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, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them."'" Then whoever feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the LORD left his slaves and his livestock in the field. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt." Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.
Exodus 9:13-26
Again there is an intensification of the crisis of judgment, as another terrible and disastrous stroke comes upon the hapless land of Egypt. Two points in particular should be noted here. The first concerns the interpretation of 16. The RSV reads differently from the AV, rendering 15 and 16 thus: 'For by now I could have put forth my hand ..., and you would have been cut off from the earth; but for this purpose have I let you live, to show you my power ...'. This helps us out of a real difficulty, since the AV seems to suggest that Pharaoh was raised up by God with the purpose of being made the object of His judgment. It may be questioned, however, whether this answers the problem raised by Paul's quotation of this verse in Romans 9:17. It is a difficult, frightening verse. The second point to be noticed is the response made by at least some in Egypt to the warning voice of God (20). This is very striking and impressive, and it bears witness not only to the power of Moses' word among this pagan and heathen people, but also to the reality of divine mercy even in the context of God's 'strange work' of judgment on Pharaoh. And more. It demonstrates the truth which Paul was to express centuries later when he said that in his ministry he was 'the savour of death unto death' to some and 'the savour of life unto life' to others. As has already been noted, the same sun that softens wax hardens clay. To fear the word of the Lord enough to act upon it is a sign of grace indeed, and we doubt not that it led to more than their cattle being saved in the terrible disaster that followed.