escape. "Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24).
- Word — God sent a word ahead of the hail; everything in this verse turns on what each man did with it.
- Fear — they feared the word itself, not just the weather. That fear moved servants and livestock indoors before any cloud appeared.
- Shelter — the hail touched nothing under a roof. The warning came with the remedy attached.
- Witness — the men who obeyed served in Pharaoh's own house. He had no excuse left.
- Escape — God warns so that people may escape. The warning does nothing for anyone who will not act on it.
But he that did not regard the word of Jehovah left his bondmen and his cattle in the field.
God warned Egypt before the hail fell. He named the danger and He named the way to survive it: bring people and livestock under cover. This verse records the men who heard that and left everything standing in the open.
This plague came with a way out. The warning was more than a threat. It told people what to do to stay alive, and it was not only for the palace.
There was also something new for the Egyptians here. God gave a warning, so any of the common people who paid attention to the word of the Lord had the chance to act, and that action would save them from the worst of it. The hail storm was so violent that any person or animal left out in it would die.
The same words reached the whole of Pharaoh's court. They did not get the same response.
Some of the court believed, and took the advice to bring their cattle and their servants under cover. Others despised the counsel, and lost everything.
Leaving the servants and animals outside looks like carelessness. One writer gives it a sharper name.
The warning came in time. So the Egyptians could protect their cattle and their servants from the terrible storm that was coming. Some took the warning and did as God directed through Moses. Those who neglected the warning suffered the consequences of their unbelief.
An earlier plague had already killed Egypt's cattle. So how could there be livestock left in the field for the hail to strike? One writer suggests an answer.
Some feel a difficulty when they compare Exodus 9:6 with verse 19. If all the cattle died of the disease, what was left of them to be put in danger by the hail? We suggest the explanation may lie in the difference between cattle left out in the field day and night, and cattle kept at times in stalls or other places prepared for them. The disease attacked and killed all the cattle turned out to graze. The hail would strike any cattle that had shelters, if they were not brought back to them.
The warning in verse 19 was advice, not just an ultimatum. One writer follows the Egyptians who took it beyond the storm.
It was loving and gracious advice that God gave through Moses (verse 19). No doubt there were many Egyptians who believed and escaped. The unbelieving suffered. Divine mercy still lingered. The Egyptians who believed God's warning must have belonged to the mixed multitude that went out with Israel.
The "mixed multitude" means the non-Israelites who walked out of Egypt with Israel.
The form of this judgment is not random. One writer links it to the contempt that brought it on.
If the earth away from God becomes a scene of corruption and ruin, heaven will frown on it too. In the plague of hail we see the result of despising God. Hail is rain chilled into ice. The very mercies of heaven, when despised, are changed into pitiless judgment.
One writer sets Egypt's position beside ours. God has warned people now of a judgment still to come.
People today stand where the Egyptians stood before that fourteenth day of Nisan. They are warned of the coming judgment, so the way of escape is alike as well. The blood of the lamb alone brought deliverance then; the blood of God's Lamb brings deliverance now… And greater interests are at stake now than then. Losing your firstborn is a heavy blow. The everlasting ruin of your soul is a far more terrible disaster.
- Warned. Before the hail, God named the danger and the one action that would save life. This was new in these plagues, and it was open to ordinary Egyptians, not just the palace.
- Divided. The same warning reached the whole court. Some believed it and brought their people in. Others despised the counsel and lost everything.
- Unbelief. What ruined them was not ignorance. They had the word and did nothing with it, and they suffered the consequences of their unbelief.
- Mercy. Even inside judgment God's mercy lingered. The Egyptians who believed escaped. They may well be among the mixed multitude who later walked out of Egypt with Israel.
- Today. Mercies despised turn into pitiless judgment; hail is only rain chilled into ice. People now stand warned as Egypt did. The shelter offered is the blood of God's Lamb, and the soul itself is at stake.
And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out thy hand toward the heavens, that there may be hail throughout the land of Egypt, upon men, and upon cattle, and upon every herb of the field in the land of Egypt.
Egypt has already felt God's hand in its river, its dust, its cattle and its people's bodies. Now God tells Moses to reach toward the sky. This time the blow falls from above. The command names what it will hit: man, beast and every plant. Three questions follow. Why from heaven? Why so total? And why announce it at all?
Judgment has already worked through the earth. Now it comes from above, and one writer shows the logic in that — what usually falls as blessing falls as ice.
If the earth away from God turns into a scene of corruption and desolation like this, heaven will also frown upon it. In the plague of hail we see the result of this despising of God. Hail is rain chilled into ice. The very mercies of heaven, once despised, turn into pitiless judgment.
The command raises a well-known puzzle. Earlier in this chapter a disease killed Egypt's cattle. So what beasts remain for the hail to strike? One commentator refuses to treat this as a slip in the record.
We may be quite sure that Moses knew what he was writing. He would not commit a blunder that left his account in a contradiction an ordinary schoolboy could spot... We suggest here that the explanation may lie in a difference. Some cattle stayed out in the field day and night. Others had stalls or other places prepared for them... The disease attacked and killed all the cattle turned out for grazing. The hail would attack any cattle that had shelters, if they were not brought back to them.
Moses' hand carries the rod that has run through the whole contest with Egypt. It began by swallowing the magicians' rods, and it reappears in plague after plague.
It first swallowed up the rods of Egypt. That showed no strength could stand before God's strength. It gave Egypt notice that it was hard to kick against the goads (Ex. 7:12). But Egypt would not learn that lesson. Then the rod brings the plagues of blood, of frogs, and of lice. At last the magicians admit that they could not measure their strength against the Lord's (Ex. 8:19). It is then used in the plagues of hail (Ex. 9:23), locusts (Ex. 10:13), and darkness (Ex. 10:22).
God sends His warning before the storm arrives, and the warning doubles as instructions. Anyone who believed it could still get out from under it.
It was loving and gracious advice that God gave through Moses (verse 19). No doubt there were many Egyptians who believed and escaped. The unbelieving suffered. Divine mercy still lingered.
That mercy reaches a long way down. The same message that threatens man and beast also offers to spare both.
The message Moses delivered came from the merciful One. He would spare the lives of His creatures, even the lowliest of the cattle, if only they were sheltered from the coming judgment. The hail touched no living creature that was under shelter (19-21). Up to this point we have not read of human life taken by any of the plagues. Now there was that risk, but only for those who despised or refused shelter (20-21).
The command covers the whole country, yet the land where Israel lived stayed dry.
At its appointed time the storm burst. Fire and hail fell on the ground and destroyed trees and plants, and man and beast caught out in its violence. Only in Goshen, "the land of flowers," did nature smile. There the people heard the sound of the storm, but no wrath from heaven fell. The wall of partition separating Israel from Egypt rose right up to the sky.
Hail turns up again later in Scripture. One writer reads it as more than weather — a picture of judgment still ahead.
The hail is frozen drops of rain. Those gentle showers that water the earth so it may bring forth its fruit now turn into death-dealing wrath! For a Christ-rejecting world there is stored up "wrath against the day of wrath," of which the hail is a figure (Ex. 9:22; Hag. 2:17; Ps. 18:12; Rev. 16:21).
- Heaven strikes. God has used the elements one by one. Now the sky, the usual source of rain, becomes the instrument of judgment.
- Heaven warns. God announces the blow before it falls. The warning is loving and gracious advice, not just a threat.
- Heaven shelters. The offer runs all the way down to the lowest animal: the hail touched nothing under cover.
- Heaven divides. The storm covered all Egypt, yet stopped at Goshen — a dividing wall that reached to the sky.
- Heaven forecasts. Hail appears again in Scripture as a figure of wrath still stored up. This day in Egypt is a preview, not a one-off.
And Moses stretched out his staff toward the heavens, and Jehovah gave thunder and hail; and the fire ran along the ground; and Jehovah rained hail on the land of Egypt.
Egypt's seventh plague breaks the moment the staff goes up. Thunder, hail, and fire fall together. Two questions run through the commentators here: who controls the sky, and why God announced this blow before He sent it.
Earlier plagues struck the water, the dust, and people's bodies. This one struck the air.
It thundered; it hailed; and the lightning fire ran along the ground. There was hail, and fire mixed with hail, such as no one had ever seen. He who had power over the waters, the dust, and even over people's bodies, had power over the air as well. The God of the Hebrews was all-powerful. Man and beast must bow under His hand.
One writer sets this plague in a sequence. The ground was already corrupted; now the sky turns against Egypt too.
If the earth away from God is turned into a scene of corruption and ruin, then heaven will frown on it too. In the plague of hail we see the result of this despising of God. Hail is rain chilled into ice. Despise the mercies of heaven, and they turn into pitiless judgment.
The Hebrew behind "thunder" is not only a weather word. It names the storm after God Himself.
The terrible hail came with thunder and with fire (lightning) that ran along the ground. In Hebrew these are called "the voices of God." The storm is a picture of God's wrath in judgment. Revelation mentions hail again and again, and calls it "the plague of hail" (Rev. 8:7, 11:19, 16:21).
God warned Egypt before Moses lifted the staff. The gap between the threat and the storm was itself a kindness.
The advice God gave through Moses was loving and gracious (verse 19). No doubt many Egyptians believed and escaped. The unbelieving suffered. God's mercy still lingered. The Egyptians who believed His warning must have been part of the mixed crowd that went out with Israel (chapter 12:38).
The shelter covered animals as well as people, and it worked without exception.
The message Moses delivered came from the merciful One. He would spare the lives of His creatures, even the lowliest of the cattle, if only they had shelter from the coming blow. Not one living creature under cover was touched by the hail. Until now we have not read of any human life taken by the plagues. Now that risk was there, but only if shelter was despised or refused.
The storm covered the whole land, yet it stopped at a border. Israel heard it without feeling it.
At its appointed time the storm burst. Fire and hail fell on the ground. The storm destroyed the trees and plants, and the people and animals caught out in its violence. Only in Goshen, "the land of flowers," nature smiled. There, though the sound of the storm was heard, no wrath from heaven fell. The wall of partition separating Israel from Egypt rose right up to the sky.
Pharaoh's fright produced words of repentance. Moses saw through them, yet still prayed — and the way the storm ended said as much as the way it began.
Moses, however, was not fooled by this fresh show of repentance and piety. He told Pharaoh outright that he knew he would not keep his promise. Yet he went out and prayed for him, spreading his hands out to the Lord, and the storm stopped as suddenly as it began. In how it started and in how it ended, it proved itself to be an act of God.
One writer reads the first trumpet of Revelation against this scene. He treats its hail and fire as figures drawn from Egypt.
Elsewhere hail is a symbol of sweeping desolation… Fire is another well-known symbol of judgment. The plagues of Egypt supply many of these figures, and there the two come together: "the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth." In Revelation the hail and fire are "mingled with blood," showing that the judgments they stand for destroy life.
- Warning. God announced the blow through Moses before He sent it, so no one in Egypt was struck unwarned.
- Shelter. Anyone who believed the word brought servants and cattle inside. Nothing under cover was struck.
- Storm. Rain chilled into ice. Heaven's ordinary kindness became judgment on a land that despised God.
- Separation. Goshen heard the thunder but felt nothing; the dividing line between Israel and Egypt ran up to the sky.
- Shadow. The storm began and stopped at God's word, and Revelation's trumpets pick up its imagery again.
And there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there had been none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
A storm of hail with fire flashing inside it hit Egypt — worse than anything in its history. Three questions follow: what was God showing by taking hold of the sky, why warn Pharaoh first, and why did the blow leave him unchanged?
The fire in this storm was lightning. The noise that came with it carried a name of its own.
With the terrible hail came fire (lightning) that ran along the ground, and thunder. The Hebrew calls these "the voices of God." The storm is a picture of God's wrath in judgment. Revelation mentions hail again and again, and calls it "the plague of hail" (Rev. 8:7, 11:19, 16:21).
God had already shown His power over the water, the dust, and people's own bodies. The sky was what remained. Even at its worst, this storm stopped short of total ruin.
He who had power over the waters, the dust, and even over people's bodies, had power over the air as well. The God of the Hebrews was all-powerful. Man and beast must bow under His hand. "The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field" (9:25). The land had never known such a storm before, and nothing since has matched it. Yet God showed mercy. The hail struck the flax and the barley — those crops, we conclude, were ruined for that year — but the wheat and the rye escaped, because they had not yet come up. So these crops would give food for the year. The note about the crops tells us the season when the hail came — the early spring — for the barley had formed ears and the flax was in bloom.
God announced this blow a day ahead and told Egypt how to escape it. Commentators call that warning an act of kindness.
The advice God gave through Moses was loving and gracious (verse 19). No doubt many Egyptians believed and escaped. Those who did not believe suffered. God's mercy still lingered. The Egyptians who believed His warning must have belonged to the mixed crowd that went out with Israel (chapter 12:38).
Up to this point no plague had cost a human life. The shelter God named covered animals as well as people.
The message Moses delivered came from the merciful One. He would spare the lives of His creatures, even the lowest of the cattle, if only they had shelter from the coming judgment. The hail touched no living creature that was under cover (19-21). Until now we have not read of any plague taking a human life. Now that risk was real, but only if someone scorned the shelter or withheld it (20-21).
Israel lived in Goshen, and the storm stopped at its border.
At its appointed time the storm burst. Fire and hail fell on the ground. The storm destroyed trees and plants, and the people and animals left out in its fury. Only in Goshen, "the land of flowers," nature smiled. There the sound of the storm reached them, but no wrath from heaven fell. The wall that separated Israel from Egypt rose right up to the sky.
Pharaoh admitted his sin and asked for the thunder to stop — then went back on every word once it did.
The king staggered under the blow and again begged for relief. He even confessed that he had sinned and that the Lord was righteous. Once more he promised to let the people go, if only there would be no more mighty thunder and hail. (Ex. 9:27-28.) This brings Pharaoh's sin to light. He sees his guilt and admits it, yet he keeps on in his evil course — his open war against the Lord.
The record was not left for Egypt alone. One writer sees in these blows a preview of a far wider judgment.
This witness stands even in our own day, and people will remember it until the day of grace gives way to the age of judgment. Then God will act in righteous judgment and wrath, not with Egypt only but with the whole earth, as Revelation 6 - 11, 15, 16 pictures. Of that coming day of judgment the plagues of Egypt were a small sample.
- Warned — God gave a full day's notice and named the way out. The storm came, but not by surprise.
- Sheltered — every person and animal under a roof lived. The loss fell where people ignored the warning.
- Separated — Goshen heard the storm but felt nothing. The line between Israel and Egypt rose right up to the sky.
- Spared — the later crops still stood after the worst storm Egypt had seen, so the year would still have food.
- Sample — the fire and thunder bear the name "the voices of God." The whole plague is a small sample of the judgment Revelation describes for the whole earth.
And the hail smote throughout the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both men and cattle; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field.
The seventh plague ends with a damage report. Two questions follow from it. How complete was the ruin, and who came through it standing?
One writer notes that God's power now reached the sky, and Egypt had no record of such a storm.
It thundered; it hailed; and the lightning fire ran along the ground. There was hail, and fire mixed with hail, and no one had ever seen anything like it. He who had power over the waters, the dust, and even over people's bodies, had power over the sky as well. The God of the Hebrews was all-powerful. Man and beast must bow under His hand... The land had never known such a storm before, and nothing since has matched it.
The verse does not simply list property damage. What the hail struck was the ordinary food supply of both people and animals.
Hail is the symbol of wrath (Ex. 9:18–33; Ex. 10:5–15; Ps. 78:47; Ps. 105:32; Ps. 148:8; Isa. 28:2, 17; Hag. 2:17)... Trees and grass are the simplest and most natural means of life for man and beast: for trees see Gen. 1:29; Gen. 2:9; Deut. 20:19; for grass, Gen. 1:11-12; Deut. 11:15; Ps. 104:14 and Ps. 106:20.
One writer starts from what hail is made of.
Hail is rain chilled into ice. The very mercies of heaven despised are changed into pitiless judgment (Ex. 9:13, etc.).
Another writer follows the same thought, and names the one thing the storm did not subdue.
The hail does not speak of God simply withdrawing. It speaks of that withdrawal becoming a pitiless storm of judgment, and it subdues everything — except, sadly, the heart of man. His pain admits the power that is making him suffer, yet his heart stays hard and unrepentant. So that heart becomes the witness to the wrath it has brought down on itself, and the proof that the wrath is just.
The next two verses put limits on the word "every." They also fix the time of year.
The hail wrecked the crops and destroyed even the trees of the field. Verses 31 and 32 tell us exactly what was growing, and that shows us the time of year. It must have been late February or early March. In Egypt at that time the barley has formed its ears and the flax is in blossom, but the wheat and the rye are not yet standing in the stalk.
Stuart draws mercy out of the same detail.
Yet mercy was shown. The hail struck the flax and the barley — those crops, we conclude, were spoiled for that year — but the wheat and the rye were unharmed, because they had not yet come up. So these crops would still give food for the year.
"All the land of Egypt" stopped at a border. One writer describes what that line meant for Israel.
At the appointed time the storm burst. Fire and hail fell on the ground. It destroyed trees and plants, and every person and animal left out in its violence. Only in Goshen, "the land of flowers," did nature smile. The people there heard the sound of the storm, but no wrath from heaven fell. The wall that separated Israel from Egypt rose right up to the sky.
The hail struck what was left in the field. Egypt had a day's warning, and some people acted on it.
But God kindly warned Pharaoh that animals left outside would be killed. Some of Pharaoh's servants feared the Word of the Lord and took the warning, and of course their animals were safe. Others had no respect for God's Word, and they suffered the consequences.
The storm moved Pharaoh, but the change did not last.
Note Pharaoh's confession, which shows that this plague had made a deep impression on him (verse 27). Pharaoh used the name of "Jehovah" and the name of God (Elohim). "Entreat Jehovah that there be no more voices of God" (literal rendering). What a desperately wicked thing the human heart is. He sinned more after this than before.
- Warning — the ruin fell only on what was left in the open. God gave a day's notice, so anyone who feared His word could take shelter.
- Wrath — hail is rain frozen to ice. Heaven's kindness, once despised, comes back as judgment.
- Reach — the storm claimed the herbs and trees, the plain means of life for people and animals alike.
- Restraint — the wheat and rye had not come up yet, so a harvest survived. Goshen never felt a stone.
- Result — the hail subdued the whole land, but not one heart. Pharaoh confessed, then sinned worse than before.
Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.