The ten plagues were judgments on the gods of Egypt
Exodus 12:12 names the target of the ten strokes in God’s own words: “against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.” Numbers 33:4 records it done: “upon their gods also the LORD executed judgments.” The confrontation is cast as a gods confrontation from the first commission: “See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh” (Exodus 7:1 ). The word is elohim (אֱלֹהִים ), one word for the God of Israel, for the members of his council, for the gods of Egypt, and here for the man sent against them.
The ten strokes
| # | Stroke | Text | Domain struck | Gods in the popular lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Water to blood | Ex 7:14-25 | The Nile, its fish, the water supply | Hapi, Khnum, Osiris |
| 2 | Frogs | Ex 8:1-15 | Fertility and birth | Heket |
| 3 | Lice | Ex 8:16-19 | The dust of the earth | Geb |
| 4 | Flies | Ex 8:20-32 | Swarms over the land | Khepri, Uatchit |
| 5 | Livestock | Ex 9:1-7 | Cattle, horses, flocks | Apis, Hathor |
| 6 | Boils | Ex 9:8-12 | The health of man and beast | Sekhmet, Imhotep, Isis |
| 7 | Hail and fire | Ex 9:13-35 | Sky and storm over field and crop | Nut, Shu, Seth |
| 8 | Locusts | Ex 10:1-20 | Whatever the hail left | Seth, Min |
| 9 | Darkness | Ex 10:21-29 | The sun itself, three days | Ra, Amun-Ra, Horus |
| 10 | The firstborn | Ex 11:1-12:30 | Every household, up to Pharaoh’s | Pharaoh, the son of Ra |
The gods named in the table are standard Egyptology and their domains are attested in Egyptian records. The pairings of god to plague circulate in popular lists; the lists cite no ancient source. From the fourth stroke onward Israel is severed from the blow, with Goshen named where the land itself is struck (Exodus 8:22-23 ; 9:4-6; 9:26; 10:23; 11:7).
The gods
Hapi
Hapi is the Nile flood itself: the name is the Egyptian word for the inundation. The water, the fish, and the fertility the flood leaves on the fields are his to give.
Khnum
The ram-headed potter god: he fashions mankind on his wheel, and from Elephantine he guards the sources of the Nile. The name has no settled translation.
Osiris
The ruler of the dead and the god of the vegetation cycle that dies and rises with the year; in the hymns the Nile is identified with him. The Egyptian name, Wsir, has many proposed derivations and no accepted one.
Heket
The frog goddess of birth, the midwife of the gods; her amulet went with Egyptian women into childbirth. The name has no settled translation.
Geb
The earth itself, god of the ground, its dust, and what grows from it. His sign is the goose. The name has no settled translation.
Khepri
The morning sun, depicted as the scarab pushing the sun across the sky as the beetle pushes its ball. The name comes from kheper, “to come into being”: he who comes into being.
Uatchit
The cobra goddess of Lower Egypt and protector of the crown; she is the uraeus on the pharaoh’s brow. The name means “the green one,” after the papyrus marshes of her delta. Wadjet is the current reading; Uatchit, the spelling of the popular lists, is the older one.
Apis
The living sacred bull of Memphis, herald of Ptah: strength and fertility in one animal. In death he is identified with Osiris. The name has no settled translation.
Hathor
The cow goddess of the sky: motherhood, love, and music. The name means “house of Horus,” the sky as the mansion of the falcon.
Sekhmet
The lioness of war. She sends pestilence, and she alone withdraws it, which made her the patron of physicians. The name means “the mighty one,” from sekhem, might.
Imhotep
A historical man, vizier and architect of the third dynasty, worshipped centuries later as the god of medicine and healing. The name means “he who comes in peace.”
Isis
Magic, protection, and healing: she reassembles Osiris and guards the child Horus. Her crown is the throne sign, and her name is written with it; it is conventionally read as “throne.”
Nut
The sky. She swallows the sun every evening and bears it again every morning. The name has no settled translation.
Shu
The air, holding the sky apart from the earth. The name means “emptiness”: the space between earth and sky.
Seth
Storm, desert, and chaos, the god of foreign lands. The name has no settled translation. The popular lists attach him twice, to the hail and to the locusts.
Min
Male generative power and the harvest, depicted ithyphallic; he also guards the desert routes. The name has no settled translation.
Ra
The sun itself, and the name is the Egyptian word “sun.” King of the gods and father of the king: every pharaoh carries the title “son of Ra.”
Amun-Ra
Amun means “the hidden one.” The Theban god rose to king of the gods in the New Kingdom and was fused with the sun as Amun-Ra.
Horus
The falcon god of the sky; the living king is his embodiment on the throne. The name is commonly read as “the distant one,” but the derivation is disputed.
Pharaoh
The last god judged is the throne itself. Egyptian kingship was a divine office: the king carried the title son of Ra and was held to be Horus embodied. The tenth stroke was announced before the first:
And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. Exodus 4:22-23 KJV
It falls on “all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon” (Exodus 12:29 ).
The magicians concede
Egypt’s own experts match the first two strokes and add to both: they turn water to blood with their enchantments (Exodus 7:22 ) and bring up frogs of their own (Exodus 8:7 ). At the lice they fail for the first time and tell Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God” (Exodus 8:18-19 ). At the boils they cannot appear at all: “the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians” (Exodus 9:11).