Commentaria in Exodum
Chapter 9. Synopsis of the Chapter
The fifth plague of pestilence is described, and the sixth of ulcers, verse 8, and the seventh of hail, thunder and lightning, verse 23. Softened by these, Pharao gives hope of dismissing the Hebrews, but the plagues ceasing, hardens himself again.
1. And the Lord said to Moses: Go in to Pharao, and speak to him: Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews: Let my people go to sacrifice to me. 2. But if thou still refusest, and withholdest them, 3. behold my hand shall be upon thy fields: and a very grievous murrain upon thy horses, and asses, and camels, and oxen, and sheep. 4. And the Lord will make a wonderful difference between the possessions of Israel and the possessions of the Egyptians: so that nothing at all shall perish of those that belong to the children of Israel. 5. And the Lord appointed a time, saying: To-morrow will the Lord do this thing in the land. 6. The Lord therefore did this thing the next day: and all the beasts of the Egyptians died, but of the beasts of the children of Israel there died not one. 7. And Pharao sent to see: and there was nothing dead of all that Israel possessed. And Pharao’s heart was hardened, and he did not let the people go. 8. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Take to you handfuls of ashes out of the chimney, and let Moses sprinkle it in the air in the presence of Pharao. 9. And be there dust upon all the land of Egypt: for there shall be boils and swelling blains both in men and beasts in the whole land of Egypt. 10. And they took ashes out of the chimney, and stood before Pharao, and Moses sprinkled it in the air: and there came boils with swelling blains in men and beasts. 11. Neither could the magicians stand before Moses, for the boils that were upon them, and in all the land of Egypt. 12. And the Lord hardened Pharao’s heart, and he did not hearken to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses. 13. And the Lord said to Moses: Arise early in the morning, and stand before Pharao, and thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews: Let my people go to sacrifice to me. 14. For at this time I will send all my plagues upon thy heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people: that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15. For now I will stretch forth my hand to strike thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou shalt perish from the earth. 16. And therefore have I raised thee, that I may shew my power in thee, and my name may be spoken of throughout all the earth. 17. Dost thou still hold back my people, and wilt thou not let them go? 18. Behold I will cause it to rain to-morrow, at this same hour, a very great hail, such as hath not been in Egypt from the day that it was founded, until this present time. 19. Send therefore now, and gather together thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field: for men and beasts and all things that shall be found abroad, and not gathered together out of the fields, when the hail shall fall upon them, shall die. 20. He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharao, made his servants and his cattle flee into houses: 21. but he that had no regard to the word of the Lord, left his servants and his cattle in the fields. 22. And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand towards heaven, that there may be hail in the whole land of Egypt, upon men and upon beasts, and upon every herb of the field in the land of Egypt. 23. And Moses stretched forth his rod towards heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightnings running along the ground: and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24. And the hail and fire mixed with it drove on together: and it was of so great bigness, as never before was seen in the universal land of Egypt since that nation was founded. 25. And the hail smote in all the land of Egypt all that was in the fields, both man and beast: and the hail smote every herb of the field, and it broke every tree of the country. 26. Only in the land of Gessen, where the children of Israel were, the hail fell not. 27. And Pharao sent, and called Moses and Aaron, saying to them: I have sinned this time also: the Lord is just: I and my people are wicked. 28. Pray ye to the Lord that the thunderings of God and the hail may cease: that I may let you go, and that you may stay here no longer. 29. Moses said: As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will stretch forth my hands to the Lord, and the thunders shall cease, and there shall be no more hail: that thou mayest know that the earth is the Lord’s. 30. But I know that thou and thy servants did not yet fear the Lord God. 31. The flax therefore and the barley were hurt, because the barley was green, and the flax was now bolled: 32. but the wheat and the rye were not hurt, because they were late ripe. 33. And Moses went from Pharao out of the city, and stretched forth his hands to the Lord: and the thunders and the hail ceased, neither did there drop any more rain upon the earth. 34. And Pharao seeing that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, increased his sin: 35. and his heart was made heavy, and the heart of his servants, and was exceedingly hardened: neither did he let the children of Israel go, as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses.
3. BEHOLD MY HAND SHALL BE UPON THY FIELDS.—“Hand,” that is, my scourge, or, as afterwards by apposition is explained, “a very grievous pestilence,” which I alone by my hand and power, not Moses’ nor Aaron’s, as in the preceding plague, will send, by infecting the air and bodies. For pestilence is a certain venomous vapour condensed in the air, hostile to the vital spirit, which can infect every humour; but chiefly the blood, secondly the choler, thirdly the phlegm, fourthly the melancholy: therefore first the sanguine are subject to the danger of the contagion of pestilence, then the choleric, afterwards the phlegmatic, finally the melancholic, because the cold and dry humour is unfit for inflammation and putrefaction, and has narrow passages, says Marsilius Ficinus, Antidote of Epidemics, chap. 2 and following; where he also assigns the remedies of pestilence, namely flight from infected air, recreation and gladness, solid food, and drink strengthening the heart and spirits, to beware of foods that are easily corrupted and putrefy; to purge often the putrefying humours with aloes, myrrh and saffron; to use theriac, zedoary, citron; to fumigate with juniper, turpentine, incense; to change garments often, and put on clean ones; to wash mouth and hands often with vinegar, and sometimes with strong wine.
UPON THY FIELDS, AND UPON THY HORSES.—The “and” means “that is”; as if to say: This plague shall be a pestilence upon thy fields, that is upon thy horses, sheep and oxen that are in the fields; for this pestilence did not touch the fields themselves. So the Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint. Hence it is plain that by this pestilence were struck and perished not men but animals, and not all, but only those that were in the fields.
Tropologically, this fifth plague of pestilence signifies that God is wont to inflict pestilence and other kinds of death on transgressors of the fifth precept: “Thou shalt not kill,” such as these infanticides were. So Rupert and Prosper, book 1 On the Promises, chap. 23.
SHEEP AND OXEN,—which the Egyptians kept not for slaughter and food, but for services, wool and trade. For with oxen they ploughed, from sheep they got milk and wool.