Destructive Wonders
Destructive Wonders
Image by Topi Pigula from Pixabay
The Swarm
Yahweh told Moses, “Rise early in the morning to stand before the pharaoh when he’s going out to the water. Say to him, ‘This is what Yahweh says: “Send my people away so they may serve me. But if you don’t send my people away, I am about to send swarms on you, your servants, your people, and your houses. The swarms will fill the houses of Egypt and also the ground beneath them.
“‘“On that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen, on which my people stand. There will be no swarm there so you will know I, Yahweh, am in the midst of this land. I will distinguish between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign will occur.”’”
Then Yahweh did so. An immense swarm entered the houses of the pharaoh and his servants. Throughout the land of Egypt, the land was ruined because of the swarm.
Image by Topi Pigula from Pixabay
The three destructive wonders began the same way the distressing wonders had—with Moses going out in the morning to meet the pharaoh by the Nile.1 Yahweh sent Moses to warn the pharaoh that he would send a “swarm” if the pharaoh continued to refuse to send away the Israelites. But this time, Yahweh would distinguish between Goshen and the rest of Egypt. The Israelites would not suffer from the swarm.
The Hebrew word ʿarov occurs only in the context of the fourth wonder, but scholars generally agree it refers to a swarm of insects. But what insect? The traditional translation of “flies,” based on the Greek Septuagint, doesn’t fit the context. These insects filled the ground, and Yahweh spared the land of Goshen, “on which my people stand.” Clearly, these were burrowing ground insects. They did enough damage to the Egyptian houses and to the ground beneath them that the land was ruined. For the first time, Yahweh’s wonder caused real loss.
Termites could certainly cause the destruction described. In sufficient numbers, the Egyptian scarab, a species of dung beetle, could as well. Dung beetles collect dung from other animals and bury it in their burrows as food and as a place to lay their eggs. In normal numbers, they benefit the local ecosystem.2 But “an immense swarm” filling homes with balls of dung and digging burrows under the walls would ruin the land. The Egyptians worshiped the scarab as sacred to Khepri, the god of the sunrise, who rolled the sun through the sky like a scarab rolls its ball of dung along the ground.3
Whatever insect ruined Egypt, the swarm would not enter Goshen. By seeing how Yahweh could protect his own people even in Egypt, the pharaoh would know that Yahweh is “in the midst of the land.” The people of the ancient Near East believed in many gods who ruled over specific territories. Other gods might have succeeded in protecting their people and defeating the mighty Egyptians in their own lands. But Yahweh would do so in Egypt itself, where the Egyptian gods should have exercised full power.
Negotiating with God
The pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “Go sacrifice to your God within the land.”
But Moses replied, “We’re not permitted to do that because the sacrifices we’ll offer to Yahweh, our God, are repulsive to the Egyptians. If we offer sacrifices that are repulsive to the Egyptians right in front of them, won’t they stone us? We must go a three-day distance into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to Yahweh, our God, just as he says.”
“I’ll send you to offer sacrifices to Yahweh, your God, in the wilderness,” the pharaoh answered. “Only you must not go far. Plead for me.”
Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay
Overwhelmed by the insect swarm ruining his country, the pharaoh again summoned Moses and Aaron. He agreed to allow the Israelites to hold a festival to offer sacrifices to Yahweh, but they had to stay in Egypt. The pharaoh still refused to release the Israelites from his service, so he sought another way to placate their God.
Moses had also once tried to talk his way out of obeying Yahweh.4 Now he refused to negotiate. Yahweh wouldn’t permit the Israelites to stay in Egypt, where they had to compromise with Egyptian beliefs and cultural norms. The Egyptians considered many animals sacred to their own gods, including common sacrifices like rams, bulls, and cows.5 If the Israelites killed these sacred animals within Egypt, it would cause outrage among the Egyptians and would likely lead to violence. The Israelites had to obey Yahweh completely by traveling a three-day distance from the border.
The pharaoh had to concede Moses’s point. So he agreed to allow the Israelites to go into the wilderness as long as they didn’t go far. Then he commanded Moses to plead for Yahweh to take the swarm away. Moses didn’t waste his time debating the definition of “far.” He had told the pharaoh how far they would go. And he knew the pharaoh wouldn’t keep his promise anyway.
Warning
“Look!” Moses said. “I’m about to leave you, and I’ll plead with Yahweh to turn aside the swarm from the pharaoh, his servants, and his people tomorrow. But the pharaoh must not cheat again by not sending the people away to offer sacrifices to Yahweh.”
So Moses left the pharaoh and pleaded with Yahweh. Yahweh did just as Moses said. He turned aside the swarm from the pharaoh, his servants, and his people. Not one remained. But the pharaoh made himself obstinate again this time. He didn’t send the people away.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Though Moses didn’t trust the pharaoh, he kept his end by pleading for Yahweh to remove the swarm. But first, he warned the pharaoh against cheating again. The pharaoh had promised to send the Israelites away in exchange for Yahweh removing the frogs of the second wonder. Yet once Yahweh graciously provided relief, the pharaoh went back on his word.6 Moses warned him Yahweh would not tolerate another lie.
Yahweh informed Moses he would make the pharaoh obstinate.7 Yet to this point, that hadn’t happened yet. Despite ample evidence of Yahweh’s power and authority, the pharaoh chose disobedience of his own free will. Moses warned him he was quickly running out of time to repent and submit. Soon he would lose his ability to choose.
The pharaoh ignored Moses’s warning. Though Yahweh turned aside the swarm so that not a single insect remained, the pharaoh still refused to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. For the second time, the pharaoh made himself obstinate and broke his promise.
The Livestock Plague
Yahweh told Moses, “Go to the pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Send my people away so they may serve me.” If you still refuse to send them and continue to detain them, Yahweh is about to use his power against your livestock in the fields. A severe plague will strike the horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks.
“‘Yahweh will distinguish between Israel’s livestock and Egypt’s livestock. No animal belonging to the Israelites will die. Yahweh has set the time, saying tomorrow he will do this in the land.’”
Starting the next day, Yahweh did this. All the Egyptians’ livestock died, but not a single one of the Israelites’ livestock died. The pharaoh sent envoys and confirmed that not even one of the Israelites’ livestock had died. Yet the pharaoh remained obstinate and would not send the people away.
After the fourth wonder, Yahweh began to rapidly increase the severity of each one. For the first time, he used the word “plague” to describe the fifth wonder. He sent Moses to warn the pharaoh that a deadly disease would sweep through the Egyptians’ livestock, killing all domesticated animals grazing in the fields. Yahweh gave the pharaoh one day to obey before the plague started.
The pharaoh ignored Moses’s warning, so the plague began the next day. The text doesn’t say how long it lasted, but by the end, all the livestock belonging to the Egyptians had died. Even if “all” is meant as hyperbole, the loss of the livestock devasted Egypt’s economy.8 The plague also killed many animals the Egyptians held sacred, likely including the Apis bull, one of the most venerated gods in all Egypt.9 Moses feared killing sacred animals within Egypt, but Yahweh did not.10
Again, Yahweh distinguished between the Israelites and the Egyptians. Moses predicted that no animal belonging to the Israelites would die. At the end of the plague, the pharaoh sent a group to Goshen to confirm the truth of Moses’s words. Those he sent found not a single animal had died. Yet the pharaoh still refused to send the Israelites as Yahweh commanded.
Abscesses
Yahweh told Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of ash from a kiln. Then Moses will toss it into the air in the sight of the pharaoh. It will turn into dust over the whole land of Egypt. It will produce abscesses breaking open into sores on people and animals throughout the land of Egypt.”
So they took ash from the kiln and stood before the pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and it produced abscesses breaking open into sores on people and animals.
The magicians couldn’t stand in Moses’s presence because of the abscesses, which affected the magicians as well as all the Egyptians. But Yahweh made the pharaoh obstinate. He didn’t listen to them, just as Yahweh said to Moses.
Image by Sweet Publishing from Free Bible Images, CC BY-SA 3.0
The sixth wonder, like the third, came with no warning.11 Moses and Aaron took handfuls of ash, and Moses threw the ash into the air while standing in front of the pharaoh. The ash turned into a dust storm that grew until it covered all of Egypt. As the dust spread, it afflicted people and animals with painful abscesses, a symptom of several possible diseases, including boils and skin anthrax. When the abscesses burst days later, they formed open sores covering the Egyptians. For the first time, Yahweh’s wonder harmed the people directly.
Yahweh had shown his control of the water and ground. With the storms of the sixth and seventh wonders, he proved his control over the sky, exposing the impotence of Egyptian gods like Horus, Nut, and Reret.12 He also continued to reveal the folly of worshiping animals. A plague had already wiped out the livestock. The abscesses afflicted the remaining animals, including sacred animals like dogs, cats, jackals, and ibis.13
The Egyptian magicians had stopped trying to replicate the wonders after failing to produce gnats. These priests couldn’t even protect themselves. Unaffected by the abscesses, Moses had no problem standing before the pharaoh. But the agony the magicians felt prevented them from standing before Moses. Completely humiliated, the magicians don’t appear again.
The pharaoh, however, had ignored Moses’s warning and could no longer humble himself despite the irrefutable evidence of Yahweh’s supremacy. For the first time, Yahweh made the pharaoh obstinate. But he didn’t do so to prevent repentance. He did so to encourage repentance among the rest of the Egyptians and the surrounding nations by completing his humiliation of the false Egyptian gods.14 The pharaoh had wasted his chance, but this too would turn to God’s glory and the blessing of the nations.
- Exodus 7:15.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Dung Beetle,” last modified July 16, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/animal/dung-beetle.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Khepri,” October 31, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Khepri.
- See Qualifications.
- Osborn and Howard, Handbook on Exodus, 196–197; Oswalt, “Exodus,” 349.
- See Pleading with Yahweh.
- See Obstinate.
- See Hyperbole.
- World History Encyclopedia, “Apis,” by Joshua J. Mark, April 21, 2017, https://www.worldhistory.org/Apis/.
- See Negotiating with God.
- See Gnats.
- World History Encyclopedia, “Egyptian Gods: The Complete List,” by Joshua J. Mark, April 14, 2016, https://www.worldhistory.org/article/885/egyptian-gods---the-complete-list/.
- See WorldAtlas, “Ancient Egyptian Animals,” by Oishimaya Sen Nag, July 20, 2018, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/animals-of-ancient-egypt.html.
- See Obstinate.