Exodus 9:19

Exo 9:19 Send therefore now, [and] gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; [for upon] every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.

Ver. 19. Send therefore now.] Here "(mercy rejoiceth against judgment," {Jas 2:13} if by any means he might be wrought upon. Sed Rhinoceros interimi potest, capi non potest. It was past time of day to do Pharaoh good.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exo 9:19. Send now therefore and gather thy cattle — This warning God gives to mitigate the severity of the judgment, to show his justice in punishing so wicked and obstinate a people as would not hearken either to his words or former works, and especially to make a difference between the penitent and the incorrigible Egyptians, it being far from God to inflict the same punishment on those who mourn because of any national crime, and those who for their profit or pleasure will continue to do wickedly.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Here we see though God’s wrath be kindled, yet there is a certain mercy showed even to his enemies.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 19. Send - now, and gather thy cattle] So in the midst of judgment, God remembered mercy. The miracle should be wrought that they might know he was the Lord; but all the lives both of men and beasts might have been saved, had Pharaoh and his servants taken the warning so mercifully given them. While some regarded not the word of the Lord, others feared it, and their cattle and their servants were saved, See Ex 9:20-21.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(19) Gather thy cattle.—The peculiar circumstances of Egypt, where the whole country was overflowed by the Nile during some months of each year, caused the provision of shelter for cattle to be abnormally great. Every year, at the time of the inundation, all the cattle had to be “gathered” into sheds and cattle-yards in the immediate vicinity of the villages and towns, which were protected from the inundation by high mounds. Thus it would have been easy to house all the cattle that remained to the Egyptians after the murrain, if the warning here given had been attended to generally.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. Advice to the Pharaoh, and, implicitly (cf. vv. 20, 21), to his servants as well, to bring their cattle quickly into safety. The advice gives the Pharaoh an opportunity of shewing what his frame of mind is, according as he follows or disregards the advice. According to v. 6 the Egyptians had indeed no ‘cattle’ left after the murrain; but (as was remarked on v. 6) ‘all’ in Hebrew is not always to be taken literally. The inconsistency is however remarkable: contrast Exo_10:5; Exo_10:15.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field,.... The servants that were at work there: this is said to denote both the certainty of the plague, and the terribleness of it, that all, both men and beast, would perish by it, if care was not taken to get them home; and also to show the wonderful clemency and mercy of God to such rebellious, hardened, and undeserving creatures, as Pharaoh and his people were; in the midst of wrath and judgment God remembers mercy:

for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home; and there sheltered in houses, barns, and stables:

the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die; the hailstones that would fall would be so large and so heavy as to kill both men and beasts, like those which fell from heaven upon the Canaanites in the days of Joshua, which killed more than the sword did, Jos 10:11.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This forewarning God gives, partly, to initiate the severity of the judgment; partly, that a considerable number of horses might be reserved for Pharaoh’s expedition, Exo 14; partly, to show the justice of God in punishing so wicked and obstinate people, as would take no warning neither from God’s words, nor from his former works; and partly, to make a difference between the penitent and the incorrigible Egyptians.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle — This is the only instance in which the Egyptians were advised how to escape the judgment after it had been announced. This plague not only destroyed the crops, trees, and cattle, but, like the last, fell upon the Egyptians themselves. Jehovah now reveals himself to Egypt as the Lord of the elements — of the forces of the air — as well as of the water and the land.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field. During winter and early spring, the Egyptians kept their cattle "in the field," as other nations commonly do. When the inundation began (June or July), they were obliged to bring them into the cities and enclosed villages, and house them. The time of the "Plague of Hail" appears by all the indications w have been the middle of February. They shall die. Human life was now for the first time threatened. Any herdsmen that remained with the cattle in the open field and did not seek the shelter of houses or sheds would be smitten by the huge jagged hailstones with such force that they would be killed outright, or else die of their wounds.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The good advice to be given by Moses to the king, to secure the men and cattle that were in the field, i.e., to put them under shelter, which was followed by the God-fearing Egyptians (Exo 9:21), was a sign of divine mercy, which would still rescue the hardened man and save him from destruction. Even in Pharaoh's case the possibility still existed of submission to the will of God; the hardening was not yet complete. But as he paid no heed to the word of the Lord, the predicted judgment was fulfilled (Exo 9:22-26). "Jehovah gave voices" (קלת); called "voices of God" in Exo 9:28. This term is applied to the thunder (cf. Exo 19:16; Exo 20:18; Psa 29:3-9), as being the mightiest manifestation of the omnipotence of God, which speaks therein to men (Rev 10:3-4), and warns them of the terrors of judgment. These terrors were heightened by masses of fire, which came down from the sky along with the hail that smote man and beast in the field, destroyed the vegetables, and shattered the trees. "And fire ran along upon the ground;" תּהלך is a Kal, though it sounds like Hithpael, and signifies grassari, as in Psa 73:9.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

שלח העז translate it as the Targum: SEND, GATHER. Similar examples of this sense are, (Isaiah 10:31) “The inhabitants of Gebim gather together (העיזו)”; (Jeremiah 6:1) “Gather together (העיזו), ye children of Benjamin”.

ולא יאסף הביתה The verb denotes “bringing into a place” so that the translation is: AND WHICH IS NOT GATHERED INTO THE HOUSE.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Now send word and gather. He warned to send word to enable the slaves that were shepherding the flocks to escape, as the Sages said: “Man is beloved for he was created in the Image of Hashem”.

Sforno on the Tanakh — English translation: “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.