Exodus 9:13-35

The Seventh Plague: Hail

13 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh. Tell him: This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews says: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

14 Otherwise, I am going to send all My plagues against you, your officials, and your people. Then you will know there is no one like Me in all the earth.

15 By now I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been obliterated from the earth.

16 However, I have let you live for this purpose: to show you My power and to make My name known in all the earth.^[a]

17 You are still acting arrogantly against^[b] My people by not letting them go.

18 Tomorrow at this time I will rain down the worst hail that has ever occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.

19 Therefore give orders to bring your livestock and all that you have in the field into shelters. Every person and animal that is in the field and not brought inside will die when the hail falls on them."

20 Those among Pharaoh's officials who feared the word of the Lord made their servants and livestock flee to shelters,

21 but those who didn't take the Lord's word seriously left their servants and livestock in the field.

22 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven and let there be hail throughout the land of Egypt-on man and beast and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt."

23 So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail. Lightning struck the earth, and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt.

24 The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

25 Throughout the land of Egypt, the hail struck down everything in the field, both man and beast. The hail beat down every plant of the field and shattered every tree in the field.

26 The only place it didn't hail was in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were.

27 Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. "I have sinned this time," he said to them. "The Lord is the Righteous One, and I and my people are the guilty ones.

28 Make an appeal to the Lord. There has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don't need to stay any longer."

29 Moses said to him, "When I have left the city, I will extend my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know the earth is the Lord's.

30 But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear the Lord God."

31 The flax and the barley were destroyed because the barley was ripe^[c] and the flax was budding,

32 but the wheat and the spelt were not destroyed since they are later crops.^[d]

33 Moses went out from Pharaoh and the city, and extended his hands to the Lord. Then the thunder and hail ceased, and rain no longer poured down on the land.

34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his officials.

35 So Pharaoh's heart hardened, and he did not let the Israelites go, as the Lord had said through Moses.

Exodus 9:13-35 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 9

This chapter relates the plague of murrain upon the cattle, and which yet was not upon the cattle of the Israelites, Ex 9:1-7 and the plague of boils and blains on man and beast, Ex 9:8-11 and Pharaoh's heart being hardened, Moses is sent to him with a message from the Lord, threatening him that all his plagues should come upon him, and particularly the pestilence, if he would not let Israel go; and signifying, that to show his power in him, and declare his name throughout the earth, had he raised him up, and a kind of amazement is expressed at his obstinacy and pride, Ex 9:12-17, and he is told that a terrible storm of hail should fall upon the land, and destroy all in the field; wherefore those that regarded the word of the Lord got their cattle within doors, but those that did not took no care of them, Ex 9:18-21 and upon Moses's stretching out his hand, when ordered by the Lord, the storm began, and destroyed every thing in the field throughout the land, excepting the land of Goshen, Ex 9:22-26 upon which Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, acknowledged his sin, and the justice of God, begged they would entreat for him, which Moses did; but when the storm was over, Pharaoh's heart was still more hardened, and he refused to let the people go, Ex 9:27-35.

Footnotes

• [a]. 1 Kg 8:43; Ps 8:1,9; Rm 9:17
• [b]. Or still obstructing
• [c]. Lit was ears of grain
• [d]. Lit are late