Exodus 9:3

3. cattle] lit. possessions, commonly used of possessions in sheep and oxen (Exo_12:38, Gen_47:14), but including here other animals as well.

camels] Camels were not used, or bred, in ancient Egypt, nor do they appear ‘in any inscription or painting before the Greek period’ (Erman, p. 493; cf. W. Max Müller, EB. i. 634; Sayce, EHH. 169). They look here like an anachronism: the reference may however be to camels belonging to traders, which had brought merchandise into Egypt across the desert from Arabia, or elsewhere (cf. Gen_37:25).

grievous] i.e. severe: see on Exo_8:24.

murrain] the word which, when used of a disease of men, is commonly rendered pestilence (v. 15, Exo_9:3, and frequently); it is applied to a cattle plague only here and Psa_78:50.

Egypt does not seem to be often visited by cattle plagues. Pruner (Krankheiten des Orients, p. 108 ff.), and Lepsius (Letters from Eg., p. 44), cited by Kn., mention, however, a severe epidemic which began in 1842, and by June, 1843, had raged for nine months (Mrs Poole, The Englishwoman in Egypt, 1844, ii. 114 f.), causing great mortality among oxen and sheep, though it did not affect camels or horses. Pruner attributed this epidemic to the water of the Nile, which was low and impure at the time when it began: cattle which were at a distance from the Nile, and could obtain good water, were not attacked by it. There have also been cattle plagues in Egypt in recent years.

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.

Exo 9:3 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.

Ver. 3. Is upon thy cattle.] Both those ad esum and those ad usum. Men sin, these suffer, and therefore groan. {Rom 8:22}

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 9:3. The hand of the Lord — Immediately, without the stretching out of Aaron’s hand; is upon the cattle — Many of which, some of all kinds, should die by a sort of pestilence. The hand of God is to be acknowledged even in the sickness and death of cattle, or other damage sustained in them; for a sparrow falls not to the ground without our Father. And his providence is to be acknowledged with thankfulness in the life of the cattle, for he preserveth man and beast, Psa 36:6.

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

9:3 Your livestock refers specifically to field animals. Other animals would have boils inflicted upon them in the next plague. • The term all (also in 9:6) is not absolute; it does not mean that every single livestock animal was killed. There were still some left to protect from the hail of the seventh plague (9:20).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The fifth plague.

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

The FIFTH plague - the MURRAIN

Verse 3. The hand of the Lord] The power of God manifested in judgment.

Upon the horses] סוסים susim. This is the first place the horse is mentioned; a creature for which Egypt and Arabia were always famous. sus is supposed to have the same meaning with שש sas, which signifies to be active, brisk, or lively, all which are proper appellatives of the horse, especially in Arabia and Egypt. Because of their activity and swiftness they were sacrificed and dedicated to the sun, and perhaps it was principally on this account that God prohibited the use of them among the Israelites.

A very grievous murrain.] The murrain is a very contagious disease among cattle, the symptoms of which are a hanging down and swelling of the head, abundance of gum in the eyes, rattling in the throat, difficulty of breathing, palpitation of the heart, staggering, a hot breath, and a shining tongue; which symptoms prove that a general inflammation has taken place. The original word דבר deber is variously translated. The Septuagint have θανατος, death; the Vulgate has pestis, a plague or pestilence; the old Saxon version, [Anglo-Saxon], from [Anglo-Saxon], to die, any fatal disease. Our English word murrain comes either from the French mourir, to die, or from the Greek μαραινω maraino, to grow lean, waste away. The term mortality would be the nearest in sense to the original, as no particular disorder is specified by the Hebrew word.

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

Behold, the hand of the Lord,.... Which was stronger than his, with which he held the Israelites:

is upon thy cattle which is in the field: this takes in all in general, of which the particulars follow, though limited to such as were in the field, and so did not take in what were at home in their out houses and stables:

upon the horses: of which there was great plenty in Egypt, as appears from various places of Scripture:

upon the asses; used for carrying burdens from place to place:

and upon the camels; used the like purposes, and to ride upon, and particularly to travel with through desert places for commerce, being able to proceed on without water for a considerable time:

upon the oxen, and upon the sheep; oxen were for labour to plough with, and sheep for their wool, and all of them to trade with: there shall be

a very grievous murrain: or "pestilence" (y), a very noisome one, and which would carry off great numbers; the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render it a "death", as the Jews commonly call a pestilence, whether on man or beast, because it generally sweeps away large numbers.

(y) "pestis", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator; "pestilentia", Drusius; so Tigurine version.

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

A very grievous murrain - Or “pestilence;” but the word “murrain,” i. e. “a great mortality,” exactly expresses the meaning. This terrible visitation struck far more severely than the preceding, which had caused distress and suffering; it attacked the resources of the nation.

The camels - These animals are only twice mentioned, here and Gen 12:16, in connection with Egypt. Though camels are never represented on the monuments, they were known to the Egyptians, and were probably used on the frontier.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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

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).

The hand of the Lord; in an immediate manner, not by my rod, that thou mayst know it is not I, but the Lord, which doth all these things to thee.

Thy cattle which they kept for their wool or milk, or manifold uses and services, though not for food and sacrifice.

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

FIFTH PLAGUE — MURRAIN, Exo_9:1-7.

3. The hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field — This infliction seems to be limited to the cattle which were in the open air. All of the animals here mentioned are represented in the Egyptian monuments except the camel, which, though used in Egypt from the earliest times, yet for some reason never occurs in the hieroglyphic inscriptions, or in the pictured representations of the tombs. Stuart Poole supposes that the camel was unclean in the eyes of the Egyptians, as associated with the hated nomad tribes of the desert and the abominated Shepherd Dynasties. See Gen_46:34, and note. In the populous cities and cultivated fields of the Nile valley the services of the camel would not be required; but to cross the sands which bounded the valley the “ship of the desert” was indispensable: yet perhaps the Egyptians generally employed the Arabs in this caravan service. The horses of Egypt were celebrated from early times: thence Solomon imported his into Palestine. They were greatly esteemed for chariot service and for war, but asses and cattle were generally employed for draught. The cheap, strong, patient ass was, and is, the peasant’s chief dependence for labour. Sheep were reared chiefly for their wool, mutton being rarely used. Large flocks were kept in the neighbourhood of Memphis, even to the number of two thousand.

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 which is in the field. The word "cattle" here is to be taken generally, as including under it the various kinds particularised. The cattle are mentioned as being at this time "in the field," because during the inundation all of them were brought in and housed, while, after the waters had retired, and the land had dried, most of them were turned out to graze. This is always the time at which epidemics break out. The horses, the asses, etc. Horses, which had been unknown prior to the Hyksos invasion, and which consequently do not appear in the list of animals presented to Abraham, (Gen_12:16) first became common under the eighteenth dynasty, when they seem to have been employed exclusively in war. Their use for agricultural purposes, which is perhaps here indicated, was not till later. (See Chabas, Etudes sur l"Antquite" Historic, p. 421.) The ass was employed in great numbers at all times in Egypt. Women and children rode on them, men sometimes in a sort of litter between two of them. They were chiefly used for carrying burthens, which were sometimes of enormous size (Lepsius, Denkmaler, Part 2. pls. 42a, 47, 56, 80 c, etc.). The camels. Camels are not represented on any Egyptian monument; but they are occasionally mentioned in the inscriptions (Chabas, Etudes, pp. 400-13). They are called kauri or kamaru. There is no doubt of their employment by the Egyptians as beasts of burthen in the traffic with Syria and with the Sinaitic peninsula.

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

The hand of the Lord - Immediately, without the stretching out of Aaron's hand, is upon the cattle, many of which, some of all kinds, shall die by a sort of pestilence. The hand of God is to be acknowledged even in the sickness and death of cattle, or other damage sustained in them; for a sparrow falls not to the ground without our father. And his providence is to be acknowledged with thankfulness in the life of the cattle, for he preserveth man and beast, Psalm xxxvi, 6.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

"The hand of Jehovah will be (הויה, which only occurs here, as the participle of היה, generally takes its form from הוה, Neh 6:6; Ecc 2:22) against thy cattle...as a very severe plague (דּבר that which sweeps away, a plague), i.e., will smite them with a severe plague. A distinction was again made between the Israelites and the Egyptians. "Of all (the cattle) belonging to the children of Israel, not one (דּבּר Exo 9:4, = אחד Exo 9:6) shall die." A definite time was also fixed for the coming of the plague, as in the case of the previous one (Exo 8:23), in order that, whereas murrains occasionally occur in Egypt, Pharaoh might discern in his one the judgment of Jehovah.

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.)

‎הנה יד ה׳ הוֹיָה BEHOLD THE HAND OF THE LORD IS — The verb הויה is in the present tense, for so one says in the feminine gender of the past היתה, “she was”, of the future, תהיה, “she will be” and of the present, הוֹיָה, the latter form being similar to עוֹשָׂה and רוֹצָה and רוֹעָה (Fem. part. sing. Kal of ל"ה verbs).

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.

BEHOLD, THE HAND OF THE ETERNAL IS UPON THY CATTLE WHICH ARE IN THE FIELD. Scripture speaks of the ordinary custom that most cattle are in the field, but the plague was also upon the cattle in the houses, just as it is said, And all the cattle of Egypt died. It is possible that because every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians, the Egyptians removed the cattle from the cities except for the use of horses for riding and asses for loading. Thus the cattle were located far from Egypt, grazing in the fields bordering upon Goshen, and in those pastures the cattle of the Egyptians and of the Israelites would intermingle. Therefore it was necessary that it be said, And the Eternal shall make a division between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt. It may be that the division was necessary because since the pestilence was caused by the change of air, it should naturally spread over the whole district, [affecting the cattle of the Israelites as well], but G-d dealt wondrously with them.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.