The most significant of the ten plagues is undoubtedly the tenth and final one, in which the first-born son of every house in Egypt is killed by God.
Just as there weren’t originally Ten Commandments, so there (probably) weren’t ten plagues, because the third and fourth plagues are both insect-related, and the fifth and sixth (plague and boils) are both illness-related, and so were probably regarded as part of the same package of persecution, if you will. It’s thought that the original sources for the Book of Exodus mentioned eight plagues, rather than the ‘ten plagues of Egypt’ now commonly talked about. Again, if we wished to seek out a more humdrum origin for this plague, we need simply recall that child mortality is naturally worse during the time of epidemics, and pestilence was often worse during the time of the Khamsin wind, as the Dictionary of the Bible reminds us. Since Pharaoh had sought to destroy the firstborn of the Israelites, there’s a certain poetic justice to this punishment. The tenth and final plague of Egypt is the killing of the firstborn children of the Egyptians, but with the Israelites being spared. And believe it or not, the strong electrical wind known as the Khamsin can throw out so much dust and sand as to produce a blackness not dissimilar to modern-day pollution in major cities.ġ1:4 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: 11:5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill and all the firstborn of beasts.ġ1:6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.ġ1:7 But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. The ninth plague is darkness for three days. A strong east wind (i.e., the sirocco) could well have brought a mass of locusts in the wake of the thunder and hail described above.ġ0:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.ġ0:22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: 10:23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. The eighth plague is perhaps the most famous in the popular consciousness: the plague of locusts.
The seventh plague is meteorological: thunder and hail upon the land of Egypt.ġ0:4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast: 10:5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field: 10:6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians The illness will not just affect the animals, but, in the sixth plague, the people too (‘blains upon man’).ĩ:22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.ĩ:23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. The fifth plague is the plague of cattle (and other livestock).ĩ:8 And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.ĩ:9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
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