Exodus 9 – The Hand of God and the Hardening of Pharaoh
In Exodus 9, God continues the judgments on Egypt with precision—plagues of disease, boils, and hail strike the land while Goshen remains untouched. Pharaoh’s heart hardens further, but God’s sovereignty shines through.
God Strikes, Separates, and Speaks Again
With each plague, God dismantles Egypt’s gods and Pharaoh’s pride. In Exodus 9, judgment increases as plagues strike not only land and animals—but the bodies of the people. And yet through it all, God continues to call Egypt to acknowledge Him. This is more than wrath—it is an offer of repentance.
✔ Plague on livestock.
✔ Boils upon man and beast.
✔ Devastating hail with fire.
✔ Pharaoh continues to resist God’s Word.
📖 Key Verse: “For I will at this time send all my plagues… that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.” – Exodus 9:14
🔎 Judgment is not merely retribution—it is revelation of God’s unmatched authority.
Exodus Chapter 9 Overview
Exodus 9:1–7 – Disease on the Livestock
📖 Exodus 9:1 – “Let my people go, that they may serve me.”
🔎 God’s message never changes. Despite Pharaoh’s repeated rebellion, God’s demand remains clear, consistent, and uncompromising:
🔹 This is not a request—it’s a command backed by divine authority.
🔹 God is not negotiating with Egypt. He is asserting His right to His people.
🔹 Again, the reason is repeated: “that they may serve Me.” Deliverance is not just from bondage—but into worship.
➡️ Spiritual Truth: God frees us not for independence—but for intimacy and service.
📖 Exodus 9:3 – “Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle… there shall be a very grievous murrain.”
🔎 This is a strike against Egypt’s economy, religion, and pride:
🔹 “Hand of the LORD” – This phrase indicates direct divine action, as opposed to mediated judgment. It’s personal and inescapable.
🔹 “Murrain” – A highly contagious, fatal disease among livestock—causing mass death.
🔹 Egypt depended heavily on cattle for agriculture, transportation, sacrifices, and daily life.
🔹 The Egyptians worshiped deities such as Hathor (cow goddess of love/fertility) and Apis (sacred bull of strength and virility). This plague is a judgment on their false gods.
➡️ Prophetic Pattern: God often targets what a culture worships or relies on most to expose idolatry (see Revelation 18:11–17).
📖 Exodus 9:4 – “The LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt…”
🔎 This verse reveals a powerful spiritual principle:
🔹 God’s judgments are selective, not random. He protects His people in the midst of chaos.
🔹 Separation is key—He doesn’t remove Israel from Egypt yet, but He sets a barrier of protection.
🔹 This foreshadows the end-time sealing of God’s people (Revelation 7:3).
➡️ Spiritual Application: In times of global shaking, God’s covenant still marks and protects His own.
📖 Exodus 9:6 – “All the cattle of Egypt died… but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.”
🔎 A supernatural contrast:
🔹 The disease strikes only Egypt—not a single animal among the Hebrews dies.
🔹 This is a clear, public demonstration of God’s favor.
🔹 It also breaks Egypt’s infrastructure—plowing, transportation, milk, meat, and spiritual rituals are devastated.
➡️ Devotional Insight: When God makes a distinction, the whole world takes notice. Our peace and provision in times of judgment glorify Him.
📖 Exodus 9:7 – “And Pharaoh sent… and behold, not one of the cattle of the Israelites was dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened…”
🔎 Pharaoh investigates. He sees the miracle with his own eyes—and still hardens his heart:
🔹 “Behold” – This is a dramatic moment. The report confirms divine protection, yet Pharaoh chooses rebellion over revelation.
🔹 God gives him proof, but Pharaoh refuses to surrender. This shows how pride overrides reason.
➡️ Spiritual Warning: Hardened hearts don’t just ignore truth—they inspect it and reject it anyway (see Hebrews 3:12–13).
Prophetic Themes & Symbolism
🔮 Cattle Judgment – Parallels Revelation 6:6 (economic control) and Revelation 16:2 (selective affliction). God controls resources and restoration.
🔮 Egypt’s gods defeated – Hathor and Apis are struck down symbolically. God exposes false systems of strength, fertility, and provision.
🔮 Severed protection – Mirrors the distinction of the sealed in Revelation, the ark in Noah’s time, and the blood on the doorposts soon to come in Exodus 12.
Exodus 9:8–12 – Boils Break Out
📖 Exodus 9:8 – “Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace… and sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.”
🔎 The method is deeply symbolic:
🔹 Ashes of the furnace – These may have come from brick kilns, where the Israelites were oppressed and enslaved. Now, God takes the tools of suffering and turns them into weapons of judgment.
🔹 Sprinkled toward heaven – A prophetic act showing that this judgment comes from above, not below. God is declaring: “Your affliction has reached My throne. Now I act.”
🔹 This is also a mockery of Egyptian ritual. Priests would cast dust for blessing—God casts ashes for plague.
➡️ Spiritual Principle: What the enemy used to oppress you, God can use to judge your oppressor.
📖 Exodus 9:9–10 – “It became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast.”
🔎 The judgment intensifies:
🔹 Boils (Hebrew: shechin) – Painful, open sores that erupt across the body. “Blains” refer to inflamed ulcers.
🔹 This is visceral, personal, and humiliating. It affects appearance, comfort, mobility, and dignity.
🔹 Disease now covers both man and beast—a sign that creation itself is groaning under Egypt’s rebellion.
➡️ Prophetic Echo: Revelation 16:2 describes a similar judgment—grievous sores on those who receive the mark of the beast. This plague points forward to end-time wrath on unrepentant hearts.
📖 Exodus 9:11 – “The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils.”
🔎 This is a monumental moment of spiritual collapse:
🔹 Egypt’s false priests—once the performers of miracles—are now crippled and disfigured.
🔹 They cannot stand—a symbol of defeat, humiliation, and the loss of spiritual authority.
🔹 Their downfall also represents the failure of Egypt’s spiritual system to protect or restore its people.
➡️ Spiritual Insight: All false power eventually falls under the weight of divine truth. Every counterfeit priesthood will bow to the real.
📖 Exodus 9:12 – “And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh…”
🔎 A spiritual shift is confirmed:
🔹 Earlier, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Now, God confirms and locks in his decision—not as punishment, but as final justice.
🔹 This hardening is not arbitrary—it comes after repeated resistance, false repentance, and willful pride.
🔹 God’s judgment now includes giving Pharaoh over to his chosen path (Romans 1:24, 28).
➡️ Warning: The greatest judgment is when God no longer pleads—but permits. When the door of mercy closes, hardness sets in.
Prophetic Themes & Patterns
🔮 Boils on the skin – A direct assault on pride, beauty, and self-sufficiency. In biblical imagery, skin diseases often symbolize spiritual defilement and the need for cleansing (Leviticus 13).
🔮 Failure of the false priesthood – Mirrors the fall of Babylon’s spiritual system in Revelation 18, where sorcery and lies collapse.
🔮 God uses ashes – This act reverses the symbolism of mourning and death into justice and vindication (Isaiah 61:3).
Exodus 9:13–35 – Hail and Fire from Heaven
📖 Exodus 9:13–14 – “Let my people go, that they may serve me. For I will at this time send all my plagues… that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.”
🔎 God escalates His message and clarifies His purpose:
🔹 This is no longer just about Israel—it’s about the nations knowing His name.
🔹 “All my plagues” – God’s judgment is building toward fullness. This is just the beginning.
🔹 The central reason for every plague: “that thou mayest know.” Revelation, not random wrath.
➡️ Spiritual Insight: Before every final judgment, God declares His identity with clarity. Pharaoh must know—and so must we.
📖 Exodus 9:15–17 – “I could have smitten thee… but for this cause have I raised thee up, to shew in thee my power…”
🔎 This is one of the most sobering theological statements in the Bible:
🔹 God says: “I could’ve destroyed you already—but I didn’t. I let you stand… so My glory could be known.”
🔹 Pharaoh is a living example of Romans 9:17—used by God not despite his rebellion, but through it.
🔹 Pharaoh’s pride is a platform for God’s justice and name.
➡️ Prophetic Echo: In the end times, powerful global figures will also rise—not to escape God’s plan but to fulfill it (Revelation 17:17).
📖 Exodus 9:18–21 – “Tomorrow… I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail… He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee.”
🔎 For the first time—God gives warning and people respond:
🔹 “Tomorrow” – A space for repentance and preparation. God still offers mercy before judgment.
🔹 Some Egyptians believe and act. Not all hearts are like Pharaoh’s—some fear the word of the LORD.
🔹 This is grace in the midst of judgment—those who obey are spared.
➡️ Spiritual Application: Even under wrath, God honors those who humble themselves. Your obedience could be the difference between devastation and deliverance.
📖 Exodus 9:22–26 – “The LORD sent thunder and hail… and the fire ran along the ground… only in the land of Goshen… was there no hail.”
🔎 A divine storm shatters Egypt:
🔹 Hail and fire? This is not natural. This is supernatural convergence—symbolic of judgment and purification.
🔹 Trees, crops, and servants are destroyed. The land itself suffers under rebellion.
🔹 Goshen is again supernaturally spared. Covenant protection is visible.
➡️ Prophetic Parallel: Revelation 8:7 describes hail and fire mixed with blood, falling on the earth during trumpet judgments. The Exodus is a template for end-time warnings.
📖 Exodus 9:27–28 – “I have sinned this time… Intreat the LORD… that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail.”
🔎 Pharaoh says the right words—but not with the right heart:
🔹 “I have sinned this time” – This is partial repentance. This time implies excusing the past.
🔹 He seeks relief, not relationship. There’s no true surrender, only fear of consequence.
🔹 His request: “Intreat the LORD”—he still sees Moses as the mediator but won’t approach God himself.
➡️ Warning: God is not fooled by crisis confessions. True repentance produces change—not just words.
📖 Exodus 9:29–30 – “The earth is the LORD’s… but as for thee… ye will not yet fear the LORD God.”
🔎 Moses calls it out:
🔹 He knows Pharaoh’s heart. There is no change—just pause.
🔹 Yet Moses still prays and intercedes. What mercy!
🔹 “The earth is the LORD’s” – A declaration of universal ownership and sovereignty.
➡️ Devotional Insight: Fear of the Lord isn’t terror—it’s reverence, submission, and love of truth.
📖 Exodus 9:34–35 – “When Pharaoh saw… he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart.”
🔎 This is the full circle:
🔹 Judgment falls → Pharaoh trembles → Relief comes → Pharaoh rebels again.
🔹 His heart is no longer softening. It’s becoming calloused by choice.
🔹 God had spoken this pattern—and it unfolds just as He said.
➡️ Final Warning: Repeated resistance to truth creates a heart that no longer feels conviction. This is the path to destruction.
Prophetic Themes & End-Time Parallels
🔮 Thunder, hail, and fire – Mirrors the trumpet and bowl judgments in Revelation (8:7, 16:21). God’s voice will shake the heavens again.
🔮 Partial repentance – Symbolic of modern false religion, which acknowledges God in word but not in life (Matthew 15:8).
🔮 Mercy before judgment – God always gives warning, always offers shelter. The door of Goshen is still open—until it’s not.
Exodus Chapter 9 - Deeper Study
Overview: The War Between Judgment and Mercy
🔹 Timeframe: As God escalates His judgment against Egypt’s systems.
🔹 Setting: The fields, homes, and skin of the Egyptians.
🔹 Theme: God displays power—but desires surrender.
Key Takeaways
🔑 God strikes with purpose—not chaos.
🔑 Each plague is a message: I AM the LORD.
🔑 Covenant people are preserved in judgment.
🔑 Mercy often comes with warning—but it requires action.
🔑 Rebellion eventually becomes irreversible.
Prophetic Patterns & Dual Fulfillment
🔮 Disease, boils, and hail – Reappear in the bowls of wrath in Revelation 16. These plagues are a foreshadowing of end-time judgments.
🔮 Magicians silenced – Mirrors the silencing of Babylon’s spiritual merchants in Revelation 18.
🔮 Selective judgment – Just like Goshen, the sealed remnant is spared during end-time wrath (Revelation 7:3).
Historical & Cultural Context
📜 Egyptian deities – Hapi (fertility, Nile), Hathor (livestock), and Isis (healing) are all challenged in this chapter.
📜 Boils and blemishes – Made one unfit to serve in religious or royal roles in Egypt. God disqualifies their leadership.
📜 Hail in Egypt – A rare and terrifying phenomenon. God uses it to break their confidence in nature and magic.
💡 Final Reflection: Will You Respond Before the Hail Falls?
Every plague is more than judgment—it’s a message of mercy to all who will hear and act.
📌 Are you seeking relief—or transformation?
📌 Are you hiding in Goshen—or standing in rebellion?
📌 Will you wait for the fire to fall—or bow to the voice that warns?
🚀 The hand of God is mighty. But so is His mercy. Come out of Egypt before your heart turns to stone.
The Fifth Plague: Egyptian Livestock Die
Exo 9:1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exo 9:2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,
Exo 9:3 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.
Exo 9:4 And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel.
Exo 9:5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land.
Exo 9:6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.
Exo 9:7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.
The Sixth Plague: Boils
Exo 9:8 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.
Exo 9:9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:10 And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.
Exo 9:11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.
Exo 9:12 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.
The Seventh Plague: Hail
Exo 9:13 And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exo 9:14 For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.
Exo 9:15 For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
Exo 9:16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
Exo 9:17 As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?
Exo 9:18 Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
Exo 9:19 Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.
Exo 9:20 He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:
Exo 9:21 And he that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.
Exo 9:22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Exo 9:25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.
Exo 9:26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.
Exo 9:27 And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
Exo 9:28 Intreat the LORD (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.
Exo 9:29 And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD’S.
Exo 9:30 But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God.
Exo 9:31 And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.
Exo 9:32 But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up.
Exo 9:33 And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.
Exo 9:34 And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
Exo 9:35 And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.
Date Written
1446-1406 BC
Written By
Moses
Language
Hebrew
Verses
35