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Exodus 9 Bible study: No one like me in all the earth
Exodus 9 is the first time the narrator says "The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh" (9:12), yet it also says Pharaoh "hardened his heart" (9:34). In Hebrew his heart grows heavy, and the pestilence and the hail are heavy too. God says, "for this cause I have made you stand… that my name may be declared throughout all the earth" (9:16), words Paul quotes in Romans 9:17.
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“but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth,”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“Before the hail, some of Pharaoh's own servants feared the LORD's word and brought their livestock indoors.”
Is that in Exodus 9, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Not one of Israel's died
Before the pestilence comes, the LORD says what it will not touch: "The LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt; and nothing shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel" (9:4). He even sets the day: "Tomorrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land" (9:5). It happens as he said: "all the livestock of Egypt died, but of the livestock of the children of Israel, not one died" (9:6). Pharaoh sends to check, and finds "there was not so much as one of the livestock of the Israelites dead" (9:7). When the hail comes, the line is drawn again: "Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail" (9:26).
Where it leads to Jesus
Your name made known
Exodus 9:16leads toJohn 17:26
God tells Pharaoh he has acted "that my name may be declared throughout all the earth" (9:16). Praying to his Father (John 17:1), Jesus says, "I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world" (John 17:6), and "I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26). Jesus doesn't cite Exodus 9, so this is a reading: some hear in his words God's purpose that his name be known, carried on by Jesus; others read his prayer on its own.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Exodus 9
That was a taste
The rest of Exodus 9 is waiting in Favor
- "The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh"
- Why Pharaoh is still standing
- A warning with a way to shelter
- A chapter about a heart
- Sores and hail again
- 10 questions as you read
- 9 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Exodus 9 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
כָּבֵדkavedsay ka-VED
Brown-Driver-Briggs gives "be heavy, weighty, burdensome, honoured". When Pharaoh finds that not one of Israel's animals has died, "the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn" (9:7): in Hebrew, his heart was heavy. After the hail "he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart" (9:34), in Hebrew made his heart heavy (for this form Brown-Driver-Briggs gives "make heavy, dull, unresponsive"). Strong's derives the adjective kaved (H3515) from this verb, and the chapter uses that adjective for what falls on Egypt: "a very grievous pestilence" (9:3), "a very grievous hail" (9:18), "very severe hail" (9:24). A heavy pestilence and heavy hail, and a heart that stays heavy. The verb comes back when God says, "I will get honor over Pharaoh" (14:4), where Brown-Driver-Briggs gives "get oneself glory (or honour), of God".
For your group
Exodus 9 Bible study questions
- 1Some of Pharaoh's servants "feared the LORD’s word" and acted before the hail fell, while others left everything in the field. What helps you act on what God says before you see it for yourself?
- 2Pharaoh said "I have sinned" in the storm, but when it stopped, "he sinned yet more." Why is it easier to turn to God in trouble than to keep turning once the trouble has passed?
- 3God says he acted "that my name may be declared throughout all the earth." Where have you seen something God has done make him known, in your own life or someone else's?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Exodus 9 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home