Verses 31 and 32 are an editorial comment intended to show that not all the plants were destroyed. Otherwise there would have been nothing left for the locusts to eat in the following plague (see 10.15.) Revised Standard Version places this in parentheses (as do New English Bible, New International Version, and others), and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh sets it off with dashes, but the Hebrew has no marking for parenthetical statements. Since the parenthesis and the dash are only punctuation marks and are not pronounced, it is good to introduce these verses with a word that marks them as parenthetical, such as the English “Now,” which is used by New Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, and New American Bible.

Flax was a fibrous plant grown by the Egyptians as a source of fiber for making linen cloth. The plant produces beautiful blue blossoms when it is in bud. Barley was one of the grain crops from which bread was made. When it was in the ear, the grains were “ripe” (Good News Translation) and ready for harvesting. In Egypt barley was harvested in January, so this suggests the time of year when the hailstorm occurred. In cultures where barley is unknown and a general term for “grain” is available, that should be used here; for example, “grain named ‘barley.’ ” If such a term is not available, one may employ a phrase suggesting a similarity to grains that are known; for example, “a wheat-like plant named ‘barley,’ ” or “a rice-like plant….” In some areas a general word for “fruit” may be employed, even for crops that have grains and must be threshed; for example, “fruit called ‘barley.’ ” Both the flax and the barley were ruined, that is, they were “beaten down” by the hail. The passive form of the verb “to strike or beat” is used.

Wheat was another grain crop from which Egyptians made bread, and spelt was a coarser variety of the wheat. The word for spelt is used only three times in the entire Old Testament (see Isa 28.25 and Ezek 4.9), so we cannot be sure of its scientific classification. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh identifies it as “emmer,” still another variety of wheat. Good News Translation does not translate the word but includes it with wheat and says “none of the wheat was ruined,” and this will be the more natural model in many languages. In Egypt these crops ripened about one month after the barley harvest, so the text says they are late in coming up. That is why they were not ruined (literally “beaten down”).

In some languages it will be impossible to find corresponding words for these crops. In such extreme cases one may translate “All the plants that were ripe or budding were ruined, but the later crops were not damaged.” Scientific accuracy in translation, of course, is not as important as clarifying the meaning or purpose of these two verses.

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 .