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The Ten Plagues as a Religious Polemic

There has been considerable scholarly debate as to the nature and purpose of the ten plagues in the book of Exodus.[1] On the one hand, scholars have argued that the plagues should be understood in purely naturalistic terms. In his book Archaeology and Bible History, Joseph P. Free lists five unique aspects of the plagues, which set them out as miraculous, as opposed to merely naturalistic, events.

1. Intensification — frogs, insects, murrain, hail, darkness, were all known in Egypt, but now they are intensified here far beyond the ordinary occurrence.

2.  Prediction — the time was set for the coming of the flies (“tomorrow,” 8:23); the murrain (9:5); the hail (9:18); the locusts (10:4). The removal time was also set: frogs (8:10); thunder (9:29). Modern science cannot accurately predict the cessation of natural phenomena, such as hail.

3. Discrimination — in Goshen there were no flies (8:22); no loss of livestock (9:4); no hail (9:26), and so forth.

4. Orderliness — the severity of the plagues increased, until they ended with the death of Pharaoh’s firstborn.

5. Moral Purpose — the plagues were not just freaks of nature, but carried a moral purpose in these ways: (a) Discrediting of the gods of Egypt, a purpose indicated in Exodus 12:12; the Nile-god, frog-god, and sun-god were all shown to be powerless before God. (b) Pharaoh was made to know that Jehovah is God, and to acknowledge Him (9:27), 10:16). (c) Revelation of God as Saviour, in saving Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians (14:30).[2]

The Bible itself though argues that the plagues were a direct confrontation to the various gods of Egypt.[3]  Consider the following the following passages of Scripture:

“On that same night that I pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn – both men and animals – and I will bring judgement on all the gods of Egypt.  I am the Lord” (Exod. 12:12).

^‘Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. He said, “Praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians.Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.’ Exod. 18:9-11

“The Egyptians were burying all their first-born whom the LORD had struck down among them.  The LORD also executed judgments on their gods” (Num. 33:4).

‘…you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods?’ 2 Sam. 7:23

The Apocrypha is likewise just as clear in affirming the polemic nature of the Exodus plagues:

“For through those animal deities at whom they (the Egyptians) were indignant by reason of their own suffering, punished by means of those very creatures whom they deemed gods, they came to recognize the true God, perceiving him whom they had formerly denied knowing.  Thus did the utter limit of judgment descend upon them…” (Wisdom of Solomon).

“And the LORD executed a great vengeance on them for Israel’s sake, and smote them through (the plagues of) blood and frogs, lice and dog-flies, and malignant boils breaking forth in blains; and their cattle by death; and by hail-stones, thereby He destroyed everything that grew for them; and by locusts which devoured the residue which had been left by the hail; and by darkness; and by (the death of) the first-born of men and animals, and on all their idols the LORD took vengeance and burned them with fire”( Book of Jubilees 48:5).

Let us work through the plagues:

1. River turns to blood. This is a rebuke to the god Khnum who was thought to give life to everything, but more specifically the goddess Hapi who was seen as a deified personification of the Nile River itself.  She is pictured as a bearded man with female breasts and a hanging stomach, reflecting the concept of fertility.

Almost as an aside 7:18 says that “The fish in the Nile will die…” which would have been a rebuke to various minor “fish goddesses” such as Ha-mehit who was represented as a woman with a fish on her head. In Exodus 7:15 it seems that Pharoah might be going to make an offering to the Nile…and in 7:19 the Hebrew literally says “wooden things and stone things” that is, idols!

2.  Frogs. The goddess Heket was thought to be in charge of fertility and childbirth.  Exodus 1:15-22 asserts that God is in control.[4]  John Currid makes the following assessment:

“The Egyptians regarded the frog as a symbol of divine power and a representation of fertility.  One of the main goddesses of Egypt was Hekhet, who was depicted as a human female with a frog’s head.  She was the spouse of the creator god Khnum.  He fashioned human bodies on his potter’s wheel, and then Hekhet blew the breath of life into them and assisted as midwife at their births.  Hekhet also had the responsibility to control the multiplication of frogs in ancient Egypt by protecting the frog-eating crocodiles.  But Yahweh overwhelmed Hekhet and caused her to be impotent in her task.  She could not repel or resist Yahweh’s overpowering regeneration of frogs.  It was the Hebrew God who really bestowed fertility; he rapidly produced frogs so that they would be a curse upon Egypt.  The theme is the sovereignty of God over fertility, over Egypt, over her deities, and over all things.”[5]

3.  Gnats. The god Sakhmet was supposed to be in charge of plagues.  Significantly, this is the first plague that the Egyptian magicians can’t replicate!

4.  Flies. The goddess Nut was in charge of what happens in the sky.  Others think that there might be a reference here to the god Kheper who was symbolized as a flying beetle.[6] 

5.  Death of livestock. It is hard to say with certainty which particular Egyptian deity was being rebuked at this point since there were so many different variations.  As John Currid helpfully explains:

“Bull cults…are known to have flourished throughout the land of antiquity.  Ancient Egyptians viewed the bull as a fertility figure, the great inseminator imbued with the potency and vitality of life.  Apis was the most important of the Egyptian sacred bulls.  Other bull cults included Buchis (sacred bull of Hermonthis) and Mneuis (Heliopolis).  In addition, bulls were understood as embodiments of the great Egyptian gods Ptah and Re.  Numerous important female deities were pictured as livestock animals: Isis, queen of the gods, bore cow’s horns on her head; Hathor was given a bovine head for her task of protecting the king…The biblical author is again demonstrating that Yahweh was sovereign over and in control of all things.  The Egyptian gods were impostors.” [7]

6.  Boils. These are a rebuke to the god of healing / mummification Anubis as well as the lion-headed goddess Skhmet and also Amon-Re who was regarded as a divine physician and healer.  For example, John Currid refers to a text from Dynasty 19 regarding Amon-Re that says:

“…he who dissolves evils and dispels ailments; a physician who heals the eye without having remedies, opening the eyes and driving away the squint…Amon.  Rescuing whom he desires…he makes a lifetime long or short.”[8]

Significantly, not only can’t the Egyptian magicians duplicate this miracle but they are also incapacitated from appearing before Pharaoh (9:11).

7.  Hail. This rebukes the storm god Set.  Currid though thinks that various other gods are also implicated.  For example, Nut (the female representative of the sky and personification of the vault of heaven), Shu (the supporter of the heavens who holds up the sky), and Tefnut (the goddess of moisture).[9]

8.  Locusts. Once again there are probably numerous deities that could be implicated here.  For instance, the goddess Osiris as well as Senehem who although a relatively minor god in Egyptian theology, was viewed as being the divine protector against the ravages brought about by pests.[10]  Currid again makes a very helpful observation: “Perhaps protecting against grasshopper attack was a function not merely of one god, but of the gods in general.  A hint of that possibility appears in the Tanis Stele from the reign of Taharqa (Dynasty 25), which speaks of “a fine field which the gods protected against grasshoppers.”[11]

9.  Darkness. There is no doubt here that this particular plague was an attack upon one of the main Egyptian idols: the sun god Re.[12] Currid explains:

“The Ancient Egyptians regarded Amon-Re, the personification of the sun, as their chief deity.  They believed that amon-Re in his rising in the east symbolized new life and resurrection – in fact, they considered him to be the creator-god…But when Amon-Re sank in the west, he represented something different and antithetical; he symbolized death and the underworld.  When Yahweh so willed (Exod. 10:21-29), the sun was darkened, and Amon-Re was hidden and unable to shine upon his worshippers.  During the ninth plague Amon-Re did not rise again and did not give life; his realm was death, judgment, and hopelessness.”[13]

Obviously, this particular plague would have had a massive effect upon the Egyptians especially when one considers that during three days of darkness which covered the whole land of Egypt, there was light in the places where the Israelites lived (Ex. 10:23).  The LORD was clearly saying that He alone is the creator and redeemer.

10.  Death of the first born. Horus, the chief god’s son, is said to have been able to die and come back to life. This is the one to drive home for there are so many clear connections to the salvation that the Lord Jesus brings as the one who makes God’s judgment “Passover” us.

– Mark Powell

[1] John D. Currid, “An Exegetical and Historical Consideration of the Ten Plagues of Egypt,” in Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament.  (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 104-120.  See also, C. Aling, Egypt and Bible History (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), 103-110; J.J. Davis, Moses and the Gods of Egypt. 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986), 98-153; G.A.F. Knight, Theology as Narration (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 62-79; and N.M. Sarna, Exploring Exodus: The Heritage of Biblical Israel (New York: Schocken, 1986), 78-80.

[2] Quoted in Wm. J. McRae, “The Finger of God,” Emmaus Journal 4.2 (Winter, 1995): 156-157.

[3] The Egyptian pantheon—comprised of ten gods—is called The Ennead. 

[4] Against a naturalistic explanation of the event see Exodus 8:9.

[5] Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testamen,.110.  See also the incident in Exodus chapter 1 where the text says that “…the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.” 1:7  Even more to the point, when the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah refused to murder any new born baby boy verses 20 and 21 say, “So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.  And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own.”

[6] Also note how the LORD makes a distinction between His people and the Egyptians (8:22-23) and Pharoah tries to do a deal (8:25-28).

[7] Currid, 111.

[8] J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Tests relating to the Old Testament, 3d ed. (1969) 369. Quoted in Currid, 111.

[9] Currid, 112.

[10] Once again, Pharoah offers a compromise to only let the men go (Ex. 10:8-11).

[11] Currid, 112.

[12] Again, against a naturalistic explanation see 10:23.  There is also nice irony in Pharaoh’s words about not seeing my face again – 10:28 – since it was dark!

[13] Currid, 112.