תהלים, פרק ק״ה, פסוק ל״ב

The recounting of the plagues in Egypt shifts its focus directly to the devastation of hail, purposefully skipping over the earlier plagues of pestilence and boils. This omission occurs because Pharaoh never actually asked Moses to stop those specific plagues [אבן עזרא]. He likely dismissed them as mere coincidence, or perhaps the sudden, unannounced arrival of the boils gave him no opportunity to react. Consequently, the historical sequence skips straight to the hail, a punishment so severe that Pharaoh finally pleaded for it to end [מלבי״ם].

Instead of sending normal, nourishing rain, God poured down hail upon the Egyptians [מצודת דוד]. This was far from a typical weather pattern where water simply freezes in the atmosphere. It was a profound miracle driven by divine providence. The undeniable proof of this miracle lies in the impossible mixture of elements. Blazing, intense fire descended from the sky and burned within the very blocks of ice [ביאור שטיינזלץ, מצודת דוד, מאירי]. Under natural circumstances, a fire falling from the heavens would heat the surrounding air, melting any ice and preventing it from freezing. The simultaneous descent of burning fire and frozen hail stands as a clear testament to God's direct intervention [אלשיך].