Exodus 9--Plagues 5-7: Livestock, boils and Hail

The Fifth Plague: Egyptian Livestock Die
9 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, 3 behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. 4 But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.”’” 5 And the Lord set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.” 6 And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. 7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

The Sixth Plague: Boils
8 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. 9 It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.” 10 So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. 11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. 12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses.

The Seventh Plague: Hail
13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14 For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. 16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. 17 You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. 18 Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 19 Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.”’” 20 Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, 21 but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field.

22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant 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 ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.

​27 Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. 28 Plead with the Lord, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” 29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. 30 But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.” 31 (The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. 32 But the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up.) 33 So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. 34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35 So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

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So far we've seen the plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, and flies.  God is about to ramp things up even more as if those plagues weren't severe enough.  In the fifth plague, God tells Pharaoh that if he will not let the children of Israel go, that all of the livestock owned by the Egyptians would die in a single night from a plague, but none of the livestock of the Israelites would die.   It seems that not every animal was affected in this fifth plague though as I take the word "livestock" to mean that it was only the domesticated animals that were affected--specifically the animals listed by the LORD:  horses, donkeys, camels, goats, herds of all kinds (probably mostly beef and dairy cows), and flocks of all kinds (probably mostly sheep and goats).  While the scope was limited the destruction was total and devastating.

The loss of the horses would be a huge military blow to the Egyptians who would have lost their cavalry and chariots overnight.  and they'd also lose their horses that plowed the fields and provided transportation for the affluent.  The loss of camels would also be devastating in this desert climate as they were one of the few beasts of burden that could make long trips across the desert and were essential for caravans that traded in commerce with other nations--remember that Egypt is an empire--a huge economic superpower--at this time.  The loss of their ability to have these caravans and trade with other nations would be felt all around the known world.  The loss of their donkeys that were used by the average person as a beast of burden and to plow fields if they could not afford horses or camels was also pretty awful.  Donkeys were good workers when you could get them to go where you wanted them to go--or get them to go at all, as they were pretty stubborn.  This again would be pretty devastating to local markets as they were used to get goods and produce to market, but also to agriculture as many farmers used donkeys to plow, grind grain, and perform other such functions.

The loss of the cattle, flocks and herds likewise was devastating in terms of the loss of milk, meat, and raw materials for textiles such as leather and wool.  It would take a long time for Egypt to recover from such a great loss.  This plague affected the people in a way that plagues 2-4 had not--they had been inconveniences for sure, but not since the plague of blood did the people face such peril.  Surely all the freshwater being turned to blood for a week was something terrible that would lead to a lot of death, not to mention that smell that is talked about, but now you have people's livelihoods gone overnight with no way to get goods to market or to work their fields and without food to eat and their source of raw materials gone--all overnight, all while exposing the nation in a way where they lost much of their military power because they no longer had horses to pull chariots or for mounted cavalry.  You would think all of this would get Pharaoh's attention finally, but we see an interesting change in wording now and it is said that the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the people of God go--God wasn't finished with Egypt yet or proving to His people who He was and how much power He had.  Perhaps this plague would have been persuasive enough without God hardening Pharaoh's heart, but from everything we know up to this point, Pharaoh had mad his decision that no matter what happened, he would not let the Israelites go.

The next plague is a plague of boils.  Again, the few verses here would hardly do this verse justice as we only need to look at the book of Job to see how much pain Job was in when Satan was allowed to touch Job's body with a similar plague.  This would be extremely painful--and we see that the magicians could not stand before Pharaoh.  There was no relief because the boils covered every part of their bodies.  Even in this where Pharaoh's body was physically touched, he did not relent and he continued to harden his heart.

In God's proclamation of the seventh plague we see some great theology.  We see God tell Pharaoh that God had made him for this very time and purpose so that God's name and nature and power would be known throughout the entire world.  If God wanted vengeance, He could have easily had it by now in a way that would have been swift and deadly, but God is out to teach the Egyptians, the Hebrews, and the rest of the world about who He is.  One of the things that God is about to show about Himself is that even in judgment, God provides a way of salvation for those who believe and obey His word.

God warns all the people--Egyptians and Hebrews--that a great hail storm is coming like has never been seen before and won't be seen again until the end times.  Anything left out in the field and anyone that is not in strong shelter will die.  Could God have caused the hailstones that were large enough to kill animals to destroy the buildings that the people were taking shelter in?  Sure, but God had promised deliverance to those that would heed his warning.  Every man who feared the LORD brought everyone into their houses including their slaves and all of their animals--again, I'm sure this wasn't at all pleasant, but it was better than the alternative.

This was not just a plague of hail, but of fire and brimstone the like of which we haven't seen since Sodom and Gomorrah, and the like of which we won't see again until the vial/bowl judgments in the book of Revelation--in fact, we'll see many of these plagues from Egypt repeated during that time as God pours out the full measure of His wrath against all those who have chosen to rebel against Him.  In this plague the men and animals that were left outside died along with the crops and plants and trees everywhere other than the land of Goshen.  Only the crops that had not yet sprouted or bloomed yet were saved.  Even in this, God was gracious in that He could have left them with absolutely no crops, but He had delayed the growth of the wheat and emmer (a type of wheat mostly used for fodder and to make some cereals).

In just a few plagues the nation has lost its economic and military security, its health, and it agriculture, wildlife and workforce (as I'm sure many of the slaves were left outside and not brought into the house).  Again, this should have been more than enough to bring the nation and its leader, Pharaoh, to their knees, and although Pharaoh speaks of having sinned, he does not truly repent and once again hardens his heart and refuses to let God's people go.  God is still not done as there are three more plagues to go--next time we'll talk about plagues eight and nine, the plagues of locusts and darkness.