EXODUS 7:14-12:30
- THE NILE TURNED TO BLOOD (7:14-25)
The Nile was the center of Egyptian religion, and the agricultural lifeblood for the nation. The gods Hapi and Osiris supposedly protected the river.
- SWARMS OF FROGS (8:1-15)
In Egypt, Heqt, the frog god, was a symbol of fertility and resurrection.
- DUST BECAME LICE (8:16-19)
The Hebrew word for lice, kinnim, refers to gnats.
- SWARMS (8:20-32)
The exact nature of this swarm is not certain, but some commentators believe it was the dog fly, a bloodsucking insect that laid eggs on other creatures and “swarmed with a voracious appetite, attacking every man, inflicting painful wounds.” Kheper, represented by the scarab beetle, was the insect god shown to be impotent by the third and fourth plagues.
- PESTILENCE (9:1-7)
This was a fatal disease for cattle, which were also considered sacred and supposedly protected by the bull-god Apis and the cow-goddess Hathor.
- BOILS (9:8-12)
These painful sores were seen as a failure of their personal god of healing, Thoth.
- STORM AND HAIL (9:13-35)
This plague destroyed the crops and food supply. Nut, the sky god, failed to stop this weather-borne disaster.
- LOCUSTS (10:10-20)
A locust can eat its own weight daily, and locust swarms of 400 square miles have bee recorded (a single square-mile swarm could contain 100 to 200 million locusts). Osiris, protector of agriculture, was seen as the ineffective god in this plague.
DARKNESS (10:21-29)
Ra, the sun god of Egypt, was the god mocked by this plague—a plague of darkness that was so thick it could be felt.
DEATH OF THE FIRSTBORN OF MAN AND ANIMAL
(11:4-5, 12:29-30)
This plague marked the failure of Pharaoh himself, who was considered a god. He was powerless to stop it—even losing is own firstborn.