A judgment, and a mercy
The Boils
The sixth plague strikes the human body directly, breaking out in painful boils on man and beast. For the last time the magicians appear, and now they cannot even stand before Moses.
“And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.”Exodus 9:10
What happened
What happened. The LORD told Moses and Aaron to take handfuls of ashes from the furnace, and Moses was to "sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh" (Exodus 9:8). It would become small dust over all Egypt, "and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt" (Exodus 9:9). Moses cast the ashes up toward heaven, "and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast" (Exodus 9:10). The suffering was so severe that "the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians" (Exodus 9:11). Egypt's wise men, who had once imitated signs and then confessed the finger of God, now could not so much as remain in the room. And here the text records a solemn shift, "And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses" (Exodus 9:12). What Pharaoh had done to himself in earlier plagues, God now confirms in judgment.
What it meant
What it meant. The plague of boils drove the affliction into the flesh of the Egyptians themselves and finished the humiliation of the magicians, who vanish from the story unable even to stand. Some scholars connect boils to Egyptian gods of healing or medicine, such as Imhotep or the lion-headed Sekhmet associated with disease and its cure, noting the irony that no healing deity could help. These suggestions are plausible, but they are inferences and not the claim of the text, which names no such god and gives only the general judgment, "against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment" (Exodus 12:12). The weightiest matter here is the hardening. Scripture is careful and honest about it. In earlier plagues we read that "Pharaoh hardened his heart" (Exodus 8:15, 8:32). Now for the first time we read, "the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh" (Exodus 9:12). Both are true. A man set himself against God again and again, and in righteous judgment God gave him over to the hardness he had chosen.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. Where no Egyptian healer could touch the boils, the gospel presents the true Physician. Jesus went about "healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease" (Matthew 4:23), and by His suffering our deeper wounds are healed, "with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). The boils show a curse that reaches the body and cannot be cured by human wisdom. Passover shows the cure that God provides, deliverance by the blood of the Lamb, "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:7). And the sober warning of Pharaoh's hardening drives us to seek grace while it is offered, not to presume upon it, "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (Hebrews 3:15). The Lamb who "taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) is the only healing for what no furnace ash can undo.
Questions people ask
Did God harden Pharaoh's heart against his will?
Scripture holds both truths together. In earlier plagues Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exodus 8:15, 8:32); here "the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh" (Exodus 9:12). God's judicial hardening confirmed the rebellion Pharaoh had freely and repeatedly chosen. He was not forced to sin against his will.
Why do the magicians disappear after this plague?
They "could not stand before Moses because of the boils" (Exodus 9:11). Having failed at the lice and now suffering themselves, Egypt's wise men are finished as rivals, and the contest is plainly between the LORD and Pharaoh alone.