Chapter 5: The Hand of the LORD

GOD (through Moses to Pharaoh)“If you refuse to let them go, the hand of the LORD will be on your cattle in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the oxen, and on the sheep. It will be a very severe pestilence. And the LORD will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt.”— Exodus 9:1-4

The next day, every animal in the fields of Egypt died. The Egyptians worshipped Apis the bull and Hathor the cow as gods, and those gods could not protect their own kind. But Pharaoh sent men to Goshen to check. Not a single Israelite animal had died. He saw the proof and still would not let the people go.

GOD“Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh.”— Exodus 9:8

Moses and Aaron took the ashes and stood before Pharaoh. Moses threw them into the air, and wherever the dust settled, painful boils broke out on the skin of every Egyptian and every remaining animal. The magicians could not even stand in Moses' presence anymore. The boils were on them too.

And for the first time, it was not Pharaoh who hardened his own heart. The LORD hardened it for him. Pharaoh had made his choice too many times. Now God made it permanent.