Exodus 9:16
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
And in very deed for this cause have I raised you up, for to show in you my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
American King James Version (AKJV)
And in very deed for this cause have I raised you up, for to show in you my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
American Standard Version (ASV)
but in very deed for this cause have I made thee to stand, to show thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
But, for this very reason, I have kept you from destruction, to make clear to you my power, and so that my name may be honoured through all the earth.
Webster's Revision
And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, to show in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
World English Bible
but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth;
English Revised Version (ERV)
but in very deed for this cause have I made thee to stand, for to shew thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
Clarke's Exodus 9:16 Bible Commentary
But truly, on this very account, have I caused thee to subsist - (העמדחיך heemadticha), that I might cause thee to see my power, (הראתך את כחי harotheca eth cochi), and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth, (or, בכל הארץ becol haarets, in all this land). See Ainsworth and Houbigant.
Thus God gave this impious king to know that it was in consequence of his especial providence that both he and his people had not been already destroyed by means of the past plagues; but God had preserved him for this very purpose, that he might have a farther opportunity of manifesting that he, Jehovah, was the only true God for the full conviction both of the Hebrews and Egyptians, that the former might follow and the latter fear before him. Judicious critics of almost all creeds have agreed to translate the original as above, a translation which it not only can bear but requires, and which is in strict conformity to both the Septuagint and Targum. Neither the Hebrew העמדחיך heemadticha, I have caused thee to stand; nor the apostle's translation of it, Romans 9:17, εξηγειρα σε, I have raised thee; nor that of the Septuagint, ἑνεκεν τουτου διετηρηθης, on this account art thou preserved, viz., in the past plagues; can countenance that most exceptionable meaning put on the words by certain commentators, viz., "That God ordained or appointed Pharaoh from all eternity, by certain means, to this end; that he made him to exist in time; that he raised him to the throne; promoted him to that high honor and dignity; that he preserved him, and did not cut him off as yet; that he strengthened and hardened his heart; irritated, provoked, and stirred him up against his people Israel, and suffered him to go all the lengths he did go in his obstinacy and rebellion; all which was done to show in him his power in destroying him in the Red Sea. The sum of which is, that this man was raised up by God in every sense for God to show his power in his destruction." So man speaks; thus God hath not spoken. See Henry on the place.
Barnes's Exodus 9:16 Bible Commentary
Have I raised thee up - See the margin. God kept Pharaoh "standing", i. e. permitted him to live and hold out until His own purpose was accomplished.
Wesley's Exodus 9:16 Bible Commentary
9:16 For this cause have I raised thee up - A most dreadful message Moses is here ordered to deliver to him, whether he will hear, or whether he will forbear. He must tell him, that he is marked for ruin: that he now stands as the butt at which God would shoot all the arrows of his wrath. For this cause have I raised thee up to the throne at this time, and made thee to stand the shock of the plagues hitherto, to shew in thee my power - Providence so ordered it, that Moses should have a man of such a fierce and stubborn spirit to deal with, to make it a most signal and memorable instance of the power God has to bring down the proudest of his enemies; that my name, irresistable power, and my inflexible justice, might be declared throughout all the earth - Not only to all places, but through all ages while the earth remains. This will be the event. But it by no means follows, that this was the design of God. We have numberless instances in scripture of this manner of speaking, to denote not the design, but only the event.