Kommentar zu Schemot 9:19

שלח העז translate it as the Targum: SEND, GATHER. Similar examples of this sense are, (Isaiah 10:31) “The inhabitants of Gebim gather together (העיזו)”; (Jeremiah 6:1) “Gather together (העיזו), ye children of Benjamin”.

העז, “gather in!” (as a form of escaping the hail) We find this word in a similar sense in Jeremiah 6,1העיזו אנשי בנימין!, “flee for refuge O people of Binyamin!” A similar verse in Isaiah 10,31 reads יושבי הגבים העיזו, “the dwellers of Gevim sought refuge.”

ועתה שלח העז את מקנך, in order that also the servants supervising the cattle would escape the hail together with their herds.. If G’d cared about the beasts, He most certainly cared about the human beings, as we know from Avot 3,18 חביב אדם כי נברא בצלם, “man is beloved as he (alone) has been created in G’d’s image.”

ועתה שלח העז את מקנך, "And now, send, and bring in your cattle, etc." You may well ask that if the Egyptians heeded Moses' warning, what effect would the forthcoming plague have? Remember, G'd's purpose in bringing plagues upon the Egyptians was not to inflict pain and suffering on them. The pain was only one way of demonstrating G'd's power. If this could be achieved by making the Egyptians obey, so much the better. At any rate, the crops would be destroyed by the hail even if there would be no deaths amongst the livestock. The Torah states specifically that both the grass and the trees were destroyed by the hail (9,24).

All the preceding comments were part of what G’d announced to Moses, as Moses would not have been in a position to make such statements not having lived that long in Egypt. There is no need to tell us that Moses would deliver every word to Pharaoh which G’d had told him to convey to him. There is therefore no need to repeat his telling this to Pharaoh in detail, and the Torah made do with reporting that there were people who took Moses’ warning at face value, whereas those who did not paid with their lives. According to Rashi who claims that the pestilence only struck the beasts which had been left outside in the fields, why did Moses not warn the Egyptians at that time to take their beasts indoors to protect them, as he did here, to offer them protection against the hail? The answer, no doubt must be, that if the Egyptians had heeded Moses’ warning against leaving their livestock outside, the pestilence would not have a target to attack. In the case of the hail, the hail struck the earth, the orchards, etc, so that there were plenty of targets left even if the livestock had been salvaged. The livestock had only been considered a secondary target of the hail.

שלח העז את מקנך, “send, gather in your cattle.” Did they not die already during the plague of pestilence? Did not the Torah state in 9,6: “all the cattle of Egypt died?” Perhaps the cattle in our verse had been replacement cattle which the Egyptians had imported after the plague of pestilence. This may have accounted for the fact that Moses advised the Egyptians to bring these cattle home to save them from the hail. Alternatively, the meaning of 9,6 could have been that “most of the cattle died,” seeing that we have a Talmudic principle of רובו ככולו, that when most of something is affected we treat it legally as if all of that something had been affected. (Midrash Sechel Tov to 9,6 stipulates that such comments as the word “all” are not to be taken literally.) A third alternative: previously the animals which were owned in partnership between Jews and Egyptians did not die.

V. 19. von , (verwandt mit חוז, wovon מחוז der vom Sturm bergende Hafen), heißt überall ein Zusammensammeln von Massen vor der Gefahr.

'ועתה שלח העז וגו, “and now hasten to send word to bring your cattle under cover;” this was an advice Moses had not given Pharaoh before the onset of the plague of pestilence. It is possible that the “advice” to Pharaoh to have his people gather in their remaining livestock is not a concession, but on the contrary, is an additional hardship. People failing to take this “advice,” would experience also the death of their livestock, not only the destruction of their crops. Another interpretation: our verse proves that the plague of hail was aimed not only at trees and crops but also at living creatures, including human beings.

ולא יאסף הביתה The verb denotes “bringing into a place” so that the translation is: AND WHICH IS NOT GATHERED INTO THE HOUSE.

We still have to understand why G'd said: ועתה, "now," when He issued the warning. If the meaning was "immediately," then it is difficult to understand as the hail was not meant to occur until the following day at about the same time. Perhaps the warning had to emphasise that immediate action be taken as most of the cattle were grazing far from home and would not be able to find shelter at once.

We also need to understand to whom G'd addressed the advice to let the animals and people take shelter. Those who feared the word of G'd would do so immediately after they heard that there would be hail on the morrow. They did not need advice on that matter. The advice therefore was directed only at those Egyptians who did not yet fear the Lord. We therefore may interpret the call ועתה as a call to repentance. In fact Midrash Tehillim 100,2 claims that this expression always denotes repentance. G'd gave these people a chance to repent. When they failed to do so in spite of having been warned, G'd punished them.