Ten Plagues of Egypt

“ The ten plagues of Egypt must be inflicted, that they may be recorded for the generations to come as undeniable proofs, 1. Of God's overruling power in the kingdom of nature, his dominion over all the creatures, and his authority to use them either as servants to his justice or sufferers by it, according to the counsel of his will. 2. Of God's victorious power over the kingdom of Satan, to restrain the malice and chastise the insolence of his and his church's enemies. ”

“ For as there were ten plagues in Egypt before the people of God could begin to go out, they think this is to be referred to as showing that the last persecution by Antichrist must be like the eleventh plague, in which the Egyptians, while following the Hebrews with hostility, perished in the Red Sea when the people of God passed through on dry land. ”

“ Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and delivered to him God's command to let the people of Israel go; telling him that if he disobeyed terrible plagues would come upon his land. Pharaoh hardened his heart against God, and refused to let the people go; so ten dreadful plagues were sent, the last of which was that the firstborn of every Egyptian should die, whether it were man or beast. But not a single Israelite was to suffer harm. This plague God said should come in the night; when an angel would pass through the land, destroying the Egyptians but sparing the Israelites. ”

“ And this (tittle) constitutes a perfect son of a perfect man. When, therefore, he says, Moses mentions that the rod was changeably brandished for the (introduction of the) plagues throughout Egypt [1] —now these plagues, he says, are allegorically expressed symbols of the creation [2] —he did not (as a symbol) for more plagues than ten shape the rod. Now this (rod) constitutes one tittle of the iota, and is (both) twofold (and) various. This succession of ten plagues is, he says, the mundane creation. For all things, by being stricken, bring forth and bear fruit, just like vines. ”

“ On account of those, therefore, who by neglect of their own salvation please the evil one, and those who by study of their own profit seek to please the good One, ten things have been prescribed as a test to this present age, according to the number of the ten plagues which were brought upon Egypt. For when Moses, according to the commandment of God, demanded of Pharaoh that he should let the people go, and in token of his heavenly commission showed signs, his rod being thrown upon the ground was turned into a serpent. ”

“ The old Pharaoh was dead, but Moses and his brother Aaron betook themselves to the court of the new Pharaoh, and demanded from him permission for the Hebrews to sacrifice in the desert of Arabia. They obtained it, as we know, only after the infliction of the ten plagues, and after the firstborn of the Egyptians had been stricken.* The emigrants started from Ramses; as they were pursued by a body of troops, the Sea parted its waters to give them passage over the dry ground, and closing up afterwards on the Egyptian hosts, overwhelmed them to a man. ”

“ Here one can not but wonder that these learned Egyptians, whose colleges of priests were planted on the banks of the Nile, and who had made the climate, soil, and productions of their native land their constant study, should have been so ignorant of these natural causes of the plagues—so easily discovered nowadays by anybody who makes a summer trip to Egypt—as to be terrified into emancipating their slaves by a stormy season. ”

“ Thus, in several plagues mentioned in ancient history, we find swarms of dead locusts, grasshoppers, the carcases of those slain in battle, crowded houses, and filth of all kinds, assigned as causes. This opinion was adopted by Dr. Mead, and he gives the following account of the origin of the plague in Egypt. “Grand Cairo is crowded with inhabitants, who for the most part live very poorly and nastily; the streets are narrow and close; it is situate in a sandy plain, at the foot of a mountain, which, by keeping off the winds that would refresh the air, makes the heats very stifling. ”

“ The sudden and desolating arrival of a flight of locusts, the plague, or any other unforeseen calamity, is attributed to the anger of God, and is believed to be an infliction of punishment upon the people thus visited, precisely as the plagues of Egypt were specially inflicted upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. ”

“ M. Savary informs us, that, except in cases of great famine, the disease never breaks out in Cairo; which certainly implies that in cases of famine it does originate in the city itself; and Mariti, by saying that the Syrians have much reason to dread a plague hatched in the bosom of Egypt, undoubtedly intimates that plagues sometimes do originate in Egypt. Smyrna and Salonica likewise seem to come in for their share of the blame; and Dr. McBride, in his Practice of Physic,24 informs us, that some parts of Turky are visited by the plague once in six or seven years ”

“ These plagues grew more severe with each new one. And much effort has been made to show that one would have led to another. Much has been said also, to show that the plagues, at least most of them, were events that were common in Egypt and that they were remarkable only for their severity. ”

“ It is a land of pestilence and disease. "In Cairo, last year, forty thousand were supposed to be infected with the plague: and many of the French garrison died in that city, although the disease was treated in their hospitals with the greatest ability. In Upper Egypt sixty thousand perished during the same season," [21] besides those who died of it in other parts of the country. Among the British, the plague was confined to the "hospital and troops stationary at Aboukir, where it broke out on the 12th April, and terminated on the 26th August. ”

“ THE PLAGUE IN EGYPT.—We have accounts from Alexandria to the 28th of March, at which time the plague was still raging in that city with unabated violence. The deaths were on an average 200 daily. Several European and many Greek houses were infected. Most of the foreign vessels in the harbor had the pestilence on board—several had been obliged to re-land their cargoes after losing part of their crew. The disorder had been very fatal to the crews of an Egyptian ship of the line and a frigate, which were in the roads. The disorder at Cairo was still more destructive than at Alexandria. ”

“ The fifth plague inflicted by God upon the Egyptians was a grievous pestilence, which mowed down the cattle and beasts chiefly, yet it did not spare men altogether. This pestilence was a distinct plague, but it also accompanied all the other plagues, and the death of many Egyptians was due to it. ”

“ Hence, a season of affliction must be expected; war, famine, and pestilence; yea, the last plagues are coming in with such violence, that we are exposed to the assaults of nearly every creature. For even as the terrible plagues of the Egyptians overtook them before the redemption and departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, so, too, before the redemption of the children of God occurs, dreadful and unheard-of plagues will overtake the ungodly and impenitent. ”

“ The opinion that the plague was brought to Europe from the East, is, as far as I am able to judge, so fully confirmed, that it cannot be any longer doubted; though it is certainly true, that every nation endeavours to trace the origin of infectious disorders to other people. The Turks think that the plague came to them from Egypt ”

“ The seven plagues are poured out under the sounding of that angel, hence the plagues are future, and constitute the third woe.
The foregoing reasons establish the fact that the plagues are future. We see no reason why they will not be similar in character to those poured out on Egypt, while their consequences will be far more terrific and dreadful. May God count us worthy to escape the things coming on the earth, and to stand before the Son of man. The seven last plagues are poured out on the living wicked ”

“ It seems to me now very likely that the Europeans are right, and that the plague may be really conveyed by contagion; but during the whole time of my remaining in the East, my views on this subject more nearly approached to those of the fatalists; and so, when afterwards the plague of Egypt came dealing his blows around me, I was able to live amongst the dying without that alarm and anxiety which would inevitably have pressed upon my mind if I had allowed myself to believe that every passing touch was really a probable death-stroke. ”

“ Having shewn this Disease to be a Distemper of a distinct Species, and to take its Rise only in Africa; we must next seek for its Cause in that Country and no where else. We ought therefore to consider, what there is peculiar to that Country, which can reasonably be supposed capable of producing it. Wherefore I shall briefly set down as much as serves for this purpose of the State of Grand Cairo in Egypt, and of Æthiopia, the two great Seminaries of the Plague: Travellers relating that these Countries [Pg 31] are more infested with it than most other Parts of Africa. ”

“ Anyone who has ever been in Egypt will remember the terrible sight of the flies attacking little children suffering from ophthalmia and it is believed that the wide prevalence of this most pitiful trouble is attributable to the abundance of flies—the flies of Egypt, a plague even in the times of the Pharaohs. Things do not alter much in Egypt, and the Biblical plagues are wont to recur. ”

“ In the same year (1603) one million persons are said to have died of plague in Egypt. This plague is said to have lasted eight years in London. At all events in 1609 we have the second great plague year, with a mortality of 11,785. After this there is a remission till about 1620, when plague again began to spread in northern Europe, especially Germany and Holland, which was at that time ravaged by war. ”

“ It was the bubo-plague, a disease which is known to have existed in Egypt in the time of the Ptolemies, and made its first great incursion from that country into Europe in the reign of Justinian in the year 543 (see Chapter I.) . Its second great invasion, but from a new direction, was the Black Death of 1347-9; and from that time it remained domesticated in the soil of Europe for more than three hundred years as “the plague.” ”

“ But, whatever truth may be in the account given of the Ethiopic plagues, the testimonies already produced in this treatise are sufficient to render it very168 doubtful, at least, whether the plague ever does originate in Cairo, or any other place in Egypt. Besides, if we once admit the existence of any thing as a cause adequate to the production of a certain effect, wherever that cause exists the effect ought certainly to follow, unless where we plainly perceive something which prevents its action. ”

“ Cairo lost daily, when the plague was raging with its greatest violence, from 10,000 to 15,000; being as many as, in modern times, great plagues have carried off during their whole course. In China, more than thirteen millions are said to have died; and this is in correspondence with the certainly exaggerated accounts from the rest of Asia. ”

“ The people refuse to listen to Moses; (2) Aaron is appointed to be Moses’ spokesman, not with the people, but with Pharaoh; (3) one sign is given (not three) and performed before Pharaoh; (4) the rod is turned into a reptile (tannīn) , not a serpent (nāhāsh) .
(2) vii. 14-xi. 10. The First Plagues of Egypt.—In this section the analysis again reveals three main sources, which are clearly marked off from one another both by their linguistic features and by their difference of representation. The principal source is J, from which are derived six plagues, viz. ”

“ But there was still a little formality before we were fairly out of Egypt. For months there had been almost a panic in the East, from dread of the approach of cholera. It had broken out in Mecca, where it was reported that hundreds were dying daily, and from which returning pilgrims had so often brought the cholera or the plague into Western Asia, and so into Europe. A strict police had been kept up on all the lines of approach, and thousands of pilgrims were compelled to halt in their march till the danger of contagion was passed. ”

“ The damp and rain during the winter here, and the heavy dew at night throughout the year, have a particularly baneful influence. Cases of fever are very general; and it is always observed that this town is one of the places where the plague makes its appearance many days earlier than in the interior of Egypt. With all these objections to Alexandria as a place of residence, it is wonderful that any persons should prefer it, and consider the climate more agreeable than that of the valley of the Nile, which all allow to be so salubrious. ”

“ Epidemics throughout follow the same laws. Were not the very causes which produce plague in Egypt operating now to produce typhus fever in Bethnal Green and Whitechapel? We might not be able to stop the pestilential, moisture-laden wind that came down to Cairo each year at the time of the inundation of the Nile, but could we not do something towards purifying that which crept into the rooms of our own poor from undrained courts and stagnant pools? Could we not, if people once believed and acted on their belief, banish the yearly epidemic fever from the back-streets of our large towns? ”

“ The land of Egypt was in the hands of the nobles and rulers of towns; each slew his neighbor, great and small." A certain Syrian also proclaimed himself king and made the entire land tributary to him, plundering the people. To these evils were added the horrors of foreign invasion. Even under a good government the sanitary conditions in Egypt are far from satisfactory. In the time of anarchy and bloodshed the hot valley of the Nile is ravaged by disease and plagues. ”