Exodus 9:8 - Clarke's commentary and critical notes on the Bible

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. Handfuls of ashes of the furnace - As one part of the oppression of the Israelites consisted In their labor in the brick-kilns, some have observed a congruity between the crime and the punishment. The furnaces, in the labor of which they oppressed the Hebrews, now yielded the instruments of their punishment; for every particle of those ashes, formed by unjust and oppressive labor, seemed to be a boil or a blain on the tyrannical king and his cruel and hard-hearted people.