Chapter 14.
CONCERNING THE TEN PLAGUES WHICH CAME UPON THE EGYPTIANS.FJAJ 2.80
1. BUT when the king despised the words of Moses, and had no
regard at all to them, grievous plagues seized the Egyptians; every one
of which I will describe, both because no such plagues did ever happen
to any other nation as the Egyptians now felt, and because I would demonstrate
that Moses did not fail in any one thing that he foretold them; and because
it is for the good of mankind, that they may learn this caution - Not to
do anything that may displease God, lest he be provoked to wrath, and avenge
their iniquities upon them
For the Egyptian river ran with bloody water
at the command of God, insomuch that it could not be drunk, and they had
no other spring of water neither; for the water was not only of the color
of blood, but it brought upon those that ventured to drink of it, great
pains and bitter torment
Such was the river to the Egyptians; but it was
sweet and fit for drinking to the Hebrews, and no way different from what
it naturally used to be
As the king therefore knew not what to do in these
surprising circumstances, and was in fear for the Egyptians, he gave the
Hebrews leave to go away; but when the plague ceased, he changed his mind
again, end would not suffer them to go.FJAJ 2.81
2. But when God saw that he was ungrateful, and upon the ceasing of
this calamity would not grow wiser, he sent another plague upon the Egyptians:
- An innumerable multitude of frogs consumed the fruit of the ground; the
river was also full of them, insomuch that those who drew water had it
spoiled by the blood of these animals, as they died in, and were destroyed
by, the water; and the country was full of filthy slime, as they were born,
and as they died: they also spoiled their vessels in their houses which
they used, and were found among what they eat and what they drank, and
came in great numbers upon their beds
There was also an ungrateful smell,
and a stink arose from them, as they were born, and as they died therein.
Now, when the Egyptians were under the oppression of these miseries, the
king ordered Moses to take the Hebrews with him, and be gone
Upon which
the whole multitude of the frogs vanished away; and both the land and the
river returned to their former natures
But as soon as Pharaoh saw the
land freed from this plague, he forgot the cause of it, and retained the
Hebrews; and, as though he had a mind to try the nature of more such judgments,
he would not yet suffer Moses and his people to depart, having granted
that liberty rather out of fear than out of any good consideration.FJAJ 2.82
(25)
Of this judicial hardening the hearts and blinding the eyes of wicked men,
or infatuating them, as a just punishment for their other willful sins,
to their own destruction, see the note on Antiq. B. VII. ch. 9. sect. 6.FJAJ 2.83
3. Accordingly, God punished his falseness with another plague, added
to the former; for there arose out of the bodies of the Egyptians an innumerable
quantity of lice, by which, wicked as they were, they miserably perished,
as not able to destroy this sort of vermin either with washes or with ointments.
At which terrible judgment the king of Egypt was in disorder, upon the
fear into which he reasoned himself, lest his people should be destroyed,
and that the manner of this death was also reproachful, so that he was
forced in part to recover himself from his wicked temper to a sounder mind,
for he gave leave for the Hebrews themselves to depart
But when the plague
thereupon ceased, he thought it proper to require that they should leave
their children and wives behind them, as pledges of their return; whereby
he provoked God to be more vehemently angry at him, as if he thought to
impose on his providence, and as if it were only Moses, and not God, who
punished the Egyptians for the sake of the Hebrews: for he filled that
country full of various sorts of pestilential creatures, with their
various properties, such indeed as had never come into the sight of men
before, by whose means the men perished themselves, and the land was destitute
of husbandmen for its cultivation; but if any thing escaped destruction
from them, it was killed by a distemper which the men underwent also.FJAJ 2.84
4. But when Pharaoh did not even then yield to the will of God, but,
while he gave leave to the husbands to take their wives with them, yet
insisted that the children should be left behind, God presently resolved
to punish his wickedness with several sorts of calamities, and those worse
than the foregoing, which yet had so generally afflicted them; for their
bodies had terrible boils, breaking forth with blains, while they were
already inwardly consumed; and a great part of the Egyptians perished in
this manner
But when the king was not brought to reason by this plague,
hail was sent down from heaven; and such hail it was, as the climate
of Egypt had never suffered before, nor was it like to that which falls
in other climates in winter time, (26)
As to this winter or spring hail near Egypt and Judea, see the like on
thunder and lightning there, in the note on Antiq. B. VI. ch. 5. sect.
6.
but was larger than that which falls in the middle of spring to those that
dwell in the northern and north-western regions
This hail broke down their
boughs laden with fruit
After this a tribe of locusts consumed the seed
which was not hurt by the hail; so that to the Egyptians all hopes of the
future fruits of the ground were entirely lost.FJAJ 2.85
5. One would think the forementioned calamities might have been sufficient
for one that was only foolish, without wickedness, to make him wise, and
to make him Sensible what was for his advantage
But Pharaoh, led not so
much by his folly as by his wickedness, even when he saw the cause of his
miseries, he still contested with God, and willfully deserted the cause
of virtue; so he bid Moses take the Hebrews away, with their wives and
children, to leave their cattle behind, since their own cattle were destroyed.
But when Moses said that what he desired was unjust, since they were obliged
to offer sacrifices to God of those cattle, and the time being prolonged
on this account, a thick darkness, without the least light, spread itself
over the Egyptians, whereby their sight being obstructed, and their breathing
hindered by the thickness of the air, they died miserably, and under a
terror lest they should be swallowed up by the dark cloud
Besides this,
when the darkness, after three days and as many nights, was dissipated,
and when Pharaoh did not still repent and let the Hebrews go, Moses came
to him and said, "How long wilt thou be disobedient to the command
of God? for he enjoins thee to let the Hebrews go; nor is there any other
way of being freed from the calamities are under, unless you do so."
But the king angry at what he said, and threatened to cut off his head
if he came any more to trouble him these matters
Hereupon Moses said he
not speak to him any more about them, for he himself, together with the
principal men among the Egyptians, should desire the Hebrews away
So when
Moses had said this, he his way.FJAJ 2.86
6. But when God had signified, that with one plague he would compel
the Egyptians to let Hebrews go, he commanded Moses to tell the people
that they should have a sacrifice ready, and they should prepare themselves
on the tenth day of the month Xanthicus, against the fourteenth, (which
month is called by the Egyptians Pharmuth, Nisan by the Hebrews; but the
Macedonians call it Xanthicus,) and that he should carry the Hebrews with
all they had
Accordingly, he having got the Hebrews ready for their departure,
and having sorted the people into tribes, he kept them together in one
place: but when the fourteenth day was come, and all were ready to depart
they offered the sacrifice, and purified their houses with the blood, using
bunches of hyssop for that purpose; and when they had supped, they burnt
the remainder of the flesh, as just ready to depart
Whence it is that
we do still offer this sacrifice in like manner to this day, and call this
festival Pascha which signifies the feast of the passover; because
on that day God passed us over, and sent the plague upon the Egyptians;
for the destruction of the first-born came upon the Egyptians that night,
so that many of the Egyptians who lived near the king's palace, persuaded
Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go
Accordingly he called for Moses, and bid
them be gone; as supposing, that if once the Hebrews were gone out of the
country, Egypt should be freed from its miseries
They also honored the
Hebrews with gifts; (27)
These large presents made to the Israelites, of vessels of and vessels
of gold, and raiment, were, as Josephus truly calls them, gifts really
given them; not lent them, as our English falsely renders them. They were
spoils required, not of them, Genesis 15:14; Exodus 3:22; 11:2; Psalm 105:37,)
as the same version falsely renders the Hebrew word Exodus 12:35, 36. God
had ordered the Jews to demand these as their pay and reward, during their
long and bitter slavery in Egypt, as atonements for the lives of the Egyptians,
and as the condition of the Jews' departure, and of the Egyptians' deliverance
from these terrible judgments, which, had they not now ceased, they had
soon been all dead men, as they themselves confess, ch. 12. 33. Nor was
there any sense in borrowing or lending, when the Israelites were finally
departing out of the land for ever.
some, in order to get them to depart quickly, and others on account of
their neighborhood, and the friendship they had with them.FJAJ 2.87