And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
When cattle die and men do not repent, God strikes their own bodies instead. The ashes from the furnace that enslaved Israel now terrorize the Egyptians with searing boils; they read their sin written in their punishment. Sores are calls to repentance, and if lighter judgments fail, heavier ones will follow.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 9:8-12
The ashes cast into the air multiply and fall like burning snow everywhere in Egypt, producing sore boils, burning ulcers, and hot carbuncles that rise in pustules and buboes on man and beast alike. This plague strikes not merely at their property as the last did, but at their very persons, inflicting exceeding great pain.
AI summary
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