Lesson #6

Gunfight at the OK Corral, Plagues 6-10

(Exodus 9: 8 12: 36)
In Lesson #5 God unleashed the first five of ten plagues on Egypt.
With each plague Pharaoh became ever-more stubborn and
recalcitrant. The first plague, turning the waters of the Nile into
blood, devastated Egypt, and it was a direct frontal attack on the
Egyptian god, Osiris, one of the primary gods in the Egyptian
pantheon.

In plagues two, three and fourthe frogs, gnats and fliesGod
seemingly toyed with the Egyptians and their gods, subjecting them
to maddening afflictions and discomfort: a sort of divine gloating
before dropping the hammer.

With plague five God got serious, killing all the livestock in Egypt with
a virulent pestilence, perhaps anthrax or murrain, setting an ominous
tone for a series of five ever-more lethal plagues, culminating in the
slaughter of all the firstborn children in Egypt.








In Lesson #6 the plagues intensify, finally crippling Egypt and
bringing Pharaoh to his knees. Hearing the cries and moans of his
people as the angel of death stalks the night, while holding the cold,
lifeless body of his own first-born son, Pharaoh commands Moses:
Leave my people at once, you and the Israelites! (Exodus 12: 32).

Convinced that if they dont get out of Dodge fast the Egyptians
would slaughter them all, the Israelites plunder and loot their
Egyptian neighbors, pull up stakes and leave en masse.














Prologue (7: 8-13)
1
st
Plague, Water Turned to Blood (7: 14-24)
2
nd
Plague, Frogs (7: 25 8: 11)
3
rd
Plague, Gnats (8: 12-15)
4
th
Plague, Flies (8: 16-28)
5
th
Plague, Pestilence (9: 1-7)
6
th
Plague, Boils (9: 8-12)
7
th
Plague, Hail & Fire (9: 13-35)
8
th
Plague, Locusts (10: 1-20)
9
th
Plague, Darkness (10: 21-29)
10
th
Plague, Death of the Firstborn (11: 1-10)











Golden Haggadah (MS 27210), c. 1320. British Library, London.
One of the finest surviving Haggadahs of medieval Spain containing sumptuous illuminations
against gold-tooled backgrounds. Produced near Barcelona in French Gothic style.






















Scooping up a handful of soot from a kiln and casting it skyward has
the ominous look and feel of magic. As the soot disperses in the
wind, it spreads mysteriously throughout Egypt, infecting man and
beast alike with repulsive epidermal boils.

The Hebrew shehin (boils), from the root that means to be hot, refers to a
variety of painful, burning skin diseases. That the soot is taken from a hot
kiln reinforces the imagery of the burning heat of boils.

In Leviticus 13: 18, a person who has such a boil must present himself to a
priest, who will determine if the condition is infectious.

In Deuteronomy 28: 35, such boils are a punishment from God: The Lord
will strike you with malignant boils of which you cannot be cured, on your
knees and legs, and from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head.

In 2 Kings 20: 1-7, King Hezekiah suffers from a such terminal condition and
is miraculously healed when Isaiah brings him a poultice of figs to apply to
the boil.













An Egyptian priest performs the Opening of the Mouth
ceremony, part of the burial rites for a dead Pharaoh.
An Egyptian priest with an
infectious skin disease could
not serve the gods; he must
be pure.

Because of the boils the
magicians could not stand in
Moses presence, for there
were boils on the magicians
as well as on the rest of the
Egyptians (9: 11).

Plague #6 deprives all the
Egyptian gods of service from
their priests.










In addition, the solar goddess
Sekhmet, daughter of Ra and
the warrior-protector of
Pharaoh, was believed to
have the power of both
creating epidemics and
ending them. Sekhmet is
unable to protect Pharaoh as
the plague rages on, affecting
even her own group of
priests called the Sunu.

Relief of the warrior-goddess Sekhmet,
Kom Ombo Temple, Egypt.

Prologue (7: 8-13)
1
st
Plague, Water Turned to Blood (7: 14-24)
2
nd
Plague, Frogs (7: 25 8: 11)
3
rd
Plague, Gnats (8: 12-15)
4
th
Plague, Flies (8: 16-28)
5
th
Plague, Pestilence (9: 1-7)
6
th
Plague, Boils (9: 8-12)
7
th
Plague, Hail & Fire (9: 13-35)
8
th
Plague, Locusts (10: 1-20)
9
th
Plague, Darkness (10: 21-29)
10
th
Plague, Death of the Firstborn (11: 1-10)











John Martin. The Seventh Plague (oil on canvas), 1823.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
























The plague of hail and fire outpaces all
the other plagues combined. In a
thunderous, pyrotechnic display of
Gods power, the hail and fire devastate
what remains of the Egyptian economy,
splintering the crops and setting the
fields ablaze as lightning races across
the ground.

Instead of disaster welling up from the
Nile or mysteriously permeating the air,
in the hail and fire God launches a
violent assault from above.

Nut, goddess of the sky, and her husband Geb,
god of the earth.
Nut, the goddess of the sky (and mother of Osiris) who brings the blessing of
the the sun and the crops, is powerless. One can only imagine the anguish
and desperation as thousands of people lift their voices in prayer to Nut, and
the prayers go unanswered.

Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go to
serve me, for this time I will unleash all my blows upon you and your
servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none
like me anywhere on earth . . . this is why I have let you survive: to
show you my power and to make my name resound throughout the
earth! (9: 13-14; 16).

I am going to rain down such fierce hail as there has never been in Egypt
from the day it was founded up to the present (9: 18)
. . . the hail was so fierce that nothing like it had been seen in Egypt since it
became a nation (9: 24)
[Locusts] will cover the surface of the earth, so that the earth will not be
visible . . . something your parents and your grandparents have not seen
from the day they appeared on this soil until today (10: 5-6).

This rhetorical drum roll makes the unambiguous statement . . .





















And you will know that I am YHWH!
Michelangelo, Creation of the Sun and the Moon, detail (fresco), 1512.
Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

Prologue (7: 8-13)
1
st
Plague, Water Turned to Blood (7: 14-24)
2
nd
Plague, Frogs (7: 25 8: 11)
3
rd
Plague, Gnats (8: 12-15)
4
th
Plague, Flies (8: 16-28)
5
th
Plague, Pestilence (9: 1-7)
6
th
Plague, Boils (9: 8-12)
7
th
Plague, Hail & Fire (9: 13-35)
8
th
Plague, Locusts (10: 1-20)
9
th
Plague, Darkness (10: 21-29)
10
th
Plague, Death of the Firstborn (11: 1-10)











Kobergers Bible. Plague of Locusts (hand-colored woodcut), 1483.
Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.























Listen to this, you elders! Pay
attention, all who live in the
land. Has anything like this ever
happened in your lifetime or in
the lifetime of your ancestors?
Report it to your children, and
their children to the next
generation. What the cutter left,
the swarming locust has
devoured; what the swarming
locust left, the hopper has
devoured; what the hopper has
left, the consuming locust has
devoured.
(Joel 1:2-4)

Locusts were the scourge of the ancient world. Long after the
Exodus the prophet Joel says:
Recently, a swarm of 1 million locusts crossed
from Egypt into Israel (Reported in the Jewish
Daily Forward, March 5, 2013).











The devastation brought by locusts is hard to imagine.
One square mile of a swarm contains from 100,000,000
to 200,000,000 locusts, and swarms typically cover as
much as 400 square miles. Each locust eats its own body
weight daily, and they strip a country bare, leaving
millions of people in famine for years.

The cumulative force of the plagues has had a
devastating effect on Egypt, its people and its economy:
the land lies buried beneath a putrid mass of decaying
fish and frogs; the livestock have been felled by anthrax;
the crops have been destroyed by hail and fire; disease
and infections have ravaged the peopleand now Egypt
faces an onslaught of locusts.




Could it possibly get any worse?












Prologue (7: 8-13)
1
st
Plague, Water Turned to Blood (7: 14-24)
2
nd
Plague, Frogs (7: 25 8: 11)
3
rd
Plague, Gnats (8: 12-15)
4
th
Plague, Flies (8: 16-28)
5
th
Plague, Pestilence (9: 1-7)
6
th
Plague, Boils (9: 8-12)
7
th
Plague, Hail & Fire (9: 13-35)
8
th
Plague, Locusts (10: 1-20)
9
th
Plague, Darkness (10: 21-29)
10
th
Plague, Death of the Firstborn (11: 1-10)






















Darkness so thick it can be felt . . .











Then the Lord said to Moses: Stretch out your hand
toward the sky, that over the land of Egypt there may be
such darkness that one can feel it (10: 21).

The contrast between light in the land of Goshen and absolute
darkness in the rest of Egypt sets the stage for the contrast between
life for the Hebrews and death for the Egyptians in the climatic
tenth plague.

The plague of darkness is a direct frontal attack on the primary god
of the Egyptian pantheon, Ra the sun god.

















This is the final
squaring off between
God and Pharaoh.
Negotiations are over.
The stage is set for
unleashing the terrible
last plaguethe
slaughter of the first-
born children of Egypt.
Pharaoh said to Moses, Leave me, and see to it that
you do not see my face again! For the day you see my
face you will die! Moses replied, You are right! I will
never see your face again! (10: 28-29).


Prologue (7: 8-13)
1
st
Plague, Water Turned to Blood (7: 14-24)
2
nd
Plague, Frogs (7: 25 8: 11)
3
rd
Plague, Gnats (8: 12-15)
4
th
Plague, Flies (8: 16-28)
5
th
Plague, Pestilence (9: 1-7)
6
th
Plague, Boils (9: 8-12)
7
th
Plague, Hail & Fire (9: 13-35)
8
th
Plague, Locusts (10: 1-20)
9
th
Plague, Darkness (10: 21-29)
10
th
Plague, Death of the Firstborn (11: 1-10)











Charles Sprague Pearce. Lamentations over the Death of the First-
Born of Egypt (oil on canvas), 1877.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.











Francisco de Zurbarn. Angus Dei (oil on canvas), c. 1635.
Prado Museum, Madrid.





















As every firstborn person or
animal is dedicated to God, so
every firstborn person or
animal had been dedicated to
the Egyptian gods. By killing
the firstborn children and
animals of the Egyptians, God
deprives every god in the
Egyptian pantheon of what
rightfully belongs to them.

As the Israelites plunder the
Egyptians, so does God plunder
the Egyptian gods.
The Lord spoke to Moses and said: Consecrate to me every
firstborn; whatever opens the womb among the Israelities,
whether human being or beast, belongs to me (Exodus 13: 1).

Arthur Hacker. And There Was a Great Cry in
Egypt (oil on canvas), 1897. Private collection,
anonymous (sold at auction at Christies,
London, June 27, 1988, Lot 703).
David Roberts. The Israelites Leaving Egypt (oil on canvas), c. 1830.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, England.











1. What is the primary purpose of the plague of boils?
2. The plague of hail and fire begins a sequence of plagues that
culminates in the death of the firstborn. How does each plague
build, one upon the other?
3. In Exodus 10: 7 Pharaohs servants say: Do you not yet realize
that Egypt is being destroyed? Of course, Pharaoh knowsso
why does he continue the deadly game?
4. After the plague of locusts comes darkness. If you were an
Egyptian having experienced the first eight plagues, what
would you think as you sit in the dark? What would you feel?
5. How can one morally justify God slaughtering all the firstborn
children and animals of Egypt?




Copyright 2014 by William C. Creasy
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