출애굽기 9:31의 주석

והפשתה והשערה נכתה AND THE FLAX AND THE BARLEY נכתה — i. e. were broken; it has the same meaning as in, (2 Kings 23:29) “Pharaoh-Necho (נכה)”, which denotes Pharaoh the lame i. e. broken in so far as the power of his legs is concerned (cf. II Samuel 9:3); (Isaiah 16:7) “brocken (נכאים)”, and so too לא נכו (v. 32), “they were not broken”. It would not be correct to explain that it is connected in meaning with the word that signifies “smiting”, הכאה, for a נ cannot take the place of a ה that one may explain נֻכָּתָה as being equivalent to הֻכָּתָה, and נֻכּוּ to הֻכּוּ, but the נ is a root-letter in the verb, and the word נֻכּוּ is of the same grammatical form as the verb in, (Job. 33:21) “and all his bones are laid bare” שֻׁפּוּ (i. e. Pual of כי השערה אביב

AND THE FLAX AND THE BARLEY WERE SMITTEN, etc. Scripture narrates what happened, but I do not know why these two verses were entered in this place before the subject of Moses’ prayer and the removal of the hail was completed. In the name of Rav Saadia Gaon,²³⁰Mentioned by Ibn Ezra here. One of the greatest Jewish personalities of all times, Rav Saadia (892 or 882-942) was Gaon of the Academy of Sura. He wrote extensively on every aspect of Jewish learning: Bible, Talmud, grammar, philology, philosophy, polemics against the Karaites, etc. His work, Ha’emunoth Vehadei’oth, the first of its kind in the field of Jewish religious philosophy, exercised a great influence on Jewish thought. He translated the Scriptures into Arabic and wrote extensive commentaries in Arabic on the books of the Bible, which influenced the later commentators. Ramban’s knowledge of his commentaries, as indicated here, seems to have been mainly through a secondary source. See, however, Note 224 in Seder Shemoth that there is some proof indicating that Ramban may have seen the Gaon’s commentary in the original Arabic. the commentators have said that these [two verses are also part of] Moses’ words to Pharaoh. He said to him: “Before you had feared G-d and said, The Eternal is the righteous One,²³¹Verse 27. the flax and the barley were already smitten and these can no longer be saved. But the wheat and the spelt were not smitten yet, and henceforth you will no longer suffer damage.”
I find no sense in this explanation. The hail smote every herb of the field²³²Verse 25. and broke every tree,²³²Verse 25. and the wheat and the spelt were saved only because they had not sprouted at all or because they were so tender that they were not destroyed completely by the hail since they could sprout again. That being the case, even if the hail had continued for days more to come down upon them, there would not be a loss. There was thus no need for Moses to inform Pharaoh of what he lost and what he did not lose, for when the hail will be removed, he will himself see!
In my opinion, these are Moses’ words to Pharaoh. Moses said to him: “I know that before the plagues are removed, you fear G-d, and afterward you repeat your folly.²³³See Proverbs 26:11. Now the flax and the barley were smitten while the wheat and the spelt which are your livelihood were not smitten in this plague, but it is within G-d’s power to destroy them if you return and sin again before Him.” Thus Moses alluded to them that which G-d said later [of the locust], And they shall eat the residue of that which escaped.²³⁴Further, 10:5.
Bo

והפשתה והשעורה, even though both the flax crop and the barley crop had been wiped out by the hail, something which caused tremendous damage to the Egyptian economy.