Teaching Exodus
1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,
3 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.
4 And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel.
5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, Tomorrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land.
6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.
7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.
What was taking place between the LORD and pharaoh was no mere religious argument. Pharaoh was literally 'playing with fire,' as the human saying goes.[1] As we continue through this ninth chapter, we once again have a 'front-row seat' to the ongoing conflict between the LORD and all of the false deities of Egypt.
Here we have the LORD making it very clear to pharaoh that, if the king continues to resist the LORD's demands, 'a very grievous murrain' shall come upon all of the cattle of the Egyptians.
According to Webster, this English word 'murrain' is derived from 'Middle English moreyne, from Anglo-French morine, from morir to die, from Latin mori….'[2] The word, in its earliest usages, emphatically carried with it the looming certainty of death.
The Hebrew word is used forty-nine times in the OT. Of these, it is translated 'murrain' only here.[3] When the LORD adds the adjective 'grievous,' we are conscious of the fact that this plague would be unbearable. According to our chart of Egyptian deities smitten through the plagues,[4] we see that this divine attack would affect at least four Egyptian deities!
With such potential for sheer disaster, especially since all that the LORD had spoken had come to pass previously, it is hard to conceive of pharaoh refusing yet again. That he did so is a strong identification of the depths of depravity within the heart of fallen men.
Furthermore, the LORD told pharaoh through Moses that this 'grievous murrain' would not afflict the cattle of the Hebrews at all. This detail makes it clear that pharaoh was not dealing with a God in any sense like those false deities worshipped by the Egyptians.
Once again, what the Lord had said came to pass exactly as He had scripted it, as we see in verse six:
And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.
Once again, we are reminded just what we can expect from Egypt.[5] Even in the face of such obvious differentiation between the cattle pharaoh simply wasn't getting the message.
7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.
Any of God's genuine people that actually believe that they can place even minimal confidence in the world system are only fooling themselves.
8 And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
10 And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.
11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.12 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.
This short passage is quite emphatic, more than meets the eye at first glance. The Hebrew word translated 'boil' comes from a root meaning 'burning.' Then, there is the meaning of the Hebrew word translated 'blains:' Augustus Strong had this to say about it:
…(meaning to belch forth); an inflammatory pustule (as eruption)
Thus, we see that this plague was perhaps the most dreadful one at this point. It literally meant that the skin of the Egyptians[6] began to essentially bubble up with terrible abscesses of inflammation.[7]
Nevertheless, pharaoh would not relent. How far will the world go in seeking to retain its
[1] But perhaps that saying is based upon another verse in Hebrews 12:29- 'Our God is a consuming fire.'
[2] Link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/murrain.
[3] It is translated 'pestilence' forty-seven times.
[4] See Appendix B.
[5] The world system.
[6] And any remaining animals among them.
[7] It is very sad to have to report that forty years later the LORD had to threaten His own people with this same terrible plague if they chose to set aside His Truth and embrace error. Consider Deuteronomy 28:27- The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. The Hebrew word translated 'boil' in Exodus 9 is translated 'botch' in Deuteronomy. How stunning it is that the LORD would ever have to send such things upon His own people!
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