God divided the ten punishments decreed for Egypt into four parts,
three of the plagues He committed to Aaron, three to Moses, one to the
two brothers together, and three He reserved for Himself. Aaron was
charged with those, that proceeded from the earth and the water, the
elements that are composed of more or less solid parts, from which are
fashioned all the corporeal, distinctive entities, while the three
entrusted to Moses were those that proceeded from the air and the fire,
the elements that are most prolific of life.[170]
The Lord is a man of war, and as a king of flesh and blood devises
various stratagems against his enemy, so God attacked the Egyptians in
various ways. He brought ten plagues down upon them. When a province
rises up in rebellion, its sovereign lord first sends his army against
it, to surround it and cut off the water supply. If the people are
contrite, well and good; if not, he brings noise makers into the field
against them. If the people are contrite, well and good; if not, he
orders darts to be discharged against them. If the people are contrite,
well and good; if not, he orders his legions to assault them. If the
people are contrite, well and good; if not, he causes bloodshed and
carnage among them. If the people are contrite, well and good; if not,
he directs a stream of hot naphtha upon them. If the people are
contrite, well and good; if not, he hurls projectiles at them from his
ballistae. If the people are contrite, well and good; if not, he has
scaling-ladders set up against their walls. If the people are contrite,
well and good; if not, he casts them into dungeons. If the people are
contrite, well and good; if not, he slays their magnates.
Thus did God proceed against the Egyptians. First He cut off their
water supply by turning their rivers into blood. They refused to let
the Israelites go, and He sent the noisy, croaking frogs into their
entrails. They refused to let the Israelites go, and He brought lice
against them, which pierced their flesh like darts. They refused to let
the Israelites go, and He sent barbarian legions against them, mixed
hordes of wild beasts. They refused to let the Israelites go, and He
brought slaughter upon them, a very grievous pestilence. They refused
to let the Israelites go, and He poured out naphtha over them, burning
blains. They refused to let the Israelites go, and He caused His
projectiles, the hail, to descend upon them. They refused to let the
Israelites go, and He placed scaling-ladders against the wall for the
locusts, which climbed them like men of war. They refused to let the
Israelites go, and He cast them into dungeon darkness. They refused to
let the Israelites go, and He slew their magnates, their first-born
sons.[171]
The plagues that God sent upon the Egyptians corresponded to the deeds
they bad perpetrated against the children of Israel. Because they
forced the Israelites to draw water for them, and also hindered them
from the use of the ritual baths, He changed their water into blood.
Because they had said to the Israelites, "Go and catch fish for us," He
brought frogs up against them, making them to swarm in their
kneading-troughs and their bed- chambers and hop around croaking in
their entrails. It was the severest of all the ten plagues.
Because they had said to the Israelites, "Go and sweep and clean our
houses, our courtyards, and our streets," He changed the dust of the
air into lice, so that the vermin lay piled up in heaps an ell high,
and when the Egyptians put on fresh garments, they were at once
infested with the insects.
The fourth plague was an invasion of the land by hordes of all sorts of
wild animals, lions, wolves, panthers, bears, and others. They overran
the houses of the Egyptians, and when they closed their doors to keep
them out, God caused a little animal to come forth from the ground, and
it got in through the windows, and split open the doors, and made a way
for the bears, panthers, lions, and wolves, which swarmed in and
devoured the people down to the infants in their cradles. If an
Egyptian entrusted his ten children to an Israelite, to take a walk
with them, a lion would come and snatch away one of the children, a
bear would carry off the second, a serpent the third, and so on, and in
the end the Israelite returned home alone. This plague was brought upon
them because they were in the habit of bidding the Israelites go and
catch wolves and lions for their circuses, and they sent them on such
errands, to make them take up their abode in distant deserts, where
they would be separated from their wives, and could not propagate their
race.
Then God brought a grievous murrain upon their cattle, because they had
pressed the Israelites into their service as shepherds, and assigned
remote pasturing places to them, to keep them away from their wives.
Therefore the murrain came and carried off all the cattle in the flocks
the Israelites were tending.
The sixth plague was a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and
upon beast. This was the punishment of the Egyptians, because they
would say to the children of Israel, "Go and prepare a bath for us unto
the delight of our flesh and our bones." Therefore they were doomed to
suffer with boils that inflamed their flesh, and on account of the itch
they could not leave off scratching. While the Egyptians suffered thus,
the children of Israel used their baths.
Because they had sent the Israelites forth into the fields, to plough
and sow, hail was sent down upon them, and their trees and crops were
destroyed.
They had been in the habit of saying to the Israelites, "Go forth,
plant ye trees for us, and guard the fruit thereon." Therefore God
brought the locusts into the Egyptian border, to eat the residue of
that which was escaped, which remained unto them from the hail, for the
teeth of the locust are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw teeth
of a great lion.
Because they would throw the Israelites into dungeons, God brought
darkness upon them, the darkness of hell, so that they had to grope
their way. He that sat could not rise up on his feet, and he that stood
could not sit down. The infliction of darkness served another purpose.
Among the Israelites there were many wicked men, who refused to leave
Egypt, and God determined to put them out of the way. But that the
Egyptians might not say they had succumbed to the plague like
themselves, God slew them under cover of the darkness, and in the
darkness they were buried by their fellow-Israelites, and the Egyptians
knew nothing of what had happened. But the number of these wicked men
had been very great, and the children of Israel spared to leave Egypt
were but a small fraction of the original Israelitish population.
The tenth plague was the slaying of the first-born, and it came upon
the Egyptians because of their intention to murder the men children of
the Israelites at their birth, and, finally, Pharaoh and his host were
drowned in the Red Sea, because the Egyptians had caused the men
children of the Israelites to be exposed in the water.[172]
Each, of the plagues inflicted upon Egypt had another parallel in the
cruel treatment accorded to the Israelites. The first was a punishment
for the arrogant words spoken by Pharaoh, "My Nile river is mine own,
and I have made it for myself."
The plague of the frogs God brought down upon the Egyptians, "because,"
He said, "the frogs, which sometimes inhabit the water, shall take
vengeance upon the Egyptians for having desired to destroy the nation
destined to be the bearers of the Torah, and the Torah is likened unto
water."
God sent vermin upon them, saying, "Let the lice made of the dust of
the earth take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having desired to
destroy the nation whose seed is like unto the dust of the earth."
Hordes of beasts, lions and wolves and swarms of serpents, came down
upon them, "because," God said, "these animals shall take vengeance
upon the Egyptians for having desired to destroy the nation that is
likened unto lions, wolves, and serpents."
A fatal pestilence was brought upon them, "because," God said, "death
shall take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having desired to destroy
the nation that faces death for the glorification of the Name of God."
They were made to suffer with burning blains, "because," God said, "the
boils coming from the ashes of the furnace shall take vengeance upon
the Egyptians for having desired to destroy the nation whose ancestor
Abraham walked into the fiery furnace for the glorification of the Name
of God."
He made hail to descend upon them, "because," He said, "the white hail
shall take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having desired to destroy a
nation whose sins shall be white."
The locusts came upon them, "because," God said, "the locusts, which
are My great army, shall take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having
desired to destroy the nation that is called My hosts."
"Darkness," said God, "which is divided from the light, shall come and
take vengeance upon the Egyptians for desiring to destroy the nation
upon which shineth the light of the Lord, while gross darkness covers
the other peoples."
The tenth plague, the slaying of the first-born, God inflicted, saying,
"I will take vengeance upon the Egyptians for having desired to destroy
the nation that is My first- born. As the night divided itself for
Abraham, that his enemies might be vanquished, so I will pass through
Egypt in the middle of the night, and as Abraham was proved by ten
temptations, so I will send ten plagues upon Egypt, the enemy of his
children."[173]