Exodus 9:18-26 Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail… A plague of hail, with lightning and thunder, must have been far more awful and portentous in Egypt than in any other country; for there rain was almost unknown, thunderstorms were of rare occurrence, and lightning, when it appeared, was generally of a harmless kind. Modern travellers, indeed, speak of snowstorms, and of thunder and lightning happening occasionally in lower Egypt; but such phenomena appear to have been almost unknown in earlier times. Herodotus says — "During the reign of Psammenitus, Egypt beheld a most remarkable prodigy. There was rain at the Egyptian Thebes, a circumstance which never happened before, and which, as the Thebans themselves assert, has never occurred since. In the higher parts of Egypt it never rains; but at that period it rained in distinct drops" (1. iii, c. 10). Plutarch also observes that "In Egypt no moisture of the air is ever condensed into showers" (de facie, c. 25). Pococke mentions a storm of hail followed by rain in the province of Arsinoe, which "the natives were so far from considering as a blessing, that they observed rain was productive of scarcity, and that the inundation of the Nile alone was serviceable." The Egyptians were much given to the observance of all unusual phenomena, and looked upon them as portentous. According to Herodotus, "Whenever any unusual circumstance occurs they commit the particulars of it to writing, and mark the events which follow" (1. 2, c. 38). If "distinct drops of rain" were regarded as a prodigy worthy of being thus recorded, what must have been the effect of a storm like this, when the hail fell with sufficient violence to destroy both man and beast, and the fire also ran along the ground? "The Egyptians," says Diodorus, denominated fire Hephaistos, esteeming it a mighty deity, which contributed largely towards the generation and ultimate perfection of to Lucian, "The Persians sacrifice to fire and the Egyptians to water" (de Jove trag. c. 24). Porphyry says — "Even to this day, at the opening of the temple of Serapis, the worship is made by fire and water, for they reverence water and fire above all the elements." These deities now came down upon Egypt with destruction and terror; the very gods in which they trusted turned against them. (T. S. Millington.) Parallel Verses KJV: Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. |
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