Exodus 9:31
in Exodus 9(Now the flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley was ripe and the flax was in bloom;
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And the flax and the barley were smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bloom.
KJV
And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.
⋯
This verse in Exodus 9
Commentary
5 notes on this verseThe flax and the barley was smitten - The word פשתה pishtah, flax, Mr. Parkhurst thinks, is derived from the root פשט pashat, to strip, because the substance which we term flax is properly the bark or rind of the vegetable, pilled or stripped off the stalks. From time immemorial Egypt was celebrated for the production and manufacture of flax: hence the linen and fine linen of Egypt, so often spoken of in ancient authors.
This site's exposition
the flax and the barley was smitten
on Exodus 9:31-32
The narrator stops the account to say which crops were standing, and this is the only agricultural date in the whole plague narrative. Barley in the ear and flax in bud puts the hail near the end of the Egyptian winter, which is where Clarke and Keil place it in January or February, and the wheat and the rie were still low enough to come through. What survived here is what the locusts eat in the next chapter.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
In this plague the hot thunderbolts, as well as the hail, are said to destroy their flocks, Ps. lxxviii. Perhaps David alludes to this when, describing God's glorious appearances for the discomfiture of his enemies, he speaks of the hailstones and coals of fire he threw among them, Ps. xviii. And there is a plan reference to it on the pouring out of the seventh vial, Rev. xvi.
And the flax and the barley was smitten,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
In that country flax and barley are almost ripe when wheat and rye (spelt) are green. And hence the flax must have been "bolled"--that is, risen in stalk or podded in February, thus fixing the particular month when the event took place.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְהַפִּשְׁתָּ֥ה | vehapishtah | and the flax | H6594 → | |
| וְהַשְּׂעֹרָ֖ה | vehaseorah | and the barley | H8184 → | |
| נֻכָּ֑תָה | nukatah | it was struck | H5221 → | 499 times |
| כִּ֤י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| הַשְּׂעֹרָה֙ | haseorah | the barley | H8184 → | |
| אָבִ֔יב | ʾaviv | [was] young barley ear[s] | H24 → | 8 times |
| וְהַפִּשְׁתָּ֖ה | vehapishtah | and the flax | H6594 → | |
| גִּבְעֹֽל׃ | givol | [was] bud | H1392 → |
וְהַפִּשְׁתָּ֥הand the flax
vehapishtahH6594 →
וְהַשְּׂעֹרָ֖הand the barley
vehaseorahH8184 →
נֻכָּ֑תָהit was struck
nukatahH5221 →499 times
כִּ֤יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
הַשְּׂעֹרָה֙the barley
haseorahH8184 →
אָבִ֔יב[was] young barley ear[s]
ʾavivH24 →8 times
וְהַפִּשְׁתָּ֖הand the flax
vehapishtahH6594 →
גִּבְעֹֽל׃[was] bud
givolH1392 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Habakkuk 3:17Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold…
it leads to
- Joel 1:16–18
Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God?
- Jeremiah 5:17
They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword…
- Amos 4:6–10
“I beset all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 28:15–18
If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
- Deuteronomy 28:30–41
You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not…
- Joel 1:16–18
Through
Amos 4:9“I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
it leads to
- Haggai 2:17
I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 28:22
The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.
- Joel 1:4
What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.
- Haggai 2:17
About Exodus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.