Exodus 9:23

Exo 9:23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.

Ver. 23. And the fire ran along upon the ground.] Such "hailstones and coals of fire" we also read of in Psa 18:13-15 Isa 30:30-31; and in the Roman history, when Marcus Antonius the philosopher fought with the Quades, and by the prayers of the thundering legion - κεραυνοβολος, as they were afterwards called - of the Christians, rain was obtained to the refreshing of the Roman army, ingens grando compluraque fulmina in hostes ceciderunt: Itaque licebat videre in eodem loco aquam ignemque simul de coelo cadere, atque ob eam causam, Romanos valere ac bibere. Quados exuri et penitus interire. i.e., A huge hail and many lightening bolts fell upon the enemy; fire and water fell at once from heaven; the Romans drank of the water and were relieved; the Quades were burnt by the fire, and perished. {a}

{a} Dio, in Vita M. Ant. Phil.

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.

Hebrew, fire walked.

The seventh plague.

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

Verse 23. The Lord sent thunder] קלת koloth, voices; but loud, repeated peals of thunder are meant.

And the fire ran along upon the ground] ותהלך אש ארצה vattihalac esh aretsah, and the fire walked upon the earth. It was not a sudden flash of lightning, but a devouring fire, walking through every part, destroying both animals and vegetables; and its progress was irresistible.

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

(23) The fire ran along upon the ground.—Heb., fire walked earthwards. Kalisch and Knobel understand by this mere ordinary lightning, but Aben-Ezra, Canon Cook, and others think that the phenomenon was such as our Version well expresses. There is no doubt that the electric fluid occasionally takes a form which has something of permanency, continuing several seconds, or even minutes, either stationary or with a slow motion. Appearances of this kind have been called “fire-balls,” and indicate an excessive electrical disturbance, involving great peril to life and property. If the expression “fire walked earthwards” does not imply anything of this kind, yet the peculiar phrase of Exo_9:24 would seem to do so.

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

And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven,.... The same which Aaron had made use of before, but was now in the hand of Moses, and whose rod it properly was:

and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground, hot thunderbolts, which struck their flocks, Psa 78:48 and hail which fell so thick and weighty as to destroy both men and cattle, and break trees in pieces, and spoil the corn, the grass, and the tender herb; and fire, that is lightning, which descended so low, and in such quantities, as ran along the ground, and consumed all it met with. Artapanus (g), an Heathen writer, who speaks of this storm of hail, says, that Moses, besides the hail, caused earthquakes by night, so that those that escaped the earthquakes were taken away by the hail, and those that escaped the hail perished by the earthquakes, which he says overthrew all the houses, and most of the temples:

and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt; upon Egypt, where rain was not common, and on all the land of Egypt, when in some parts of it it was scarce known, and hail as thick as rain; ice, snow, and hail, are most rarely if ever seen there, the air not being cold enough for the production of them (h). This was the Lord's immediate doing, when there was no likelihood of it, nor any appearance of second causes concurring to produce it, and came at the exact time he had foretold it should; all which were very extraordinary.

(g) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 435, 436. (h) Vid. Scheuchzer. Physica Sacra, vol. 1. p. 139.

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

The fire ran along upon the ground, devouring both herbs and cattle which were upon it, Psa 78:47,48; 105:32,33

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

Moses stretched forth his rod. In the last set of three plagues, the earthly agent was Moses (Exo_9:10; Exo_10:13, Exo_10:22) whose diffidence seems to have worn off as time went on, and he became accustomed to put himself forward. Thunder and hail. Thunder had not been predicted; but it is a common accompaniment of a hail-storm, the change of temperature produced by the discharge of electricity no doubt conducing to the formation of hailstones. The fire ran along upon the ground. Some very peculiar electrical display seems to be intended something corresponding to the phenomena called "fireballs," where the electric fluid does not merely flash momentarily, but remains for several seconds, or even minutes, before it disappears.

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