출애굽기 9:18의 주석

כעת מחר means AT THIS TIME (כָּעֵת not כְּעֵת) TO-MORROW — He scratched a mark on the wall, saying, “To-morrow when the sun-rays reach here the hail will descend” (Exodus Rabbah 12:2; cf. Rashi on Genesis 21:2).

In view of the fact that Scripture states, A very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the day it was founded, and repeats it again, Very grievous, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation,²¹³Further, Verses 18 and 24. there is an allusion that there are other places in the world where such hail did come down, such as is mentioned in the verse, And the Eternal cast down great stones from heaven upon them,²¹⁴Joshua 10:11. or as is mentioned in connection with [the destruction of] Sodom, brimstone, and salt, and fire.²¹⁵Deuteronomy 29:22. But in the land of Egypt, where there is no rain or hail, this was a great wonder.
I have not understood what is said in Midrash Rabbah:²¹⁶Shemoth Rabbah 12:2. In our Midrash, there is a different version of this text. See also my Hebrew commentary, p. 316. “The verse does not say, ‘as hath not been in Egypt like it,’ but instead it says, ‘as hath not been like it in Egypt,’ which means there has neither been like it in the world nor in Egypt.”²¹⁷This Midrash is in clear contradiction to that which Ramban stated above, i.e., that such hail has come down in other places. Therefore Ramban preceded the Midrash by saying that he does not understand it. Since Ramban’s opinion is based upon the verses mentioned above, he cannot revoke his opinion as being incorrect. And the expression, since the day it was founded, is equivalent to saying: “Your fathers and your grandfathers have never seen the like of it.” But it is not possible to say that it suggests that the like of it occurred before the world was founded or before the inception of nations. Perhaps because this hail came as a punishment upon the inhabitants of Egypt and was not in the natural order, [the verse] is saying that nothing like it has ever occurred because of the sins of the fathers, for before the inception of Egypt as a nation, surely there was no [reason for] such hail to come.

אשר לא היה כמוהו בארץ מצרים, “the like of which never occurred in the land of Egypt.” The wording suggests that this phenomenon had never been experienced in Egypt, although it had occurred elsewhere. We have a verse in Joshua 10,11 where G’d is described as raining down large stones on the Canaanites. Seeing that rain does not normally fall in Egypt, this would be a frightening experience in that country. Seeing that hail consists of frozen rain particles, that experience was new in Egypt also.