Then marks the change from Yahweh’s instructions to Moses’ action. Moses stretched forth his rod means, of course, that he “held out his rod” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), but since it was toward heaven, it may be easier to say “Moses raised his stick toward the sky” (Good News Translation). This was obviously a dramatic action for all people to see. His rod was probably the same “walking stick” he had used as a shepherd. (See the discussion at 4.2.) New Revised Standard Version and others use the word “staff.” In a number of languages it will be more natural style to say “Moses pointed his walking stick toward the sky.”

The LORD sent thunder and hail makes clear that it was Yahweh who caused the storm when Moses gave the signal. The word for sent has several meanings, such as “give,” “offer,” or “set.” The English sent works with hail but not so well with thunder (literally “sounds”). Jerusalem Bible and New Jerusalem Bible have “Yahweh thundered and rained down hail.” In a number of languages thunder is described as “the sky roars” or “the sound of the sky roaring.” So the LORD sent thunder and hail may be rendered as “The LORD caused the sky to roar and hailstones to fall.”

And fire ran down to the earth is literally “and fire came earthward.” Since this is a graphic description of a severe storm, most translations interpret the fire to mean “lightning” (Good News Translation), although the usual Hebrew word is not used here (it occurs in 19.16). New English Bible has “with fire flashing down to the ground,” Good News Translation has “and lightning struck the ground,” and Contemporary English Version has “lightning flashed back and forth, striking the ground.”

And the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt repeats the same idea as the LORD … sent, but a different verb is used. In this verse and the next, the same thing is repeated several times in a monotonous way. For example, hail is mentioned four times in the Hebrew (five times in Revised Standard Version). This is probably because an editor has here combined different traditions, but this kind of repeated detail is also typical of Hebrew narrative. It is possible, however, to reduce the sixty-four words in Revised Standard Version to forty-six words in Good News Translation without removing any essential meaning. In reducing the number of words, Good News Translation has restructured so that the last sentence of verse 23 continues into verse 24.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .