Exodus 9 · a question people ask
If "all the livestock of Egypt died", what livestock did the hail strike?
After the pestilence the text says "all the livestock of Egypt died" (9:6). Yet before the hail, God tells Pharaoh to bring "all of your livestock" into shelter (9:19), some of his servants make "their livestock flee into the houses" (9:20), and the hail strikes "both man and animal" in the field (9:25). The chapter doesn't explain how the two fit. Christians agree that the text says both, and that Israel's livestock were spared: "not one died" (9:6). They read it in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The livestock in the field
Those who hold this view note that the pestilence was announced against "your livestock which are in the field" (9:3). On this reading, "all the livestock" (9:6) means all the animals that were out in the field, and animals kept elsewhere lived to face the hail.
Exodus 9:3 · Exodus 9:6
A sweeping way of speaking
Those who hold this view note that the same chapter says the hail "struck every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field" (9:25), yet "the wheat and the spelt were not struck" (9:32), and later the locusts "ate every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left" (10:15). On this reading, "all" here tells how sweeping the loss was, not that no animal at all was left.
Exodus 9:25 · Exodus 9:32 · Exodus 10:5 · Exodus 10:15
The verses
“behold, the LORD’s hand is on your livestock which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks with a very grievous pestilence.”
“The LORD did that thing on the next day; and all the livestock of Egypt died, but of the livestock of the children of Israel, not one died.”
“Now therefore command that all of your livestock and all that you have in the field be brought into shelter. The hail will come down on every man and animal that is found in the field, and isn’t brought home, and they will die.”’” Those who feared the LORD’s word among the servants of Pharaoh made their servants and their livestock flee into the houses. Whoever didn’t respect the LORD’s word left his servants and his livestock in the field.”
“The hail struck throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and animal; and the hail struck every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field.”