Exodus 9:8-12

F. The boils and blains

Exodus 9:8-12

8And Jehovah said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven [toward heaven] in the sight of Pharaoh. 9And it shall become small [fine] dust in [upon] all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil [become boils] breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast throughout all the land of Egypt. 10And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil [became boils] breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast. 11And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for 12the boil was [boils were] upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them, as Jehovah had spoken unto Moses.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Exodus 9:8. “That the sixth plague, that of the boils, was extraordinary only in its extent, is shown by comparing Deuteronomy 28:27, where the same disease occurs with the name ‘boils [A. V. botch] of Egypt,’ as a common one in Egypt” (Hengstenberg). Rosenmüller (on Deuteronomy 28:27) understands it of the elephantiasis, which is peculiar (?) to Egypt. But between diseases which chiefly work inward and boils there is a radical difference. Also “the elephantiasis does not affect cattle” [Hengstenberg]. See other interpretations in Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses. His own explanation is; inflammatory pustules—not merely heat-pimples. שְׁחִין from שָׁחַן, to be hot. LXX. ἔλκη φλυκτίδες. Vulg. ulcera et vesicæ turgentes. Keil (following Seetzen): the so-called Nile-pox. Leyrer (in Herzog’s Real- Encyclopädie): Anthrax, a black inflammatory ulcer, “whose occurrence has been frequently observed after pestilences among beasts, especially after the inflammation of the spleen among cattle.”

Exodus 9:9. The symbolic element in the transactions is here especially prominent. The shower of ashes which Moses made before Pharaoh’s eyes was only the symbolic cause of the boils which Jehovah inflicted. Kurtz and others associate this with a propitiatory rite of the Egyptians, the sprinkling of the ashes of sacrifices, especially of human sacrifices. But here no propitiatory act is performed, but a curse inflicted; and it is a far-fetched explanation to say that the Egyptian religious purification was thus to be designated as defilement. Keil lays stress on the fact that the furnace (כִּבְשָׁן), according to Kimchi, was a smelting furnace or lime-kiln, and not a cooking-stove, and since the great buildings of the cities and pyramids came from the lime-kilns, “the sixth plague was to show the proud king that Jehovah was even able to produce ruin for him out of the workshops of his splendid buildings in which he was using the strength of the Israelites, and was so cruelly oppressing them with burdensome labors that they found themselves in Egypt as it were in a furnace heated for the melting of iron (Deuteronomy 4:20).” This view he would confirm by the consideration that “in the first three plagues the natural resources of the land were transformed into sources of misery.” The thought might be further expanded thus: All the glories of Egypt were one after another turned into judgments: the divine Nile was changed into filthy blood and brought forth frogs and gnats; the fruitful soil produced the land-plagues, dog-flies, pestilences, boils and hail; Egypt, so much praised for its situation, was smitten with the curse of the locusts and of the desert wind which darkened the day; finally, the pride of the people was changed into grief by the infliction of death on the first-born; and, to conclude all, Jehovah sat in judgment on the Egyptian military power, Pharaoh’s chariots and horsemen in the Red Sea. But with all this the boils are not shown to be a judgment upon Pharaoh’s splendor. Also the alleged symbol would be not easily understood. The ashes without doubt in a pictorial and symbolic way by their color and fiery nature point to the inflammatory boils and their color. With reason, however, does Keil call attention to the fact that this plague is the first one which attacked the lives of men, and thus it constituted a premonition of death for Pharaoh in his continued resistance.