Exodus 9 Footnotes

9:6 If all the Egyptians’ livestock were killed in the plague, where did the livestock come from that later died in the hailstorm (vv. 19-25)? The Bible doesn’t explain this; however, two possibilities exist. The first assumption is that the word “all” should be taken literally. In that case the livestock later killed in the hailstorm were imported from farther up the Nile river, perhaps from Cush, or in the interval between the plagues the Egyptians had acquired some of the Israelites’ flocks. Alternatively, the word “all” in v. 6 might be used here in a restrictive sense to mean “all that were in a particular area,” “all who were afflicted,” or perhaps simply “the great majority.”