13 And the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the morning and take your place before Pharaoh, and say to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go so that they may give me worship. 14 For this time I will send all my punishments on yourself and on your servants and on your people; so that you may see that there is no other like me in all the earth. 15 For if I had put the full weight of my hand on you and your people, you would have been cut off from the earth: 16 But, for this very reason, I have kept you from destruction, to make clear to you my power, and so that my name may be honoured through all the earth. 17 Are you still uplifted in pride against my people so that you will not let them go? 18 Truly, tomorrow about this time I will send down an ice-storm, such as never was in Egypt from its earliest days till now. 19 Then send quickly and get in your cattle and all you have from the fields; for if any man or beast in the field has not been put under cover, the ice-storm will come down on them with destruction. 20 Then everyone among the servants of Pharaoh who had the fear of the Lord, made his servants and his cattle come quickly into the house: 21 And he who gave no attention to the word of the Lord, kept his servants and his cattle in the field.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Exodus 9:13-21
Commentary on Exodus 9:13-21
(Read Exodus 9:13-21)
Moses is here ordered to deliver a dreadful message to Pharaoh. Providence ordered it, that Moses should have a man of such a fierce and stubborn spirit as this Pharaoh to deal with; and every thing made it a most signal instance of the power of God has to humble and bring down the proudest of his enemies. When God's justice threatens ruin, his mercy at the same time shows a way of escape from it. God not only distinguished between Egyptians and Israelites, but between some Egyptians and others. If Pharaoh will not yield, and so prevent the judgment itself, yet those that will take warning, may take shelter. Some believed the things which were spoken, and they feared, and housed their servants and cattle, and it was their wisdom. Even among the servants of Pharaoh, some trembled at God's word; and shall not the sons of Israel dread it? But others believed not, and left their cattle in the field. Obstinate unbelief is deaf to the fairest warnings, and the wisest counsels, which leaves the blood of those that perish upon their own heads.