Plagues of Egypt

Plague One: The Nile to Blood The Hebrew Bible's Book of Exodus says that Moses turned the Nile to blood by striking it with his staff. Pharaoh's magicians used their secret arts to also strike the Nile, creating a second layer of blood. In addition to the Nile, all water that was held in reserve, such as jars, was also transformed into blood. The Egyptians were forced to dig alongside the bank of the Nile, which still had pure water. One week passed before the plague dissipated. Plague Five: The Pestilence of Livestock Plague Six: The Infection of Boils , created . Commonly the picture is mistaken as a depiction of the Black Death. Plague Seven: The Storm of Hail Plague Eight: Swarms of Locusts Plague Nine: Three Days of Darkness Plague Ten: Death of the Firstborn Before this final plague, God commands Moses to tell the Israelites to mark a lamb's blood above their doors in order that He will pass over them (i.e., that they will not be touched by the death of the firstborn). Pharaoh orders the Israelites to leave, taking whatever they want, and asks Moses to bless him in the name of the Lord. The passage goes on to state that the passover sacrifice recalls the time when the Lord "passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt". == Composition and theology ==

|Page from the Rothschild Haggadah depicting the plagues, from the collections of the National Library of Israel Scholars are in broad agreement that the publication of the Torah took place in the mid-Persian period (the 5th century BCE). The Book of Deuteronomy, composed in stages between the 7th and 6th centuries, It appears that originally there were only seven, to which were added the third, sixth, and ninth, bringing the count to ten. In this final version, the first nine plagues form three triads, each of which God introduces by informing Moses of the main lesson it will teach. In the first triad, the Egyptians begin to experience the power of God; in the second, God demonstrates that he is directing events; and in the third, the incomparability of Yahweh is displayed. Overall, the plagues are "signs and marvels" given by the God of Israel to answer Pharaoh's taunt that he does not know Yahweh: "The Egyptians shall know that I am the ". == Historicity ==

Modern scholars broadly agree that the Exodus is not a historical account of the origins of the Israelites. According to Avraham Faust, this view extends only as far as a reconstruction of an Exodus based on similar collective memories is unlikely if it is solely based on either Egyptian presence in Late Bronze Age Canaan or the foreign Hyksos rulers of Egypt, and rules out Midian human activity "which cannot help in dating the Exodus" in identification of the proto-Israelites. Agreeing in treating the expulsion of the Hyksos "not as related to the flight of a group of slaves[,]" Manfred Bietak points out that the portrayal of the Hyksos as a ruling elite with a background in trade and seafaring conflicts with the biblical portrayal of the Israelites as oppressed in Egypt. Some scholars also hold that the Israelites originated in Canaan and from the Canaanites, although others disagree. The Ipuwer Papyrus, written no earlier than the late Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt (), has been put forward in popular literature as confirmation of the biblical account, most notably because of its statement that "the river is blood" and its frequent references to servants running away; however, these arguments ignore the many points on which Ipuwer contradicts Exodus, such as Asiatics arriving in Egypt and that the "river is blood" phrase probably refers to red sediment during the Nile's periodic floods, or is simply a poetic image of turmoil. Attempts to find natural explanations for the plagues (e.g., a volcanic eruption to explain the "darkness" plague) have been dismissed by biblical scholars on the grounds that their pattern, timing, rapid succession, and above all, control by Moses mark them as supernatural. Some scholars have suggested that the story of the Plagues of Egypt might have been inspired by natural phenomena like epidemics, although these theories are considered uncertain. == Artistic representation ==

Visual art (1877) In visual art, the plagues have generally been reserved for works in series, especially engravings. Still, relatively few depictions in art emerged compared to other religious themes until the 19th century, when the plagues became more common subjects, with John Martin and Joseph Turner producing notable canvases. This trend probably reflected a Romantic attraction to landscape and nature painting, for which the plagues were suited, a Gothic attraction to morbid stories, and a rise in Orientalism, wherein exotic Egyptian themes found currency. Given the importance of noble patronage throughout Western art history, the plagues may have found consistent disfavor because the stories emphasize the limits of a monarch's power, and images of lice, locusts, darkness, and boils were ill-suited for decoration in palaces and churches. Music Perhaps the most successful artistic representation of the plagues is Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt, which, like "Handel's Messiah", takes a libretto entirely from scripture. The work was especially popular in the 19th century because of its numerous choruses, generally one for each plague, and its playful musical depiction of the plagues. For example, the plague of frogs is performed as a light aria for alto, depicting frogs jumping in the violins, and the plague of flies and lice is a light chorus with fast scurrying runs in the violins. Another representation of the plagues, mainly the 10th plague, is the song "Creeping Death" by American thrash metal band Metallica. Documentaries • The Exodus Decoded (2006) Films • The Ten Commandments (1923) • The Moon of Israel (1924) • The Ten Commandments (1956) • The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) • The Seventh Sign (1988) • Moses (1995) • The Prince of Egypt (1998) • Magnolia (1999) • The Mummy (1999) • The Reaping (2007) • Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) • Seder-Masochism (2018) ==Gallery==

File:Aaron points his rod at the river and it begins to flow with Wellcome V0034268.jpg|The Second Plague: Frogs came up and covered the Sand of Egypt File:William de Brailes - The Third Plague of Egypt - Gnats (Exodus 8 -17) - Walters W1065R - Full Page.jpg|The Third Plague - Gnats File:Tissot The Plague of Flies.jpg|The Fourth Plague: The Plague of Flies, James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Jewish Museum, New York File:033.The Fifth Plague. Livestock Disease.jpg|The Fifth Plague: Pestilence of livestock, by Gustave Doré File:Martin, John - The Seventh Plague - 1823.jpg|The Seventh Plague of Egypt by John Martin (1823) File:Holman The Plague of Locusts.jpg|The Eighth Plague: "The Plague of Locusts", illustration from the 1890 Holman Bible File:034.The Ninth Plague. Darkness.jpg|The Ninth Plague: Darkness by Gustave Doré == See also ==