Here is, I. Warning given of another plague, namely, the murrain of beasts. When Pharaoh's heart was hardened, after he had seemed to relent under the former plague, then Moses is sent to tell him there is another coming, to try what that would do towards reviving the impressions of the former plagues. Thus is the wrath of God revealed from heaven, both in his word and in his works, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. 1. Moses puts Pharaoh in a very fair way to prevent it: Let my people go, Exo 9:1. This was still the demand. God will have Israel released; Pharaoh opposes it, and the trial is, whose word shall stand. See how jealous God is for his people. When the year of his redeemed has come, he will give Egypt for their ransom; that kingdom shall be ruined, rather than Israel shall not be delivered. See how reasonable God's demands are. Whatever he calls for, it is but his own: They are my people, therefore let them go. 2. He describes the plague that should come, if he refused, Exo 9:2, Exo 9:3. The hand of the Lord immediately, without the stretching out of Aaron's hand, is upon the cattle, many of which, some of all kinds, should die by a sort of pestilence. This was greatly to the loss of the owners: they had made Israel poor, and now God would make them poor. Note, The hand of God is to be acknowledged even in the sickness and death of cattle, or other damage sustained in them; for a sparrow falls not to the ground without our Father. 3. As an evidence of the special hand of God in it, and of his particular favour to his own people, he foretels that none of their cattle should die, though they breathed in the same air and drank of the same water with the Egyptians' cattle: The Lord shall sever, Exo 9:4. Note, When God's judgments are abroad, though they may fall both on the righteous and the wicked, yet God makes such a distinction that they are not the same to the one that they are to the other. See Isa 27:7. The providence of God is to be acknowledged with thankfulness in the life of the cattle, for he preserveth man and beast, Psa 36:6. 4. To make the warning the more remarkable, the time is fixed (Exo 9:5): Tomorrow it shall be done. We know not what any day will bring forth, and therefore we cannot say what we will do tomorrow, but it is not so with God. II. The plague itself inflicted. The cattle died, Exo 9:6. Note, The creature is made subject to vanity by the sin of man, being liable, according to its capacity, both to serve his wickedness and to share in his punishment, as in the universal deluge. Rom 8:20, Rom 8:22. Pharaoh and the Egyptians sinned; but the sheep, what had they done? Yet they are plagued. See Jer 12:4, For the wickedness of the land, the beasts are consumed. The Egyptians afterwards, and (some think) now, worshipped their cattle; it was among them that the Israelites learned to make a god of a calf: in this therefore the plague here spoken of meets with them. Note, What we make an idol of it is just with God to remove from us, or embitter to us. See Isa 19:1. III. The distinction put between the cattle of the Egyptians and the Israelites' cattle, according to the word of God: Not one of the cattle of the Israelites died, Exo 9:6, Exo 9:7. Does God take care of oxen? Yes, he does; his providence extends itself to the meanest of his creatures. But it is written also for our sakes, that, trusting in God, and making him our refuge, we may not be afraid of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, no, not though thousands fall at our side, Psa 91:6, Psa 91:7. Pharaoh sent to see if the cattle of the Israelites were infected, not to satisfy his conscience, but only to gratify his curiosity, or with design, by way of reprisal, to repair his own losses out of their stocks; and, having no good design in the enquiry, the report brought to him made no impression upon him, but, on the contrary, his heart was hardened. Note, To those that are wilfully blind, even those methods of conviction which are ordained to life prove a savour of death unto death.

Observe here, concerning the plague of boils and blains, I. When they were not wrought upon by the death of their cattle, God sent a plague that seized their own bodies, and touched them to the quick. If less judgments do not do their work, God will send greater. Let us therefore humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and go forth to meet him in the way of his judgments, that his anger may be turned away from us. II. The signal by which this plague was summoned was the sprinkling of warm ashes from the furnace, towards heaven (Exo 9:8, Exo 9:10), which was to signify the heating of the air with such an infection as should produce in the bodies of the Egyptians sore boils, which would be both noisome and painful. Immediately upon the scattering of the ashes, a scalding dew came down out of the air, which blistered wherever it fell. Note, Sometimes God shows men their sin in their punishment; they had oppressed Israel in the furnaces, and now the ashes of the furnace are made as much a terror to them as ever their task-masters had been to the Israelites. III. The plague itself was very grievous - a common eruption would be so, especially to the nice and delicate, but these eruptions were inflammations, like Job's. This is afterwards called the botch of Egypt (Deu 28:27), as if it were some new disease, never heard of before, and known ever after by that name, Note, Sores in the body are to be looked upon as the punishments of sin, and to be hearkened to as calls to repentance. IV. The magicians themselves were struck with these boils, Exo 9:11. 1. Thus they were punished, (1.) For helping to harden Pharaoh's heart, as Elymas for seeking to ;pervert the right ways of the Lord; God will severely reckon with those that strengthen the hands of the wicked in their wickedness. (2.) For pretending to imitate the former plagues, and making themselves and Pharaoh sport with them. Those that would produce lice shall, against their wills, produce boils. Note, It is ill jesting with God's judgments, and more dangerous than playing with fire. Be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. 2. Thus they were shamed in the presence of their admirers. How weak were their enchantments, which could not so much as secure themselves! The devil can give no protection to those that are in confederacy with him. 3. Thus they were driven from the field. Their power was restrained before (Exo 8:18), but they continued to confront Moses, and confirm Pharaoh in his unbelief, till now, at length, they were forced to retreat, and could not stand before Moses, to which the apostle refers (Ti2 3:9) when he says that their folly was made manifest unto all men. V. Pharaoh continued obstinate, for now the Lord hardened his heart, Exo 9:12. Before, he had hardened his own heart, and resisted the grace of God; and now God justly gave him up to his own heart's lusts, to a reprobate mind, and strong delusions, permitting Satan to blind and harden him, and ordering every thing, henceforward, so as to make him more and more obstinate. Note, Wilful hardness is commonly punished with judicial hardness. If men shut their eyes against the light, it is just with God to close their eyes. Let us dread this as the sorest judgment a man can be under on this side hell.