Exodus 9:15

15 For now I would have put forth my hand, and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the eretz;

Exodus 9:15 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 9:15

For now will I stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and
thy people with pestilence
Which yet we never find was done; for though this by many is referred to the slaying of the firstborn, yet it is not certain that this was done by the pestilence: besides, Pharaoh was not then smitten, nor his people, only their firstborn; wherefore these words are to be rendered, not in the future, but in the imperfect or preterpluperfect tense, thus; "for when now I stretched out my hand, or if now I had stretched out my hand to smite thee and thy people with pestilence" ^F1; that is, at the time when he smote the cattle with the murrain or pestilence, when he could as well have smote him and his people with it; there was no want of power in God to do it, and had he done it, it would have been all over with him and them: and thou shall be cut off from the earth;
or "thou hadst been, or wouldest have been cut off from the earth" ^F2 must have perished out of it, and been no more in the land of the living.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (ytxlv hte yk) "modo enim cum extendi", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, "vel si extendissem", Fagius, Cocceius; so Jarchi, Gersom, Targ. Onk. & Jon.
F2 (dxktw) "sic fuisses excisus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Cocceius.

Exodus 9:15 In-Context

13 The LORD said to Moshe, "Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Par`oh, and tell him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, that they may serve me.

14 For this time I will send all my plagues against your heart, against your officials, and against your people; that you may know that there is none like me in all the eretz.

15 For now I would have put forth my hand, and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the eretz;

16 but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the eretz;

17 as you still exalt yourself against my people, that you won't let them go.