Commentaria in Exodum
Allegorically, Origen: “The rod of Moses,” he says, “is the cross of Christ; this, after it was cast upon the earth, that is, after it came to the belief and faith of men, was turned into wisdom, and so great wisdom as would devour all the wisdom of the Egyptians, that is, of this world.” And St. Ambrose, book 3 Offices, chap. 14: “Moses,” he says, “cast down the rod, and it, made a serpent, devoured the serpents of the Egyptians; signifying that the Word was made flesh, which would empty the dire poisons of the serpent by the remission and indulgence of sins. For the rod is the straight word, royal, full of power, the badge of empire. The rod became a serpent, because He who was the Son of God, born of God the Father, was made the son of man, born of a Virgin, who, like a serpent lifted up on the cross, poured a medicine into human wounds. Whence the Lord Himself says: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up.” Rupert and Prosper in the Catena of Lipomanus have similar things. In the same place St. Jerome: “As the rod of Moses,” he says, “devoured the rods of the magicians, so the truth of Christ will devour the lie of Antichrist.” Isidore: “The rod of Moses,” he says, “turned into a dragon, swallowed the rods of the magicians: and Christ, laying aside the dignity of His glory, became obedient unto death, and by death itself consumed the sting of death of the flesh, the Prophet attesting: I will be thy death, O death, I will be thy bite, O hell.”
13. AND PHARAO’S HEART WAS HARDENED.—Because he saw his magicians had done like signs to those Moses had done, thinking little of the devouring, namely that the serpent of Moses had devoured the dragons of the magicians.
15. THOU SHALT STAND TO MEET HIM.—Thou shalt anticipate his coming to the bank of the river Nile, that when he comes he may meet thee.
17. I WILL STRIKE WITH THE ROD.—God had therefore turned the serpent made from the rod back again into a rod, that by it He might afterwards work other miracles.
THAT IS IN MY HAND.—These are the words of God, and yet Moses held the rod in his hand, not God; namely because God had made Moses the God of Pharao, and had given him His own power, to command Aaron to strike the Nile, and so turn it into blood. These three therefore, God, Moses and Aaron, are reckoned as one, as the principal and the instrumental cause are called one efficient cause. For God here was the first cause, Moses the commander, Aaron the executor.
18. THE FISH SHALL DIE,—For fish cannot live out of water, much less in blood, which, thick and warm, is repugnant to the constitution of fishes.
AND THE WATERS SHALL BE CORRUPTED,—they shall be infected and corrupted by the carcasses of the fish. He calls them waters which had been waters; but now they were blood. The Septuagint renders, the river shall boil or effervesce: because for yibash, that is, shall putrefy, with other points they read yibeash, that is, in fire, namely shall be, that is, the river shall boil, so as to seem to be on the fire or set upon the fire.
AND THE EGYPTIANS SHALL BE AFFLICTED.—In Hebrew nilu, that is, they shall labour to drink, as if to say: They shall abhor the drink of blood, and shall be tormented with thirst.
AND ALL THE PONDS OF WATERS.—In Hebrew, every gathering of waters; so also the Septuagint. Whence it is plain that all water whatever, even of wells, fountains and cisterns, was turned into blood, and what follows indicates this: for otherwise they would not have dug the earth to bring out water; which nevertheless they are said to have done verse 24.
AND LET THERE BE BLOOD IN ALL THE LAND OF EGYPT.—Therefore in the land of Gessen also the waters were turned into blood, says Abulensis, but for the Egyptians only. For to the Hebrews the waters were sweet and drinkable, says Josephus. For the Egyptians in the land of Gessen were most worthy of this plague, as having most oppressed the Hebrews.
Verse 19. Why all its waters were turned.
Thou wilt ask, why in this first plague of Egypt all its waters were turned into blood? I answer, because they themselves had infected their waters with the blood of the Hebrew infants, by drowning them, chap. 1, verse 22: justly therefore are they punished in the waters in which they sinned. Secondly, because in Egypt it scarcely rains; hence they there have scarcely other waters than those of the Nile, which by overflowing fertilizes all Egypt. In the Nile therefore the Egyptians chiefly gloried, and boasted themselves blessed. Hence they also paid the Nile many superstitions, and almost divine honours, as Solinus testifies chap. 35, and Pliny book 8, chap. 46. Theodoret gives both causes: “That river,” he says, “changed into blood, as it were complained of the slaughter of the children by the Egyptians: Thou art just, O Lord: because they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink: for they are worthy.”
Thou wilt ask secondly, how great and how bitter was this plague. I answer first, all the water of the Egyptians whatever was turned into blood, and the whole Nile, as long as it is from Ethiopia to the sea.
Where note that there was not one miracle here, but many, or rather one continued miracle, in the continual conversion into blood of the waters of the Nile flowing in, and that for seven days. For the Nile in Ethiopia bore pure waters; but when it touched the borders of Egypt, straightway it was turned into blood, and that assiduously and continually for seven days. Secondly, the waters being taken away, men and beasts were tormented with thirst. Thirdly, the fish died. Hence fourthly, the river and the fish putrefying, a pestilence arose, from which and from thirst so many lay slain in the crossways that the household servants did not suffice to bury them, says Philo. Fifthly, the waters had not only the colour but the nature of blood, and were true blood. Whence if anyone compelled by thirst tasted thereof, he was at once seized with sharp pain, says Josephus.
22. AND THE MAGICIANS DID IN LIKE MANNER.—Thou wilt ask, whence the magicians had the water which they turned into blood? for all water was already turned into blood by Moses.
St. Justin answers, Quest. 26 to the Orthodox, that the Egyptians dug wells around the river, and drew water from them. Secondly, Theodoret answers that water was brought from the neighbouring sea: for not sea waters, as Genebrard would have it, on Psalm 113, but only sweet and drinkable waters, by the witness of Scripture, were turned into blood, that the Egyptians might be tormented with thirst. Thirdly, others answer, that by God’s providence some water was kept back for the magicians, so that all waters, that is, nearly all, were turned into blood: for a small amount seems to take nothing from so great a mass. Fourthly, the Hebrews think that only the waters of the Nile were turned into blood: therefore they had waters from fountains; but these err, as I said. Fifthly, Cajetan holds that they had those waters which were kept in earthen and metal vessels. For Scripture says only that the waters which were in wooden and stone vessels were turned into blood. Sixthly, Tostatus and Lyranus think this water was very swiftly carried from elsewhere into Egypt by a demon. Seventhly, St. Augustine thinks this water was brought from the land of Gessen. Eighthly, it can very easily be said that water was offered to the magicians by Moses; for to Moses and the Hebrews it was not blood but the usual water, sweet and drinkable, as I said.
Note that this blood of the magicians was neither illusory, as Justin would have it; nor again truly changed from water, as St. Augustine would have it; but brought from elsewhere by the demon, and secretly substituted for the waters, as I said verse 12.
Morally, see here how the devil contends with God, magicians with prophets, heretics with the orthodox, by imitating their sayings and doings. But in vain: for these things are turned back upon themselves. In our age, as the English Martyrology testifies, Richard White disputed with an impious English Calvinist, more powerful at drinking than at discoursing about the keys of the Church: and when the heretic obstinately asserted that they had been given to him, White answered wittily and cleverly: “I believe the keys were given to thee just as to Peter; but with this difference, that to him were given those of the heavenly kingdom, to thee those of the beer-cellar: for the ruddy promontory of thy nose shows it.” Thus do heretics turn waters into blood.
23. NEITHER DID HE SET HIS HEART TO IT THIS TIME ALSO,—he did not apply his mind to believe and obey Moses and God, commanding him to let the people go. Wonderful was this hardness of Pharao, whose mind and hands, however, are so bound by God that he plots nothing more grievous against Moses and Aaron.
24. AND ALL THE EGYPTIANS DUG ROUND ABOUT THE RIVER FOR WATER TO DRINK,—that the blood of the river, strained through the earth and flowing into those ditches, might become more liquid and drinkable, as sailors strain and sweeten sea water through an earthen vessel to drink it. They dug therefore to find water to drink: but they found not water but blood, strained however and as it were watery: by which very many relieved their thirst and escaped death; for otherwise they would have been killed by a thirst of seven days. For few had a supply of wine, and few of milk, to drive off thirst. Philo adds that from the new veins opened by digging blood as it were gushed from a wound, and therefore very many were killed partly by thirst, partly by this drink. Where note another and opposite miracle: for the Hebrews, drawing from the same river or well, drew pure water, while the Egyptians drew from the same well blood, as I said above from Josephus.