What Does Exodus 9:32 Mean?
But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they were still hidden.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up.THE KEY
The blow has limits: the grain still late in its growth remains standing.
THE MEANING
The verse names an uneven reach of destruction: the wheat and rye remain unstruck while other crops are struck, because their growth is still late. Devastation and surviving growth stand in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that when something around you is struck, all growth is already lost: this verse still sees grain standing.
THE ROOT
אֲפִילֹת
ʾăphîlōt
GROWS FROM
אפל
Darkness, or being dark; in this grain word, late-ripening.
“still hidden” in this verse is ʾăphîlōt. The word translated “not grown up” means late or late-ripening. Its connection to the אפל word-family for darkness gives that lateness an image of what is not yet fully brought into the light.
ALSO GROWS
ʾōphel: Darkness, gloom
אֹפֶל
This noun shares the darkness word-family, echoing the late grain’s not-yet-visible fullness.
ʾăphēlāh: Darkness, obscurity
אֲפֵלָה
This form also carries the root’s sense of darkness, enriching the image of growth that has not yet come fully into view.
נֻכּוּ
nukkû
GROWS FROM
נכה
To strike or smite; to inflict a blow.
“struck” in this verse is nukkû. The word for being smitten belongs to the same strike-family as מַכָּה, a blow or plague. The verse is precise: the hail’s blow does not land on this grain, even as it strikes other crops.
ALSO GROWS
makkāh: A blow, stroke, or plague
מַכָּה
This noun names the blow itself, linking the grain’s being struck to the Bible’s language for a plague.
mukkēh: Stricken, afflicted
מֻכֶּה
This form describes one who receives the blow, making clear that the root names an impact that lands on some and passes over others.
THE PATTERN
A real blow does not necessarily become total destruction; Scripture names what survives alongside what is struck.
A crushed reed he will not break, and a dimming wick he will not snuff out. He will bring out judgment into truth.A thousand fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it does not draw near to you.Pursued, but not left behind; thrown down, but not perishing.THE THREAD
And the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bud.“Smitten” here uses the same root, נכה (n-k-h), as the next verse’s “not smitten.” The flax and barley are struck at their stage of growth; the late grain stands beside them, showing where the blow stops.
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