My hand. God inflicts the fourth, fifth, and tenth plagues without Moses.

Land. Moses related all this to the king, according to the Samaritan copy.

All the beasts. That is, many of all kinds. (Challoner) --- So it is said, (Jeremias ix. 26,) all the nations are uncircumcised, though some few observed the rite of circumcision with the Jews. (Haydock)

Hardened. He did not beg for a deliverance, as the beasts were dead. (Menochius)

Blains. Pestiferous buboes or burning swellings. (Calmet) --- Thus were the pride and luxury of the Egyptians punished by Moses; and they who had kept the Hebrews in an iron furnace, were themselves scorched with fiery ashes and ulcers. (Menochius)

Stand before to oppose Moses. They could not screen themselves. (Haydock)

Hardened, &c. See the annotations above, chap. v. 21, chap. vii. 3, and chap. viii. 15. (Challoner) --- The wicked man, when he is come into the depth of sins, condemneth: but ignominy and reproach follow him, Proverbs xviii. 3.

Plagues of fire and hail, that thy heart may relent. But as all my chastisements will not produce this effect, I will be glorified in thy fall. (Haydock) --- I could now strike thee dead; (ver. 15,) but I reserve thee for a more dreadful punishment, (ver. 17,) in the waters of the Red Sea. (Calmet)

Pestilence, or various evils which now came fast upon Pharao. (Menochius)

Raised thee to the throne, or preserved thee hitherto from the former plagues. God disposes of things in such a manner, as to draw good out of the evil designs of men. (St. Augustine, City of God xi. 17; Romans ix. 17.) (Calmet)

Cattle. Some had escaped the former plague, or the Egyptians had purchased more from their neighbours, and in the land of Gessen. (Haydock) --- God tempers justice with mercy. (St. Augustine, q. 33.) --- Die. This message was accordingly delivered to Pharao. (Samaritan copy) (Haydock)

In all the land of. So the Hebrew: but the Samaritan and some Hebrew manuscripts have simply in Egypt. (Kennicott) --- Founded, about 627 years before. Hence it appears, that the rain falls in some parts of Egypt, (Menochius) particularly about Tanis, ver. 18, 34. (Calmet) (Wisdom xvi. 17.)

CHAPTER IX.

Lateward. The hail fell in February. (Bonfrere) Aristophanes (in Avibus) says, the Egyptians and Phenicians have their harvest when the cuckoo begins to sing. The month Nisan, which answers to part of March and April, was honoured with the first fruits, chap. xiii. 4. (Menochius)

Hard. Hebrew, "and he hardened his heart." (Worthington)