Exodus / Question
Before the hail, Moses warned that anyone or any livestock left in the field would die, and some of Pharaoh’s servants brought their slaves and livestock into houses. Then the LORD sent thunder and hail and fire ran down to the earth, striking the land. The text says Goshen, where the people of Israel were, had no hail (Exodus 9:19-26).
In Exodus 9:13–19, Yahweh sends Moses to confront Pharaoh again with the demand to release Israel for worship and service. The warning explains the purpose behind escalating blows: Pharaoh is to recognize Yahweh’s unmatched authority across the whole earth. This announcement belongs to the confrontation cycle in Exodus where Moses repeatedly delivers Yahweh’s message to Pharaoh, Pharaoh resists, and a new disaster is announced or sent. Here the speech becomes longer and more reflective than some earlier warnings, giving reasons and goals, not only commands.
This speech frames the coming hail as more than a weather disaster. It is a direct message from Yahweh to Pharaoh, renewing the demand to release Israel “so they may serve” Yahweh (verses 13, 17). The warning also explains purpose: Pharaoh is meant to recognize Yahweh’s unmatched authority “in all the earth” (verse 14).
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Exodus 9:19-26, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
19Now therefore command that all of your cattle and all that you have in the field be brought into shelter. Every man and animal that is found in the field, and isn`t brought home, the hail shall come down on them, and they shall die."`"
20Those who feared the word of Yahweh among the servants of Pharaoh made their servants and their cattle flee into the houses.
21Whoever didn`t regard the word of Yahweh left his servants and his cattle in the field.
22Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch forth your hand toward the sky, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man, and on animal, and on every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt."
23Moses stretched forth his rod toward the heavens, and Yahweh sent thunder, hail, and lightning flashed down to the earth. Yahweh rained hail on the land of Egypt.
24So there was very severe hail, and lightning mixed with the hail, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
25The hail struck throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and animal; and the hail struck every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field.
26Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.