John Calvin Commentary Exodus 9:2

"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.