Bible Study on Exodus 9, verses 1 to 7, Let my people go

 

Exodus 9:1 ¶  Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2  For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, 3  Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. 4  And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. 5  And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land. 6  And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. 7  And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

Moses is now told to threaten Pharaoh with a great death among all of his cattle. A murrain (mu-wren) is an infectious disease among animals and the Hebrew word murrain is translated from, transliterated as “deh’-ber,” is used most of the time for the English pestilence in the Bible. Again, too, nothing will die that belongs to the people of Israel. Still, the Pharaoh remained stubborn. Wonders continue as there was first the rod turning into a serpent, surface water turned to blood, infestations of frogs, lice, then flies, and now a great plague among the cattle of the Egyptians.

Remember how during the time of the great famine Joseph arranged for the Egyptians to sell their cattle to the government in exchange for bread and the Pharaoh wanted Hebrew men to watch over his cattle in Genesis 47? 

Verse 3 gives us a definition of cattle in the Bible which is much broader than our modern consideration of beeves or cows and bulls only.

It is interesting how this happened right after Moses’s expressing of a concern about sacrificing that which was unpleasing to the Egyptians in front of them and I spoke of how they held many animals as representing gods. This is an attack on the Egyptian food supply and on their gods showing that Jehovah God, the creator of all mankind, has power over disease, a power these gods are helpless in front of. For a side note, Augustine of Hippo, the great Christian leader of the fifth century AD, also wrote in his City of God how the gods of the Romans were helpless to save them from the calamities they faced throughout their history.