John Calvin Commentary Exodus 9
John Calvin Commentary
Exodus 9
John Calvin Commentary
Exodus 9
"Then Jehovah said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me." — Exodus 9:1 (ASV)
Then the Lord said. No complaint or protest from Moses is related here; and it is possible that he was quiet and silent, while God foresaw what was necessary to do, and even commanded what He would have done. But since he only gives a brief summary of events, we may reasonably assume that, as the evil grew worse, he sought the remedy from time to time.
In the denunciation, “the Lord God of the Hebrews” is no meaningless repetition, so that Pharaoh might learn that He, whom Pharaoh thought to have repelled in his great pride, was still in the field against him. For God insults Pharaoh's ferocity and, by declaring His own name, contemptuously defies Pharaoh's wrath.
We have already said that Pharaoh is convicted of sacrilege, both in his oppression of God’s people and in defrauding God Himself of the honor due to Him; therefore, those words, Let my people go, that they may serve me, serve to aggravate his sin.
"For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still," — Exodus 9:2 (ASV)
But if you refuse. God again urges him to obedience through fear of punishment, as He usually deals with the stubborn. Yet He permits him a short period of time for repentance (as before), if perhaps he may lay aside his perverse determination to refuse.
And this Moses now relates more distinctly in the fifth verse. His purpose is twofold: first, to show the extreme obstinacy of Pharaoh's malice, as the tyrant mocks God’s forbearance and follows his own lust; and second, to demonstrate more clearly from the timing that the cattle of Egypt were struck not by chance but by the hand of God.
There is also an implied reproof of Pharaoh's senseless obstinacy. It is as though Moses said that God was already sufficiently, and more than sufficiently, provoked. Therefore, unless Pharaoh desisted, God had new and more terrible plagues at hand by which He would overwhelm him.
The murrain is appropriately called God’s “hand” because it arose from His just judgment. This expression is used to contrast it with natural causes, human arts and devices, and accidental chances. It is as if Moses had said that the hand of God would appear in “the very grievous murrain,” so that Pharaoh might perceive the Deity to be angry with him.
Moreover, though this might seem a lighter plague than those preceding it, it was undoubtedly more grievous and afflictive to the Egyptians because it involved much greater injury at a future period. The hand of God had before been adverse to them for a short time, and the evil had been removed along with the infliction; but now the destruction of the cattle will affect them for many years.
For this kind of gradation in God's judgments must be observed, as the Law also denounces against transgressors punishments sevenfold greater if they do not quickly return to the right path (See Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28).
Regarding his saying that all the cattle died, it is a comprehensive103 expression, for it will immediately appear that a considerable number of animals still remained.
But he means that the herds were everywhere destroyed and the flocks struck by the murrain; or, if you prefer, that the murrain was general in its attack and reduced Egypt to poverty through the destruction of their cattle and other animals.
Finally, the universal term merely indicates that this plague was a remarkable proof of God’s anger, because the pestilence did not only kill a few animals, as it usually does, but wreaked havoc far and wide on a vast number of herds and flocks.
103 Lat., “synecdochica locutio.” , “synecdochica locutio.” Fr., “s’entend que par ci par la il y eut grande desconfiture;” it means that on every side there was great destruction., “s’entend que par ci par la il y eut grande desconfiture;” it means that on every side there was great destruction.
"And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not so much as one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn, and he did not let the people go." — Exodus 9:7 (ASV)
And Pharaoh sent. I leave it undecided whether he first sent these inspectors at that time.104 It may be that, in the blindness of his obstinacy, he neglected this until he was reminded by Moses.
For we know how the reprobate shut their eyes against the manifest marks of God’s wrath and willfully indulge in their errors.
Certainly, there is no doubt that Pharaoh, while he sought to harden himself in every way, deliberately ignored what was very useful for him to know. But, since he was informed by Moses of the distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites, he was compelled, whether he willed it or not, to ascertain from actual inspection what he would have gladly remained ignorant of.
But this was no obscure demonstration of God’s paternal favor towards his chosen people: the contagion did not affect that part of Egypt which was most full of cattle, though it ravaged the whole surrounding neighborhood.
Therefore, the hardness of the king’s wicked heart was all the more base and astonishing, since he was not moved even by this extraordinary circumstance. For it was a sign of horrible folly that, when the matter was examined and discovered by his subordinates, he still hardened his heart and would not obey God.
104 “It is asked, why he did not do so before? Resp., Because either, first, The roads were impassable on account of the frogs, lice, etc.; or , The roads were impassable on account of the frogs, lice, etc.; or secondly, It did not previously occur to him.” —, It did not previously occur to him.” — Menochius in Pol. Syn.
"And Jehovah said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward heaven in the sight of Pharaoh." — Exodus 9:8 (ASV)
And the Lord said to Moses. God does not now postpone the time of the punishment, but redoubles the plagues in a continuous series. Nor does He threaten Pharaoh; instead, leaving him aside, He executes the judgment He had decreed. This was because it was now abundantly clear that warnings had no effect on him, and also so that his desperate wickedness might be rebuked in every way.
For although I have recently said that not everything that happened is fully related, the narrative of Moses still rather leads us to infer that Pharaoh was not told anything beforehand about the boils, but that the ashes105 were sprinkled when he suspected nothing of the sort.
But it did not happen naturally that the sky was darkened by the dust, and that the disease arose from there; for how could a few ashes cover the whole air? By this visible sign, the tyrant was taught that the calamity that followed was inflicted by Moses and Aaron.
Moreover, God invested His servants with high power, giving them command over the air, so that they could envelop it in darkness and poison it with contagion. From this we gather that devils are called the princes of the air, not because they govern it according to their will, but only insofar as the permission106 to wander in it is granted to them.
105 Havernick, in his Introduction to the Pentateuch, has a remarkable note on this plague. “The symbolical procedure,” he says, “employed by Moses, Exodus 9:8, etc., is striking, and has never yet been satisfactorily explained. It is, however, made completely intelligible to us by a statement of Manetho in Plutarch, De. Isaiah et Osir. p. 380: καὶ γὰρἐν ᾿Ειληθυίας πο·λει ζῶντας ἀνθρώπους κατεπίμπασαν, ὡς Μανέθων ἱστόρηκε, Τυφωνίους καλοῦντες, καὶ τὴν τέφραν αὐτῶν λικμῶντες ἠφάνιβον, καὶ διέσπειρον. In respect to this we may leave it undecided how far this statement should be connected with the residence of the Hyksos, a conclusion which there is much to favor; here we have only to do with the striking rite mentioned in the notice, which was certainly an ancient mode of expiation, indicating purification, which in antiquity was often symbolized by ashes. (V. Spencer, De legg, rituall., s. 3. diss. 3, c. 1.) We shall thus understand the entire significance, which the procedure had for the Egyptians, inasmuch as a rite which they regarded as sacred in the sense referred to, was here followed by the contrary effect, pollution, as is so expressively indicated by our text.” — Thomson’s Translation, p. 246. Edinburgh, 1850.
106 D’y faire leurs efforts. — Fr..
"And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boils were upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians." — Exodus 9:11 (ASV)
And the magicians could not. Since the magicians were now also at hand, no doubt they were possessed by their former folly, so that they stood in readiness, as it were, in case an opportunity of contention should be offered them.
Indeed, since Satan, although ten times conquered, is still perpetually hurried forward with indefatigable obstinacy, so neither do his ministers desist from their madness, even though they have experienced how unsuccessful their battles are. These enchanters had recently confessed that their art could do no more, and yet they embolden themselves to try every extreme measure, until the disease of the boils drives them back in disgrace.
Therefore, so that we may not betray our madness by similar audacity, let us learn to give God His full glory by voluntary submission.
But that Pharaoh, when not only deprived of their assistance but even when abandoned and without their presence, is neither changed nor softened, proves that he was not so much deceived by the impostures of others as stupefied by his own malice and perversity; although Moses here repeats that “his heart was hardened by God;” because He desired, as if by an opposing barrier, to have an opportunity for manifesting His power.
And here the ignorance of those who imagine that God is endowed with mere prescience is refuted; for when “as the Lord has spoken” is added, He attributes both together to Himself, namely, the effect as well as the foreknowledge.
We will elaborate on this point a little further; yet let us remark that at the same time the tyrant was not absolved from crime, because his hardness of heart was voluntary. The blains, which were epidemic on the cattle, are a proof that not all of them died in the former catastrophe.
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