Making Sense of the Plagues: The Education of Pharaoh INCONSISTENCIES WITHIN THE PLAGUES Then YHVH said to Mosheh, ‘Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water; standby at the river bank to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was turned into a snake. Say to him, ‘YHVH, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you to say, ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness.’ But until now you have not listened.’ Thus says YHVH, ‘By this you shall know that Iam YHVH.’ See, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall be turned to blood. (Sh ” mot [Exodus] 7: 14-17) In this account of the warning of the first plague (blood), there are several details which show up again in some – but not all – of the other plagues: 1) Mosheh warns Pharaoh about the upcoming plague – but not every time (only before the plagues of frogs, wild beasts, pestilence, hail, locusts and the first-born).
2) Some of these warnings take place in the early morning by the banks of the Nile (wild beasts and hail) while others take place in Pharaoh’s palace. 3) A theological message (e. g. ‘By this you shall know that I am YHVH’) is appended to the warning – whereas other warnings are bereft of such a message.
4) Mosheh’s staff is used in some of the plagues – but not all (it is only used in the plagues of blood, frogs, lice, hail and locusts).
The Essay on The Ten Plagues Upon Egypt
To escape punishment for killing an Egyptian, Moses ran away to Midian, where he met and married the daughter of a shepherd. During that time, the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites called out to God in their suffering. In the past, God had made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob concerning the fate of them and their descendants, and the time had come for Him to rescue them. While Moses ...
Our first simple and straightforward question is: Is there any rhyme or reason to the plagues and their attendant warnings which would explain these apparent inconsistencies?
