The 10 Plagues

Exodus 7-12

I. Introduction

A. Our focus will be to better understand the narrative of the 10 plagues in Exodus 7-12. A
deeper understanding of the text will come through reviewing the literary structure and
relevant cultural background.

B. We will also see how this narrative bears significance as a pattern for later biblical
authors to understand how God graciously brings salvation through judgment.

II. Literary Structure

A. The account of the plagues exhibits a clear literary structure that consists of three cycles
of three plagues climaxing in the tenth.

B. The chart below by David Dorsey (Literary Structure of the Old Testament) gives this
basic structure of three cycles along with his expanded analysis that places the three
cycles at the center of a chiasm.

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C. Features of the first plague in each cycle:
1. The first plague in each cycle starts with instructions to go and stand before
Pharaoh “in the morning” by the Nile (7:14-15; 8:20; 9:13 [no mention of water]).
2. Each explains God’s purpose in sending the plagues:
7:17 – “By this you shall know that I am the Lord”
a. 8:22 – “That you may know that I, the LORD, am in the midst of the land”
b. 9:14 – “So that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth”

D. Features of the second plague in each cycle: Each is introduced with “Yahweh said to
Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh” at his palace (?) (8:1; 9:1; 10:1).

E. Features of the third plague in each cycle

1. The third plague in each cycle gets straight to the action and has no instruction to
go and warn Pharaoh (8:16; 9:8; 10:21).
2. These narratives are generally shorter than the others in each cycle.

F. Features of the first cycle:

1. For the first plague: “seven days passed after the LORD had struck the Nile”; on
the last plague the magicians recognized God at work (8:19).
2. The first cycle highlights the use of Aaron’s hand/staff.
3. The magicians show up in all three plagues.
4. The land is “foul” as a result of the first two.
5. Introduce “irritations.”

G. Features of the second cycle:

1. The second/middle cycle features no mention of either man’s staff. God acts
directly, though the plague of boils comes about through Moses and Aaron
throwing handfuls of soot from a kiln (9:8-10).
2. The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart for the final plague.
3. Escalation: introduce “destructions.”

H. Features of the third cycle:

1. The third cycle highlights the use of Moses’s hand/staff.
2. There is a note about nothing like this ever happening before in Egypt and about
Pharaoh confessing his sin for the first and second plague.
3. The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart for the final two plagues.
4. Escalation: introduce “death.”
5. The last plague: “there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days”;
on the first plague, some servants feared the word of the Lord (9:20-21).

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 I. The tenth plague is the final climactic event. The section that covers it is much larger
than the previous nine. Dorsey offers the following chiastic structure for understanding
how the material after 11:1-10 is arranged.

III. Cultural Background

A. The Gods of Egypt

1. Exodus 12:12 – “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am
the LORD”
2. Egyptian culture was polytheistic. The chart below is by Gary E. Schnittjer and
connects known Egyptian gods to the 10 plagues. God’s power displayed through
the plagues not only created havoc in Egypt. It also demonstrated his power over
Egyptian deities.

Egyptian Gods Against Whom the Plagues Were Possibly Directed

Nile to Hapi (also called Apis), the bull god, god of the Nile; Isis, goddess of
blood the Nile; Khnum, ram god, guardian of the Nile; others

Frogs Heqet, goddess of birth, with a frog head

Gnats Set, god of the desert storms

Flies Re, a sun god; Uatchit, possibly represented by the fly

Death of Hathor, goddess with a cow head; Apis, the bull god, symbol of fertility
livestock

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 Boils Sekhmet, goddess with power over disease; Sunu, the pestilence god;
Isis, healing goddess

Hail Nut, the sky goddess; Osiris, god of the crops and fertility; Set, god of
the desert storms

Locusts Nut, the sky goddess; Osiris, god of the crops and fertility

Darkness Re, the sun god; Horus, a sun god; Nut, a sky goddess; Hathor, a sky
goddess

Death of Min, god of reproduction; Heqet, goddess who attended women at

firstborn childbirth; Isis, goddess who protected children; Pharaoh’s firstborn son
considered a god

B. Egyptian Beliefs About the Afterlife

1. Egyptians believed that after death, the deceased had to enter the hall of judgment
and reply to a long list of charges: "I have not spoken lies. I have not uttered evil
words. I have not caused pain..." If the person said they were innocent of all these
sins, they would live forever.

2. The catch was that his heart would be taken out and placed on the scale to serve
as a “lie detector.” The human heart, the Egyptians reasoned, would always reveal
the truth, weighing down the scale if the dead person was guilty.
3. To avoid being betrayed by their truthful heart, the Egyptians carved a charm
shaped like a heart and a scarab (dung beetle) out of solid rock. They then tied

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 this heart of stone close over the mummy's heart or put
it in his chest cavity. Incantations supposedly made
the heart take on the qualities of the heart scarab,
hardening it so that it could be dishonest and not
weigh down the scale (Randall Price, The Stones Cry
Out).

4. Greg Beale writes in Redemptive Reversals and the

Ironic Overturning of Human Wisdom: “The scarab
beetle was a symbol of the sun god, of whom Pharaoh
was viewed as the incarnation, and they thought it had
magical powers to suppress the heart's tendency to
confess sin so that salvation could be secured. Thus it
was actually the magical power of the divine Pharaoh
that imposed this silence upon the heart and was responsible for the individual's
salvation.

There were various magical spells written on the stone scarab heart to bring about
the silence of the human heart. The magical power of the sun god (and Pharaoh)
was believed to transfer the stillness of the stone heart to the deceased so that the
heart's movements to confess sin would be transformed into the stonelike stillness
of silence. This suppression of the heart's confession apparently came to be seen
as a kind of "hardening of the heart."

Whereas the pharaoh's magical hardening caused a nonconfession of sin and an

apparent sinless heart, resulting in salvation, the Lord's hardening of Pharaoh's
heart appears to have led to his own heart confessing sin (cf. Ex. 9:27, 34; 10:16–
17) and acknowledging his sinfully heavy condition, resulting in judgment
(cf. Ex. 14:4, 17–28). Whereas Pharaoh's hardening the hearts of others falsely
suppressed sin, the Lord's hardening of Pharaoh's heart rightly revealed the
monarch's sin.

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 The Lord's hardening of Pharaoh's heart may have been intended, in part, to show
that the Egyptian way of salvation is a sham and was really the very opposite—
a way of damnation. In fact, is it not interesting that the dead Pharaoh was the
only Egyptian who did not have to go through the judgment process, but now,
more than any other Egyptian in the exodus narrative, he is the focus of God's
hardening judgment? It is probably no coincidence that one of the Hebrew words
used for the Lord's hardening of Pharaoh means "to make heavy." Ironically, the
pharaoh who claimed to remove the sinful heaviness of others' hearts could not
remove his own. The pharaoh himself had now "been weighed on the scales and
found deficient" (Dan. 5:27) and awaited impending judgment at the Red Sea.
Pharaoh's heart became literally like the stone heart that symbolized his power
and ironically caused him to be hard and insensitive to God's commands, which
led to his destruction. Because of his stone heart, he sank like a stone in the
Red Sea.”

IV. Significance of the Plagues

A. How do the literary structure and cultural background inform our reading of Exodus 7-
12?

1. Three Cycles:
a. First Cycle: “By this you shall know that I am the Lord” (7:17)
b. Second Cycle: “That you may know that I, the LORD, am in the midst of the
land” (8:22)
c. Third Cycle: “So that you may know that there is no one like me in all the
earth” (9:14)

2. 10th Plague: “So that my wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt” (11:9)

3. Ironic Reversals:
d. “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the LORD”
(12:12)
e. Pharaoh’s hardened heart

4. Other observations?

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B. How do the plagues fit into the overall narrative of Exodus, the Old Testament, and the
whole Bible?

1. Book of Exodus
a. The plagues bring salvation for God’s people through judgment. Compare
Exodus 1:1-22 with 11:1-15:19:
i. Exodus 1:1-22:
• 70 Israelites came down to Egypt (1:5)
• Pharaoh seeks to kill Israelite male babies with help from the
midwives in order to control the population (1:15-21).
• Pharaoh seeks to kill Israelite male babies by drowning them in the
Nile (1:22)
ii. Exodus 11:1-15:19
• 600,000 Israelite men leave Egypt (12:37)
• The Lord kills the firstborn sons of Egypt (11:5-7; 12:29-30)
• The Lord kills Pharaoh and his army by drowning them in the Red
Sea (14:26-31; 15:1-19)
• Israel spent 430 years in Egypt (12:40-41)
b. However, the plagues are not merely a way to free Israel. They are designed to
discredit Egypt’s gods and demonstrate God’s uniqueness and power.

2. Old Testament – Examples

a. Psalms – Recalling the Exodus
i. Psalm 78:12-13 – “Wrought wonders,” “divided the sea”
ii. Psalm 105:25-39 – Darkness, waters turned to blood, frogs, flies, gnats,
hail and flaming fire, locusts, firstborn
iii. Psalm 106:7-9a – “He rebuked the sea and it dried up, and He led them
through the deeps, as through the wilderness”
iv. Psalm 114 – “The sea looked and fled”
b. Isaiah – Repeating the Exodus
i. Isaiah 19 – “The idols of Egypt will tremble”; “deliver the Egyptians
into the hands of a cruel master”; “waters of the sea will dry up”; Egypt
will be saved in a similar fashion that Israel was saved from Egypt
(19:19-22)
ii. Isaiah 25 – Song of Moses for a new generation
• Isaiah 25 – “Wonders” (1), “mountain” (6, 7, 10), “swallowed” (7, 8)
“Moab” (10)
• Exodus 15 – “Wonders” (11), “mountain” (17), “swallowed” (12),
“Moab” (15)

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 3. Whole Bible
a. Christ’s Death on the Cross: Matthew 27:45-54 (cf. 26:26-29); Mark 15:33-
39 (cf. 14:22-25); Luke 23:44-49 (cf. 22:14-23)
i. Exodus 10:21-29 – Darkness
ii. Exodus 11-12 – Death of firstborn
b. Revelation:
i. Fourth Seal: Revelation 6:8 – “pestilence,” “wild beasts” [flies]”
ii. Seven Trumpets: Revelation 8:1-11:19 – Thunder and lightning; hail
and fire, mixed with blood; sea turned to blood; darkness; locusts.
iii. Seven Bowls of Wrath: Revelation 16:1-21 – New Song of Moses;
Malignant sore; sea, rivers, and springs turned to blood; scorch men
with fire (Ex. 9:23?); darkness; river dried up; frogs; lightning,
thunder, and hail.
c. Resurrection of Believers: 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 – Swallowed
i. Isaiah 25:7-8 as an “echo” of Exodus 15:12 and 7:12

V. Conclusion

A. God is at the center of the Exodus story, which is about his power and reputation.

B. God has led us in a new Exodus through Christ, which will culminate in the New
Creation (Rev. 21-22). We are freed from sin to serve the Lord.

C. Resisting the Lord is futile (Rom. 9:14-23). Obedience is to be the hallmark of God’s
people.

D. Other take-aways?