Exodus 9:8-12

PLAGUE VI

"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. And it shall become small dust over 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. And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boils were upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as Jehovah had spoken unto Moses."

"Ashes of the furnace ..." No special furnace is mentioned, but some suppose that the ashes of one of the kilns in Egypt were meant. Fields noted that:

"If these ashes did come from a brick kiln, there is a sardonic twist of vengeance revealed. The Israelites had been enslaved at brick-making, and now the ashes that made the lives of the oppressed bitter smite the oppresser with boils."[12]

"Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron ... and let Moses sprinkle it ..." The critics make a big thing out of the variations as to who threw down the rod, or stretched it out, or sprinkled the ashes, alleging different documents, etc., but the real meaning of these variations is that God ordered all the details and that he required the minutest observance of them. When God told Moses to sprinkle the ashes, it was Moses who did it. This prevented either Moses or Aaron from supposing that any of the power belonged to them personally. The reason for the sprinkling of the ashes appears to have been that of visually connecting Moses and the Word of God which he spoke, with the onset of the plague.

"Boils ..." "This word is from `ulcus' (Latin) and the Hebrew [~shªchiyn], which occurs 13 times in the O.T."[13] It is mentioned again in Exodus 28:27, where it is stated that they, "could not be healed." If the malady was fatal, it would account for the magicians being no more mentioned in the sacred text. The quality of infecting both man and beast has led some to suppose that this malady was indeed anthrax, and "it may well have been."[14] "These boils were the first of the plagues to endanger (perhaps even destroy) the lives of men, and in this respect it was the first foreboding of the death which Pharaoh would bring upon himself by his continued resistance."[15]

"And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh ..." See under Exodus 4:21 for discussion of hardening. "Any direct action which the Lord may have taken (in this hardening) was consonant with the character of Pharaoh and operated within the framework of Pharaoh's freedom."[16]