EXPOSITION
The plague of hail impressed the Pharaoh more than any previous one. It was the first which had inflicted death on men. It was a most striking and terrible manifestation. It was quite unlike anything which the Egyptians had ever experienced before (Exodus 9:18, Exodus 9:24). It was, by manifest miracle, made to fall on the Egyptians only (Exodus 9:26). Pharaoh was therefore more humbled than ever previously. He acknowledged that he "had sinned" (Exodus 9:27); he added a confession that "Jehovah [alone] was righteous, he and his people wicked" (ibid.). And, as twice before, he expressed his willingness to let the Israelites take their departure if the plague were removed (Exodus 9:28). The ultimate results, however, were not any better than before. No sooner had Moses prayed to God, and procured the cessation of the plague, than the king repented of his repentance, "hardened his heart;" and, once more casting his promise to the winds, refused to permit the Israelites to depart (Exodus 9:33-2). His people joined him in this act of obduracy (Exodus 9:34), perhaps thinking that they had now suffered the worst that could befall them.
And Pharaoh sent. Compare Exodus 8:8, and Exodus 8:25-2. Pharaoh had been driven to entreat only twice before. I have sinned this time. The meaning is, "I acknowledge this time that I have sinned" (Kaliseh, Cook). "I do not any longer maintain that my conduct has been right." The confession is made for the first time, and seems to have been extorted by the terrible nature of the plague, which, instead of passing off, like most storms, continued. The Lord is righteous, etc. Literally, "Jehovah is the Just One; and I and my people are the sinners." The confession seems, at first sight, ample and satisfactory; but there is perhaps some shifting of sin, that was all his own, upon the Egyptian "people," which indicates disingenuousness.
Mighty thunderings. Literally, as in the margin, "voices of God." Thunder was regarded by many nations of antiquity as the actual voice of a god. In the Vedic theology, Indra spoke in thunder. The Egyptian view on the subject has not been ascertained.
As soon as I am gone out of the city. "The city" is probably Tanis (Zoan). We may gather from the expression of this verse, and again of Exodus 9:33, that Moses and Aaron did not live in the city, but in the country with the other Israelites. When it was necessary for them to have an interview with the king, they sought the city: when their interview was over they quitted it. To obtain for Pharaoh a speedy accomplishment of his wish, Moses undertakes to pray for the removal of the plague as soon as he is outside the city walls. That thou mayest know that the earth is the Lord's. The phrase used is ambiguous. It may mean either "that the earth is Jehovah's," or "that the land (of Egypt) is his." On the whole, perhaps the former rendering is the best. The other plagues sufficiently showed that Egypt was Jehovah's; this, which came from the open heaven that surrounds and embraces the whole world, indicated that the entire earth was his. (Comp. Psalms 24:1 : "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof: the world, and they that dwell therein.")
I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord. True fear of God is shown by obedience to his commands. Pharaoh and his servants had the sort of fear which devils have—" they believed and trembled." But they had not yet that real reverential fear which is joined with love, and has, as its fruit, obedience. So the event showed. (See Exodus 9:34, Exodus 9:35.)
These verses seem out of place, containing, as they do, an account of the damage done by the hail, and being thus exegetical of Exodus 9:25. They are a sort of afterthought, inserted parenthetically, and prepare the way for the understanding of the next plague; since, if the damage done by the hail had extended to all the crops, there would have been nothing left for the locusts to devour.
The flax and the barley was smitten. Flax was largely cultivated by the Egyptians, who preferred linen garments to any other (Herod. 2:37), and allowed the priests to wear nothing but linen. Several kinds of flax are mentioned as grown in Egypt (Plin. H. N. 19.1); and the neighbourhood of Tanis is expressly said to have been one of the places where the flax was produced. The flax is boiled, i.e. blossoms towards the end of January or beginning of February, and the barley comes into ear about the same time, being commonly cut in March. Barley was employed largely as the food of horses, and was used also for the manufacture of beer, which was a common Egyptian beverage. A certain quantity was made by the poorer classes into bread.
The wheat and the rie were not smitten, for they were not grown up. In Egypt the wheat harvest is at least a month later than the barley harvest, coming in April, whereas the barley harvest is finished by the end of March. Rye was not grown in Egypt; and it is generally agreed that the Hebrew word here translated "rie" means the Holcus sorghum, or doora, which is the only grain besides wheat and barley represented on the Egyptian monuments. The doora is now raised commonly as an after-crop; but, if sown late in the autumn, it would ripen about the same time as the wheat.
The rain was not poured upon the earth. Rain had not been previously mentioned, as it was no part of the plague, that is, it caused no damage. But Moses, recording the cessation as an eye-witness, recollects that rain was mingled with the hail, and that, at his prayer, the thunder, the hail, and the rain all ceased. The touch is one which no later writer would have introduced.
He sinned yet more, and hardened his heart. Altogether there are three different Hebrew verbs, which our translators have rendered by "harden," or "hardened"—kabad, qashah, and khazaq. The first of these, which occurs in Exodus 7:14; Exodus 8:15, Exodus 8:32; Exodus 9:7 and Exodus 9:34, is the weakest of the three, and means to be "dull" or "heavy," rather than "to be hard." The second, which appears in Exodus 7:3, and Exodus 13:15, is a stronger term, and means "to be hard," or, in the Hiphil, "to make hard." But the third has the most intensive sense, implying fixed and stubborn resolution. It occurs in Exodus 4:21; Exodus 7:22; Exodus 8:19; Exodus 9:35; and elsewhere. He and his servants. Pharaoh's "servants," i.e. the officers of his court, still, it would seem, upheld the king in his impious and mad course, either out of complaisance, or because they were really not yet convinced of the resistless might of Jehovah. After the eighth plague, we shall find their tone change (Exodus 10:7).
As the Lord had spoken by Moses. Compare Exodus 3:19; Exodus 4:21; and Exodus 7:3, Exodus 7:4
HOMILETICS
The mock repentance of a half-awakened sinner counterfeits the true, but has features by which it may be known.
It is not always easy to distinguish between a true and a mock repentance. Here was the Pharaoh at this time very visibly—it might have seemed deeply—impressed. He was disquieted—he was alarmed—he was ready to humble himself—to make confession—to promise obedience in the future. In what did his repentance differ from true, godly penitence? What points did it possess in common with such penitence? What points did it lack?
I. IT POSSESSED THE FEATURE OF SELF-HUMILIATION. "I have sinned this time—I and my people are wicked." Confession of sin is a very important point in true penitence. There can be no true penitence without it. "I said, I will Confess my sin unto the Lord, and so thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin" (Psalms 32:5). But it may be made, under a sort of compulsion, as a necessity, without the rightful feeling of contrition, or sorrow for sin, out of which it should spring, and apart from which it is valueless. We may doubt whether Pharaoh's confession sprang from a true, contrite heart. There was a ring of insincerity in it. "I, and my people," he said, "are wicked." True penitence leads us to confess our own sins, not those of others. There was no occasion for introducing the mention of his people's sins, and, as it were, merging his own in theirs. The people had not been appealed to, in order that they might say whether the Israelites should be allowed to depart or not. They had no doubt many sins of their own to answer for; but they had had no part in this particular sin. There is a covert self-justification in the introduction of the words "and my people," as if the national sentiment had been too strong for him, and he had only "refused to let Israel go" in consequence of it.
II. IT POSSESSED THE FEATURE OF VINDICATING GOD'S HONOUR. "The Lord is righteous," or "Jehovah is the righteous one," was such a full and frank acknowledgment of the perfect justice and righteousness of God as the heart of man does not very readily make, unless in moments of exaltation. We need not suppose that the monarch was insincere in his utterance. He was temporarily lifted up out of himself—so impressed with the power and greatness of Jehovah, that he had for the time true thoughts and high thoughts concerning him. He had doubtless a very insufficient feeling or appreciation of the awful purity and holiness of God; but he did feel his justice. He knew in his inmost heart that he had deserved the judgments sent upon him, and meant to acknowledge this. He was willing that God should be "justified in his sayings, and overcome when He was judged" (Romans 3:4). He may not have had an adequate sense of the full meaning of his own words, but he had some sense of their meaning, and did not merely repeat, parrot-like, phrases from a ritual.
III. IT POSSESSED THE FEATURES OF SELF-DISTRUST AND OF APPEAL TO THE MINISTERS OF GOD FOR AID. Pharaoh "sent and called for Moses and Aaron." Not very long before, he had dismissed them from his presence as impertinent intruders, with the words, "Get you to your burdens" (Exodus 5:4). Now he appeals to them for succour. He asks their prayers—"Intreat for me." Such appeals are constantly made, both by the true and by the mock penitent. Reliance on self disappears. God's ministers take their due place as ambassadors for him and stewards of his mysteries. They are asked to intercede for the sinner, to frame a prayer for him, and offer it on his behalf. All this is fitting under the circumstances; for lips long unaccustomed to prayer cannot at once offer it acceptably, and intercessory prayer is especially valuable at the time when the half-awakened soul feels a yearning towards God, to which, if unassisted, it is unable to give effect.
IV. IT POSSESSED THE FEATURE OF MAKING PROMISE OF AMENDMENT. "I will let you go." Let but his prayer be granted, let but the plague be removed, and the king promises that all his opposition to the will of Jehovah shall cease—the children of Israel shall be "let go," they shall not be detained any longer. Amendment of life is the crown and apex of repentance, and is rightly first resolved upon, then professed, finally practised by the true penitent. But profession alone is no criterion of the nature of the repentance. The sole certain criterion is the result. If the resolutions made are kept, if the profession is carried out in act, then the repentance is proved to have been genuine; if the reverse is the case, then it was spurious. The event, however, can alone show how the case stands. Meanwhile, as we must "judge nothing before the time," it would seem to be best that in every case a professed repentance should be treated as real when it is put forward, whatever suspicions may be entertained respecting it. No harm is done by treating a mock penitent as if he were a real one. Great harm might be done by a mistaken rejection of a true penitent.
V. IT LACKED, HOWEVER, THE FEATURE OF INTENSE HATRED OF SIN. The sinner who truly repents desires above all things the pardon and removal of his sin. He cares little, comparatively, for the removal of its chastisement. Sin, which separates him from God, is the great object of his abhorrence; and when he asks the prayers of ministers or other pious persons, he requests them to intercede for him, that he may find pardon and cleansing, may have his past sins forgiven, and strength granted him to forsake sin in the future. When Pharaoh, instead of such a prayer as this, asked for nothing but the removal of the temporal evil which had been sent upon him as a punishment, it was easy for one experienced in the words of man to see that his was not a real, genuine repentance. And this Moses seems to have perceived. "As for thee and thy servants," he said to the king, "I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God." I know that the fear which now fills your hearts is not the true fear of God—not a dread of his displeasure, but of the pains and sufferings that he can inflict. I know that what you seek is not reconcilement with God, but exemption from calamity. You are driven upon your course by alarm and terror, not drawn by love. I know that when the affliction is removed you will relapse into your former condition. Some more terrible judgment will be needed to make you really yield. Note, then, that the minister, if he possesses spiritual discernment, may generally detect an unreal repentance, and, however closely it apes the true, may escape being deceived by it.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART
I. THE TERRORS OF GOD'S MIGHT. In that awful war of elements any moment might have been his last, and Pharaoh trembled. This plague evoked from him the first confession of sin. Hitherto he had reluctantly granted the request of Moses: now he casts himself as a sinner (27, 28) on God's mercy, and entreats the prayers of God's servant for himself and his people. There is a point at which the stoutest heart will be broken, and the cry be wrung from the lips, "I have sinned." "Can thine heart endure," etc. (Ezekiel 22:14).
III. THE VALUELESSNESS OF REPENTANCE BORN ONLY OF TERROR. God might thus bow all men under him, but the conquest would be worth nothing: men's hearts would not be won. When the terror is gone, Pharaoh's confession fails (30, 34, 35), for it has no root in any true knowledge of himself. He sees the darkness of God's frown, not the vileness of his transgressions. God is met with, not in the tempest and the fire, but in the still small voice which speaks within the breast. Many pass through gates of terror to hear this; but till God's voice is heard there, speaking of sin and righteousness and judgment, there is no true return of the soul to him.
III. THE FULNESS OF GOD'S MERCY. God knows the worthlessness of the confession, yet he is entreated for Pharaoh and the Egyptians. God's pity rests where men will have none upon themselves. Though they believe not, he cannot deny himself.—U.