See note Exo. 5:2¹.

Lit., for evil is before your face.

In the eighth plague God changed the function of the wind so that it no longer supplied fresh air to support life but caused locusts to appear, which devoured what remained after the plague of the hail (vv. 5, 15).

In the ninth plague God changed the function of the sun by bringing a thick darkness over the land of Egypt for three days (v. 22). The plagues of the hail (Exo. 9:13-35), the locusts (Exo. 10:1-20), and the thick darkness indicate that the very atmosphere over Egypt was no longer suitable for human life.

Both the blood of the first plague (Exo. 7:15-25) and the darkness of the ninth plague signify death. Hence, the first nine plagues went on from death to death, showing that the life of the world is altogether a matter of death (cf. Eph. 2:1-3).

See note Exo. 5:2¹.