Most agree in the view given of this verse, only there is some shade of difference as to the word [רשף]; but though Calvin renders it carbo ignitus—ignited coals, yet in his exposition he seems to regard it with many others as a burning disease. In the six other instances in which the word occurs, it certainly has not this sense, except it be in Deuteronomy 32:24, which is doubtful. It signifies not a burning coal, but a glowing fire, burning or lightening. Compare Exodus 9:23,25, with Psalm 78:48; where it designates the fires or lightnings produced by thunder, which accompanied the hail. Lightning would be its most proper rendering here; for instead of referring this verse to the plagues in Egypt, it may be considered as a continuation of what is contained in the foregoing verse; and the Septuagint and Theodotion have rendered [דבר] in the preceding clause, not pestilence, but word—λογος, its most usual meaning. This makes the whole to comport to what we read of God’s appearance on mount Sinai. See Exodus 19:16; Deuteronomy 33:2. The version then would be this— From before him proceeded the word (i.e. the law;) And forth came lightning at his feet. Most of the ideas in this, and in the two preceding verses, seem to be similar to those we find in Deuteronomy 33:2,3.—Ed.