Exodus 7:20

_AND MOSES AND AARON DID SO, AS THE LORD COMMANDED; AND HE LIFTED UP THE ROD, AND SMOTE THE WATERS THAT WERE IN THE RIVER, IN THE SIGHT OF PHARAOH, AND IN THE SIGHT OF HIS SERVANTS; AND ALL THE WATERS THAT WERE IN THE RIVER WERE TURNED TO BLOOD._ Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded - i:e., they inflicted this first plague at the moment (Exodus 7:15) when the Nile god was receiving, or about to receive, the devoted homage of the Egyptian monarch. It was a blow to the system of that national worship, in which the Egyptians chiefly gloried. SMOTE THE WATERS. The act was symbolical: it was as if, by the energetic movement of the arm, Moses inflicted a wound upon the waters, and they were forthwith turned into blood (see the notes at Genesis 41:13). The colour of the water

20._And Moses and Aaron did so. _He repeats that what God threatened as to the death of the fish, and the stinking of the Nile, actually took place; that he may aggravate the sin of the king, who was unaffected by the manifold power of God. Still he immediately adds that his counsellors witnessed it also. Hence we may conjecture, that the same infatuation had pervaded the whole court. It was also proper that so memorable a circumstance should not only be known generally, but that its author should be seen by many eyes. But it was a sign of the reprobation of the whole nation, that there was none of all that multitude who labored to correct the folly of the king. Whence also it appears that God confounds the wisdom of the world; for there was no nation which gloried more in its universal knowledge; even as Isaiah reproaches them of their boast. (Isaiah 19:11.) But we see in how shame

14-25 Here is the first of the ten plagues, the turning of the water into blood. It was a dreadful plague. The sight of such vast rolling streams of blood could not but strike horror. Nothing is more common than water: so wisely has Providence ordered it, and so kindly, that what is so needful and serviceable to the comfort of human life, should be cheap and almost every where to be had; but now the Egyptians must either drink blood, or die for thirst. Egypt was a pleasant land, but the dead fish and blood now rendered it very unpleasant. It was a righteous plague, and justly sent upon the Egyptians; for Nile, the river of Egypt, was their idol. That creature which we idolize, God justly takes from us, or makes bitter to us. They had stained the river with the blood of the Hebrews' children, and now God made that river all blood. Never any thirsted after blood, but sooner or later they...

_THE_ FIRST _PLAGUE_. _THE_ WATERS _TURNED INTO_ BLOOD Verse Exodus 7:20. _ALL THE WATERS - WERE TURNED TO BLOOD._] Not merely in appearance, but in reality; for these changed waters became corrupt and insalubrious, so that even the fish that were in the river died; and the smell became highly offensive, so that the waters could not be drank; Exodus 7:21....

EXPOSITION THE FIRST PLAGUE. The first miracle had been exhibited, and had failed. It had been a mere "sign,'' and in no respect a "judgment." Now the "judgments ' were to begin. God manifests himself again to Moses, and gives him exact directions what he is to do. He is to meet Pharaoh on the banks of the Nile, and to warn him that a plague is coming upon all Egypt on account of his obstinacy; that the waters of the Nile will be turned to blood, so that the ash will die, and the river stink, and the Egyptians loathe to drink of the water of the river (Exodus 7:15-2). Pharaoh not yielding, making no sign, the threat is to be immediately followed by the act. In the sight of Pharaoh and his court, or at any rate of his train of attendants (Exodus 7:20

AND MOSES AND AARON DID SO, AS THE LORD COMMANDED,.... Moses delivered the rod to Aaron, who took it and went to the water side: AND HE LIFT UP THE ROD, AND SMOTE THE WATERS THAT WERE IN THE RIVER; or "in that river" i, the river Nile, on the brink of which Pharaoh then stood: IN THE SIGHT OF PHARAOH, AND IN THE SIGHT OF HIS SERVANTS; his nobles and courtiers who tended him in his walk to the water; for this was done before he returned to his palace: AND ALL THE WATERS THAT WERE IN THE RIVER WERE TURNED INTO BLOOD; not only the face of the waters looked like blood, but they were really turned into it; and not only the surface of the water, but all the water that was in the river, wherever it flowed, and as far as it flowed in the land of Egypt. i ביאר εν τω ποταμω Sept. "in eo rivo", Junius and Tremellius, Piscator....

4. THE NINE PLAGUES AND THE TENTH JUDGMENT ANNOUNCED CHAPTER 7:14-25 The First Plague _ 1. The plague announced (Exodus 7:14)_ 2. The judgment executed (Exodus 7:20) Nine judgment plagues follow, and after they had passed, the tenth, the great judgment, fell upon Egypt. There are striking and different characteristics of these plagues. Aaron uses his rod in the beginning of the plagues, while Moses stretches out his rod and hand in the last three, not counting the slaying of the firstborn. Some of them were announced beforehand, others were not announced and came without warning. We give them now in their order: 1. Water turned into blood; 2. Frogs; 3. Lice; 4. Flies; 5. Murrain; 6. Boils; 7. Hail; 8. Locusts; 9. Darkness (see

1°. WATER TURNED INTO BLOOD (Exodus 7:14 a J; Exodus 7:15 b E_ r_; Exodus 7:16 a J; Exodus 7:17 b, with the rod. hand, E; Exodus 7:17 c - Exodus 7:18 J; Exodus 7:19 a, commanded, P; Exodus 7:20 b, to servants, E; Exodus 7:20 c -...

RIVER. This first plague was directed against the Nile, an object of worship, which was thus polluted, and became. means of pollution to the people. Compare Exodus 12:12....

Exodus 7:14 to Exodus 11:5 _The first nine Plagues_ The narrative of the Plagues, like that of the preceding Chapter s, is composite. The details of the analysis depend partly upon literary criteria, partly upon differences in the representation, which are not isolated, but recurrent, and which moreover _accompany_the literary differences and support the conclusions based upon them, the differences referred to often also agreeing remarkably with corresponding differences in the parts of the preceding narrative, especially in Exodus 3:1 to Exodus 7:13, which have already, upon independent grounds, been assigned to P, J, and E, respectively. N