When Moses announced the slaying of the first-born, the designated
victims all repaired to their fathers, and said: "Whatever Moses hath
foretold has been fulfilled. Let the Hebrews go, else we shall all
die." But the fathers replied, "It is better for one of every ten of us
to die, than the Hebrews should execute their purpose." Then the
first-born repaired to Pharaoh, to induce him to dismiss the children
of Israel. So far from granting their wish, he ordered his servants to
fall upon the first-born and beat them, to punish them for their
presumptuous demand. Seeing that they could not accomplish their end by
gentle means, they attempted to bring it about by force.[211]
Pharaoh and all that opposed the wishes of the first-born were of the
opinion that the loss of so inconsiderable a percentage of the
population was a matter of small moment. They were mistaken in their
calculation, for the Divine decree included not only the first-born
sons, but also the first-born daughters, and not only the first-born of
the marriages then existing, but also the first-born issuing from
previous alliances of the fathers and the mothers, and as the Egyptians
led dissolute lives, it happened not rarely that each of the ten
children of one woman was the first-born of its father. Finally, God
decreed that death should smite the oldest member of every household,
whether or not he was the first-born of his parents.[212] What God
resolves is executed. At the exact instant marking the middle of the
night, so precise that only God Himself could determine and discern it,
He appeared in Egypt, attended by nine thousand myriads of the Angels
of Destruction who are fashioned some of hail and some of flames, and
whose glances drive terror and trembling to the heart of the beholder.
These angels were about to precipitate themselves into the work of
annihilation, but God restrained them, saying, "My wrath will not be
appeased until I Myself execute vengeance upon the enemies of
Israel."[213]
Those among the Egyptians who gave credence to Moses' words, and tried
to shield their first-born children from death, sent them to their
Hebrew neighbors, to spend the fateful night with them, in the hope
that God would exempt the houses of the children of Israel from the
plague. But in the morning, when the Israelites arose from their sleep,
they found the corpses of the Egyptian fugitives next to them.[214]
That was the night in which the Israelites prayed before lying down to
sleep: "Cause us, O Lord our God, to lie down in peace, remove Satan
from before us and from behind us, and guard our going out and our
coming in unto life and unto peace,"[215] for it was Satan that had
caused frightful bloodshed among the Egyptians.[216]
Among the slain there were, beside the Egyptian first- born, also the
first-born of other nationalities residing in Egypt, as well as the
Egyptian first-born dwelling outside of their own land.[217] Even the
long dead of the first-born were not spared. The dogs dragged their
corpses out of their graves in the houses, for it was the Egyptian
custom to inter the dead at home. At the appalling sight the Egyptians
mourned as though the bereavement had befallen them but recently. The
very monuments and statues erected to the memory of the first-born dead
were changed into dust, which was scattered and flew out of sight.
Moreover, their slaves had to share the fate of the Egyptians, and no
less the first- born of the captive that was in the dungeon, for none
was so low but he hated the Hebrews, and rejoiced when the Egyptians
decreed their persecution.[218] The female slaves that ground corn
between mill-stones were in the habit of saying, "We do not regret our
servitude, if only the Israelites are gagged, too.[219]
In dealing out punishment to these aliens in the land of Egypt, God
showed that He was at once the Master of the land and the Lord over all
the gods of the nations, for if the slaves and the captives of war had
not been smitten, they would have said, "Mighty is our god, who helped
us in this plague."[220] For the same reason all the idols of the
Egyptians were swept out of existence in that night. The stone idols
were ground into dust, the wooden idols rotted, and those made of metal
melted away,[221] and so the Egyptians were kept from ascribing their
chastisement to the wrath of their own gods. Likewise the Lord God slew
the first-born of the cattle, for the Egyptians paid worship to
animals, and they would have attributed their misfortunes to them. In
all these ways the Lord showed them that their gods were but vanity.