Exodus 9:30-35

"But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not fear Jehovah God. And the flax and the barley were smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bloom. But the wheat and the spelt were not smitten: for they were not grown up. And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto Jehovah: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. 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. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the children of Israel go; as Jehovah had spoken by Moses."

"I know that ye will not fear Jehovah God ..." Contrary to all reason and intelligence, Pharaoh stubbornly held to his course of self-destruction. Why? The reason lay in the fact of God's having hardened Pharaoh's heart. True, it was Pharaoh himself who hardened his heart initially, but, as in all similar cases, there is a point of no return. An angel of God commanded Balaam to "Go with the men." Jesus commanded Judas, "What thou doest, do quickly." Etc. In God's hardening of a human heart, there is a fundamental loss of intelligence, as if the Heavenly Surgeon (God) had plucked the vital center out of his brain. In this very fact lies the explanation of the terrible truth that some of the world's intellectual giants cannot comprehend the revelation of God! Despite the glory of their earthly attainments, they are nevertheless intellectual dwarfs, having long previously made the moral decision against God, their ability to think straight concerning Him has been atrophied, hardened, and removed. What fools such men actually are! What an outstanding example of the entire class of hardened souls was Pharaoh!

"And the flax and the barley were smitten ..." Both of these were important vital crops to the Egyptians. Linen made from flax provided the garments for the priesthood and all wealthy classes; and the barley was used both for men and for animals as food. By these crops being "in the ear" and "in bloom" respectively, the time of this plague can be fixed in late January,[23] or in early February.[24]

"The wheat and the spelt were not smitten ..." Another plague would take care of them later. "Spelt," mistranslated "rye" in some versions, is a grain somewhat similar to wheat, and it provided the principal food supply of the common citizens of ancient Egypt. More than any other, this grain appears frequently on the sculptures and monuments. In all, it appears that these ten plagues were scattered over about one full year. Honeycutt placed the period of their occurrence at "about eight months, from the annual inundation of the Nile through early spring the following year."[25] Esses calculated that, "a full year would have gone by."[26]

The mention of "rain" in Exodus 9:33 is curious, and Rawlinson's comment is helpful:

"Rain had not been previously mentioned, as it was no part of the plague, that is, it did no damage. But Moses, recording the cessation as an eye-witness, recollects that rain was mingled with the hail, and that, at his prayer, the thunder, the hail, and the rain all ceased. This touch is one that no later writer would have introduced."[27]

Fields' commented on the particular Egyptian deities (of which there were at least eighty!) which were exposed and discredited by this wonder:

"The desperate Egyptians were in sorrow and fright. Their sky-goddess Nut could not protect them from hail from the sky. Nut was often pictured as a lanky nude female arching from horizon to horizon across the sky, touching the ground with fingertips and toes. Isis and Seth were also thought to have care over agricultural production, but the pagan gods were silent and helpless."[28]