So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.
God makes the clouds His arsenals. When He pleases, He draws forth hail and lightning as formidable artillery against His enemies, woeful havoc that kills men and beasts and batters down the very trees. Yet mark: Goshen was preserved untouched. God directs the pregnant clouds themselves and causes it to rain on one city and not on another.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 9:22-35
This seventh plague struck Egypt with an astonishment no living inhabitant had witnessed. Rain and hail were rare in the Delta; thunder occasionally heard. But this storm, hailstones of immense size, thunder in awful volleys, lightning sweeping the ground like fire, was an unexampled calamity that revealed the absolute supremacy of Israel's God.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 9:18-35
And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened - In consequence of his sinning yet more, and hardening his own heart against both the judgments and mercies of God, we need not be surprised that, after God had given him the means of softening and repentance, and he had in every instance resisted and abused them, he should at last have been left to the hardness...