And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.
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
And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, and the hail, and the thunders were ceased,.... And there was a clear sky and a fine serene heaven, the black clouds were dispersed and gone, and he heard no more the clattering of the hailstones, and the terrible claps of thunder, and saw no more the flashes of lightning, but all was calm and composed: he sinned...
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