Commentaria in Exodum
25. AND SEVEN DAYS WERE FULFILLED.—Not as though this plague of blood lasted seven days, but that after this first plague, which lasted one day, seven days passed until the second, of the frogs, says Eusebius in the Catena. But Philo and others commonly hold that this plague lasted seven days: for in one day the Egyptians would not have dug new ditches and wells. The sense is therefore: “Seven days were fulfilled,” that is, for seven days the blood continued in the river: but after the seventh day the blood returned to the nature of water, and that not at the request of Pharao and the entreaty of Moses, as Philo would have it: for Scripture has nothing of the kind; but by the will of God, who wished to punish the Egyptians with new and other plagues. The infliction of the second plague of frogs was therefore the end of the first plague of blood. Tropologically, St. Augustine made a tract On the Agreement of the Ten Plagues of Egypt with the Ten Precepts of the Decalogue, which is extant in his ninth tome. In this first plague, then, says he, water is turned into blood, that is, God is changed into an idol: for carnal and foolish men, thinking unworthily of the majesty of God, attributed His glory to animals and stones, as the Egyptians did: the philosophers dig round about wells, who by their wit and study have obtained a little water, that is, doctrine of God; but bloody, that is, defiled by admixed errors. Hence Orosius, book 7 History, chap. 27, teaches that these ten plagues allegorically foreshadowed the ten persecutions of the nascent Church, that is, the ten plagues sent upon the ten Emperors persecuting the Church. Thou wilt ask, how many and which were the plagues inflicted on Egypt by Moses and God? I answer there were ten. The first was this of blood. The second was of frogs, chap. 8, verse 3. The third, of sciniphs, chap. 8, verse 17. The fourth, of flies, chap. 8, verse 24. The fifth, pestilence and death of animals, chap. 9, verse 3. The sixth, boils and ulcers, in men as well as in animals, chap. 9, verse 10. The seventh, thunder, hail and lightning, chap. 9, verse 23. The eighth, locusts devouring everything, chap. 10, verse 13. The ninth, three days’ darkness, chap. 10, verse 22. The tenth, the slaughter of the firstborn, chap. 11, verse 3, in which Pharao permitted the Hebrews to go out, but repenting of what he had done, pursuing them, was drowned in the Red Sea with all his army: which was not so much a plague as the overthrow of Pharao and Egypt. But why were they ten? Philo answers, because ten is the symbol of perfection: as therefore the measure of sins was full and perfect, so was that of the punishments of Egypt. For there are ten primary sins, which are opposed to as many, namely the ten precepts of the Decalogue. Whence God punished the impious Egyptians with as many plagues as He was about to give commandments to His people, whose authority He wished to confirm by this previous punishment. Where note first: the Egyptians were punished through almost all creatures, namely through earth, water, air and fire: through water, hail and blood: through animals, frogs, flies, sciniphs, locusts: through sun and stars, when, withdrawing themselves, they brought darkness: through men, Moses and Aaron, through angels and God.
Secondly, they were punished in almost all goods, namely in the fruits of the field, in animals, in their firstborn sons, in gold and silver, in their bodies by ulcers.
Thirdly, they were punished in all the senses: in sight, by darkness and spectres; in hearing, by thunder; in taste, by thirst and the drinking of blood; in smell, by the stench of frogs; in touch, by the pain of ulcers and the bite of sciniphs; finally in fancy and mind, by continual sorrow and manifold terrors. These plagues of Egypt were a prelude and type of the punishments of hell. For all these ten plagues, either in themselves or in their like, will torment Pharao and other damned in hell, to which it is easy to adapt each. And if God so punished the Egyptians in this life, how will He punish the damned in hell? Hence again “the same plagues,” says Irenaeus, book 4, chap. 50, at the end, “which Egypt then received particularly, the nations shall receive universally at the end of the world,” and St. John foresaw and foretold them, Apoc. chap.
Symbolically, God punishes sinners by ten plagues.
First, by blood, that is, discord: for the drinkable waters of the Egyptians turned into blood signify discord creeping into the inmost bowels and veins of the commonwealth. Secondly, by frogs, that is, quarrels and tumults, which flow from discord. Thirdly, by gnats, that is, cares and anxieties, which sting and torment sinners given to the world and the flesh. Fourthly, by dog-flies, that is, angers and hatreds, with which they boil, and bite and tear one another. Fifthly, by the pestilence of animals, that is, that in earthly things they find not the delights they sought, but rather feel in them disgust, losses, griefs and torments. Sixthly, by ulcerous blains, that is, the stings of conscience, which like ulcers bring at once pain and shame and horror. Seventhly, by hail, that is, obstinacy in their crimes. Eighthly, by locusts, that is, the tyranny and restlessness of concupiscence. Ninthly, by darkness, that is, blindness of mind. Tenthly, by the death of the firstborn, that is, damnation of the soul. For as the firstborn in the father’s house is the chief, so the mind is in each man. So Alcazar on Apoc. 11, note 8; but I shall treat of each separately below in their places.
Thou wilt ask secondly, where and when were these plagues done? I answer first, they were done in the field of Tanis, Psalm 77:12. For Tanis was the royal city and capital of Egypt, in which Pharao dwelt. Each plague therefore first struck Tanis, in which was a sink of crimes, then was spread through all Egypt, as the Hebrews relate. Secondly, these plagues happened in the 81st year of Moses, that is in the year of the world 2454, 797 after the deluge, 390 years before the Trojan war, which fell in the times of Samson and Heli; 745 years before the founding of Rome. Paulus Orosius adds, book 1 of the Histories, chaps. 9 and 10, that these plagues happened about the same time as the deluge, not of Ogyges, as Africanus would have it, but of Deucalion, and the conflagration which they call that of Phaethon.
Thou wilt ask thirdly, how long did these plagues last? Torniellus and Pereira answer that all were completed in one month, namely 27 days; for after the first plague until the second seven days passed; on the 9th day the second plague of frogs was removed; on the 11th the third plague of sciniphs was sent; on the 16th Moses threatened flies, and on the 19th sent them, and on the 23rd removed them; on the 25th he threatened and inflicted the fifth plague; on the 16th the sixth plague was inflicted; on the 17th he threatened the seventh plague, which was inflicted on the 18th and removed on the 19th; on the 20th he threatened the eighth plague, and on the 24th inflicted it, and on the 22nd removed it; the following three days, namely 23, 24, 25, the plague of darkness lasted; on the 26th Pharao drove Moses from him, and at midnight following was inflicted the tenth plague of the slaughter of the firstborn, at the beginning of the 27th day. About one lunar month therefore passed from the first plague to the last. Now since the last plague happened on the 15th day of the first month Nisan, which answers to our March, it follows that the first plague was made about the middle of the last month, which the Hebrews call Adar, and answers to our February. The Hebrews therefore err, whom Genebrard follows on Psalm 104, saying that these plagues were made in the space of 12 months, at intervals. Thou wilt ask fourthly, who was the author of these plagues? I answer, it was God, using however the ministry of angels, of whom it is said Psalm 77: “He sent upon them the wrath of his indignation, anger, and indignation, and trouble: which he sent by evil angels.” Where, though Genebrard thinks these plagues were inflicted by demons, yet it is truer that it was done by good angels, both because Moses and God here contended with the magicians, that is, with demons: therefore He did not use their work; and because so He punished the Sodomites by good angels: these angels however are called evil, that is, hurtful and bringing evils or punishments. Whence in Hebrew it is, by angels of evils, namely the workers. The angels therefore here rendered their ministry to God, and performed the fifth plague of pestilence, the sixth of ulcers, the seventh of thunder, the ninth of darkness, and the tenth of the slaughter of the firstborn, perhaps also the third of sciniphs, and the fourth of flies: the rest, as sudden and miraculous conversions and productions of solid and perfect things, as of blood and frogs, perhaps also of locusts, God worked by Himself.
Now the end of these plagues was that by them God might show both His care and providence for the Hebrews, and His terrible power and vengeance against Pharao and the Egyptians, and compel them to let the Hebrews go, and strike all nations with fear and reverence of Himself. That it so happened the Chanaanites confess, Josue 2:9.
Hence it is plain that the Hebrews in Egypt were immune from these plagues, as appears chap. 8, verse 22, and it is probable that there were also strangers and sojourners there. For these plagues were inflicted on the Egyptians alone. Whence Pereira probably holds that the strangers, when they saw such dreadful punishments inflicted on Egypt, doubting the destruction of the whole region, left Egypt as soon as possible. Pereira adds that those Egyptians also were immune who had done nothing wrong to the Jews: but this is very uncertain; for God is wont to punish all for the public sins of kings and kingdom, and to involve even the innocent with the guilty in common calamity. Finally, St. Augustine, Quest. 44, thinks that, except the last, the Egyptians dwelling in the land of Gessen were immune from these plagues: for this land was immune from the plagues on account of the Hebrews dwelling in it. But Tostatus and others more probably hold that the Egyptians in Gessen, as elsewhere, were struck by these plagues, because all the Egyptians persecuted the Hebrews with an innate hatred, but most of all those who oppressed them in Gessen, both because they thought they thereby entered into the greatest favour with Pharao, and because they hoped the ruin of the Hebrews would be a great good to themselves.