A boil - Means probably a burning tumor or carbuncle breaking out in pustulous ulcers. The miracle consisting in the severity of the plague and its direct connection with the act of Moses. read more
Exodus 9:8-10. Take you handfuls of the ashes of the furnace Sometimes God shows men their sin in their punishment. They had oppressed Israel in the furnaces, and now the ashes of the furnace are made as much a terror to them as ever their task masters had been to the Israelites. “The matter of this plague,” says Ainsworth, “is from the fire, which also being one of the elements they deified, is here made the instrument of evil to them, and reclaimed by Jehovah to his service, in punishment... read more
Nine plagues (7:14-10:29)The timing, intensity and extent of these plagues show clearly that they were sent by God. It also seems fairly clear that God used the physical characteristics of the Nile valley to produce them.When the first plague struck, it polluted all the water in the Nile and in the irrigation canals and reservoirs connected with it, resulting in all the fish dying. As the dead fish floated to the banks they would force the frogs out of the water, thereby producing the second... read more
man . Hebrew. 'adam, with art. = mankind. beast . Other than those "in the field", Exodus 9:3 . read more
ashes of the furnace : i.e. one of the altars on which human sacrifices were sometimes offered to propitiate their god Typhon (i.e. the Evil Principle). These were doubtless being offered to avert the plagues, and Moses, using the ashes in the same way, produced an- other plague instead of averting it. read more
PLAGUE VI"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. And it shall become small dust over 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. 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... read more
Exodus 9:9. A boil breaking forth with blains— This should be rendered, an inflammation breaking forth into blains; for blains generally arise from inflammations, and more usually break forth into boils, than boils into them: but if by boil we understand, with Johnson, only a sore angry swelling, it may then be very proper; for the original, word שׁחין shechin, signifies an inflammatory swelling. Bishop Patrick observes, that "the ashes, which they strewed into the air, came down a small fleet,... read more
10. Moses took ashes from the furnace—Hebrew, "brick-kiln." The magicians, being sufferers in their own persons, could do nothing, though they had been called; and as the brick-kiln was one of the principal instruments of oppression to the Israelites [Deuteronomy 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51; Jeremiah 11:4], it was now converted into a means of chastisement to the Egyptians, who were made to read their sin in their punishment. Jeremiah 11:4- :. PLAGUE OF HAIL. read more
Boils (the sixth plague) 9:8-12The "soot from a kiln" (Exodus 9:8) was significant in two respects. First, the soot was black and symbolized the blackness of skin in the disease linking the cause with the effect. Second, the kiln was probably one of the furnaces in which the Israelites baked bricks for Pharaoh as his slaves. These furnaces became a symbol of Israel’s slavery (Exodus 1:14; Exodus 5:7-19). God turned the suffering of the Israelites in the furnace of Egypt so that they and what... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Exodus 9:10
The furnace . It is perhaps not very important what kind of "furnace" is meant. But the point has been seriously debated. Some suppose a furnace for the consumption of victims, human or other; some a baking oven, or cooking stove; others a furnace for smelting metal; others again a limekiln. The ordinary meaning of the word used, kibshon , is a "brick-kiln;" but bricks were not often baked in Egypt. Nor is it at all clear that any victims were ever consumed in furnaces. Probably either a... read more