Exodus 9:3

FIFTH PLAGUE MURRAIN, Exodus 9:1-7.

3. The hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field This infliction seems to be limited to the cattle which were in the open air . All of the animals here mentioned are represented in the Egyptian monuments except the camel, which, though used in Egypt from the earliest times, yet for some reason never occurs in the hieroglyphic inscriptions, or in the pictured representations of the tombs . Stuart Poole supposes that the camel was unclean in the eyes of the Egyptians, as associated with the hated nomad tribes of the desert and the abominated Shepherd Dynasties. See Genesis 46:34, and note . In the populous cities and cultivated fields of the Nile valley the services of the camel would not be required; but to cross the sands which bounded the valley the “ship of the desert” was indispensable: yet perhaps the Egyptians generally employed the Arabs in this caravan service . The horses of Egypt were celebrated from early times: thence Solomon imported his into Palestine. They were greatly esteemed for chariot service and for war, but asses and cattle were generally employed for draught. The cheap, strong, patient ass was, and is, the peasant’s chief dependence for labour. Sheep were reared chiefly for their wool, mutton being rarely used. Large flocks were kept in the neighbourhood of Memphis, even to the number of two thousand.