The Ten Plagues - Bible Story Summary The Ten Plagues - Bible Story Summary The Ten Plagues - Bible Story Summary God Sent Ten Plagues to Defeat Pharaoh The Plagues of Egypt. Print Collector / Contributor / Getty Images By Jack Zavada The Hebrew people had suffered as slaves in Egypt for over 400 years when God sent them a deliverer named Moses . But Pharaoh , Egypt's arrogant king, wasn't about to let this valuable source of free labor go. After all, Pharaoh believed he was a god, and who could oppose a god? That was when the God of Israel sent Ten Plagues upon the Egyptian people to show there was no one like the Lord in all the earth. References to the Ten Plagues in the Bible Exodus 5:3, 7:14-12:30; 1 Samuel 4:8; Amos 4:10. The Ten Plagues - Story Summary Before each plague, Moses asked Pharaoh to let the Hebrew people go into the desert to worship the Lord. After each plague, Pharaoh's response was the same: he hardened his heart, stubbornly refusing to obey God .

Water Turned to Blood In the first plague, Aaron , brother of Moses, struck the Nile River with his staff and the water turned to blood. The fish died, the water stunk, and people could not drink it. Even water in jars and pots turned to blood. By their secret arts, the magicians of Pharaoh managed to duplicate this act. Frogs The second plague brought millions of frogs out of the river, canals, and ponds until they covered the land. Again, the king's sorcerers used black magic to produce frogs. Gnats In the third plague, Aaron struck the dust and it became gnats, infesting men and beasts. The magicians could not duplicate that miracle and said, "This is the finger of God." (Exodus 8:19, ESV ). Flies The fourth plague brought swarms of flies, but the insects covered only Egypt and not the land of Goshen where the Hebrews lived. Pharaoh tried to set conditions on how far the people could go into the desert to make sacrifices to God.

Livestock In the fifth plague, all the horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks in Egypt died, but the curse did not touch the animals of the Hebrews. Pharaoh still would not back down. Boils For the sixth plague, God told Moses to throw handfuls of soot into the air. The fine dust became boils on all the Egyptians, so painful the magicians could not stand before Moses. Hail In the seventh plague, God explained to Pharaoh, through Moses, the reason for the plagues: But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. (Exodus 9:16, NIV ) Very heavy hail fell upon Egypt in the seventh plague, killing people, animals and plants. Although Pharaoh admitted he had sinned and that God was in the right, he changed his mind again as soon as the storm stopped and would not let the people go. Locusts With the eighth plague came locusts such as the world had never seen before. They smothered Egypt, eating plants and trees so not a green thing remained.

When Pharaoh called in Moses, the king admitted to sinning "once." Darkness The ninth plague brought pitch darkness over Egypt for three days, so heavy that people could not see one another. Remarkably, the Hebrews had light in their land. Once again Pharaoh tried to dictate conditions on Israel's departure by ordering that their flocks be left behind. Death of Firstborn Finally, God warned of a tenth plague, so devastating that Pharaoh would release the enslaved Jews. First God warned all the people of Israel to sacrifice lambs to him, paint the blood on their doorposts, and eat the roasted meat before morning. God's avenging angel would see the blood sign and pass over those houses. This started the Jewish tradition of Passover . The Jews asked the Egyptian people for gold, silver, jewelry, and clothes, and they gladly gave it to see them go. God had a plan to use those materials later. During the night, the tenth plague descended, the death of the firstborn in every Egyptian house. Even Pharaoh's firstborn son died. The outcry from the Egyptians was so great that Pharaoh commanded Israel to go immediately, taking everything with them. What happened next is described in the crossing of the Red Sea .

Lessons From the Ten Plagues Egypt's false gods were powerless before Jehovah, the almighty God of Israel. Today, as then, anything people put more importance on than the Lord is idolatry , a serious sin. God used Pharaoh to show the world his omnipotent authority. No matter what happens, the Lord is in control . God directs history to accomplish his supreme plan . Whether it is performing awesome miracles or through quiet, individual intervention, God always helps those who love and obey him. Bible Story Summary Index Jack Zavada, a career writer and contributor for About.com, is host to a Christian website for singles. Never married, Jack feels that the hard-won lessons he has learned may help other Christian singles make sense of their lives. His articles and ebooks offer great hope and encouragement. To contact him or for more information, visit Jack's Bio Page . List of The Ten Plagues in Egypt From The Bible List of The Ten Plagues in Egypt From The Bible Tweet The ten plagues in Egypt are explained in Exodus chapters 7 through 12. These plagues are punishments on Pharaoh and Egypt for not allowing God’s people, Israel, to go free from their slavery.

Pharaoh was demonstrating his power over the Israelites and questioning, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2) Each of the plagues effected the Egyptians and the land in different ways. Some of the plagues effected the Israelites as well. All of the plagues are targeted at different Egyptian gods. Through the 10th and final plague, God pronounces judgment on all the gods of Egypt: “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.” (Exodus 12:12) Background for the Plagues God sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to ask for the release of His people so that they could worship Him freely. Initially Pharaoh refused and Moses demonstrated God’s power by turning Aaron’s staff into a serpent. The magicians of Egypt also showed their abilities by changing their staves into serpents.

However, Aaron’s serpent ate the serpents of the Egyptians (Exodus 7:8-12). Plague of Blood – Exodus 7:14-25 Aaron, at the command of Moses, raised his staff over the Nile River. The water turned to blood causing the fish to die and fill the land with an awful odor. To prove his own power, Pharaoh had his sorcerers turn more water into blood. They eventually had to dig wells to get fresh water. The plague lasted a week. Plague of Frogs – Exodus 8:1-15 Aaron raised his staff again over the streams and rivers causing frogs to come out of the river. The frogs overran the country. The Bible says that frogs were in their bedrooms, beds and kitchens. The Egyptian sorcerers also made more frogs appear. Pharaoh consented to letting the Israelites go. Moses allowed Pharaoh to choose when he wanted the frogs to disappear. Pharaoh choose the following day. The frogs were gathered and piled up making the land of Egypt stink once again. Plague of Lice – Exodus 8:16-19 The next plague was brought on by Aaron striking the dust with his staff.

This caused the plague of lice. The Egyptian sorcerers were not able to reproduce this one. It caused them to finally declare that the plagues were brought on by God. Plague of Flies – Exodus 8:20-32 The Bible says that this plague only effected the land of the Egyptians and not the land of Goshen where the Israelites lived (Exodus 8:22). Pharaoh again offered to let the people of Israel free if the plague was removed. However, when the plague was gone, Pharaoh refused to let them go. Plague of Murrain or Pestilence – Exodus 9:1-7 This plague only effected the Egyptian’s cattle. Exodus 9:3 says, “Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.” Verse 6 says that “all” the cattle of the Egyptians died. But, again, none of the Israelites’ cattle were harmed (verse 7).

Plague of Boils – Exodus 9:8-12 This was a skin disease that was brought about when Moses and Aaron spread the ashes from a furnace into the air. Not even the Pharaoh’s magicians could come before him because of the boils upon their skin. The Bible says that it was not limited to only the people, but the beasts of Egypt as well (these would be animals other than the cattle—which were already dead). Plague of Hail – Exodus 9:13-35 Moses stretched his hands toward the sky and brought on hail. The hail was unlike any they had experienced before. The hail was mixed with fire. The people were not doomed to suffer this plague. It was made clear that anyone outside during the storm would be punished, but if they would go inside and take any animals in with them, then they would be spared the harshness of the storm. The storm destroyed many crops as well as people and animals in the fields. The land of Goshen was again spared the punishment.

Plague of Locusts – Exodus 10:1-20 Moses came to Pharaoh once again, but he refused to let the children of Israel free, not even at the request of his servants who were ready to be done with the plagues (Exodus 10:7). Pharaoh did consent to let the men of Israel go, but not the women and children. Moses raised his rod over Egypt and brought on a strong east wind for a day. After the wind came the plague of locusts. These are what we call grasshoppers today which came in and ate the rest of the crops and trees which were not destroyed by the hail in the previous plague. Plague of Darkness – Exodus 10:21-29 The plague of darkness was described as being so dark that it could be felt (Exodus 10:21). The darkness lasted three days. However the Israelites had light in their houses. After a time Pharaoh requested an end to the plague by offering to let the Israel go, but they would have to leave their cattle.

Moses refused to accept the offer, but left saying that by the time the Israelites left Egypt then Pharaoh would be giving goods to Israel. Plague of the Death of the Firstborn – Exodus 11:1-12:36 The tenth and final plague was the death of the firstborn of all the people and animals. This was a plague on the Israelites and the Egyptians. The plague consisted of the firstborn being killed on a certain night. To avoid the punishment the people would kill a sacrificial lamb (sheep or goat) and paint the door posts of the house with the blood of the lamb. When the Lord passed through the land, He would not kill the firstborn of the houses that had shown their trust in His provision of salvation. Pharaoh’s son was killed as well as many children of the Egyptians. They feared themselves to be the next to be killed and gave all they could to get the Israelites out of their land. Results of the Ten Plagues The Israelites were not only allowed to leave the land of Egypt, but were commanded by Pharaoh to do so (Exodus 12:31).

The Bible says that there were 600,000 men, besides children, who left that night (Exodus 12:37). They left enriched by the Egyptians (Exodus 12:33, 36). This ended 430 years of the Children of Israel living in the land of Egypt (Exodus 12:40, 41). Resources Holy Bible, King James Version David Peach November 28, 2011 at 5:39 am Romans 14:23 “And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” This is in response to the question of eating various foods which can cause others to stumble in their Christian faith. Paul gave an argument as to why eating certain meats were not sinful, but he said that you must eat in faith. If you feel that participating in something might be wrong, then you should avoid doing it. If you cannot participate in good conscience, knowing that you are doing what pleases the Lord, then you are participating with doubt in your mind and therefore it is sinful. I hope this helps answer your question.

Exodus in the Bible and the Egyptian Plagues - Biblical Archaeology Society Exodus in the Bible and the Egyptian Plagues Can we make sense of the Biblical plagues? Read Ziony Zevit’s article “Three Ways to Look at the Ten Plagues” as it originally appeared in Bible Review, June 1990. The article was first republished in Bible History Daily in July 2011.—Ed. This painting, “He turned their waters into blood,” by the 19th-century American folk painter Erastus Salisbury Field (1805–1900), depicts the first of the Biblical plagues inflicted on the Egyptians. One understanding of the Egyptian plagues explains them as expressions of natural events. A second view of the Biblical plagues sees them as attacks on the pantheon of Egyptian gods. Accordingly, the first plague described in Exodus in the Bible—turning the waters of Egypt to blood—is directed against one of several gods associate with Nile or with water. Photo: National Gallery of Art, Washington/Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch. The Book of Exodus in the Bible describes ten Egyptian plagues that bring suffering to the land of pharaoh.

Are these Biblical plagues plausible on any level? In the following article, “Three Ways to Look at the Ten Plagues,” Ziony Zevit looks at these Biblical plagues from various vantage points. There’s something unique about these Egyptian plagues as presented in Exodus in the Bible . They’re different from the curses to Israelites as mentioned in Leviticus. Some have connected the Egyptian plagues to natural phenomena that were possible in ancient Egypt. Torrential rains in Ethiopia could have sent red clay (“blood”) into the Nile, which could have caused a migration of frogs, further causing lice and flies, which caused the death of cattle and human boils. A second set of meteorological disasters, hailstorms (the seventh of the Biblical plagues) and locusts, may have been followed by a Libyan dust storm—causing darkness. Many of the Egyptian plagues could also be interpreted as “attacks against the Egyptian pantheon,” Zevit notes. Many of the Egyptian plagues mentioned in Exodus in the Bible have some correlation to an Egyptian god or goddess . For example, Heket was represented as a frog and Hathor as a cow.

An ancient Egyptian “Coffin Text” refers to the slaying of first-born gods. A third way to look at the Biblical plagues is by asking, “why ten?” Ultimately the plagues served to increase the faith of the surviving Israelites. On this count ten could be connected to the ten divine utterances of the creation account of Genesis 1. In relating the ten Egyptian plagues, the Exodus in the Bible could represent a parallel account of liberation, affecting all aspects of the created world. In the free eBook Ancient Israel in Egypt and the Exodus , top scholars discuss the historical Israelites in Egypt and archaeological evidence for and against the historicity of the Exodus. Three Ways to Look at the Ten Plagues Were they natural disasters, a demonstration of the impotence of the Egyptian gods or an undoing of Creation? by Ziony Zevit When the enslaved Israelites sought to leave Egypt, Pharaoh said no. The Lord then visited ten plagues upon the Egyptians until finally Pharaoh permanently relented—the last of the plagues being the slaying of the first-born males of Egypt. Some of the plagues are the type of disasters that recur often in human history—hailstorms and locusts—and therefore appear possible and realistic.

Others, less realistic, border on the comic—frogs and lice. Still others are almost surrealistic—blood and darkness—and appear highly improbable. Many questions have been raised about the plagues on different levels. Some questions are naturalistic and historical: Did the plagues actually occur in the order and manner described in Exodus? Are there any ancient documents or other types of evidence corroborating that they took place or that something like them took place? Can the less realistic and surrealistic plagues be explained as natural phenomena? Other questions are literary and theological: Is the plague narrative a hodgepodge of sources pasted together by ancient editors (redactors)? What is the origin of the traditions in the extant plague narrative? What is the meaning of the narrative in its biblical context? Beyond the obvious story, did the plague narrative have any theological implications for ancient Israel? My research has not provided answers to all these questions, but it will, I believe, provide some new insights. For centuries exegetes have been struggling with the order, the number and the meaning of the plagues. As early as the medieval period, Jewish commentators noticed certain patterns in the narrative that reflected a highly organized literary structure.

In the 12th century, a rabbi known as the Rashbam (Rabbi Samuel ben Meir), 1 who lived in northern France, recognized that only certain plagues were introduced by warnings to Pharaoh, while others were not. To appreciate the pattern, divide the first nine plagues into three groups each; in the first two of each group, Pharaoh is warned that if he does not let the Israelites go, the plague will be visited on the Egyptians; in the third plague of each group, the plague strikes without warning. In the 13th century Bahya ben Asher 2 and in the 15th century Don Isaac Abravanel 3 noted a certain repetitive pattern in who brought on the plagues. The first three plagues are brought on by Moses’ brother Aaron , who holds out his staff as the effective instrument (Exodus 7:19; 8:1; 8:12). a In the next group of three, the first two are brought on by God and the third by Moses (Exodus 8:20: 9:6; 9:10).

In the last group of three the plagues are brought on by Moses’ holding out his arm with his staff (Exodus 9:22–23; 10:12–13; 10:21 [the last without mention of his staff]). These patterns indicate that the plague narrative is a conscientiously articulated and tightly wrought composition. Taking the plagues as a whole, however, it is clear that they differ considerably from the curses with which the Israelites are threatened in the so-called curse-lists of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. In the curse-lists, the Lord tells the Israelites what will happen to them if they do not obey the Lord’s laws and commandments, if they breach the covenant. They will suffer, according to Leviticus, terror, consumption, fever, crop failure, defeat at the hands of their enemies, unnecessary fear; wild beasts will consume their children and cattle; they will die by the sword; they will be so hungry that they will eat the flesh of their children and, in the end, go into exile (Leviticus 26:14–26).

Similarly in the augmented list of curses in Deuteronomy 28:15–60, they will suffer confusion, consumption, inflammation, madness, blindness, social chaos, military defeat, etc. The maledictions in the curse-lists of Leviticus and Deuteronomy have been shown to be part of a stock of traditional curses employed during the biblical period in the geographical area extending from Israel to ancient Mesopotamia. Not only are they attested in the Torah (the Five Books of Moses), but also in the prophets; they also appear in the “curse” sections of contemporaneous ancient Near Eastern treaties. 4 These “curses” reflect the kinds of things that could, and probably did, happen in this geographical area as a result of natural or humanly-impose calamities. True there is some overlap between these curses and the plagues. Dever (pestilence) occurs both in the Egyptian plagues and in the curse lists of Leviticus. 26:25 and Deuteronomy 28:21. “Boils” occurs in the curse list of Deuteronomy 28:35 while a locust-like plague is mentioned in.

Deuteronomy 28:42. Nevertheless, in the Pentateuchal curse lists, the Israelites—on their way to the Promised land—are threatened with disasters they might expect in the ecological system of the land to which they were headed, not those of the land of Egypt from which they were fleeing. The plagues visited on the Egyptians are quite different. 5 To understand their significance we should focus on Egypt in particular rather than the ancient Near East as a whole. Two Egyptian deities, Hathor, in the form of a cow (foreground), and Amon-Re (seated, on far wall). This scene was discovered at Deir el-Bahari in 1906 and dates to the beginning of the reign of Amenophis II, about 1440 B.C. The new pharaoh, successor to Tuthmosis III, stands protected beneath Hathor’s horned head; his name is inscribed on her neck. On the far wall, Tuthmosis III pours a libation to Amon-Re.

Photo: Verlag Philipp Von Zabern/Photo by Jurgen Liepe The most sophisticated attempt to relate the Egyptian plagues to natural phenomena does so in terms of Egypt’s ecosystem. According to this interpretation, the first six plagues can even be explained in their sequential order: The naturalistic account is connected initially with the violent rain storms that occur in the mountains of Ethiopia. The first plague, blood, is the red clay swept down into the Nile from the Ethiopian highlands. The mud then choked the fish in the area inhabited by the Israelites. The fish clogged the swamps where the frogs lived; the fish, soon infected with anthrax, caused the frogs (the second plague) to leave the Nile for cool areas, taking refuge in people’s houses. But, since the frogs were already infected with the disease, they died in their new habitats. As a consequence, lice, the third plague, and flies, the fourth plague, began to multiply, feeding off the dead frogs. This gave rise to a pestilence that attacked animals, the fifth plague, because the cattle were feeding on grass which by then had also become infected. In man, the symptom of the same disease was boils, the sixth plague.

A second sequence of plagues, according to this explanation, is related to atmospheric and climatic conditions in Egypt. Hailstorms, the seventh plague, came out of nowhere. Although not common, hailstorms do occur rarely in Upper Egypt and occasionally in Lower Egypt during late spring and early fall. In this reconstruction, the hailstorm was followed by the eighth plague, locusts, a more common occurrence. The ninth plague, darkness, was a Libyan dust storm. 6 The final plague, the death of the first-born, although not strictly commensurate with the other plagues, can be explained in ecological terms. It may be a reflection of the infant mortality rate in ancient Egypt. 7 There is a problem with this explanation, however. According to the biblical narrative, the tenth plague struck all first-born males of whatever age, not just new-born infants. This ecological explanation of the plagues does not prove that the biblical account is true, but only that it may have some basis in reality. As indicated, it also has weaknesses: The ecological chain is broken after the sixth plague, there being no causality between the plague of boils (the sixth plague) and the hail. The chain is again broken between the ninth and tenth plagues.

In addition, there is no real link between the plagues in the seventh-eighth-ninth sequence (hail-locusts-darkness). Nevertheless, this explanation does firmly anchor the first six plagues in the Egyptian ecosystem, just as the curse-lists in the Torah reflect real conditions in the Land of Israel. Death incarnate. A huge, hideous, scaly messenger of destruction stalks his Egyptian prey in a watercolor, entitled “Pestilence,” by the English artist, Poet and mystic William Blake (1757–1827). With victims lying prostrate or clutched in their mothers arms, the scene easily illustrates the tenth and final plague, the death of first-born males. Photo: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Moreover, two ancient Egyptian texts provide additional support. One is relevant to the first plague, blood. In “The Admonitions of Ipu-Wer,” dated at the latest to 2050 B.C.E., the author describes a chaotic period in Egypt: “Why really, the River [Nile] is blood.

If one drinks of it, one rejects (it) as human and thirsts for water.” 8 The second text, known as “The Prophecy of Nefer-Rohu” dates towards the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, about 2040–1650 B.C.E.; it relates to the ninth plague, darkness: “The sun disc is covered over. It will not shine (so that) people may see … No one knows when midday falls, for his shadow cannot be distinguished.” 9 The ten plagues may also be interpreted as a series of attacks against the Egyptian pantheon. This suggestion finds support in Numbers 33:4 where we are told that the Egyptians buried those who had died by the tenth plague, by which plague “the Lord executed judgments against their gods.” Watch full-length lectures from the Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination conference, which addressed some of the most challenging issues in Exodus scholarship. The international conference was hosted by Calit2’s Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego in San Diego, CA. According to this suggestion, the plague of blood (No.

1) was directed against the god Khnum, creator of water and life; or against Hapi, the Nile god; or against Osiris, whose bloodstream was the Nile. Frogs (No.2) was directed against Heket, a goddess of childbirth who was represented as a frog. The pestilence against cattle (No. 5) might have been directed against Hathor, the mother and sky goddess, represented in the form of a cow; or against Apis, symbol of fertility represented as a bull. Hail (No. 7) and locusts (No. 8 ) were, according to this explanation, directed against Seth, who manifests himself in wind and storms; and/or against Isis, goddess of life, who grinds, spins flax and weaves cloth; or against Min, who was worshiped as a god of fertility and vegetation and as a protector of crops. Min is an especially likely candidate for these two plagues because the notations in Exodus 9:31 indicate that the first plague came as the flax and barley were about to be harvested, but before the wheat and spelt had matured.

A widely celebrated “Coming out of Min” was celebrated in Egypt at the beginning of the harvest. 10 These plagues, in effect, devastated Min’s coming-out party. Darkness (No. 9), pursuing this line of interpretation, could have been directed against various deities associated with the sun—Amon-Re, Aten, Atum or Horus. Finally, the death of the firstborn (No. 10) was directed against the patron deity of Pharaoh, and the judge of the dead, Osiris. Additional data from Egyptian religious texts clarifies the terrifying tenth plague. The famous “Cannibal Hymn,” carved in the Old Kingdom pyramid of Unas at Saqqara, about 2300 B.C.E., states: “It is the king who will be judged with Him-whose-name-is-hidden on that day of slaying the first born.” Variations of this verse appear in a few Coffin Texts, magic texts derived from royal pyramid inscriptions of the Old Kingdom and written on the coffins of nobility of the Middle Kingdom, about 2000 B.C.E.

For example, “I am he who will be judged with Him-whose-name-is-hidden on that night of slaying the first born.” 11 Although the first-born referred to in the Coffin Text and probably also in the “Cannibal Hymn” are the first-born of gods, these texts indicate that an ancient tradition in Egypt recalled the slaying of all or some of the first-born of gods on a particular night. 12 Assuming that some form of this pre-Israelite Egyptian tradition was known during the period of the enslavement, it may have motivated the story of the final plague. However, in the biblical story, he who revealed his hidden name to Moses at the burning bramble bush revealed himself as the Him-whose-name-is-hidden of the Egyptian myth, and alone slew the first-born males of Egypt. In this final plague, then, there was no conflict between the Lord and an Egyptian deity; rather through this plague the triumphant god of Israel fulfilled the role of an anonymous destroyer in a nightmarish prophecy from the Egyptian past.

One weakness in interpreting the plagues solely as a religious polemic against Egyptian gods, however, is that some of the plagues are unaccounted for; and not all of the plagues can be conveniently matched up with Egyptian gods or texts. Specifically, divine candidates are lacking for the third, fourth and sixth plagues—lice, flies and boils. Even if scratching through Egyptian sources might produce some minor candidates that could fill these lacunae, there is another difficulty with the religious polemic interpretation. The Egyptian material on which this interpretation rests comes from different times and different places. The extant data do not enable us to claim that the perception of the pantheon presented above was historically probable in the Western Delta during the 14th–12th centuries B.C.E. when and where Israelites became familiar with it. Nevertheless, despite these difficulties, the Egyptian material describing links between Egyptian deities and natural phenomena does provide us with some insights into the way the plagues were intended to be understood. Another line of interpretation, however, results from Posing the questions: Why ten plagues? Why these ten plagues?

According to Exodus 7:4–5, the function of the plagues is didactic: “I will lay my hands upon Egypt and deliver hosts, my people, the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment. And the Egyptians shall know that I am God when I stretch out my hand against Egypt.” Despite the reference to the Egyptians learning a lesson—namely, the Lord’s power—it seems clear that the real beneficiaries of the plagues were not intended to be Egyptians. If the education of the Egyptians was the reason for the plagues, the lesson was certainly lost on the intended beneficiaries. The true beneficiaries of the lesson that God said he would teach were the Israelites. As we read in Exodus 14:31: “When Israel saw the mighty act [literally ‘hand/arm’] which the Lord had done in Egypt, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.” What ignited the faith of the Israelites was not their physical redemption from Egypt, but rather “the mighty act which the Lord had done in Egypt”—that is, the plagues. What was there about the plagues that triggered Israel’s response in faith?

Through the plagues the Lord demonstrated that he was the God of creation. As we examine the narrative closely, we will see how this notion is conveyed. The first plague, blood, is described in Exodus 7:19. There we are told that Aaron is to take his staff and hold it over all of Egypt’s bodies (or gatherings) of water and they will become blood. The Hebrew word for “bodies” or “gatherings” of water is mikveh. This is the same word that appears in the opening chapters of Genesis when God creates the seas: “God called the dry land Earth, and the gatherings (mikveh) of waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:10). The use of the word mikveh in Exodus 7:19 in connection with the plague of blood cannot fail to evoke an association with the creation of the seas in Genesis 1:10 and indicates the cosmic import of the plague. Similarly, the expression in Exodus 7:19 “Let them become blood” echoes the use of “Let there be(come)” in the creation story in Genesis.

However, in contrast to the creation, where the primeval waters are not altered by a creative act, the first plague demonstrates that God is able to change the very nature of things. Plagues two, three and four—frogs, lice and flies—form an interesting triad. The frogs are associated with water, the lice with earth, and the flies with air. Frogs, we are told, came out of the “rivers, the canals, and the ponds of Egypt” (Exodus 8:1). In Exodus, the Nile swarmed with frogs which then covered all the land (Exodus 7:28–29), while in Genesis God says, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures” (Genesis 1:20). Understood against the background of Genesis, the frog plague in Egypt was a new creation of life, although not a beneficent one. Similarly, with lice (the third plague) that came forth from the dust of the earth (Exodus 8:12–13). The lice correspond to the crawling creatures (remes) that come forth from the earth in Genesis 1:24.

Flies (the fourth plague) correspond to the flying creatures; in Genesis God orders that “flying creatures multiply in the land” (Genesis 1:22). In Egypt, the flies not only multiplied in the land, they filled the land. After the fly plague the situation in Egypt was a complete reversal of the one anticipated by the divine blessing to mankind in Genesis 1:28, where God tells man to “Rule the fish of the sea, the winged creatures of the heavens, and all living creatures which creep on the earth.” In Egypt, these creatures were totally out of control. Was Moses more than an Exodus hero? Discover the Biblical Moses in “The Man Moses” by Peter Machinist, originally published in Bible Review and now available for free in Bible History Daily. The fifth plague (pestilence) affected only animals, not men; and only the field animals of the Egyptians, not those of the Israelites (Exodus 9:3–7). In Genesis 2:18–20 the animals are created specifically for man. In the plague of pestilence, the domestic animals that were under man’s dominion were taken away from the Egyptians.

That which was first created for man was first removed from the Egyptians by the first plague directed specifically against created things. The sixth plague, boils, is the only one that does not fit easily into the pattern I have been describing. Perhaps it should be understood against the background of the Torah’s laws of purity: A person afflicted with boils is ritually unclean (Leviticus 13:18–23). This is complemented by the stringent demands of Egyptian religion during the New Kingdom, about 1550–1080 B.C.E., concerning the ritual and physical purity requited of priests before entering a sanctuary. 13 Egyptians considered themselves superior to other peoples. Pharaoh himself was a god and his officers were priests. Perhaps the image of these superior, “holier than thou” individuals suffering from boils, a painful and unaesthetic affliction, was humorous to the Israelites and was considered a barb against Egyptian religion. The next two plagues, hail and locusts involve the destruction of another part of creation, primarily vegetation. What was not destroyed by the hail was consumed by the locusts.

When these two plagues had run their course, Egypt could be contrasted to the way the world appeared after the third day of creation: “The land brought forth vegetation: seed bearing fruit with seed in it” (Genesis 1:12). By contrast, in Exodus 10:15 we are told that “nothing green was left of tree or grass of the field in all the land of Egypt.” Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the plagues is darkness, the ninth plague. In Exodus 10:21–23 we read that a thick darkness descended upon all the land of Egypt for three days. “People could not see one another, and for three days no one could get up from where he was; but all the Israelites enjoyed light in their dwellings” (Exodus 10:23). What is described here is not simply the absence of light. The darkness is something physical, “a darkness that can be touched” (Exodus 10:21b). The alternation of light and darkness, of day and night, has ceased. Yet darkness and light exist side by side in geographically distinct places. The Israelites did have light.

In short, in Egypt, God had reverted the relationship between darkness and light to what had been prior to the end of the first day of creation—that is, to the state that existed briefly between Genesis 1:4 and Genesis 1:5. The final plague, the death of the first-born, is only a forerunner to the complete destruction of all the Egyptians at the Red Sea, or Reed Sea. b Here we hear a twisted, obverse echo of the optimism expressed in Genesis 1:26, where God said, “I will make man in my image and after my likeness.” Instead of creating, he is destroying—first, the first-born, and then, at the sea, all of Egypt. The firstborn slain, by Gustave Doré (1832?–1883). Photo: The Doré Bible Illustrations, Dover Publications At the end of the narrative in Exodus, Israel looks back over the stilled water of the sea at a land with no people, no animals and no vegetation, a land in which creation had been undone. Israel is convinced that her redeemer is the Lord of all creation. It is this implicit theological principle that motivated the explicit creation of the literary pattern.

He who had just reduced order to chaos was the same as he who had previously ordered the chaos. One question still remains. What is the significance of the number ten in the Exodus tradition? Why ten plagues? The answer, I believe, is clear. The number of plagues in Exodus was meant to correspond to the ten divine utterances by which the world was created and ordered (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29). 14 The destruction of Egypt was part of the redemption of Israel, so the Exodus narrator tied his story of redemption to the story of creation through subtle echoes and word plays. 15 Interestingly enough, there are two other accounts of the plagues in the Bible, one in Psalm 78:44–51 and the other in Psalm 105:28–36. These psalms differ somewhat between themselves; they also differ with the narrative in Exodus—regarding what constitutes a plague and the order in which they occurred.

16 These differences can be taken to indicate that the specific number and order of the plagues was less important to Israel than the fact of the plagues and what was revealed to Israel through them. For the psalmists, authors of liturgical texts, there were only seven plagues, a number clearly evoking the seven days of creation. In Egypt, however, the cycle did not end in a Sabbath; it culminated in a silent devastation. At the end of the seventh day (plague), creation in Egypt had been undone. This tangle of threads—creation, on the one hand, and deliverance from slavery, on the other—is gathered together and neatly knotted in the Sabbath commandment of the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments as set forth in Exodus, the motivation for observing the sabbath (the fifth commandment) is to commemorate creation: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God: You shall not do any work … for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day” (Exodus 20:9–11).

In the Ten Commandments as set forth in Deuteronomy, however, the reason Israel is commanded to observe the sabbath is different—not creation, but the delivery from Egyptian slavery. After being told to refrain from work on the sabbath—in the same language as in Exodus—the reason is given: “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm [a reference to the plagues]; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:15). As we have already noted, Psalms 78 and 105 preserve a tradition of seven plagues. In the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, Israel is told to remember the seventh-day sabbath to commemorate the six-day creation; in Deuteronomy 5, Israel is to observe the seventh-day sabbath to commemorate the deliverance from Egyptian slavery by God’s outstretched arm involving, according to the tradition in the Psalms, seven plagues. This explanation of the plagues and their number also answers some historical questions concerning the biblical tradition of the ten plagues: 1.

The plague tradition includes calamitous events that do not derive from experiences in the Land of Israel; this establishes a prima facie case that the tradition has roots in an ecological system unknown to the Israelites living in their own land. 2. An Egyptian milieu not only provides a basis for explaining the plagues in terms of natural phenomena, it also allows us plausibly to link at least some of the sequences of plagues. These two points lead me to conclude that a historical kernel must underlie the Egyptian plague traditions preserved in the Bible. 3. We can speculate a bit further: perhaps a series of natural disasters occurred in Egypt in a relatively short period of time. Egyptian religion would have had to explain it. A link between these disasters and various Egyptian deities (expressing their displeasure) formed. 17 No matter how Egyptians interpreted these disasters, Israelites could have accepted the notion that they were divinely caused but would have viewed them as contests between their patron and the gods of Egypt, the result of which were judgments against the gods of Egypt and their earthly representatives. 18 Trace of this stage in the development of the tradition can be found in the Biblical narrative.

During this, the interpretative stage, the plagues were theologized, providing cosmic meaning to the natural phenomena even as they were removed from the realm of what we would call “nature.” 4. The Plague traditions, which were maintained orally by the Israelites until some time after the establishment of the monarchy, continued to be reworked in the land of Israel. There, far from the ecological context of Egypt, some phenomena natural in Egypt would have appeared incomprehensible to them and even fantastic, inviting imaginative embellishment. The Israelite traditors, those who passed on the tradition, were no longer familiar with the Egyptian cultural milieu in which the disasters had been theoligized and made meaningful by their ancestors. These traditors, therefore, made them meaningful within their own world view by connection the plagues, which initiated the emergence of Israel as a covenant community, with the creation of the world. For further details, see “The Priestly Redaction and Interpretation of the Plague Narrative in Exodus,” Jewish Quarterly Review 66 (1976) 193–211.

The present article contains new material, however, some of which was not available when the aforementioned study was written, as well as a reevaluation of the significance of the data discussed there. Readers interested in a more technical discussion or in the literary history of the plague narratives or in more bibliographical information that is presented here may consult my earlier study and the remarks of N. M. Sarna, Exploring Exodus (New York: Schocken Books, 1986) 68–80. “Three Ways to Look at the Ten Plagues” by Ziony Zevit originally appeared in Bible Review, June 1990. Ziony Zevit is professor of Biblical literature and Northwest Semitic languages at the University of Judaism, the Los Angeles affiliate of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Notes: a. The verse citations follow the traditional Hebrew enumeration. See, for example, the New Jewish Publication Society translation (Philadelphia: 1985). Messed-Up Bible Stories 13: The Plagues of Egypt - YouTube Messed-Up Bible Stories 13: The Plagues of Egypt Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video?

Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jun 29, 2014 God punishes Egypt with 10 wacky plagues! Watch more Bible Stories: Moses Voiced By Mike Peterson INSTAGRAM This is an animated, cartoon, comedy, parody of the bible story The Plagues of Egypt, also called the ten biblical plagues, which were ten calamities that, according to the biblical Book of Exodus, Yahweh (God) inflicted upon Egypt to persuade the Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery. Pharaoh capitulated after the tenth plague, triggering the Exodus of the Hebrew people. -~-~~-~~~-~~-~- The Story Behind the Ten Plagues | Bible Gateway Blog The Story Behind the Ten Plagues Senior manager of content for Bible Gateway. The Angel of Death passes by a household in this painting by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872.

Few stories in the Old Testament are as familiar as that of the Ten Plagues that God inflicted on Egypt to convince its hard-hearted Pharaoh to release the captive Israelites. It’s the foundational story of the Old Testament nation of Israel, and is thus filled with historical and theological significance. And it also contains all the ingredients of a powerful Bible story: it features suffering captives, a malicious villain, a rescuing God, and a whole series of terrifying and awe-inspiring miracles. If you haven’t read the story of the Ten Plagues and the Exodus in a while (or ever), take a few minutes to do so now—you can find it in Exodus 8-13 . I’ll bet it’s the rare person who reads the story of the Ten Plagues and doesn’t find him- or herself brimming with questions: did the Ten Plagues occur exactly as described in the text? Are they metaphorical descriptions of natural disasters or other crises that befell Egypt? Were they natural phenomena that God triggered for his purposes, or were they overtly supernatural in nature? Is this “just” a historical account, or is there theological significance in the different plagues? Christians have answered these questions in varying ways.

Growing up, I read a lot of efforts to explain the ten plagues scientifically: maybe the first plague (water turned to blood) was caused by red-colored aquatic algae, or perhaps the plague of darkness was a massive sandstorm or other natural disaster. Other Christians have offered other explanations over the years. If you’ve ever been intrigued by the story of the Ten Plagues, I recommend reading a recent article by Ziony Zevit describing three ways to look at the Ten Plagues . Zevit lists some of the questions that have challenged scholars and believers for centuries: Many questions have been raised about the plagues on different levels. Some questions are naturalistic and historical: Did the plagues actually occur in the order and manner described in Exodus? Are there any ancient documents or other types of evidence corroborating that they took place or that something like them took place? Can the less realistic and surrealistic plagues be explained as natural phenomena? Other questions are literary and theological: Is the plague narrative a hodgepodge of sources pasted together by ancient editors (redactors)? What is the origin of the traditions in the extant plague narrative? What is the meaning of the narrative in its biblical context?

Beyond the obvious story, did the plague narrative have any theological implications for ancient Israel? The article lays out some of the traditional Jewish and Christian understandings of the Ten Plagues. Beyond the historical and ecological explanations, some people interpret them as specific polemic attacks on Egyptian religion or as an illustration of God’s mastery over chaos. The article summarizes the most compelling explanations, noting the strengths and weaknesses of the different theories. Among other things, it quickly becomes clear that when reading a complex Biblical story like this one, we shouldn’t stop with the question “How and when did this happen?”—we should also ask “What significance did this story hold for its original audience?” and “What does this story tell us about God?” Related posts: Exodus: God saves His people from Egypt | Overview Bible Exodus: God saves His people from Egypt by Jeffrey Kranz | Jun 16, 2016 | Books of the Bible | 0 comments Overview of Exodus The book of Exodus is the story of God rescuing the children of Israel from Egypt and making them His people.

Exodus is the second book of the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses), and it’s where we find the stories of the Ten Plagues, the first Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, and the Ten Commandments. This Bible icon represents the theme and story of Exodus. See icons for the other 66 books of the Bible . Exodus picks up where Genesis leaves off: the young nation of Israel is in Egypt (they were invited by Joseph, the one with the famous coat). A new Pharaoh notices the Israelites multiplying, and enslaves them. Afraid of an uprising, he orders that all Hebrew sons should be cast into the Nile at birth. But one son escapes this decree. Moses is hidden in a basket and set afloat in the Nile—where Pharaoh’s daughter discovers him. Moses is grows up as her son. When an adult Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he kills the Egyptian and leaves the country to escape capital punishment. Forty years later, God appears to Moses as a burning bush and sends him to deliver Israel from the hand of Pharaoh.

Moses, with the help of his brother Aaron, confronts Pharaoh on God’s behalf: “Let My people go” (Ex 5:1). Pharaoh refuses, and so God sends 10 plagues upon the Egyptians: Water turns to blood. Every firstborn dies. When the last plague kills Pharaoh’s son, he finally allows Israel to leave. The sons of Israel leave Egypt and make their way to Mount Sinai, where God gives His laws to Moses. God makes a covenant with the nation of Israel and the generations to come: because He rescued them from Egypt, Israel is to observe His rules. God speaks the Ten Commandments directly to the whole nation of Israel, and He relays specific ordinances to Moses on the mountain. God does not stop with a list of rules, however. He gives Moses instructions for a tabernacle, a special tent of worship. The book of Exodus ends with the glory of the LORD filling the tabernacle: God is now dwelling among His chosen people, Israel. The book of Leviticus goes on to document the laws God gives His people at Mount Sinai.

Theme verse of Exodus “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Ex 20:2) See all the Bible verse illustrations for other books of the Bible. Exodus’s role in the Bible Exodus is a starburst of Old and New Testament theology. God is faithful, and keeps His promise to Abraham (Gn 15:13–21) by judging the Egyptians and liberating Israel. The Lord also gives Israel the first iteration of the Law, and begins to dwell among His people in the tabernacle. God’s liberation of Israel from slavery foreshadows His work to redeem the nations (Ro 6:17–18), just as His judgment on His people serves as an example for Christians now (1 Co 10:6–13). Exodus is also where God reveals His memorial name: YHWH, or LORD (Ex 3:14; 6:3). The book of Exodus was written by Moses. Learn more about the authors who wrote the Bible .

Quick outline of Exodus God hears His people (Exodus 1–6) God saves His people from Egypt (Exodus 7–18) God gives His law to Israel (Exodus 19–34) Israel builds a tabernacle, and God dwells among His people (Exodus 35–40) More pages related to Exodus Leviticus (next book of the Bible) Exodus 10 NIV - The Plague of Locusts - Then the LORD - Bible Gateway Exodus 10New International Version (NIV) The Plague of Locusts 10 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them 2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.” 3 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

Let my people go, so that they may worship me. 4 If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. 5 They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. 6 They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your parents nor your ancestors have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.’” Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh. 7 Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?” 8 Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship the Lord your God,” he said.

“But tell me who will be going.” 9 Moses answered, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a festival to the Lord.” 10 Pharaoh said, “The Lord be with you—if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil.[ a ] 11 No! Have only the men go and worship the Lord, since that’s what you have been asking for.” Then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh’s presence. 12 And the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.” 13 So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; 14 they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again.

15 They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt. 16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. 17 Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the Lord your God to take this deadly plague away from me.” 18 Moses then left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. 19 And the Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea.[ b ] Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt. 20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go. The Plague of Darkness 21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.” 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. 23 No one could see anyone else or move about for three days.

Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived. 24 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship the Lord. Even your women and children may go with you; only leave your flocks and herds behind.” 25 But Moses said, “You must allow us to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to the Lord our God. 26 Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind. We have to use some of them in worshiping the Lord our God, and until we get there we will not know what we are to use to worship the Lord.” 27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go. 28 Pharaoh said to Moses, “Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die.” 29 “Just as you say,” Moses replied. “I will never appear before you again.” Footnotes:

Question: In which book of the bible is the story of the ten plagues of Egypt?
Answer: Exodus