With this chapter begins the series of miracles performed in Egypt. They are progressive. The first miracle is performed to accredit the mission of the brothers; it is simply credential, and unaccompanied by any infliction. Then come signs which show that the powers of nature are subject to the will... [ Continue Reading ]
WONDERS - A word used only of portents performed to prove a divine interposition; they were the credentials of God’s messengers.... [ Continue Reading ]
THY ROD - Apparently the rod before described Exodus 4:2, which Moses on this occasion gives to Aaron as his representative. A SERPENT - A word different from that in Exodus 4:3. Here a more general term, תנין _tannı̂yn_, is employed, which in other passages includes all sea or river monsters, and... [ Continue Reading ]
Three names for the magicians of Egypt are given in this verse. The “wise men” are men who know occult arts. The “sorcerers” are they who “mutter magic formulae,” especially when driving away crocodiles, snakes, asps, etc. It was natural that Pharaoh should have sent for such persons. The “magicians... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE HARDENED - Or Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. See Exodus 4:21.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE GOETH OUT UNTO THE WATER - The Nile was worshipped under various names and symbols; at Memphis especially, as Hapi, i. e. Apis, the sacred bull, or living representation of Osiris, of whom the river was regarded as the embodiment or manifestation. If, as is probable, the king went to offer his de... [ Continue Reading ]
TURNED TO BLOOD - This miracle would bear a certain resemblance to natural phenomena, and therefore be one which Pharaoh might see with amazement and dismay, yet without complete conviction. It is well known that before the rise the water of the Nile is green and unfit to drink. About the 25th of Ju... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL LOTHE - The water of the Nile has always been regarded by the Egyptians as a blessing unique to their land. It is the only pure and wholesome water in their country, since the water in wells and cisterns is unwholesome, while rain water seldom falls, and fountains are extremely rare.... [ Continue Reading ]
The “streams” mean the natural branches of the Nile in Lower Egypt. The word “rivers” should rather be “canals”; they were of great extent, running parallel to the Nile, and communicating with it by sluices, which were opened at the rise, and closed at the subsidence of the inundation. The word rend... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FISH ... - The Egyptians subsisted to a great extent on the fish of the Nile, though salt-water fish were regarded as impure. A mortality among the fish was a plague that was much dreaded.... [ Continue Reading ]
SEVEN DAYS - This marks the duration of the plague. The natural discoloration of the Nile water lasts generally much longer, about 20 days.... [ Continue Reading ]