Exodus 9:24

Summary

Exodus 9:24 describes a hailstorm accompanied by fire flashing continuously within the hail. The text emphasizes the unprecedented severity of this storm, stating that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

Key words

• mitlaqqachat ("flashing/taking hold of itself", H3947L) — hithpael participle, feminine singular construct: the reflexive/reciprocal stem suggests fire that catches and moves within itself, an ongoing continuous action rather than a single event.
• bchange — kaved me'od ("very heavy", H3515/H3966) — adjective + intensifier describing the hail's severity, modifying barad ("hail", H1259) after it is repeated in verse.
• kamohu ("like it", H3644G) — preposition ke- plus pronominal suffix hu ("it/him", H9033), forming a comparative referring back to the hail described.
• me'az ("from then/since", H0227B with H9006) — adverb "then" prefixed with "from," anchoring the comparison temporally to Egypt's founding as a nation.
• goy ("nation", H1471A) — the term marking Egypt's status as a formed people, used with hayah le- ("became", H1961 + H9005), a construction meaning "to become X."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yehi ("and it was", H9001+H1961), introducing barad ("hail", H1259) as the subject. A second element, 'esh ("fire", H0784), is joined by ve- ("and", H9002) and described by the participle mitlaqqachat ("flashing", H3947L), located be-tokh ha-barad ("in the middle of the hail", H9003+H8432+H1259) — the fire is depicted as continuously active within the hailstorm rather than as a separate event.

The clause kaved me'od ("very heavy", H3515+H3966) restates the hail's intensity after already naming it, creating an emphatic structure. The relative clause introduced by 'asher ("which", H0834A) uses lo' hayah ("it had not been", H3808+H1961) in the perfect tense, marking completed prior action — establishing the storm as unprecedented up to that narrative moment. The comparison kamohu ("like it", H3644G+H9033) refers back grammatically to the hail. The final clause uses hayetah le-goy ("it became a nation", H1961+H9005+H1471A), a Hebrew idiom expressing transformation into a state, here marking the temporal boundary "since Egypt became a nation."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew mitlaqqachat ("flashing", H3947L) as φλογίζον ("blazing/igniting"), emphasizing burning rather than the reflexive/reciprocal nuance of the Hebrew hithpael form. The Vulgate's mista pariter ("mixed together equally") interprets the fire and hail as blended substances, differing from the Hebrew's spatial description of fire located be-tokh ("in the middle of", H8432) the hail. The Hebrew me'az hayetah le-goy ("from when it became a nation") is rendered by the LXX as ἀφ' ἧς ἡμέρας γεγένηται ἐπ' αὐτῆς ἔθνος ("from the day a nation came to be upon it"), and by the Vulgate as ex quo gens illa condita est ("since that nation was founded") — both preserving the temporal marker tied to Egypt's national origin, though phrased with different verbal constructions than the Hebrew hayah le- idiom.