Exodus 9:3-6

9:3

hand <03027> [the hand.]

plague <01698> [murrain.]

We may observe a particular scope and meaning in this calamity, if we consider it in regard to the Egyptians, which would not have existed in respect to any other people. They held in idolatrous reverence almost every animal, but some they held in particular veneration; as the ox, cow, and ram. Among these, {Apis} and {Mnevis} are well known; the former being a sacred bull, worshipped at Memphis, as the latter was at Heliopolis. A cow or heifer had the like honours at Momemphis; and the same practice seems to have been adopted in most of the Egyptian {nomes.} By the infliction of this judgment, the Egyptian deities sank before the God of the Hebrews. See Bryant, pp. 87-93.

9:4

9:5

appointed time <04150> [a set time.]

9:6