Egyptian Plagues

1.       Water to blood – a humiliation to the Egyptian gods of the Nile.  All water changed.

2.       Frogs – Hekt – wife of the creator of the world – decaying frogs stunk up the whole land.  In Rev. 16:13-14, three frog-like spirits.

3.       Biting gnats/mosquitoes – could not be replicated – first time Israel is mentioned as being set apart from Egypt – Hebrew root, to dig, prob dug under the skin.  Geb – god of the earth, offerings for bounty of the soil.  Also, fleas or lice prevented their priests from officiating since they were unclean.

4.       Bloodsucking gadflies/swarms – scarabs – dung beetle (Heb., "arob," a swarm, poss. Incessant motion.  Amon-Ra, king of the gods, had head of a beetle.

5.       Cattle disease – Murrian, a contagious cattle disease.  Apis, the bull god (the golden calf in the wilderness), and Hathor, the cow-headed goddess. Even the temple bulls died.

6.       Boils – Ashes producing boils.  Heb. "shecheyn" root means "burning," and can be translated as leprosy, and as the Egyptian botch – both incurable.  Toth, ibis-headed god of intelligence and medical learning, as well as Apis, Serapis and Imhotep.  The magicians couldn't function as priests since they were again unclean.  Parody of Egyptian practice of casting human ashes to the wind as a blessing.  Moses may have had access to the very furnaces the Egyptians used.

7.       Hail – started seeing converts – no hail in Goshen – Shu, wind god; Nut, sky goddess; Horus, sky god of upper Egypt.

8.       Locusts – Pharaoh's servants plead with him to let Israel go – Nepri, grain god; Ermutet, goddess of childbirth and crops, Anubis, guardian of the fields; Osiris, agricultural god.  Rebellion was in the air.

9.       Darkness that was felt – for 3 days – Israelites had natural light in their homes.  Ra, god of the sun; Horus, god of the sunrise; Tem, god of the sunset; Shu, god of light; deities of the moon and planets.

10.   Death of the firstborn – against pharaoh himself as "god on Earth."  This plague was only carried out on those homes not covered by the lamb's blood.

It is interesting to note that plague 3 (gnats) and following God specifically sets Israel apart and keeps them from the plagues.  When the tenth plague comes, it didn't matter if you were Jew or Gentile as long as you were covered by the blood of the lamb you were exempt from destruction.  Also, all who found salvation under the blood of the lamb and subsequently fled Egypt were made whole physically as well as spiritually.  The Jewish/Scriptural idea of salvation is for the entire being, not only for the soul.

Interesting parallels with Revelation regarding the judgments unleashed during the Great Tribulation and the plagues on Egypt.  Egypt's plagues were against their gods; Rev. judgments against the world's gods.

There are also some wonderful articles about the Passover/Exodus at www.khouse.org.