For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.
Moses must repeat the demand a seventh time, though Pharaoh's heart is hardened and his case now desperate. God sends plagues on the heart itself, making it senseless or hopeless, which are the worst plagues of all. None who hardens his heart against God will prosper.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 9:13-21
For now will I stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence,.... Which yet we never find was done; for though this by many is referred to the slaying of the firstborn, yet it is not certain that this was done by the pestilence: besides, Pharaoh was not then smitten, nor his people, only their firstborn; wherefore these words...
This plague struck the Egyptians' very persons as ulcerous eruptions on skin and flesh, not from natural causes but from the specific action of Moses in Pharaoh's sight, an unmistakable mark of divine judgment, not mere magic.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 9:8-17