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.
Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle. A fifth application was made to Pharaoh in behalf of the Israelites by Moses, who was instructed to tell him that, if he persisted in opposing their departure, a pestilence would be sent among all the flocks and herds of the Egyptians, while those of the Israelites would be spared. Since he showed no intention of keeping his promise, he was still a mark for the arrows from the Almighty's quiver, and the threatened plague of which he was forewarned was executed. But it is observable, that in this instance it was not inflicted through the instrumentality or waving of Aaron's rod, but directly by the hand of the Lord; and the fixing of the precise time tended still further to determine the true character of the calamity.
A very grievous murrain, х deber (H1698), frequently with the article hadeber (H1698), destruction, plague, pestilence (Leviticus 26:25; Deuteronomy 28:21: cf. 2 Samuel 24:13); Septuagint, thanatos megas sfodra] The English "murrain", expressing pestilence among cattle, is of doubtful origin, and still more doubtful significance. In the 'Twysden Glossarium,' it is defined thus-`Murrena, lues, tabitica lues; vulgo, murraine; a Graeco, marainoo - i:e., tabe facio, ut Casaubonus jam observavit.' The word murrain has been employed to denote epidemic disease among cattle, of every possible character, from the dreadful carbuncular typhus, of which, and of its spread by contagion to animals of every class, Virgil has given a very striking description at the close of his third Georgic, down to the simplest and mildest epidemic catarrh (see Dr. G. Balfour's 'Remarks on Aptha Epizootica,' Edinburgh, 1863). A murrain was the ordinary occurrence of the season. 'The time of the overflow was a season of great suffering for the cattle of ancient Egypt. They were driven forth into the flooded fields to browse the reeds, vetches, and other plants, as they appeared upon the surface of the flood. They are often thus represented deep in the water on the walls of the tombs; and in very many cases, on the same plane or line of picture, is the subject of diseased cattle, tended by men administering medicine to them, signifying plainly the deleterious effects of this mode of pasturage' (Osburn's 'Mon. Hist.,' 2:, p. 584). On this occasion, however, the murrain was a supernatural infliction, and it extended even to the horses and camels in the desert (Jeremiah 12:4).