Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

Exodus 9:8

in Exodus 9

Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the furnace; in the sight of Pharaoh, Moses is to toss it into the air.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And Jehovah said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.

KJV

And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.

⋯

This verse in Exodus 9

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

The attitude he assumed was similar to that of Eastern magicians, who, "when they pronounce an imprecation on an individual, a village, or a country, take the ashes of cows' dung (that is, from a common fire) and throw them in the air, saying to the objects of their displeasure, such a sickness or such a curse shall come upon you" [ROBERTS].

This site's exposition

Take handfuls of soot from the furnace

on Exodus 9:8-9

The soot comes from a furnace, and Adam Clarke connects it to the brick kilns the Hebrews worked at. The dust Moses throws into the air is the dust of the bondage.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

This is afterwards called the botch of Egypt ( Deut. xxviii. 27 ), as if it were some new disease, never heard of before, and known ever after by that name, Note, Sores in the body are to be looked upon as the punishments of sin, and to be hearkened to as calls to repentance.
And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Handfuls of ashes of the furnace - As one part of the oppression of the Israelites consisted In their labor in the brick-kilns, some have observed a congruity between the crime and the punishment. The furnaces, in the labor of which they oppressed the Hebrews, now yielded the instruments of their punishment; for every particle of those ashes, formed by unjust and oppressive labor, seemed to be a boil or a blain on the tyrannical king and his cruel and hard-hearted people.
This marks a distinct advance and change in the character of the visitations. Hitherto, the Egyptians had not been attacked directly in their persons. It is the second plague which was not preceded by a demand and warning, probably on account of the special hardness shown by Pharaoh in reference to the murrain. Ashes of the furnace - The act was evidently symbolic: the ashes were to be sprinkled toward heaven, challenging, so to speak, the Egyptian deities. There may possibly be a reference to an Egyptian custom of scattering to the winds ashes of victims offered to Typhon.

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וַיֹּ֣אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • יְהוָה֮Yahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • מֹשֶׁ֣הMoses

    moshehH4872 →765 times

  • וְאֶֽל־and to

    veel-H413 →5510 times

  • אַהֲרֹן֒Aaron

    ʾaharonH175 →347 times

  • קְח֤וּtake

    kechuH3947 →966 times

  • לָכֶם֙for <the> yourselves

    lakhem

  • מְלֹ֣א[the] fullness of

    melo'H4393 →38 times

  • חָפְנֵיכֶ֔םhands your

    chafeneikhemH2651 →

  • פִּ֖יחַsoot of

    piachH6368 →

  • כִּבְשָׁ֑ןa furnace

    kivshanH3536 →4 times

  • וּזְרָק֥וֹand he will sprinkle it

    uzerakoH2236 →35 times

  • מֹשֶׁ֛הMoses

    moshehH4872 →765 times

  • הַשָּׁמַ֖יְמָהthe heavens towards

    hashamaymahH8064 →421 times

  • לְעֵינֵ֥יto [the] eyes of

    leeineiH5869 →887 times

  • פַרְעֹֽה׃Pharaoh

    farohH6547 →274 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

1 in all, six open

The walk

2 stops

Each 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

    Exodus 8:16

    Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may turn into swarms of gnats throughout the land of Egypt.’”

    it leads to

    • Exodus 8:5

      And the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers and canals and ponds, and cause the frogs to come up onto the land of Egypt.’”

    • Exodus 8:17

      This they did, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, gnats came upon man and beast. All the dust of the earth turned into…

Where this verse is studied

About Exodus

The Fifth Plague. Livestock Disease — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Fifth Plague. Livestock Disease — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Exodus: the study guide →Read Exodus 9 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Exodus 9 →