Exodus 9:23

23 Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire came down on the earth. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt;

Exodus 9:23 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 9:23

And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven
The same which Aaron had made use of before, but was now in the hand of Moses, and whose rod it properly was: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the
ground,
hot thunderbolts, which struck their flocks, ( Psalms 78:48 ) and hail which fell so thick and weighty as to destroy both men and cattle, and break trees in pieces, and spoil the corn, the grass, and the tender herb; and fire, that is lightning, which descended so low, and in such quantities, as ran along the ground, and consumed all it met with. Artapanus ^F7, an Heathen writer, who speaks of this storm of hail, says, that Moses, besides the hail, caused earthquakes by night, so that those that escaped the earthquakes were taken away by the hail, and those that escaped the hail perished by the earthquakes, which he says overthrew all the houses, and most of the temples: and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt;
upon Egypt, where rain was not common, and on all the land of Egypt, when in some parts of it it was scarce known, and hail as thick as rain; ice, snow, and hail, are most rarely if ever seen there, the air not being cold enough for the production of them ^F8. This was the Lord's immediate doing, when there was no likelihood of it, nor any appearance of second causes concurring to produce it, and came at the exact time he had foretold it should; all which were very extraordinary.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 435, 436.
F8 Vid. Scheuchzer. Physica Sacra, vol. 1. p. 139.

Exodus 9:23 In-Context

21 Those who did not regard the word of the Lord left their slaves and livestock in the open field.

22 The Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven so that hail may fall on the whole land of Egypt, on humans and animals and all the plants of the field in the land of Egypt."

23 Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire came down on the earth. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt;

24 there was hail with fire flashing continually in the midst of it, such heavy hail as had never fallen in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

25 The hail struck down everything that was in the open field throughout all the land of Egypt, both human and animal; the hail also struck down all the plants of the field, and shattered every tree in the field.