Exodus 9:13-35

Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh, and say to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.¹ For this time I will send all my plagues upon you yourself,² and upon your officials, and upon your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence,³ and you would have been cut off from the earth. But this is why I have let you live: to show you my power, and to make my name resound through all the earth.⁴ You are still exalting yourself⁵ against my people, and will not let them go. Tomorrow at this time I will cause the heaviest hail to fall that has ever fallen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Send, therefore, and have your livestock and everything that you have in the open field brought to a secure place;⁶ every human or animal that is in the open field and is not brought under shelter will die when the hail comes down upon them.”’

Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord⁷ hurried their slaves and livestock off to a secure place. Those who did not regard the word of the Lord left their slaves⁸ and livestock in the open field.

The Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand towards heaven so that hail may fall on the whole land of Egypt, on humans and animals and all the plants of the field in the land of Egypt.’ Then Moses stretched out his staff towards heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail,⁹ and fire came down on the earth. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt;there was hail with fire flashing continually in the midst of it, such heavy hail as had never fallen in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.¹⁰ The hail struck down everything that was in the open field throughout all the land of Egypt, both human and animal; the hail also struck down all the plants of the field, and shattered every tree in the field.¹¹ Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, there was no hail.¹²



Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ‘This time I have sinned;¹³ the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.¹⁴ Pray to the Lord! Enough of God’s thunder and hail!¹⁵ I will let you go; you need stay no longer.’
Moses said to him, ‘As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s. But as for you and your officials, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.’¹⁶
(Now the flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. But the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they are late in coming up.)¹⁷

So Moses left Pharaoh, went out of the city, and stretched out his hands to the Lord;¹⁸ then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured down on the earth. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned once more and hardened his heart,¹⁹ he and his officials. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.²⁰

1 The drumbeat continues, with a specific threefold meaning. “Let my people go” (they are oppressed), “my people” (they are God's specific people), “so that they may worship me” (the purpose of their freedom will be worship).

2 Much more personal – not an abstract battle of power.

3 God points out that he's been holding back in his plagues

4 God's purpose is not just to free the Israelites, but to show his power to the Egyptians, and to the rest of the world as well.

5 Pharaoh still thinks he can emerge victorious over God and God's people.

6 God not only gives a warning this time, but a specific reason for the warning – to save those willing to listen.

7 I wonder to what degree they fear God at this point

8 The slaves and livestock will suffer the consequences of their masters' actions

9 Interesting – God could obviously just send the plague himself, but he makes clear to Moses that he wants Moses to act first, and then God will act

10 This plague has a ferociousness not seen in the previous plagues

11 Fantastic destruction

12 Continuing the theme of the last few plagues of the Israelites clearly being set apart

13 Clearly blames the sin on himself

14 Pharaoh repents again after not repenting in the previous two plagues

15 Obviously his acknowledgment of God is purely from his distress.

16 Moses directly states to Pharaoh what had already been clear from Pharaoh's actions

17 What a strange sidenote – there must be some cultural significance here I don't understand

18 Moses appears completely in control of the action now.

19 Now we go back to Pharaoh clearly being culpable for the hardening of his own heart

20 God's prophecy has been fulfilled.

Take-home: God makes clear that his purposes are not just to free the Israelites, but to show his power to the Egyptians and the rest of the world. This could potentially explain a motivation for hardening Pharaoh's heart...however, this plague makes more clear than any other that Pharaoh is sinning and is responsible for the hardening of his own heart. For the first time, the Egyptians themselves get to chose whether they fear God or not and therefore whether they will suffer the effects of the plague. Moses has taken full control in his battle against Pharaoh (or God's battle against Pharaoh), and both Aaron and the Egyptian magicians on on the sidelines. Still, it is clear that God wants to work through his people, represented by Moses, rather than taking action unilaterally.