Exodus 9:4
ESV
But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die."’"
NIV
But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’ "
NASB
But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel.'?’?'
CSB
But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that the Israelites own will die."
NLT
But the Lord will again make a distinction between the livestock of the Israelites and that of the Egyptians. Not a single one of Israel’s animals will die!
KJV
And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel.
NKJV
And the Lord will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt. So nothing shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel.” ’ ”
What does Exodus 9:4 mean?
Scripture is not explicitly clear about whether certain plagues (Exodus 3:20) affected the Israelites as well as the Egyptians. But the "land of Egypt" (Exodus 7:21; 8:6, 16, 24) always seems distinct from the Hebrew "land of Goshen" (Exodus 8:22). A few plagues (Exodus 8:22; 9:26; 10:23), including this one, make a point of saying that only the Egyptians were affected. These distinctions emphasize that these are supernatural acts, and that God favors the Israelites. They also suggest that whatever Egyptian deity was supposed to control that part of nature was helpless against the Israelite God. In this case, Egyptian gods connected to livestock such as Apis and Hathor would be proven impotent.Distinction—noticing and acting on differences—is an important concept in the Bible. Distinctions are immoral when they come from sinful human attitudes (James 2:4). But distinctions are not immoral in all cases. God made a distinction between Egypt and Israel (Exodus 11:7) and later between clean and unclean food sources (Leviticus 11:47). Distinctions were made regarding laws (Leviticus 19:20), honor (Esther 6:3), the holy and the common (Ezekiel 22:26), and between the righteous and the wicked (Malachi 3:18). The New Testament notes that God's distinction isn't "against" any individual person coming to faith; salvation in Christ is available to all (Acts 11:12; 15:9; Romans 3:22; 10:12). But He does distinguish between what is good and what is evil.
Here, the fates of Israelite and Egyptian livestock are drastically different. "All" Egyptian animals (Exodus 9:6)—whether literally or in the poetic sense of "very many"—would die. But "not one" of the Hebrew livestock would (Exodus 9:7). It's possible that Egyptian and Israelite flocks shared fields. It may even be that Hebrews were assigned to maintain Egyptian herds alongside their own. If so, the fact that only Egyptian animals are affected proves the supernatural source of the plague. This is further highlighted when the Lord puts a specific timeline on the crisis (Exodus 9:5).
