Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt." Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. - (Exodus 9:22-23 ESV)" . . . [A]nd the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth"?!? And the "fire [was] flashing continually in the midst of the hail"?!?
"Fire"?!?
I know one finds references to lightning elsewhere in the Bible. But why not here?
I did a search, on BlueLetterBible, for "lightning." It doesn't appear until Exodus 20. That's the first reference to lightning. In the entire Bible.
Does this have something to do with the development of language?
Strange that an event only a few months or years earlier would be written up with a totally different word ('esh as opposed to lappiyd).
Interesting. (At least, I think it is.)
