Exodus 9:22

22 ADONAI said to Moshe, "Reach out your hand toward the sky, so that there will be hail in all the land of Egypt, falling on people, animals and everything growing in the field, throughout the land of Egypt."

Exodus 9:22 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 9:22

And the Lord said unto Moses
When the morrow was come, the fifth day of the month Abib: stretch forth thine hand toward heaven;
with his rod in it, as appears from the next verse, to show that the following plague would come from the heaven, that is, the air, and from God, who dwells in the heaven of heavens: that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt;
not only in that spot, and near it, where Moses stood, and from that part of the heaven towards which he stretched forth his hand, but from the whole heaven all over the land of Egypt; which shows it to be an unusual and extraordinary hail, for a hail storm seldom reaches far, a mile it may be, or some such space; but never was such an one heard of as to reach through a whole country, and so large an one as Egypt: upon man and upon beast;
such as belonged to those who would take no warning, nor attend to the word of the Lord to fetch home their servants and cattle: and upon every herb of the field throughout the land of Egypt;
it should fall so thick, that scarce an herb would escape it.

Exodus 9:22 In-Context

20 Whoever among Pharaoh's servants feared what ADONAI had said had his slaves and livestock escape into the houses;

21 but those who had no regard for what ADONAI had said left their slaves and livestock in the field.

22 ADONAI said to Moshe, "Reach out your hand toward the sky, so that there will be hail in all the land of Egypt, falling on people, animals and everything growing in the field, throughout the land of Egypt."

23 Moshe reached out with his staff toward the sky, and ADONAI sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. ADONAI caused it to hail on the land of Egypt -

24 it hailed, and fire flashed up with the hail; it was terrible, worse than any hailstorm in all of Egypt since it became a nation.