SEV Biblia, Chapter 9:18
He aquí que mañana a estas horas yo lluevo granizo muy grave, cual nunca fue en Egipto, desde el día que se fundó hasta ahora.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Exodus 9:18
Verse 18. To-morrow about this time] The time of this plague is marked thus circumstantially to show Pharaoh that Jehovah was Lord of heaven and earth, and that the water, the fire, the earth, and the air, which were all objects of Egyptian idolatry, were the creatures of his power; and subservient to his will; and that, far from being able to help them, they were now, in the hands of God, instruments of their destruction. To rain a very grievous hail] To rain hail may appear to some superficial observers as an unphilosophical mode of expression, but nothing can be more correct. "Drops of rain falling through a cold region of the atmosphere are frozen and converted into hail;" and thus the hail is produced by rain. When it begins to fall it is rain; when it is falling it is converted into hail; thus it is literally true that it rains hail. The farther a hail-stone falls the larger it generally is, because in its descent it meets with innumerable particles of water, which, becoming attached to it, are also frozen, and thus its bulk is continually increasing till it reaches the earth. In the case in question, if natural means were at all used, we may suppose a highly electrified state of an atmosphere loaded with vapors, which, becoming condensed and frozen, and having a considerable space to fall through, were of an unusually large size. Though this was a supernatural storm, there have been many of a natural kind, that have been exceedingly dreadful. A storm of hail fell near Liverpool, in Lancashire, in the year 1795, which greatly damaged the vegetation, broke windows, &c., &c.
Many of the stones measured five inches in circumference. Dr. Halley mentions a similar storm of hail in Lancashire, Cheshire, &c., in 1697, April 29, that for sixty miles in length and two miles in breadth did immense damage, by splitting trees, killing fowls and all small animals, knocking down men and horses, &c., &c. Mezeray, in his History of France, says "that in Italy, in 1510, there was for some time a horrible darkness, thicker than that of night, after which the clouds broke into thunder and lightning, and there fell a shower of hail-stones which destroyed all the beasts, birds, and even fish of the country. It was attended with a strong smell of sulphur, and the stones were of a bluish colour, some of them weighing one hundred pounds' weight." The Almighty says to Job: "Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?" Job xxxviii. 22, 23. While God has such artillery at his command, how soon may he desolate a country or a world! See the account of a remarkable hail-storm in Josh. x. 11.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 13-21 - Moses is here ordered to deliver a dreadful message to Pharaoh Providence ordered it, that Moses should have a man of such a fierc and stubborn spirit as this Pharaoh to deal with; and every thing mad it a most signal instance of the power of God has to humble and brin down the proudest of his enemies. When God's justice threatens ruin his mercy at the same time shows a way of escape from it. God not onl distinguished between Egyptians and Israelites, but between some Egyptians and others. If Pharaoh will not yield, and so prevent the judgment itself, yet those that will take warning, may take shelter Some believed the things which were spoken, and they feared, and house their servants and cattle, and it was their wisdom. Even among the servants of Pharaoh, some trembled at God's word; and shall not the sons of Israel dread it? But others believed not, and left their cattl in the field. Obstinate unbelief is deaf to the fairest warnings, an the wisest counsels, which leaves the blood of those that perish upo their own heads.
Original Hebrew
הנני 2005 ממטיר 4305 כעת 6256 מחר 4279 ברד 1259 כבד 3515 מאד 3966 אשׁר 834 לא 3808 היה 1961 כמהו 3644 במצרים 4714 למן 4480 היום 3117 הוסדה 3245 ועד 5704 עתה׃ 6258
