The Book of Exodus, Chapter 9

This chapter is about the plagues on the livestock, boils, & hail. Each one of these plagues are devastating to the Egyptian population. It’s a domino effect, the Egyptian livestock die, so then the Egyptians get all kinds of diseases (boils). Then they get a devastating hail storm, which killed all of their crops & did damage to humans & the rest of the animals that were in the Egyptians care. But somehow the Israelites stuff came out undamaged. Everything that was under the Israelites care was perfectly intact. Enjoy!

God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh & tell him that “the God of the Hebrews” says: Let my people go & if you don’t, “the hand of the Lord” (Love that phrasing!) will bring a “terrible” plague on the Egyptian livestock. Also telling Pharaoh that the Israelites will be spared from this plague.

God set a time, saying that he’d do all this the next day. The following day, God did it. All of the livestock, that were under the Egyptians care, died. None of the Israelite livestock were harmed. Pharaoh sent some men to investigate. They found that none of the Israelite livestock were harmed by the plague. But Pharaoh was unrelenting & didn’t let the Israelites go.

Then God told both Moses & Aaron to take handfuls of soot & throw them into the air, making sure to do it in front of Pharaoh. God says that it will become a fine dust over all of Egypt, festering boils will break out in people & the animals that are left.

So they took soot from a furnace & stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air. Festering boils broke out, on men & animals. No Egyptian could do anything because of the boils that were all over them. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart & he wouldn’t listen to Moses or Aaron.

God then told Moses to get up early in the morning to confront Pharaoh. Moses is to tell Pharaoh this time: “The God of the Hebrews says: ‘Let my people go. If you don’t, I’m going to unleash the full force of my plagues against the Egyptians. So that the Egyptians will know that there is no one like me in all the earth. (Wow. Just wow.) But I’ll raise you up for this very purpose, so I can show you my power & that my name might be proclaimed all over the world. (Again, just wow.) You’ll set yourself against my people & won’t let them go. So tomorrow I’ll unleash the worst hailstorm that Egypt has every seen in the history of its existence. Tell everyone to bring their livestock & everything in the field into a shelter because the hail will fall on every man & animal that isn’t inside will die.'”

There were officials of Pharaoh that were scared of “the word” of God. These officials brought all of their stuff inside. (They were the smart ones! They probably saw the other things (plagues) that happened & said bump that, we’re gonna listen to these guys.) But there were others that didn’t listen to our titular characters of Moses & Aaron. So they didn’t bring in their possessions or servants.

God then told Moses to lift up his hand upwards to the sky, hail would fall to the ground all over Egypt. The hail would go on everything, men, animals, the fields, & crops. Moses then did as God said. God sent thunder & hail, & lightening came down. It was the worst hailstorm that Egypt had ever seen, since it became a nation. Everything that the hail touched was destroyed, people, animals, fields, crops. The hail even stripped the bark off of trees. Goshen was the ONLY place that the hail didn’t go, which is where the Israelites lived.

Pharaoh then called Moses & Aaron to him. Pharaoh told the brothers that he had sinned, God was right, & that he & his people were wrong. Pharaoh asked them to pray to God, because they’ve had enough of the hail & thunder. Pharaoh then tells them (Moses & Aaron) that he’ll let them go.

Moses tells Pharaoh that once he’s gone out of the city, he’ll pray to God. Moses also lets Pharaoh know that the thunder & hail will stop. Moses then kinda smack-talks Pharaoh a little by telling Pharaoh: “I know that you & your officials still don’t fear God.” (Moses is pretty much agreeing to stopping the thunder & hail but knowing full well that Pharaoh (& his officials) weren’t going to let them go. That they just wanted it to stop.)

The Egyptians crops of flax & barley were utterly destroyed. Because the barley had headed (were full-grown, ready to harvest) & the flax were in bloom. The Egyptians crops of wheat & spelt (I have no idea what spelt is. If anyone knows, please leave a comment letting me know. I’ll be more than happy to edit this & give you credit!) weren’t touched by the hail, because they hadn’t ripened yet.

Moses left Pharaoh & left the city. He put his hands up towards God; the thunder & hail stopped. The rain stopped also. Pharaoh saw all of the natural disasters stopping & he hardened his heart, again. And yet again, Pharaoh reneged on a deal & didn’t let the Israelites go.