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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Exodus 9:8 - 9:12
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The Plague of Boils and Blains
v. 8. And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, soot from the ovens, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh, who should again know the cause and note the effect.
v. 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. The soot, reduced to fine black dust and increased a thousandfold, was to infect both man and beast throughout Egypt with inflammatory pustules or ulcers, painful boils and sores, probably on the order of smallpox.
v. 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, an inflammation coming to a head in pustules, filled with a watery fluid.
v. 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. Far from being able to imitate the miracle in this case, the Egyptian sorcerers were not even able to protect themselves against the ulcerous inflammation.
v. 12. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, He placed the curse upon him which his obduracy deserved, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had spoken unto Moses. If a sinner consistently rejects repentance and a change of heart, the Lord finally inflicts this obduracy upon him as a curse.