Plagues of Egypt

thumb|Scenes from the [[Book of Exodus: The death of the firstborns (including the Pharaoh's son), and the Israelites leaving Egypt (, 1325–1374 CE, Barcelona via British Library)]]

In the Book of Exodus, the Plagues of Egypt () were ten disasters that Yahweh inflicted on the Egyptians to convince the Pharaoh to emancipate the enslaved Israelites, each of them confronting the Pharaoh and one of his Egyptian gods; These Plagues are recited by Jews during the Passover Seder.

The consensus of modern scholars is that the Pentateuch does not give an accurate account of the origins of the Israelites.

The Hebrew Bible's Book of Exodus says that Moses turned the Nile to blood by striking it with his staff. Pharaoh's magicians used their secret arts to also strike the Nile, creating a second layer of blood. In addition to the Nile, all water that was held in reserve, such as jars, was also transformed into blood. The Egyptians were forced to dig alongside the bank of the Nile, which still had pure water. One week passed before the plague dissipated.

Exodus states that God ordered frogs to emerge from the Nile, which then jumped around virtually everywhere in Egypt. The magicians attempted to produce frogs from their secret arts, conjuring up a second wave of frogs. Even the private quarters of Pharaoh was infested with frogs. Three days passed before all the frogs died. The Egyptians had to do much work to rid themselves of the corpses, and the land stank of frog for long afterwards. When the decision came for Pharaoh about the slaves, the Pharaoh hardened his heart and decided that the slaves would not be freed.

Plague Three: Gnats From the Dust

Plague Four: Teems of Flies or Wild Animals

The fourth plague of Egypt was of creatures capable of harming people and livestock. Exodus states that the plagues only came against the Egyptians and did not affect the Hebrews. Pharaoh asked Moses to remove this plague and promised to grant the Israelites their freedom. However, after the plague was gone, Pharaoh refused to keep his promise, as his heart was hardened by God.

Various sources use either "wild animals" or "flies".

Plague Five: The Pestilence of Livestock

Plague Six: The Infection of Boils

thumb|The sixth plague: miniature out of the [[Toggenburg Bible, created . Commonly the picture is mistaken as a depiction of the Black Death. ]]

Plague Seven: The Storm of Hail

Plague Eight: Swarms of Locusts

Plague Nine: Three Days of Darkness

thumb|Spanish 15th century, Massacre of the Firstborn and Egyptian Darkness, , hand-colored woodcut

=== Plague Ten: Death of the Firstborn ===

Before this final plague, God commands Moses to tell the Israelites to mark a lamb's blood above their doors in order that He will pass over them (i.e., that they will not be touched by the death of the firstborn). Pharaoh orders the Israelites to leave, taking whatever they want, and asks Moses to bless him in the name of the Lord. The passage goes on to state that the passover sacrifice recalls the time when the Lord "passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt".

Composition and theology

thumb|alt=a page from the Rothschild Haggadah depicting the plagues, from the collections of the [[National Library of Israel|Page from the Rothschild Haggadah depicting the plagues, from the collections of the National Library of Israel]]

Scholars are in broad agreement that the publication of the Torah took place in the mid-Persian period (the 5th century BCE). The Book of Deuteronomy, composed in stages between the 7th and 6th centuries, mentions the "diseases of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 7:15 and 28:60). John Van Seters contends that this refers to something that afflicted the Israelites, not the Egyptians, and that Deuteronomy never specifies the plagues. Graham Davies, however, questions Van Seters' interpretation and argues that several verses in the book (e.g. ; ) seem to clearly allude to a plague tradition.

The traditional number of ten plagues is not actually mentioned in Exodus, and other sources differ; Psalms 78 and 105 seem to list only seven or eight plagues and order them differently. It appears that originally there were only seven, to which were added the third, sixth, and ninth, bringing the count to ten.

In this final version, the first nine plagues form three triads, each of which God introduces by informing Moses of the main lesson it will teach. According to Avraham Faust, this view extends only as far as a reconstruction of an Exodus based on similar collective memories is unlikely if it is solely based on either Egyptian presence in Late Bronze Age Canaan or the foreign Hyksos rulers of Egypt, and rules out Midian human activity "which cannot help in dating the Exodus" in identification of the proto-Israelites. Agreeing in treating the expulsion of the Hyksos "not as related to the flight of a group of slaves[,]" Manfred Bietak points out that the portrayal of the Hyksos as a ruling elite with a background in trade and seafaring conflicts with the biblical portrayal of the Israelites as oppressed in Egypt. Some scholars also hold that the Israelites originated in Canaan and from the Canaanites, although others disagree.

The Ipuwer Papyrus, written no earlier than the late Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt (), has been put forward in popular literature as confirmation of the biblical account, most notably because of its statement that "the river is blood" and its frequent references to servants running away; however, these arguments ignore the many points on which Ipuwer contradicts Exodus, such as Asiatics arriving in Egypt and that the "river is blood" phrase probably refers to red sediment during the Nile's periodic floods, or is simply a poetic image of turmoil. Attempts to find natural explanations for the plagues (e.g., a volcanic eruption to explain the "darkness" plague) have been dismissed by biblical scholars on the grounds that their pattern, timing, rapid succession, and above all, control by Moses mark them as supernatural.

Another representation of the plagues, mainly the 10th plague, is the song "Creeping Death" by American thrash metal band Metallica.

Documentaries

The Exodus Decoded (2006)

Films

The Ten Commandments (1923)
The Moon of Israel (1924)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
The Seventh Sign (1988)
Moses (1995)
The Prince of Egypt (1998)
Magnolia (1999)
The Mummy (1999)
The Reaping (2007)
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
Seder-Masochism (2018)

Gallery

File:Aaron points his rod at the river and it begins to flow with Wellcome V0034268.jpg|The Second Plague: Frogs came up and covered the Sand of Egypt

File:William de Brailes - The Third Plague of Egypt - Gnats (Exodus 8 -17) - Walters W1065R - Full Page.jpg|The Third Plague - Gnats

File:Tissot The Plague of Flies.jpg|The Fourth Plague: The Plague of Flies, James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Jewish Museum, New York

File:033.The Fifth Plague. Livestock Disease.jpg|The Fifth Plague: Pestilence of livestock, by Gustave Doré

File:Martin, John - The Seventh Plague - 1823.jpg|The Seventh Plague of Egypt by John Martin (1823)

File:Holman The Plague of Locusts.jpg|The Eighth Plague: "The Plague of Locusts", illustration from the 1890 Holman Bible

File:034.The Ninth Plague. Darkness.jpg|The Ninth Plague: Darkness by Gustave Doré