Is ALL always everyone single one..?

Certainly, entire books have been written on the wider topic from a biblical perspective, especially those books that choose to take on the task of reminding us of God’s sovereignty in salvation…but this isn’t about to be another one. This is simply one of those times where I ran across something that I simply never questioned before, yet the Holy Spirit brought it to my attention. Many times we read things at a surface level without a great deal of thought, especially as it relates to stories that we know so very well.

Take the plagues visited upon Egypt during the Exodus for example. In the fifth plague we read the following (in part) “For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.”’” And the Lord set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.” And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died.” (Exodus 9:2-6 ESV). Note that it says that all the livestock of the Egyptians died.

Now the entire time period between Moses and Aaron first speaking with Pharaoh and the culmination of the tenth plague is less than a year, so these plagues all occurred within that time period…many scholars believe it happened over an eight to nine month period. We know this because the Bible tells us that Moses was 80 when he first spoke with Pharaoh (Exodus 7:7), and that he died after spending 40 years in the wilderness at the age of 120 (Deuteronomy 34:7).

In the same chapter of Exodus, the seventh plague is a horrific hail. One particular verse in this section reads: “Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.” (Exodus 9:19 ESV). The land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was not affected by this hail.

This caught my attention. Why did Moses tell Pharaoh that he would need to get his livestock out of the fields into safe shelter…? Furthermore, we learn in verse 21 that there were some of the Egyptians that still didn’t fear the Lord, and left their livestock outside (and they were then killed by the hail). If every single one of the livestock the Egyptians had was killed by the fifth plague, there wouldn’t be any livestock for the hail to hit.

Now it is possible but unlikely that they simply took the livestock of the Israelites, since we later learn that they left with their livestock on the Exodus journey (Exodus 12:38). It could it be that the Egyptians had replenished (at least to an extent) their livestock from outside sources, but I think it more likely that this is a case in which the word “all” is much more likely to mean “all kinds” or “all types” of livestock, and not every single one of them.

One actually sees the same concept spelled out more directly in the sixth plague, which was boils. In Exodus 9:9 it states “It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.”, yet we learn in verse 11 that “And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians.”. In other words, the boils didn’t break out on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt without exception…it only affected the Egyptians themselves. Israelites in the same city were not affected apparently.

So why bring this up at all? Perhaps, just as a reminder that we must be careful when interpreting the scriptures, and not read our own ideas into the text.

Sometimes, all means every single one without exception.

Sometimes, all means some of each kind.

If we can identify exceptions that are either explicit or highly likely, we must lean in the directions scripture points, not depending too heavily upon our own traditions.

And sometimes, we can only determine the greater meaning of this simple word through much study and prayer.

Solo Gloria Deo