In Exodus 7, God empowers Moses, making him a representative and 'god' to Pharaoh, with Aaron as his prophet to communicate God's will. The chapter depicts a series of progressive plagues aimed at demonstrating Yahweh's power over Egyptian customs and ultimately securing the Israelites' deliverance. Each miracle serves to challenge Egyptian beliefs and showcases Moses' authority, leading to Pharaoh's eventual surrender despite initial resistance.

1. EXODUS 7 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made
you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron
will be your prophet.
BAR ES, "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 of Yahweh, each plague being attended
with grave consequences to the Egyptians, yet not inflicting severe loss or suffering; then
in rapid succession come ruinous and devastating plagues, murrain, boils, hail and
lightning, locusts, darkness, and lastly, the death of the firstborn. Each of the inflictions
has a demonstrable connection with Egyptian customs and phenomena; each is directly
aimed at some Egyptian superstition; all are marvelous, not, for the most part, as
reversing, but as developing forces inherent in nature, and directing them to a special
end. The effects correspond with these characteristics; the first miracles are neglected;
the following plagues first alarm, and then for a season, subdue, the king, who does not
give way until his firstborn is struck. Even that blow leaves him capable of a last effort,
which completes his ruin, and the deliverance of the Israelites.
I have made thee a god - Or “appointed thee.” See the margin reference. Moses will
stand in this special relation to Pharaoh, that God will address him by a prophet, i. e. by
one appointed to speak in His name. The passage is an important one as illustrating the
primary and essential characteristic of a prophet, he is the declarer of God’s will and
purpose.
CLARKE, "I have made thee a god - At thy word every plague shall come, and at
thy command each shall be removed. Thus Moses must have appeared as a god to
Pharaoh.
Shall be thy prophet - Shall receive the word from thy mouth, and communicate it
to the Egyptian king, Exo_7:2.
GILL, "And the Lord said unto Moses,.... In answer to his objection, taken from his
own meanness, and the majesty of Pharaoh, and from his want of readiness and freedom
of expression:
see; take notice of, observe what I am about to say:

2. I have made thee a god to Pharaoh; not a god by nature, but made so; he was so by
commission and office, clothed with power and authority from God to act under him in
all things he should direct; not for ever, as angels are gods, but for a time; not in an
ordinary way, as magistrates are gods, but in an extraordinary manner; and not to any
other but to Pharaoh, being an ambassador of God to him, and as in his room and stead
to, rule over him, though so great a monarch; to command him what he should do, and
control him when he did wrong, and punish him for his disobedience, and inflict such
plagues upon him, and do such miracles before him, as no mere man of himself, and
none but God can do; and even exercise the power of life and death, as in the slaying of
the firstborn, that Pharaoh should stand in as much fear of him, as if he was a deity, and
apply to him to remove the plagues upon him, as if he was one:
and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet; to declare the will of God revealed to
him by Moses from the Lord; so that this seems to be more than to be the mouth and
spokesman of Moses and interpreter and explainer of his words, or to be acting the part
of an orator for him; for Moses in this affair being God's viceregent, and furnished with a
knowledge of the mind and will of God respecting it, as well as with power to work
miracles, and inflict plagues, was made a god to both Pharaoh and Aaron; see Exo_4:6
to Pharaoh in the sense before explained, and to Aaron, he being his prophet, to whom
he communicated the secrets of God, and his will and pleasure, in order to make the
same known to Pharaoh. Thus highly honoured was Moses to be a god to a sovereign
prince, and to have Aaron to be his prophet.
HE RY 1-5, "Here, I. God encourages Moses to go to Pharaoh, and at last silences all
his discouragements. 1. He clothes him with great power and authority (Exo_7:1): I have
made thee a god to Pharaoh; that is, my representative in this affair, as magistrates are
called gods, because they are God's viceregents. He was authorized to speak and act in
God's name and stead, and, under the divine direction, was endued with a divine power
to do that which is above the ordinary power of nature, and invested with a divine
authority to demand obedience from a sovereign prince and punish disobedience. Moses
was a god, but he was only a made god, not essentially one by nature; he was no god but
by commission. He was a god, but he was a god only to Pharaoh; the living and true God
is a God to all the world. It is an instance of God's condescension, and an evidence that
his thoughts towards us are thoughts of peace, that when he treats with men he treats by
men, whose terror shall not make us afraid. 2. He again nominates him an assistant, his
brother Aaron, who was not a man of uncircumcised lips, but a notable spokesman: “He
shall be thy prophet,” that is, “he shall speak from thee to Pharaoh, as prophets do from
God to the children of men. Thou shalt, as a god, inflict and remove the plagues, and
Aaron, as a prophet, shall denounce them, and threaten Pharaoh with them.” 3. He tells
him the worst of it, that Pharaoh would not hearken to him, and yet the work should be
done at last, Israel should be delivered and God therein would be glorified, Exo_7:4,
Exo_7:5. The Egyptians, who would not know the Lord, should be made to know him.
Note, It is, and ought to be, satisfaction enough to God's messengers that, whatever
contradiction and opposition may be given them, thus far they shall gain their point, that
God will be glorified in the success of their embassy, and all his chosen Israel will be
saved, and then they have no reason to say that they have laboured in vain. See here, (1.)
How God glorifies himself; he makes people know that he is Jehovah. Israel is made to
know it by the performance of his promises to them (Exo_6:3), and the Egyptians are
made to know it by the pouring out of his wrath upon them. Thus God's name is exalted
both in those that are saved and in those that perish. (2.) What method he takes to do

3. this: he humbles the proud, and exalts the poor, Luk_1:51, Luk_1:52. If God stretch out
his hand to sinners in vain, he will at last stretch out his hand upon them; and who can
bear the weight of it?
JAMISO , "Exo_7:1-25. Second interview with Pharaoh.
the Lord said unto Moses — He is here encouraged to wait again on the king - not,
however, as formerly, in the attitude of a humble suppliant, but now armed with
credentials as God’s ambassador, and to make his demand in a tone and manner which
no earthly monarch or court ever witnessed.
I have made thee a god — “made,” that is, set, appointed; “a god”; that is, he was to
act in this business as God’s representative, to act and speak in His name and to perform
things beyond the ordinary course of nature. The Orientals familiarly say of a man who
is eminently great or wise, “he is a god” among men.
Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet — that is, “interpreter” or “spokesman.”
The one was to be the vicegerent of God, and the other must be considered the speaker
throughout all the ensuing scenes, even though his name is not expressly mentioned.
K&D 1-3, "Moses' last difficulty (Exo_6:12, repeated in Exo_6:30) was removed by
God with the words: “See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother
shall be thy prophet” (Exo_7:1). According to Exo_4:16, Moses was to be a god to
Aaron; and in harmony with that, Aaron is here called the prophet of Moses, as being the
person who would announce to Pharaoh the revelations of Moses. At the same time
Moses was also made a god to Pharaoh; i.e., he was promised divine authority and power
over Pharaoh, so that henceforth there was no more necessity for him to be afraid of the
king of Egypt, but the latter, notwithstanding all resistance, would eventually bow before
him. Moses was a god to Aaron as the revealer of the divine will, and to Pharaoh as the
executor of that will. - In Exo_7:2-5 God repeats in a still more emphatic form His
assurance, that notwithstanding the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, He would bring His
people Israel out of Egypt. ‫ח‬ ַ ִ‫שׁ‬ְ‫ו‬ (Exo_7:2) does not mean ut dimittat or mittat (Vulg.
Ros.; “that he send,” Eng. ver.); but ‫ו‬ is vav consec. perf., “and so he will send.” On Exo_
7:3 cf. Exo_4:21.
CALVI , "1.And the Lord said unto Moses. Moses again repeats, that consolation
was afforded him in his anxiety, and a remedy given for his want of faith; since he
was both armed himself with divine authority, and Aaron was appointed as his
companion and assistant. For that he was “made a god to Pharaoh,” means that he
was furnished with supreme authority and power, whereby he should cast down the
tyrant’s pride. (77) or did God take away anything from Himself in order to
transfer it to Moses; since He so communicates to His servants what is peculiar to
Himself as to remain Himself in His completeness. ay, whenever He seems to
resign a part of His glory to His ministers, He only teaches that the virtue and
efficacy of His Spirit will be joined with their labors, that they may not be fruitless.
Moses, therefore, was a god to Pharaoh; because in him God exerted His power, that
he should be superior to the greatness of the king. It is a common figure of the
Hebrews, to give the title of God to all things excellent, since He alone reigns over
heaven and earth, and exalts or casts down angels, as well as men, according to His
will. By this consolation, as I have said, the weakness of Moses was supported, so

4. that, relying on God’s authority, he might fearlessly despise the fierceness of the
king. A reinforcement is also given him in the person of his brother, lest his
stammering should be any hinderance to him. It has been already remarked, that it
was brought about by the ingratitude of Moses, that half the honor should be
transferred to his brother; although God, in giving him as his companion, so far
lessened his dignity as to put the younger before the first-born. The name of
“Prophet” is here used for an interpreter; because the prophetical office proceeds
from God alone. But, because God delivered through one to the other what He
wished to be said or done, Aaron is made subject to Moses, just as if he had been
God; since it is fit that they should be listened to without contradiction who are the
representatives of God. And this is made clearer in the second verse, where God
restricts the power given to Moses, and circumscribes it within its proper bounds;
for, when He directs him to speak whatever He commands, He ranks him as His
minister, and confines him under authority, without departing from His own rights.
BE SO , ". A god to Pharaoh — That is, my representative in this affair, as
magistrates are called gods, because they are God’s vicegerents. He was authorized
to speak and act in God’s name, and endued with a divine power, to do that which is
above the ordinary course of nature. And Aaron shall be thy prophet — That is, he
shall speak from thee to Pharaoh, as prophets do from God to the children of men.
Thou shalt as a god inflict and remove the plagues, and Aaron as a prophet shall
denounce them.
COFFMA , "Verse 1-2
THE DELIVERA CE OF ISRAEL (Exodus 7-14)
"And Jehovah said unto Moses, See, I have made thee as God to Pharaoh; and
Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee;
and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel
go out of his land."
"I have made thee as God to Pharaoh ..." This endowed Moses with full authority to
address Pharaoh as an equal, not as a subordinate. The contrast between the first
confrontation and this one is dramatic. In the first one (Exodus 5), Moses explained
the reason for their request, and limited it to "a three days journey into the
wilderness," the same being a legal and reasonable request. Pharaoh insulted Moses
and Aaron, accused them of "lying words" (Exodus 5:9), and ordered them back to
work, but, in this confrontation, and subsequently, Moses appeared before the cruel
monarch as a plenary representative of God Himself, speaking through a God-
ordained assistant and prophet, Aaron. Jamieson's comment on this is:
"(This meeting was not), as formerly, in the attitude of a humble suppliant, but now
armed with credentials as God's ambassador, and to make his demand in a tone and
manner which no earthly monarch or court had ever witnessed!"[1]
Thus, Moses here had the answer to the weakness regarding his speech which he
had brought up the second time in Exodus 6:12.

5. "Aaron shall be thy prophet ..." The use of the word "prophet" here is significant in
that it defines a prophet "as one who spoke not his own thoughts, but what he
received of God."[2] "The prophet was the middleman between God and the people,
God's mouthpiece, unlike the `Seer' whose name stressed how the message
came."[3] The significance of the word "prophet" is that it identifies God, not the
prophet, as the author of the message.
"Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh ..." Throughout the whole series of
the Ten Wonders about to be related, Aaron spoke and acted for Moses, his actions
and words being actually those of Moses, facts clearly indicated by this verse. How
ridiculous, therefore, are all the quibbles with which the critics busy themselves
about whether it was Aaron or Moses who stretched out the rod! Moses and Aaron
were a divinely-constituted unit in all these actions, and whatever either of them did
or said might properly be credited to the other or to both.
"That he let the children of Israel go ..." "The demand is for a full and final release
of the Hebrews from bondage."[4]
CO STABLE, "Verses 1-7
Moses was "as God" to Pharaoh in that he was the person who revealed God"s will
( Exodus 7:1). Pharaoh was to be the executor of that will. Aaron would be Moses"
prophet as he stood between Moses and Pharaoh and communicated Moses and
God"s will to the king. Exodus 7:1 helps us identify the essential meaning of the
Hebrew word nabhi (prophet; cf. Exodus 4:10-16; Deuteronomy 18:15-22; Isaiah
6:9; Jeremiah 1:7; Ezekiel 2:3-4; Amos 7:12-16). This word occurs almost300 times
in the Old Testament and "in its fullest significance meant "to speak fervently for
God"" [ ote: Leon J. Wood, The Prophets of Israel, p63. (]
"The pith of Hebrew prophecy is not prediction or social reform but the declaration
of divine will" [ ote: orman Gottwald, A Light to the ations, p277. See also
Edward J. Young, My Servants the Prophets, ch. III: "The Terminology of
Prophetism," for discussion of how the Old Testament used the Hebrew words for
prophets.]
God referred to the miracles Moses would do as signs (i.e, miracles with special
significance) and wonders (miracles producing wonder or awe in those who
witnessed them, Exodus 7:3). [ ote: See Ken L. Sarles, "An Appraisal of the Signs
and Wonders Movement," Bibliotheca Sacra145:577 (January-March1988):57-82.]
The text usually calls them "plagues," but clearly they were "signs," miracles that
signified God"s sovereignty.
The ultimate purpose of God"s actions was His own glory ( Exodus 7:5). The glory
of God was at stake. The Egyptians would acknowledge God"s faithfulness and
sovereign power in delivering the Israelites from their bondage and fulfilling their
holy calling. God"s intention was to bless the Egyptians through Israel ( Genesis
12:3), but Pharaoh would make that impossible by his stubborn refusal to honor
God. evertheless the Egyptians would acknowledge Yahweh"s sovereignty.

6. The writer included the ages of Moses and Aaron (80,83respectively) as part of
God"s formal certification of His messengers ( Exodus 7:7). [ ote: See G. Herbert
Livingston, "A Case Study of the Call of Moses," Asbury Theological Journal42:2
(Fall1987):89-113.]
"It is a common feature of biblical narratives for the age of their heroes to be stated
at the time when some momentous event befalls them ..." [ ote: Cassuto, pp90-91.]
"D. L. Moody wittily said that Moses spent forty years in Pharaoh"s court thinking
he was somebody; forty years in the desert learning he was nobody; and forty years
showing what God can do with somebody who found out he was nobody." [ ote:
Bernard Ramm, His Way Out, p54.]
ELLICOTT, "(1) See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh . . . —This is God’s
answer to the objection of Moses that his lips were uncircumcised (Exodus 6:12),
and probably followed it immediately. The force of it would seem to be: “Thou art
not called on to speak, but to act. In action thou wilt be to Pharaoh as a god—
powerful, wonder-working, irresistible; it is Aaron who will have to speak to him,
and he is eloquent” (Exodus 4:14).
Thy prophet.—Or spokesman—the declarer of thy mind, which is the primary sense
of “prophet.”
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god
to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
Ver. 1. And the Lord said unto Moses.] In answer to his last exception, which yet he
had answered before. [Exodus 4:16] God bears with our infirmities.
A god to Pharaoh.] Armed with mine authority; a vice-god.
Shall be thy prophet,] i.e., Thy spokesman, and interpreter. Aben-Ezra saith that
Aaron, as he was Moses’s eldest brother, so he prophesied to the people before
Moses showed himself; and hence he is sometimes set before Moses.
WHEDO , "1. I have made thee a god to Pharaoh — o more was he to come to
Pharaoh as a suppliant, but now he was invested with divine authority. To Aaron,
Moses was a revealer of God’s will, (Exodus 4:16,) but to Pharaoh he was now to
appear clothed with God’s power. Hitherto he had been an advocate, a mediator,
and in that position had painfully felt the embarrassment of his slowness of speech;
but now his deeds were to speak, and, armed with Jehovah’s thunders, he was to
smite down the gods of Egypt. Thus, then, the Lord replies to Moses’s despairing
plea — “See, I have made thee a god!” Pharaoh had refused to glorify God by
obedience to Moses as a messenger of his mercy; now shall he glorify him by

7. submitting to Moses as a messenger of his wrath. The results of these threatened
judgments are now predicted.
EXPOSITOR'S DICTIO ARY, "Exodus 7:1-2
The literature of France has been to ours what Aaron was to Moses, the expositor of
great truths which would else have perished for want of a voice to utter them with
distinctness. The relation which existed between Mr. Bentham and M. Dumont is an
exact illustration of the intellectual relation in which the two countries stand to each
other. The great discoveries in physics, in metaphysics, in political science, are ours.
But scarcely any foreign nation except France has received them from us by direct
communication. Isolated by our situation, isolated by our manners, we found truth,
but we did not impart it. France has been the interpreter between England and
mankind.
—Macaulay on Walpole"s Letters.
PULPIT, "Once more God made allowance for the weakness and self-distrust of
Moses, severely tried as he had been by his former failure to persuade Pharaoh
(Exodus 5:1-5) and his recent rejection by the people of Israel (Exodus 6:9). He
made allowance, and raised his courage and his spirits by fresh promises, and by a
call upon him for immediate action. The process of deliverance, God assured him,
was just about to begin. Miracles would be wrought until Pharaoh's stubbornness
was overcome. He was himself to begin the series at once by casting his rod upon the
ground, that it might become a serpent (Exodus 7:9). From this point Moses'
diffidence wholly disappears. Once launched upon his Heaven-directed course,
assured of his miraculous powers, committed to a struggle with the powerful
Egyptian king, he persevered without blenching or wavering until success crowned
his efforts.
Exodus 7:1
I have made thee a god to Pharaoh. Moses was diffident of appearing a second time
before Pharaoh, who was so much his worldly superior. God reminds him that he is
in truth very much Pharaoh's superior. If Pharaoh has earthly, he has unearthly
power. He is to Pharaoh "as a god," with a right to command his obedience, and
with strength to enforce his commands. Aaron shall be thy prophet, i.e. "thy
spokesman"—the interpreter of thy will to others. Compare Exodus 4:16.
PULPIT, "Exodus 7:1, Exodus 7:2
God assigns to each man his intellectual grade.
Three different intellectual grades are here set before us—that of the thinker, that
of the expounder, and that of the mere recipient. Pharaoh, notwithstanding his
exalted earthly rank, occupies the lowest position. He is to hang on the words of
Aaron, who is to be to him as a prophet of the Most High. Aaron himself is to hang

8. on the words of Moses, and to be simply his mouthpiece. Moses is to stand to both
(compare Exodus 4:16) as God. And here note, that the positions are not self-
assumed—God assigns them. So there are leaders of thought in all ages, to whom
God has given their intellectual gifts, whom he has marked out for intellectual pre-
eminency, and whom he makes to stand to the rest of men as gods. Sometimes they
are their own prophets—they combine, that is, the power of utterance with the
power of thought. But very often they need an interpreter. Their lips are
uncircumcised. They lack eloquence; or they even lack the power of putting their
thoughts into words, and require a "prophet," to publish their views to the world.
The "prophet-interpreter" occupies a position very much below theirs, but still one
requiring important and peculiar gifts, such as God alone can give. He must have
the intelligence to catch the true bearing, connection, and force of the ideas
presented to him, often in rude and uncouth language, like statues rough-hewn. He
must be able to work up the rough material into presentable form. He must have a
gift of language, if not a gift of speech. The great mass of men occupy a lower rank
than either of these; they can neither originate, nor skilfully interpret; it remains
that they be content to receive. God has given to them their humble position, as he
has given to the others their loftier ones. They should cultivate their receptivity.
They should be satisfied to listen and learn. They should remember that if, on the
one hand, οὗτος µὲν πανάριστος ὂς αὐτὸς πάντα νοήσῃ—on the other, ἐσθλὸς δ αυ}
ka)kei=noj o$j eu) ei)po&nti pi&qhtai
BI 1-2, "I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.
The moral position in which some men stand to others
God made Moses to be a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron to be a prophet. There are many
good and noble men in the world to-day, who are gods, the instructors and rulers, of
their fellow-creatures.
I. This exalted moral position is the result of divine allotment. “And the Lord said unto
Moses, see, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.”
II. This exalted moral position involves arduous work and terrible responsibility.
1. The true gods of society have something more to do than to amuse it. The bearing
of their efforts has reference to souls, to man’s life in its relation to the Infinite. A
man whose highest aim is to excite the merriment of society, is too far removed from
divinity to be mistaken for a god.
2. The true gods of society find their employment in communicating to men the
messages of God. They come to teach us; to awaken us; to enable us to fulfil the will
of God. Hence their work is arduous and responsible.
III. This exalted moral position is most efficiently employed in seeking the freedom of
men. But for the slavery of Israel Moses would not have been a god unto Pharaoh. The
position is the outcome of a condition of things it ought to remove. It is not for self-
aggrandizement. It is to give men the freedom of a Divine salvation. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)

9. 2 You are to say everything I command you, and
your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the
Israelites go out of his country.
GILL, "Thou shalt speak all that I command thee,.... That is, to Aaron his
prophet, whatever the Lord made known to him in a private manner as his will to be
done:
and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh; whatsoever should be told him
by Moses, as from the Lord:
that he send the children of Israel out of his land; this was the principal thing to
be insisted upon; and all that was said or done to him was to bring about this end, the
dismission of the children of Israel out of Egypt.
PULPIT, "Thou shalt speak. The Septuagint and the Vulgate have, "Thou shalt
speak to him," which undoubtedly gives the true sense. Moses was to speak to
Aaron, Aaron to Pharaoh. (See Exodus 4:15, Exodus 4:16.)
3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I
multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt,
BAR ES, "Wonders - A word used only of portents performed to prove a divine
interposition; they were the credentials of God’s messengers.

10. CLARKE, "I will harden Pharaoh’s heart - I will permit his stubbornness and
obstinacy still to remain, that I may have the greater opportunity to multiply my
wonders in the land, that the Egyptians may know that I only am Jehovah, the self-
existent God. See Clarke’s note on Exo_4:21.
GILL, "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart,.... See Gill on Exo_4:21.
and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt; work one miracle
and wonderful sign after another, until they are all wrought intended to be wrought; and
which he had given Moses power to do, and until the end should be answered and
obtained, the letting go of the children of Israel.
JAMISO , "I will harden Pharaoh’s heart — This would be the result. But the
divine message would be the occasion, not the cause of the king’s impenitent obduracy.
CALVI , "3.And I will harden. As the expression is somewhat harsh, many
commentators, as I have before said, take pains to soften it. Hence it is that some
take the words in connection, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart by multiplying my
signs;” as if God were pointing out the external cause of his obstinacy. But Moses
has already declared, and will hereafter repeat it, that the king’s mind was
hardened by God in other ways besides His working miracles. As to the meaning of
the words, I have no doubt that, by the first clause, God armed the heart of His
servant with firmness, to resist boldly the perversity of the tyrant; and then reminds
him that he has the remedy in his hand. Thus, then, I think this passage must be
translated, “I indeed will harden Pharaoh’s heart, but I will multiply my signs;” as
though He had said, his hardness will be no obstacle to you, for the miracles will be
sufficient to overcome it. In the same sense, He adds immediately afterwards,
“Although Pharaoh should not hear you, still I will lay on my hand;” for thus, in my
opinion, the conjunctions should be resolved adversatively I do not altogether reject
the interpretation of others; “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that I may multiply my
signs;” and, “He (78) will not hearken unto you, that I may lay on my hand.” And,
in fact, God willed that Pharaoh should pertinaciously resist Moses, in order that
the deliverance of the people might be more conspicuous. There is, however, no need
of discussing at length the manner in which God hardens reprobates, as often as this
expression occurs. Let us hold fast to what I have already observed, that they are
but poor speculators who refer it to a mere bare permission; because if God, by
blinding their minds, or hardening their hearts, inflicts deserved punishment upon
the reprobate, He not only permits them to do what they themselves please, but
actually executes a judgment which He knows to be just. Whence also it follows, that
He not only withdraws the grace of His Spirit, but delivers to Satan those whom he
knows to be deserving of blindness of mind and obstinacy of heart. Meanwhile, I
admit that the blame of either evil rests with the men themselves, who willfully blind
themselves, and with a willfulness which is like madness, are driven, or rather rush,
into sin. I have also briefly shewn what foul calumniators are they, who for the sake
of awakening ill-will against us, pretend that God is thus made to be the author of
sin; since it would be an act of too great absurdity to estimate His secret and

11. incomprehensible judgments by the little measure of our own apprehension. The
opponents of this doctrine foolishly and inconsiderately mix together two different
things, since the hardness of heart is the sin of man, but the hardening of the heart is
the judgment of God. He again propounds in this place His great judgments, in
order that the Israelites may expect with anxious and attentive minds His
magnificent and wonderful mode of operation.
COFFMA , "Verses 3-5
"And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and wonders in the land
of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not hearken unto you, and I will lay my hand upon
Egypt, and bring forth my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of
Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I
stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among
them."
"I will harden Pharaoh's heart ..." The mention of this here does not mean that God
would harden Pharaoh's heart at the beginning of these events, but that such
hardening executed upon him by God would be the final result. What we have in
these verses (Exodus 7:1-7) is a prophetic summary of the next seven chapters. See
under Exodus 4:21, above, for more on "Hardening." Canon George Harford has a
very perceptive comment on this subject, as follows:
"There are three forms of the word used in reference to hardening: (1) hard; (2)
self-hardened; and (3) God-hardened; raising difficulty, but a little reflection
lightens the difficulty. In all human conduct there is a mysterious combination of
man's choice and God's enabling. God uses events to produce opposite effects upon
different characters, as fire melts wax and hardens clay. Assertions of God's
sovereignty must not be isolated, but interpreted in harmony with His moral rule.
Thus read, the cumulative assaults upon Pharaoh's resolution call forth one of the
most dramatic exhibitions of the vacillations of man whose conscience has been
weakened, or silenced, by self-will.[5]
"The Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah ..." This means that they would learn
that, "Jehovah is the only God who is truly existent, all other gods being non-
entities."[6] Here is also revealed one of the principal purposes of the great wonders
executed upon Egypt, that being the total triumph of the true God over the gross
and shameful idolatry that prevailed. "The contest here is not so much with the
monarch himself as with the idols in whom he trusted."[7]
ELLICOTT, "(3) I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.—See the comment on Exodus 4:21.
My signs and my wonders.—“Signs” (‘othoth) were miracles done as credentials, to
prove a mission (Exodus 4:8-9; Exodus 4:30). “Wonders” (môphôth) were miracles
generally; niphle’oth, also translated” wonders” (Exodus 3:20), were miracles,
wrought in the way of punishment. These last are called also shôphëtiin,
“judgments.” (See Exodus 7:4.)
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY, "THE HARDE I G OF PHARAOH'S

12. HEART.
Exodus 7:3-13.
When Moses received his commission, at the bush, words were spoken which are
now repeated with more emphasis, and which have to be considered carefully. For
probably no statement of Scripture has excited fiercer criticism, more exultation of
enemies and perplexity of friends, than that the Lord said, "I will harden Pharaoh's
heart, and he shall not let the people go," and that in consequence of this Divine act
Pharaoh sinned and suffered. Just because the words are startling, it is unjust to
quote them without careful examination of the context, both in the prediction and
the fulfilment. When all is weighed, compared, and harmonised, it will at last be
possible to draw a just conclusion. And although it may happen long before then,
that the objector will charge us with special pleading, yet he will be the special
pleader himself, if he seeks to hurry us, by prejudice or passion, to give a verdict
which is based upon less than all the evidence, patiently weighed.
Let us in the first place find out how soon this dreadful process began; when was it
that God fulfilled His threat, and hardened, in any sense whatever, the heart of
Pharaoh? Did He step in at the beginning, and render the unhappy king incapable
of weighing the remonstrances which He then performed the cruel mockery of
addressing to him? Were these as insincere and futile as if one bade the avalanche to
pause which his own act had started down the icy slopes? Was Pharaoh as little
responsible for his pursuit of Israel as his horses were--being, like them, the blind
agents of a superior force? We do not find it so. In the fifth chapter, when a demand
is made, without any sustaining miracle, simply appealing to the conscience of the
ruler, there is no mention of any such process, despite the insults with which
Pharaoh then assails both the messengers and Jehovah Himself, Whom he knows
not. In the seventh chapter there is clear evidence that the process is yet
unaccomplished; for, speaking of an act still future, it declares, "I will harden
Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt"
(Exodus 7:3). And this terrible act is not connected with the remonstrances and
warnings of God, but entirely with the increasing pressure of the miracles.
The exact period is marked when the hand of doom closed upon the tyrant. It is not
where the Authorised Version places it. When the magicians imitated the earlier
signs of Moses, "his heart was strong," but the original does not bear out the
assertion that at this time the Lord made it so by any judicial act of His (Exodus
7:13). That only comes with the sixth plague; and the course of events may be
traced, fairly well, by the help of the margin of the Revised Version.
After the plague of blood "Pharaoh's heart was strong" ("hardened"), and this is
distinctly ascribed to his own action, because "he set his heart even to this" (Exodus
7:22-23).
After the second plague, it was still he himself who "made his heart heavy" (Exodus
8:15).

13. After the third plague the magicians warned him that the very finger of some god
was upon him indeed: their rivalry, which hitherto might have been somewhat of a
palliation for his obstinacy, was now ended; but yet "his heart was strong" (Exodus
8:19).
Again, after the fourth plague he "made his heart heavy"; and it "was heavy" after
the fifth plague, (Exodus 8:32, Exodus 9:7).
Only thenceforward comes the judicial infatuation upon him who has resolutely
infatuated himself hitherto.
But when five warnings and penalties have spent their force in vain, when personal
agony is inflicted in the plague of boils, and the magicians in particular cannot stand
before him through their pain, would it have been proof of virtuous contrition if he
had yielded then? If he had needed evidence, it was given to him long before.
Submission now would have meant prudence, not penitence; and it was against
prudence, not penitence, that he was hardened. Because he had resisted evidence,
experience, and even the testimony of his own magicians, he was therefore stiffened
against the grudging and unworthy concessions which must otherwise have been
wrested from him, as a wild beast will turn and fly from fire. He was henceforth
himself to become an evidence and a portent; and so "The Lord made strong the
heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them" (Exodus 9:12). It was an awful
doom, but it is not open to the attacks so often made upon it. It only means that for
him the last five plagues were not disciplinary, but wholly penal.
ay, it stops short of asserting even this: they might still have appealed to his
reason; they were only not allowed to crush him by the agency of terror. ot once is
it asserted that God hardened his heart against any nobler impulse than alarm, and
desire to evade danger and death. We see clearly this meaning in the phrase, when it
is applied to his army entering the Red Sea: "I will make strong the hearts of the
Egyptians, and they shall go in" (Exodus 14:17). It needed no greater moral
turpitude to pursue the Hebrews over the sands than on the shore, but it certainly
required more hardihood. But the unpursued departure which the good-will of
Egypt refused, their common sense was not allowed to grant. Callousness was
followed by infatuation, as even the pagans felt that whom God wills to ruin He first
drives mad.
This explanation implies that to harden Pharaoh's heart was to inspire him, not
with wickedness, but with nerve.
And as far as the original language helps us at all, it decidedly supports this view.
Three different expressions have been unhappily rendered by the same English
word, to harden; but they may be discriminated throughout the narrative in
Exodus, by the margin of the Revised Version.
One word, which commonly appears without any marginal explanation, is the same

14. which is employed elsewhere about "the cause which is too hard for" minor judges
(Deuteronomy 1:17, cf. Deuteronomy 15:18, etc.). ow, this word is found (Exodus
7:13) in the second threat that "I will harden Pharaoh's heart," and in the account
which was to be given to posterity of how "Pharaoh hardened himself to let us go"
(Exodus 13:15). And it is said likewise of Sihon, king of Heshbon, that he "would
not let us pass by him, for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit and made his heart
strong" (Deuteronomy 2:30). But since it does not occur anywhere in all the
narrative of what God actually did with Pharaoh, it is only just to interpret this
phrase in the prediction by what we read elsewhere of the manner of its fulfilment.
The second word is explained in the margin as meaning to make strong. Already
God had employed it when He said "I will make strong his heart" (Exodus 4:21),
and this is the term used of the first fulfilment of the menace, after the sixth plague
(Exodus 9:12). God is not said to interfere again after the seventh, which had few
special terrors for Pharaoh himself; but from henceforth the expression "to make
strong" alternates with the phrase "to make heavy." "Go in unto Pharaoh, for I
have made heavy his heart and the heart of his servants, that I might show these My
signs in the midst of them" (Exodus 10:1).
It may be safely assumed that these two expressions cover between them all that is
asserted of the judicial action of God in preventing a recoil of Pharaoh from his
calamities. ow, the strengthening of a heart, however punitive and disastrous when
a man's will is evil (just as the strengthening of his arm is disastrous then), has in
itself no immorality inherent. It is a thing as often good as bad,--as when Israel and
Joshua are exhorted to "Be strong and of a good courage" (Deuteronomy 31:6-7,
Deuteronomy 31:23), and when the angel laid his hand upon Daniel and said, "Be
strong, yea, be strong" (Daniel 10:19). In these passages the phrase is identical with
that which describes the process by which Pharaoh was prevented from cowering
under the tremendous blows he had provoked.
The other expression is to make heavy or dull. Thus "the eyes of Israel were heavy
with age" (Genesis 48:10), and as we speak of a weight of honour, equally with the
heaviness of a dull man, so we are twice commanded, "Make heavy (honour) thy
father and thy mother"; and the Lord declares, "I will make Myself heavy (get Me
honour) upon Pharaoh" (Deuteronomy 5:16, Exodus 20:12, Exodus 14:4, Exodus
14:17-18). In these latter references it will be observed that the making "strong" the
heart of Pharaoh, and the making "Myself heavy" are so connected as almost to
show a design of indicating how far is either expression from conveying the notion
of immorality, infused into a human heart by God. For one of the two phrases which
have been thus interpreted is still applied to Pharaoh; but the other (and the more
sinister, as we should think, when thus applied) is appropriated by God to Himself:
He makes Himself heavy.
It is also a curious and significant coincidence that the same word was used of the
burdens that were made heavy when first they claimed their freedom, which is now
used of the treatment of the heart of their oppressor (Exodus 5:9).

15. It appears, then, that the Lord is never said to debauch Pharaoh's heart, but only to
strengthen it against prudence and to make it dull; that the words used do not
express the infusion of evil passion, but the animation of a resolute courage, and the
overclouding of a natural discernment; and, above all, that every one of the three
words, to make hard, to make strong, and to make heavy, is employed to express
Pharaoh's own treatment of himself, before it is applied to any work of God, as
actually taking place already.
evertheless, there is a solemn warning for all time, in the assertion that what he at
first chose, the vengeance of God afterward chose for him. For indeed the same
process, working more slowly but on identical lines, is constantly seen in the
hardening effect of vicious habit. The gambler did not mean to stake all his fortune
upon one chance, when first he timidly laid down a paltry stake; nor has he changed
his mind since then as to the imprudence of such a hazard. The drunkard, the
murderer himself, is a man who at first did evil as far as he dared, and afterwards
dared to do evil which he would once have shuddered at.
Let no man assume that prudence will always save him from ruinous excess, if
respect for righteousness cannot withhold him from those first compliances which
sap the will, destroy the restraint of self-respect, wear away the horror of great
wickedness by familiarity with the same guilt in its lesser phases, and, above all,
forfeit the enlightenment and calmness of judgment which come from the Holy
Spirit of God, Who is the Spirit of wisdom and of counsel, and makes men to be of
quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.
Let no man think that the fear of damnation will bring him to the mercy-seat at last,
if the burden and gloom of being "condemned already" cannot now bend his will.
"Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a
reprobate mind" (Romans 1:28). "I gave them My statutes and showed them My
judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.... I gave them statutes that
were not good, and judgments wherein they should not live" (Ezekiel 20:11, Exodus
20:25).
This is the inevitable law, the law of a confused and darkened judgment, a heart
made heavy and ears shut, a conscience seared, an infatuated will kicking against
the pricks, and heaping to itself wrath against the day of wrath. Wilful sin is always
a challenge to God, and it is avenged by the obscuring of the lamp of God in the
soul. ow, a part of His guiding light is prudence; and it is possible that men who
will not be warned by the fear of injury to their conscience, such as they suppose
that Pharaoh suffered, may be sobered by the danger of such derangement of their
intellectual efficiency as really befel him.
In this sense men are, at last, impelled blindly to their fate (and this is a judicial act
of God, although it comes in the course of nature), but first they launch themselves
upon the slope which grows steeper at every downward step, until arrest is
impossible.

16. On the other hand, every act of obedience helps to release the will from its
entanglement, and to clear the judgment which has grown dull, anointing the eyes
with eye-salve that they may see. ot in vain is the assertion of the bondage of the
sinner and the glorious liberty of the children of God.
A second time, then, Moses presented himself before Pharaoh with his demands;
and, as he had been forewarned, he was now challenged to give a sign in proof of his
commission from a god.
And the demand was treated as reasonable; a sign was given, and a menacing one.
The peaceable rod of the shepherd, a fit symbol of the meek man who bore it,
became a serpent(10) before the king, as Moses was to become destructive to his
realm. But when the wise men of Egypt and the enchanters were called, they did
likewise; and although a marvel was added which incontestably declared the
superior power of the Deity Whom Aaron represented, yet their rivalry sufficed to
make strong the heart of Pharaoh, and he would not let the people go. The issue was
now knit: the result would be more signal than if the quarrel were decided at one
blow, and upon all the gods of Egypt the Lord would exercise vengeance.
What are we to think of the authentification of a religion by a sign? Beyond doubt,
Jesus recognised this aspect of His own miracles, when He said, "If I had not done
among them the works that none other man did, they had not had sin" (John 15:24).
And yet there is reason in the objection that no amount of marvel ought to deflect by
one hair's breadth our judgment of right and wrong, and the true appeal of a
religion must be to our moral sense.
o miracle can prove that immoral teaching is sacred. But it can prove that it is
supernatural. And this is precisely what Scripture always proclaims. In the ew
Testament, we are bidden to take heed, because a day will come, when false
prophets shall work great signs and wonders, to deceive, if possible, even the elect
(Mark 13:22). In the Old Testament, a prophet may seduce the people to worship
other gods, by giving them a sign or a wonder which shall come to pass, but they
must surely stone him: they must believe that his sign is only a temptation; and
above whatever power enabled him to work it, they must recognise Jehovah proving
them, and know that the supernatural has come to them in judgment, not in
revelation (Deuteronomy 13:1-5).
ow, this is the true function of the miraculous. At the most, it cannot coerce the
conscience, but only challenge it to consider and to judge.
A teacher of the purest morality may be only a human teacher still; nor is the
Christian bound to follow into the desert every clamorous innovator, or to seek in
the secret chamber every one who whispers a private doctrine to a few. We are
entitled to expect that one who is commissioned directly from above will bear special
credentials with him; but when these are exhibited, we must still judge whether the
document they attest is forged. And this may explain to us why the magicians were
allowed for awhile to perplex the judgment of Pharaoh whether by fraud, as we may

17. well suppose, or by infernal help. It was enough that Moses should set his claims
upon a level with those which Pharaoh reverenced: the king was then bound to
weigh their relative merits in other and wholly different scales.
PARKER, "The Hardening of Pharaoh"s Heart
Exodus 7:3
We have already remarked upon the hardening of Pharaoh"s heart; let us now look
at some of the broader aspects of that supposed mystery. We must never consent to
have God charged with injustice. Stand at what distance he may from our reason, he
must never separate himself from our conscience. If God could first harden a man"s
heart, and then punish the man because his heart was hard, he would act a part
which the sense of justice would instantly and indignantly condemn; therefore, he
could not act that part. Whenever there is on the one hand a verbal difficulty, and
on the other hand a moral difficulty, the verbal difficulty must give way. It is a rule
of interpretation we must fearlessly apply. Let me Revelation -state it. If ever there
should be a battle between language and the instinct or sense of justice, the language
must go down; the Judge of all the earth must be held to do right. The key of the
whole difficulty is in the very first chapter of the Book of Exodus; in the eighth verse
of that chapter we read: " ow there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew
not Joseph." That is the beginning of the mischief. That is the explanation of all the
hardening of heart What is the full translation or paraphrase of that verse? It is
this: ow there arose a new king, who knew not the history of his own country; a
Pharaoh who remembered not that Egypt had been saved by one of the very
Israelites who had become to him objects of fear; a king guilty either of ignorance or
of ingratitude; for if he knew the history of his own country and acted in this way he
was ungrateful, and therefore hardened his own heart; and if he did not know the
history of his own country, he was ignorant of the one thing which every king ought
to know, and therefore he was unfit to be king. The explanation of all that follows is
in this ignorant or ungrateful Pharaoh, not in the wisdom or grace of the providence
of God. Whether this particular Pharaoh came immediately after Joseph, or five
centuries after him is of no consequence, since we are dealing with a moral
progeny—a bad hereditary—and not with a merely physical descent. The point to
be kept steadily in view is that Pharaoh had hardened his own heart in the first
instance, had forgotten or ignored the history of his country, and was ruling his
whole course by obduracy and selfishness. That is the Pharaoh with whom God had
to deal. ot some young and pliable Pharaoh, who was willing to be either right or
wrong, as anybody might be pleased to lead him; an immature and inexperienced
Pharaoh, who was simply looking round for a policy, and might as easily have been
led upwards as led downwards—a very gentle, genial, beautiful soul; but a man who
had made up his mind to forget the saviour of his country, and to bend every
consideration to the impulse of a narrow and cruel policy. In this criticism Pharaoh
must be to us something more than an Egyptian term. We must know the man
before we can even partially understand the providence. What is the material with
which God has to deal? That is the vital inquiry. God may be reverently represented
as speaking thus:—This Prayer of Manasseh , having hardened his heart, has shown

18. clearly the specialty of his moral and mental constitution; he must be made,
therefore, to see what hardness of heart really means; for his own sake, I will treat
him as he has treated himself, and through him I will show the ages that to harden
the heart is the most terrible of all crimes, is indeed the beginning and pledge of the
unpardonable sin, and can only be punished by the destruction of the body and soul
in hell. There is no other way of dealing with the world. Men supply the conditions
with which Providence has to work.
The case now begins to lift itself out of the narrow limits of a historical puzzle and to
assume the grandeur of an illustration of Divine methods and purposes; in other
words, it is no longer an instance of the sovereignty of force, but an example of the
sovereignty of love, and though the example is unavoidably costly in its individual
suffering it is infinitely precious as an eternal doctrine. God is to us what we are to
God. He begins where we begin. One might imagine that the Lord treated Pharaoh
arbitrarily, that is to say, did just what he pleased with that particular man or class
of man. othing can be further from the truth. There is nothing arbitrary in the
eternal government. It is begun with justice, in the whole process justice, in the
whole issue justice. What other elements may come in will appear as the case is
evolved and consummated. The Lord hardened the hearts of the Israelites just as
certainly as he hardened the heart of Pharaon, and in the very same way and for the
very same reason. Do not imagine that God has some partiality for one man at the
expense of another. God deals with each man according to each man"s peculiarity of
constitution and purpose. See how the Lord treated the Israelites: "So I gave them
up unto their own hearts" lust: and they walked in their own counsels." The
marginal reading is still more vivid: "I gave them up unto the hardness of their
hearts." That is to say, the Divine Teacher must at certain points say, in effect: You
have made your determination, you must work it out; no reasoning, even on my
part, would dissuade you; you must for yourselves, in bitterness and agony of
experience, see what this condition of mind really means—"So I gave them up unto
their own hearts" lust: and they walked in their own counsels"—not as an act of
sovereignty, arbitrariness, and determination that could not be set aside because of
the Divinity of its origin; but I, the Living God, was for their sakes necessitated to
let them see what a certain course of conduct must logically and morally end in. The
Apostle puts the same truth in very striking language: "They received not the love
of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie." "My Spirit shall not always strive with
Prayer of Manasseh ,"—I will, at a certain point, stand back and let you see what
you are really at; doctrine would be lost upon you; exposition, appeal, would be
abortive; I am necessitated, therefore, though the Living God and Father, to let you
have your own way, that you may really see that it was an angel that was stopping
you, it was mercy that would have prevented your downward rush.
This is the secret of all Biblical providence, and rule, and education. From the very
beginning, the first man started up with a disobedient heart. For some reason or
other, he said he would pursue a policy of disobedience. The Lord allowed him to do
Song of Solomon , and the result was death. He was told that death would be the
result, but the telling had no effect upon him: he said, "I will try." If our narrow

19. suggestion of reasoning, and persuading, and pleading, were correct and profound
in its moral conception, and absolute in its philosophical Wisdom of Solomon ,
Adam would not have incurred God"s prediction, but instantly have fallen back
from the tree forbidden, and on no account would have touched it; but philosophy is
lost, appeal is a voice in the air that brings back no great heart-cry of allegiance and
consent. Every man must touch hell for himself. Another man started life upon a
different policy. He said he would rule by violence; nothing should stand in his way;
resistance on the part of others, or aggravation on the side of others, would simply
elicit from him an answer of violence and destruction. Said Hebrews , in effect, "I
will not reason, I will smite; I will not pray, I will destroy." The Lord said in effect:
"It must be so; you must see the result of this violence; that disposition never can be
got out of you but by exhaustion; argument would be lost on a fiery spirit like yours;
it would be in vain to interpose gentle persuasion or entreating prayer between a
nature like yours and the end which it contemplates. Take your own course, and the
end of violence is to be Cain for ever, to be branded externally, to be a lesson to the
ages that violence only slays itself, and is a wickedness, a crime, in a universe of
order." Another man arose, who said he abhorred violence. Issues which the soul
wished were accomplished must be secured by other and wiser and deeper means.
Said Hebrews , "I will try deception, I will tell falsehoods, I will answer inquiries
lyingly; there shall be no noise, no tumult, no sign of violence or passion; but I will
answer with mental reservations, I will play a false part, and thus pass smoothly
through life." The man was of a false heart. He did not tell lies: he was a lie. The
Lord had but one alternative. Though he be omnipotent in strength, he is limited
when he deals with the creatures which he has made in his own image. So said
Hebrews , in effect, "If it must be Song of Solomon , it must be so; your policy you
have adopted—attempt it." The man attempted it, and was laid in the dust a dead,
blighted victim of his own sin. The universe will not have the liar in it. It may find
room for his body to rot in, but it will not suffer him to live. All through and
through history, therefore, the same thing is again and again demonstrated. We
cannot account for personal constitution, for singularities of mind; in this profound
problem there are metaphysics not to be penetrated by human reason, and the
expositor, how careful and anxious soever he may be, can only begin where the facts
themselves begin. What lies beyond his ken also lies beyond his criticism. The
solemn and awful fact Isaiah , that every man has a constitution of his own, a
peculiarity and specialty which makes him an individual and separates him from all
other men, giving him an accent and a signature incommunicably his own, and that
God deals with every man according to the conditions which the man himself
supplies.
But a narrow criticism would tempt us to say that mercy will prevail where
hardening will utterly want success; gentleness, tears, compassion—they will
succeed. If God had, to speak figuratively, fallen upon the neck of Pharaoh, and
wept over him, and persuaded him with gentle words, Pharaoh would have been a
different man. That criticism is profanity; that criticism is historically false: hear
the Apostolic argument: "For he [God] saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I
will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So
then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth

20. mercy. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I
raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be
declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have
mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth,"—perfectly easy words, if taken from the
right point of view, and constructed in harmony with the broad method of Divine
providence, even as that method is known amongst ourselves. The Lord has in this
way, which is the only way, shown that the exercise of mercy is as useless as the
process of hardening. We have foolishly imagined that mercy has succeeded, and
hardening has failed: whereas all history shows us, and all experience confirms the
verdict of history, that mercy is utterly useless. We ourselves are living examples
that all God"s tears cannot soften the obduracy of our heart. This interpretation
clears away all difficulty from this Pauline passage, enabling us to read it in this
way: God has, in the exercise of his sovereign Wisdom of Solomon , tried different
methods with different minds. In some instances he has demonstrated the inevitable
issue of hardness of heart; in other instances he has shown the utter uselessness of
mere mercy; he has had mercy on whom he would have mercy, and whom he would
he has hardened, or on them tried a hardening process; in other words, he has let
both of them work out the bent of their own mind, fulfil their own line of
constitution, and see what it ends in, and the consequence is this: letting men have
their own way has failed, pitying their weaknesses has failed, terror has
accomplished nothing, and mere mercy has only wrung its own tender heart; the
rod and the tears have both failed. Let us wait before we come to the final
conclusion. We are now in the midst of a process and must not force the issue by
impatience.
So then it is unrighteous to blame God for showing men what hardness of heart
really means, as if by adopting a contrary course he could have saved them; for he
has again and again, in his providence, shown that his goodness has been no more
effectual than his sovereignty. This is the other side of the great problem. We pitied
Pharaoh, saying, "If the Lord would but try the effect of mercy upon him, Pharaoh
would be pliant." The Lord says: " o; I know Pharaoh better than you do; but to
show you what mercy will do or will not do, I will try it upon other men." And we
have stood by, and seen God cry rivers of tears, we have seen him thrill with
compassion; we have seen him make himself pliable in the hands of his own
children, as if they might do with him what they pleased; and they have in reply to
his mercy smitten him in the face.
The seventy-eighth Psalm is an elaborate historical argument establishing this very
point, and is the more striking that it deals with the very people whom Pharaoh
refused to liberate. The whole case is thus focalised for us; we see the double action
at one view. If you want to see what hardening can do, look at Pharaoh; if you want
to see what mercy can do, look at Israel; in both instances you see utter failure. God
had compassion on whom he would have compassion, and on whom he would he
tried the giving up of men to the hardness of their own hearts, and in both cases the
issue was disappointment and grief on the part of God. So our little narrow theory
that mercy would have succeeded has been contradicted by the unanimous verdict
of the ages. Can language be tenderer than that of the Psalmist? "Marvellous things

21. did he in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He
divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand
as an heap. In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a
light of fire. He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the
great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run
down like rivers." What is the upshot? They all prayed, they all loved God, they all
responded to the magic of mercy? "And they sinned yet more against him by
provoking the Most High in the wilderness." "But Hebrews , being full of
compassion"—this is the very theory you wanted to have tried—"forgave their
iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and
did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind
that passeth away, and cometh not again." How did they answer him? By love? by
allegiance? by covenants of loyalty? Read the history: "How oft did they provoke
him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and
tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not his hand:
nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy." There mercy stands back,
and says, "I have failed." Seeing that both severity and mercy have failed, what was
to be done with the race? Says God: "I have had compassion on these; I have
hardened the hearts of these—or, in other words, have allowed them to see what the
hardening of their own hearts really means; I have thus created a great human
history, and the result is failure, failure. The law has failed, sentiment has failed, the
sword I put back as a failure, my tears I dry as a failure—what is to be done?" ow
comes the sublimity of the evangelical philosophy, the glory of the gospel as it is
known in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness and mercy must meet
together, justice and pity must hold their interview; God must be just, and yet must
himself find means by which he can be the Justifier of the ungodly. This
reconciliation has been effected. We, as evangelical thinkers, believe in the Cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and if that fail there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.
SIMEO , "GOD HARDE I G PHARAOH’S HEART
Exodus 7:3. I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.
AS there are in the works of creation many things which exceed the narrow limits of
human understanding, so are there many things incomprehensible to us both in the
works of providence and of grace. It is not however necessary that, because we
cannot fully comprehend these mysteries, we should never fix our attention at all
upon them: as far as they are revealed, the consideration of them is highly proper:
only, where we are so liable to err, our steps must be proportionably cautious, and
our inquiries be conducted with the greater humility. In particular, the deepest
reverence becomes us, while we contemplate the subject before us. We ought not, on
the one hand, to indulge a proud and captious spirit that shall banish the subject
altogether, nor, on the other hand, to make our assertions upon it with a bold,
unhallowed confidence. Desirous of avoiding either extreme, we shall endeavour to
explain and vindicate the conduct of God, as it is stated in the text.
I. To explain it—

22. We are not to imagine that God infused any evil principle into the heart of Pharaoh:
this God never did, nor ever will do, to any of his creatures [ ote: James 1:13.].
What he did, may be comprehended in three particulars—
1. He left Pharaoh to the influence of his own corruptions—
[Pharaoh was a proud and haughty monarch: and, while he exercised a most
arbitrary and oppressive power over his subjects, he disdained to respect the
authority of Jehovah, who was “King of kings, and Lord of lords.”
God, if he had seen fit, might have prevented him from manifesting these
corruptions. He might have struck him dead upon the spot; or intimidated him by a
dream or vision; or have converted him, as he did the persecuting Saul, in the midst
of all his malignant projects: but he left him to himself, precisely as he does other
men when they commit iniquity; and suffered him to manifest all the evil
dispositions of his heart.
This is no other conduct than what God has pursued from the beginning. When men
have obstinately “rebelled against the light,” he has “given them up to follow their
own hearts’ lusts [ ote: Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28; Psalms 81:11-
12; 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.]:” and we have reason to expect that he will deal thus
with us, if we continue to resist his will [ ote: Genesis 6:3; Leviticus 26:27-28;
Proverbs 1:24-30.].]
2. He suffered such events to concur as should give scope for the exercise of
those corruptions—
[He raised Pharaoh to the throne of Egypt, and thereby invested him with power to
oppress [ ote: Romans 9:17.]. By multiplying the Jews, he made their services of
great importance to the Egyptian empire. The labours of six hundred thousand
slaves could not easily be dispensed with; and therefore the temptation to retain
them in bondage was exceeding great. Besides, the request made of going to serve
their God in the wilderness must appear to him frivolous and absurd; for, why
should they not be content to serve him in the land? Moreover, the success of his
magicians in imitating the miracles of Moses, would seem to justify the idea, that
Moses was no more than a magician, only perhaps of a more intelligent order than
those employed by him. The frequent and speedy removal of the judgments that
were inflicted on him, would yet further tend to harden him, by making him think
light of those judgments. Thus the unreasonableness of his opposition would be hid
from him; and he would persist in his rebellion without compunction or fear.]
3. He gave Satan permission to exert his influence over him—
[Satan is a powerful being; and, when the restraints which God has imposed upon
him are withdrawn, can do great things. He cannot indeed force any man to sin
against his will: but he can bring him into such circumstances, as shall have a strong

23. tendency to ensnare his soul. We know from the history of Job, how great things he
can effect for the distressing of a most eminent saint: much more therefore may we
suppose him to prevail over one, who is his blind and willing vassal [ ote: 2
Corinthians 4:4; 2 Timothy 2:26.]. We do not indeed know, from any express
declarations, that Satan interfered in this work of hardening Pharaoh: but, when we
recollect how he instigated David to number the people; how he prevailed on Peter
to deny, and Judas to betray, his Lord; how he filled the hearts of Ananias and
Sapphira that they might lie unto God; and finally, how expressly we are told that
he works in all the children of disobedience;” we can have no doubt respecting his
agency in the heart of Pharaoh.
Thus, as far as respects a withholding of that grace which might have softened
Pharaoh’s heart, and a giving him an opportunity to shew his malignant
dispositions, and a permitting of Satan to exert his influence, God hardened
Pharaoh’s heart: but as being a perfectly free agent, Pharaoh hardened his own
heart: and this is repeatedly affirmed in the subsequent parts of this history.]
When once we have learned what was the true nature of God’s agency, and how far
it was concerned in the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, we shall beat no loss,
II. To vindicate it—
We must never forget that “God’s ways and thoughts are infinitely above ours;”
and that, whether we approve of them or not, “he will never give account of them to
us:” yet, constituted as we are, we feel a satisfaction in being able to discern their
suitableness to the divine character. Of the dispensation then which we are
considering, we may say,
1. It was righteous, as it respected the individual himself—
[It was perfectly righteous that Pharaoh should be left to himself. What injury
would God have done, if he had acted towards the whole human race precisely as he
did towards the fallen angels? What reason can be assigned why man, who had
imitated their wickedness, should not be a partaker of their punishment? If then
none had any claim upon God for the exercise of his grace, how much less could
Pharaoh have a title to it, after having so proudly defied God, and so obstinately
withstood his most express commands? If there was any thing unjust in abandoning
Pharaoh to the corrupt affections of his heart, all other sinners in the universe have
reason to make the same complaint, that God is unrighteous in his dealings with
them. In that case, God could not, consistently with his own justice, permit sin at all:
he must impose an irresistible restraint on all, and cease to deal with us as persons
in a state of probation.
Again, it was righteous in God to suffer such a concurrence of circumstances as
should give scope for the exercise of his corruptions. God is no more bound to
destroy man’s free agency by his providence, than he is by his grace. Was it
unrighteous in him to let Cain have an opportunity of executing his murderous

24. project against his brother Abel? or has he been unjust, as often as he has permitted
others to accomplish their wicked purposes? Doubtless he has interposed, by his
providence, to prevent the execution of many evils that have been conceived in our
minds [ ote: Hosea 2:6.]: but he is not bound to do so for any one; nor could he do
it universally, without changing the nature of his government, and the whole course
of the world.
Moreover, it was righteous to give Satan liberty to exert his influence over Pharaoh.
Pharaoh chose to believe the agents of Satan rather than the servants of the Most
High God; and to obey their counsels rather than his. Why then should God
continue to restrain Satan, when Pharaoh desired nothing so much as to yield to his
temptations? When Ahab sent for all his lying prophets to counsel him and to foster
his delusions, God permitted “Satan to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all those
prophets,” that they might all concur in the same fatal advice [ ote: 1 Kings 22:21-
23.]. Was this unjust? Was it not agreeable to Ahab’s own wish; and was not the
contrary counsel of the Lord’s prophet rejected by him with disdain? Pharaoh
wished to be deceived; and God permitted it to be according to his own heart’s
desire.
On the whole then, if men are to be left to their own free agency, instead of being
dealt with as mere machines; and if God have ordered the general course of his
providence agreeably to this rule, resisting the proud while he gives grace to the
humble; then was he fully justified in suffering this impious monarch to harden his
already proud and obdurate heart [ ote: Compare Deuteronomy 2:30 and Joshua
11:20.].]
2. It was merciful, as it respected the universe at large—
[We form erroneous conceptions of the divine government, because we view it on too
contracted a scale. God, in his dealings with mankind, consults, not the benefit of an
individual merely, but the good of the whole. ow this conduct towards Pharaoh
was calculated exceedingly to promote the welfare of all succeeding generations. It
has given us lessons of instruction that are of the greatest value.
It has shewn us the extreme depravity of the human heart. Who would have
conceived that a man, warned as Pharaoh was by so many tremendous plagues,
should continue, to the last, to set himself against the God of heaven and earth? But
in him we see what men will do, when their pride, their passions, and their interests
have gained an ascendant over them: they will defy God to his face; and, if softened
for a moment by the severity of his judgments, they will soon, like metal from the
furnace, return to their wonted hardness.
It has shewn us our need of divine grace. Widely as men differ from each other in
their constitutional frame both of body and mind, they all agree in this, that “they
have a carnal mind, which is enmity against God; and which neither is, nor can be,
subject to his law [ ote: Romans 8:7.].” We may all see in Pharaoh a striking
portrait of ourselves: and if one be enabled to mortify the evils of his heart, whilst

25. others continue in bondage to their lusts, he must say, “By the grace of God I am
what I am.” If we have no more grace than Pharaoh in our hearts, we shall have no
more holiness in our lives.
It has shewn us the danger of fighting against God [ ote: Isaiah 45:9.]. “Fools make
a mock at sin,” and “puff at the threatened judgments” of God. But let any one see
in Pharaoh the danger of being given over to a reprobate mind: let any one see in
what our hardness of heart may issue: and he will tremble lest God should say
respecting him, “He is joined to idols; let him alone.”
It has shewn us the obligations we lie under to God for the long-suffering he has
already exercised towards us. We read the history of Pharaoh: happy is it for us,
that we have not been left, like him, to be a warning to others. o tongue can utter
the thanks that are due to him on this account. If we know any thing of our own
hearts, we shall be ready to think ourselves the greatest monuments of mercy that
ever were rescued from perdition.
ow these lessons are invaluable: and every one that reads the history of this
unhappy monarch, must see them written in it as with the pen of a diamond.]
Address—
[We are told to “remember Lot’s wife:” and it will be well also to remember
Pharaoh. Let none of us trifle with our convictions, or follow carnal policy in
preference to the commands of God — — — Let the messages of God be received
with reverence, and obeyed with cheerfulness — — — Let us be afraid of hardening
our own hearts, lest God should give us over to final obduracy [ ote: Job 9:4.]. If
God withdraw from us, Satan will quickly come [ ote: 1 Samuel 16:14.]: and if we
are left to Satan’s agency, better were it for us that we had never been born. — —
— Seek of God the influences of the Holy Ghost, who will “take away the heart of
stone, and give you an heart of flesh.”]
PULPIT, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart. See the comment on Exodus 4:21. And
multiply my signs and my wonders. The idea of a long series of miracles is here, for
the first time, distinctly introduced. Three signs had been given (Exodus 4:3-9); one
further miracle had been mentioned (Exodus 4:23). ow a multiplication of signs
and wonders is promised. Compare Exodus 3:20, and Exodus 6:6, which, however,
are not so explicit as the present passage.
PULPIT, "Exodus 7:3
Heart-hardening.
On this subject, see above, and on Exodus 4:21. The present seems an appropriate
place for a somewhat fuller treatment.
I. HARDE I G AS PROCEEDI G FROM GOD. "I will harden Pharaoh's heart."

26. This, assuredly, is more than simple permission. God hardens the heart—
1. Through the operation of the laws of our moral constitution, These laws, of which
God is the author, and through which he operates in the soul, ordain hardening as
the penalty of evil conduct, of resistance to truth, and of all misimprovement and
abuse of privilege.
2. Through his providence—as when God, in the execution of his judgments, places
a wicked man in situations which he knows can only have a hardening effect upon
him. He does this in righteousness. "God, having permitted evil to exist, must
thereafter of necessity permit it also to run its whole course in the way of showing
itself to be what it really is, as that which aims at the defeat of the Divine purpose,
and the consequent dissolution of the universe." This involves hardening.
3. Through a direct judgment in the soul of the individual, God smiting him with a
spirit of blindness and infatuation in punishment of obstinate resistance to the truth.
This is the most difficult of all aspects of hardening, but it only cuts the knot, does
not untie it, to put superficial meanings upon the scriptures which allege the reality
of the judgment (e.g. Deuteronomy 28:28; 2 Thessalonians 2:11). It is to be viewed as
connected with what may be called the internal providence of God in the workings
of the human mind; his government of the mind in the wide and obscure regions of
its involuntary activities. The direction taken by these activities, seeing that they do
not spring from man's own will, must be as truly under the regulation of
Providence, and be determined in quite as special a manner, as are the outward
circumstances of our lot, or those so-called fortuities concerning which we are
assured: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall
on the ground without your Father." (Matthew 10:29). It is a significant fact that, as
sin advances, the sinner becomes less and less a free agent, falls increasingly under
the dominion of necessity. The involuntary activities of the soul gain ground upon
the voluntary. The hardening may be conceived of, partly as the result of a
withdrawal of light and restraining grace; partly as a giving of the sou] up to the
delusions of the adversary, "the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2), whose will gradually occupies the region in the
moral life vacated by the human will, and asserts there a correspondingly greater
power of control; and partly as the result of a direct Divine ordering of the course of
thought, feeling, and imagination. Hengstenberg acutely remarks: "It appears to
proceed from design, that the hardening at the beginning of the plagues is
attributed, in a preponderating degree, to Pharaoh, and towards the end to God.
The higher the plagues rise, so much the more does Pharaoh's hardening assume a
supernatural character, so much the more obvious is it to refer it to its supernatural
causality."
II. HARDE I G I ITSELF CO SIDERED. The heart is the centre of
personality, the source of moral life, the seat of the will, the conscience, and the
affections (Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 15:18). The hardening of the heart may be
viewed under two aspects:

27. 1. More generally as the result of growth in sin, with consequent loss of moral and
religious susceptibility; and
2. As hardening against God, the author of its moral life. We have but to put these
two things together—the heart, the seat of moral life, hardening itself against the
Author of its moral life—to see that such hardening is of necessity fatal, an act of
moral suicide. It may elucidate the subject to remark that in every process of
hardening there is something which the heart parts with, something which it resists,
and something which it becomes. There is, in other words
(1) That which the heart hardens itself in, viz. some evil quality, say injustice,
cruelty, lust, hate, secret enmity to God, which quality gradually becomes a fixed
element in character;
1. All evil hardens, and all hardening in moral evil is in principle hardening against
God. The hardening may begin at the circumference of the moral nature, and
involve the centre, or it may begin at the centre, and work out to the circumference.
Men may be enemies to God in their mind by wicked works (Colossians 1:21), they
may have "the understanding darkened," and be "alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness (marg. hardness) of
their hearts," and being "past feeling" may give "themselves over unto
lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness" (Ephesians 4:17-19), and
yet be strangers to God's revealed truth. All sin, all resistance to light, all
disobedience to conscience, has this hardening effect (cf. Romans 1:19-32). But it is a
will which has broken from God which is thus in various ways hardening itself, and
enmity to God is latent in the process. The moment the truth of God is brought to
bear on such a nature, this latent enmity is made manifest, and, as in the case of
Pharaoh, further hardening is the result. Conversely,
2. Hardening against God is hardening in moral evil. The hardening may begin at
the centre, in resistance to God's known will, and to the strivings of his Spirit, and
thence spread through the whole moral nature. This is the deepest and fundamental
hardening, and of itself gives a character to the being. A heart hardened in its
interior against its Maker would be entitled to be called hard, no matter what
superficial qualities of a pleasant kind remained to it, and no matter how correct the
moral conduct.
3. Hardening results in a very special degree from resistance to the Word of God, to
Divine revelation. This is the type of hardening which is chiefly spoken of in
Scripture, and which gives rise to what it specially calls "the hard and impenitent
heart" (Romans 2:5). All revelation of God, especially his revelation in Christ, has a
testing power, and if resisted produces a hardness which speedily becomes
obduracy. God may be resisted in his Word, his Spirit, his servants, his
chastisements, and in the testimony to his existence and authority written on the
soul itself. But the highest form of resistance—the worst and deadliest—is resistance
to the Spirit drawing to Christ.

28. III. THE HARDE I G OF PHARAOH COMPARED WITH HARDE I G
U DER THE GOSPEL. Pharaoh stands out in Scripture as the typical instance of
hardening of the heart.
1. He and Jehovah stood in direct opposition to each other.
2. God's will was made known to him in a way he could not mistake. He pretended
at first to doubt, but doubt soon became impossible.
3. He resisted to the last. And the longer he resisted, his heart grew harder.
4. His resistance was his ruin.
In considering the case of this monarch, however, and comparing it with our own,
we have to remember—
1. That Pharaoh was a heathen king. He was naturally prejudiced in favour of the
gods of Egypt. He had at first no knowledge of Jehovah. But we have had from
infancy the advantage of a knowledge of the true God, of his existence, his
attributes, and his demands.
2. Pharaoh had a heathen upbringing. His moral training was vastly inferior to that
which most have enjoyed who hear the Gospel.
3. The influences he resisted were outward influences—strokes of judgment. The
hardening produced by resistance to the inward influences of Christianity, strivings
of the Spirit, etc; is necessarily of a deeper kind.
4. What was demanded of Pharaoh was the liberation of a nation of slaves—in our
case it is required that we part with sins, and yield up heart and will to the Creator
and Redeemer. Outward compliance would have sufficed in his case; in ours, the
Compliance must be inward and spiritual. Here, again, inasmuch as the demand
goes deeper, the hardening produced by resistance is of necessity deeper also. There
is now possible to man the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost
(Matthew 12:32; Hebrews 6:4 6).
5. The motives in the two eases are not comparable. In the one case, God revealed in
judgments; in the other, in transcendent love and mercy.
Conclusion:—"To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (Hebrews
3:7, Hebrews 3:8, Hebrews 3:13, Hebrews 3:15, Hebrews 4:7). Beware, in
Connection with this hardening, of "the deceitfulness of sin," The heart has many
ways of disguising from itself the fact that it is resisting God, and hardening itself in
opposition to him. One form is procrastination. ot yet—a more convenient season.
A second is compromise. We shall find attempts at this with Pharaoh. By Conceding
part of what is asked-giving up some sin to which the heart is less attached—we hide
from ourselves the fact that we are resisting the chief demand. Herod observed John

29. the Baptist, and "when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly'
(Mark 6:20). The forms of godliness, as in the Pharisees, may Conceal from the
heart its denial of the power thereof. Conscience is quieted by church-membership,
by a religious profession. There is disguised resistance in all insincere repentance.
This is seen in Pharaoh's relentings. Even when the resistance becomes more
avowed, there are ways of partially disguising the fact that it is indeed God we are
resisting. Possibly the heart tries to wriggle out of the duty of submission by
cavilling at the evidence of revelation. Or, objection is perhaps taken to something
in the manner or form in which the truth has been presented; some alleged defect of
taste, or infelicity of illustration, or rashness of statement, or blunder in science, or
possibly a slip in grammar. Any straw will serve which admits of being clutched at.
So conviction is pushed off, decision is delayed, resistance is kept up, and all the
while the heart is getting harder—less sensible of the truth, more ensnared in error.
It is well also to remember that even failure to profit by the word, without active
resistance to it (if such a thing is possible)—simple want of care in the cherishing of
good impressions, and too rash an exposure to the influences which tend to dissipate
and destroy them—will result in their disappearance, and in a consequent
hardening of the heart. The impressions will not readily return with the same
vividness. To-day, then, and now, hear and obey the voice of God.—J.O.
BI 3-4, "I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders.
The struggle between God’s will and Pharaoh’s
The text brings before us the two great results which God forewarned Moses would rise
from the struggle between His will and Pharaoh’s. On the one hand, the tyranny was to
be gradually overthrown by the sublime manifestations of the power of the Lord; on the
other, the heart of Pharaoh himself was to be gradually hardened in the conflict with the
Lord.
I. Why was the overthrow of Pharaoh’s tyranny through the miracles of Moses so
gradual? Why did not God, by one overwhelming miracle, crush for ever the power of the
king?
1. It was not God’s purpose to terrify Pharaoh into submission. He treats men as
voluntary creatures, and endeavours, by appealing to all that is highest in their
natures, to lead them into submission.
2. In his determination to keep Israel in slavery, Pharaoh had two supports—his
confidence in his own power, and the flatteries of the magicians. Through both these
sources the miracles appealed to the very heart of the man.
3. The miracles appealed to Pharaoh through the noblest thing he had left—his own
sense of religion. When the sacred river became blood, and the light turned to
darkness, and the lightning gleamed before him, he must have felt that the hidden
God of nature was speaking to him. Not until he had been warned and appealed to in
the most powerful manner did the final judgment come.
II. We are told that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened by the miracles which overthrew
his purpose. What does this mean? One of the most terrible facts in the world is the
battle between God’s will and man’s. In Pharaoh we see an iron will manifesting itself in
tremendous resistance, the results of which were the hardening and the overthrow.

30. There are three possible explanations of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.
1. It may be attributed entirely to the Divine sovereignty. But this explanation is
opposed to the letter of Scripture. We read that Pharaoh hardened his heart.
2. We may attribute it wholly to Pharaoh himself. But the Bible says distinctly, “The
Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”
3. We may combine the two statements, and thus we shall get at the truth. It is true
that the Lord hardened Pharaoh, and true also that Pharaoh hardened himself. (E. L.
Hull, B. A.)
Hardening of conscience
It is a very terrible thing to let conscience begin to grow hard, for it soon chills into
northern iron and steel. It is like the freezing of a pond. The first film of ice is scarcely
perceptible; keep the water stirring and you will prevent the frost from hardening it; but
once let it film over and remain quiet, the glaze thickens over the surface, and it thickens
still, and at last it is so firm that a waggon might be drawn over the solid ice. So with
conscience, it films over gradually, until at last it becomes hard and unfeeling, and is not
crushed even with ponderous loads of iniquity. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Seven characteristics of Pharaoh
I. Ignorant (Exo_5:2).
II. Disobedient (Exo_5:2).
III. Unbelieving (Exo_5:9).
IV. Foolish (Exo_8:10).
V. Hardened (Exo_8:15).
VI. Privileged (Exo_9:1).
VII. Lost (Exo_14:26-28). (C. Inglis.)
Judicial hardness of heart inflicted by God
I. I shall give some general observations from the story; for in the story of Pharaoh we
have the exact platform of a hard heart.
1. Between the hard heart and God there is an actual contest who shall have the
better. The parties contesting are God and Pharaoh.
2. The sin that hardened Pharaoh, and put him upon this contest, was covetousness
and interest of State.
3. This contest on Pharaoh’s part is managed with slightings and contempt of God;
on God’s part, with mercy and condescension.
4. The first plague on Pharaoh’s heart is delusion. Moses worketh miracles, turneth
Aaron’s rod into a serpent, rivers into blood, bringeth frogs, and the magicians still
do the same; God permitteth these magical impostures, to leave Pharaoh in his wilful

31. error.
5. God was not wanting to give Pharaoh sufficient means of conviction. The
magicians turned their rods into serpents, but “Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods”
(Exo_7:12); which showeth God’s super-eminent power.
6. Observe, in one of the plagues Israel might have stolen away, whether Pharaoh
would or no (Exo_10:22-23): but God had more miracles to be done. When He hath
to do with a hard heart, He will not steal out of the field, but go away with honour
and triumph. This was to be a public instance, and for intimation to the world (1Sa_
6:6). The Philistines took warning by it, and it will be our condemnation if we do not.
7. In all these plagues I observe that Pharaoh now and then had his devout pangs. In
a hard heart there may be some relentings, but no true repentance.
8. In process of time his hardness turns into rage and downright malice (Exo_
10:28). Men first slight the truth, and then are hardened against it, and then come to
persecute it. A river, when it hath been long kept up, swelleth and beareth down the
bank and rampire; so do wicked men rage when their consciences cannot withstand
the light, and their hearts will not yield to it.
9. At length Pharaoh is willing to let them go. After much ado God may get
something from a hard heart; but it is no sooner given but retracted; like fire struck
out of a flint, it is hardly got, and quickly gone (Hos_6:4).
10. The last news that we hear of hardening Pharaoh’s heart was a little before his
destruction (Exo_14:8). Hardness of heart will not leave us till it hath wrought our
full and final destruction. Never any were hardened but to their own ruin.
II. How God hardens.
1. Negatively.
(1) God infuseth no hardness and sin as he infuseth grace. All influences from
heaven are sweet and good, not sour. Evil cannot come from the Father of lights.
God enforceth no man to do evil.
(2) God doth not excite the inward propension to sin; that is Satan’s work.
2. Affirmatively.
(1) By desertion, taking away the restraints of grace, whereby He lets them loose
to their own hearts (Psa_81:12). Man, in regard to his inclinations to sin, is like a
greyhound held by a slip or collar; when the hare is in sight, take away the slip,
and the greyhound runneth violently after the hare, according to his inbred
disposition. Men are held in by the restraints of grace, which, when removed,
they are left to their own swing, and run into all excess of riot.
(2) By tradition. He delivereth them up to the power of Satan, who worketh upon
the corrupt nature of man, and hardeneth it; he stirreth him up as the
executioner of God’s curse; as the evil spirit had leave to seduce Ahab (1Ki_
22:21-22).
(3) There is an active providence which deposeth and propoundeth such objects
as, meeting with a wicked heart, maketh it more hard. God maketh the best
things the wicked enjoy to turn to the fall and destruction of those that have
them. In what a sad case are wicked men left by God! Mercies corrupt them, and
corrections enrage them; as unsavoury herbs, the more they are pounded, the

32. more they stink. As all things work together for good to them that love God, so all
things work for the worst to the wicked and impenitent. Providences and
ordinances; we read of them that wrest the scriptures to their own destruction
(2Pe_3:16). Some are condemned to worldly happiness; by ease and abundance
of prosperity they are entangled: “The prosperity of fools shall destroy them”
(Pro_1:32); as brute creatures, when in good plight, grow fierce and man-keen. If
we will find the sin, God will find the occasion. (T. Manton, D. D.)
A hardened heart
God hardened Pharaoh’s heart by submitting to him those truths, arguments, and
evidences which he ought to have accepted, but the rejection of which recoiled upon
himself, and hardened the heart they did not convince. Everybody knows, in the present
day, that if you listen, Sunday after Sunday, to great truths, and, Sunday after Sunday,
reject them, you grow in your capacity of repulsion and ability to reject them, and the
more hardened you become; and thus, the preaching of the gospel that was meant to
melt, will be the occasion of hardening your heart—not because God hates you, but
because you reject the gospel. The sun itself melts some substances, whilst, from the
nature of the substances, it hardens others. You must not think that God stands in the
way of your salvation. There is nothing between the greatest sinner and instant
salvation, but his own unwillingness to lean on the Saviour, and be saved. (J. Cumming,
D. D.)
The punishment of unbelief
The gospel is “the savour of life unto life, and of death unto death,” as one and the same
savour is to some creatures refreshing, to others poisonous. But that the gospel is unto
death, is not a part of its original intention, but a consequence of perverse unbelief; but
when this takes place, that it is unto death comes as a punishment from God. Thus the
expression “hardening” presupposes an earlier condition, when the heart was
susceptible, but which ceased in consequence of the misuse, of Divine revelations and
gifts. As Pharaoh hardens himself, so God hardens him at the same time. (Otto Von
Gerlach, D. D.)
Heart-hardening
1. Both the expressions employed and the facts themselves lead to the conclusion,
that hardening can only take place where there is a conflict between human freedom
and Divine grace.
2. Again, it follows from the notion of hardening, that it can only result from a
conscious and obstinate resistance to the will of God. It cannot take place where
there is either ignorance or error. So long as a man has not been fully convinced that
he is resisting the power and will of God, there remains a possibility that as soon as
the conviction of this is brought home to his mind, his heart may be changed, and so
long as there is still a possibility of his conversion, he cannot be said to be really
hardened. The commencement of hardening is really hardening itself, for it contains
the whole process of hardening potentially within itself. This furnishes us with two

33. new criteria of hardening;
(1) before it commences, there is already in existence a certain moral condition,
which only needs to be called into activity to become positive hardness; and
(2) as soon as it has actually entered upon the very first stage, the completion of
the hardening may be regarded as certain. In what relation, then, does God stand
to the hardening of the heart? Certainly His part is not limited to mere
permission. Hengstenberg has proved that this is utterly inadmissible on
doctrinal grounds; and an impartial examination of the Scriptural record will
show that it is exegeti-cally inadmissible here. No. God desires the hardening,
and, therefore, self-hardening is always at the same time hardening through God.
The moral condition, which we have pointed out as the pre-requisite of
hardening the soil from which it springs, is a man’s own fault, the result of the
free determination of his own will. But it is not without the co-operation of God
that this moral condition becomes actual hardness. Up to a certain point the will
of God operates on a man in the form of mercy drawing to himself, He desires his
salvation; but henceforth the mercy is changed into judicial wrath, and desires
his condemnation. The will of God (as the will of the Creator), when contrasted
with the will of man (as the will of the creature), is from the outset irresistible
and overpowering. But yet the wilt of man is able to resist the will of God, since
God has created him for freedom, self-control, and responsibility; and thus when
the human will has taken an ungodly direction and persists in it, the Divine will
necessarily gives way. Hence, the human will is at the same time dependent on
the Divine will, and independent of it. The solution of this contradiction is to be
found in the fact, that the will of God is not an inflexibly rigid thing, but
something living, and that it maintains a different bearing towards a man’s
obedience, from that which it assumes towards his stubborn resistance. In itself
it never changes, whatever the circumstances may be; but in relation to a
creature, endowed with freedom, the manifestation of this will differs according
to the different attitudes assumed by the freedom of the creature. In itself it is
exactly the same will which blesses the obedient and condemns the impenitent—
there has been no change in its nature, but only in its operations—just as the heat
of the sun which causes one tree to bloom is precisely the same as that by which
another is withered. As there are two states of the human will—obedience and
disobedience—so are there two corresponding states of the Divine will, mercy
and wrath, and the twofold effects of these are a blessing and a curse. (J. H.
Kurtz, D. D.)
Lessons
1. First and foremost, we learn the insufficiency of even the most astounding
miracles to subdue the rebellious will, to change the heart, or to subject a man unto
God. Our blessed Lord Himself has said of a somewhat analogous case, that men
would not believe even though one rose from the dead. And His statement has been
only too amply verified in the history of the world since His own resurrection.
Religion is matter of the heart, and no intellectual conviction, without the agency of
the Holy Spirit, affects the inmost springs of our lives.
2. A more terrible exhibition of the daring of human pride, the confidence of worldly
power, and the deceitfulness of sin, than that presented by the history of this
Pharaoh can scarcely be conceived. And yet the lesson seems to have been

34. overlooked by too many! Not only sacred history, but possibly our own experience,
may furnish instances of similar tendencies; and in the depths of his own soul each
believer must have felt his danger in this respect, for “the heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked.”
3. Lastly, resistance to God must assuredly end in fearful judgment. Each conviction
suppressed, each admonition stifled, each loving offer rejected, tends towards
increasing spiritual insensibility, and that in which it ends. It is wisdom and safety to
watch for the blessed influences of God’s Spirit, and to throw open our hearts to the
sunlight of His grace. (A. Edersheim, D. D.)
Providence penal
In accordance with a vow a Hindu once bandaged up his eyes so tightly that not a single
ray of light could enter them. So he continued for years. At last, when his vow was
completed, he threw off his bandage, but only to find that through disuse he had
completely lost his sight. In one sense, he had deprived himself of sight; in another, God
had deprived him of it. So it was with Pharaoh’s spiritual sight. Then comes the warning
of consequences. It is very pleasant to go floating down the river toward the rapids. The
current is so gentle that one can easily regain the bank. But remain in that current, in
spite of all warnings, just one moment too long, and you and your boat will go over the
falls. (S. S. Times.)
4 he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand
on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will
bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.
GILL, "But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you,.... Regard not what they said,
nor answer the demand they made, or obey the command of God delivered by them to
him: this the Lord apprised them of, that they might not be discouraged, and conclude
their labour would be in vain, their attempts fruitless, and they should never gain their
point, but spend their time, and expose themselves to danger to no purpose:
that I may lay mine hand upon Egypt; the inhabitants of Egypt, smiting them with
one plague after another, and particularly with the last, slaying their firstborn; every
plague was a stroke of his hand, and an effect of his mighty power and vengeance, and
more especially that:

35. and bring forth mine armies; the children of Israel consisting of 600,000 men,
besides women and children, Exo_12:37 which, divided into twelve tribes, made twelve
fine armies, 50,000 men in a tribe or army upon an average:
and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; the word "and"
need not be supplied; if any supplement is necessary, the word "even" would be better,
since this clause is added by way of explanation, showing who are meant by the armies of
the Lord, his people to be brought out:
by great judgments; inflicted upon the Egyptians.
JAMISO , "I may lay mine hand upon Egypt, etc. — The succession of terrible
judgments with which the country was about to be scourged would fully demonstrate the
supremacy of Israel’s God.
K&D 4-7, "‫י‬ ִ‫ד‬ָ‫ת־י‬ ֶ‫א‬ ‫י‬ ִ ַ‫ת‬ָ‫נ‬ְ‫:ו‬ “I will lay My hand on Egypt,” i.e., smite Egypt, “and bring out
My armies, My people, the children of Israel.” ‫ּות‬‫א‬ ָ‫ב‬ ְ‫צ‬ (armies) is used of Israel, with
reference to its leaving Egypt equipped (Exo_13:18) and organized as an army according
to the tribes (cf. Exo_6:26 and Exo_12:51 with Num 1 and 2), to contend for the cause of
the Lord, and fight the battles of Jehovah. In this respect the Israelites were called the
hosts of Jehovah. The calling of Moses and Aaron was now concluded. Exo_7:6 and
Exo_7:7 pave the way for the account of their performance of the duties consequent
upon their call.
ELLICOTT, "(4) Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay.—Heb.,
Pharaoh will not hearken unto you, and I will lay. o relation of effect and cause is
here asserted as existing between the two clauses, which are co-ordinate.
Mine armies, and my people. Rather, my armies, my people. The two expressions
are in apposition—the second exegetical of the first.
Great judgments.—See the comment on Exodus 6:6.
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:4 But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my
hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, [and] my people the children of
Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
Ver. 4. And Pharaoh shall not hearken.] This judgment God layeth upon many of
our hearers at this day of whom, after much painstaking, we may well complain, as
the herdsman did in the poet: -
“Heu mihi! quam pingui macer est mihi taurus in arvo.”

36. 5 And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord
when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and
bring the Israelites out of it.”
CLARKE, "And bring out the children of Israel - Pharaoh’s obstinacy was
either caused or permitted in mercy to the Egyptians, that he and his magicians being
suffered to oppose Moses and Aaron to the uttermost of their power, the Israelites might
be brought out of Egypt in so signal a manner, in spite of all the opposition of the
Egyptians, their king, and their gods, that Jehovah might appear to be All-mighty and
All-sufficient.
GILL, "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord,.... Jehovah, the one
only true and living God; this they should know by the judgments executed upon them,
and be obliged to acknowledge it:
when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt: especially the last time, to destroy
the firstborn:
and bring out the children of Israel from among them; by which it would appear
that he was mightier than they, and obtained the end for which the plagues were
inflicted on them.
CALVI , "5.And the Egyptians shall know. This is a species of irony, viz., that the
Egyptians, subdued by the plagues, should at last begin to feel that their contention
was against God. The object, however, of God was to encourage Moses, lest he
should fail before the madness and fury of his enemies. Therefore, although the
Egyptians might be stupid n their rage, still God declares that in the end they would
know that they had fought to their own destruction when they waged war against
heaven; for there is an implied antithesis between their tardy acknowledgment of
this and their present slowness of heart, which was at length forcibly removed when
God thundered openly against them from heaven. For we know how unconcernedly
the wicked oppose their (79) iron obstinacy to the Divine threatenings, until they are
forced into a state of alarm by violence; not because they are humbled beneath the
hand of God, but because they see that by all their raging and turbulence they
cannot escape from punishment; just as drunkards, awakened from their
intoxication, would willingly drown their senses in eternal sleep, and even in

37. annihilation; yet, whether they will or not, they must bear the pains of their
intemperance. Moreover, this acknowledgment which was to be extorted from the
unwilling, admonished Moses and others (80) to attribute just praise to the power of
God, before they were experimentally convinced of it. It is true, indeed, that the
sincere worshippers of God also are sometimes instructed by punishments, (to which
reference is made, Isaiah 26:9, “when thy judgments are in the earth, the
inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness;”) but a kind of “knowledge” is
here pointed out which so prostrates the reprobate that they cease not to lift up their
horns, as it were, against God; and thus it casts them down without amending them.
There was also an experimental knowledge for the elect people, of which mention
has been already made, (Isaiah 6:7,)
“ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, after that I shall have brought you out
from the land of Egypt;”
but this (properly speaking) is nothing more than a confirmation of the faith which,
before the event takes place, is content with the simple word. Or, God certainly, by
the event itself, reproves the dullness of His people when He sees that their
confidence in His own word is not sufficiently strong. But the wicked so know God,
that, lost in shame and fear, they see not what they do see.
COKE, "Exodus 7:5. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord— The great
design of this wonderful exhibition of miracles, was to prove to the Egyptians, and
so to all the world, that the Jehovah of the Jews, the Almighty Deliverer of his
people Israel, was not only superior to theirs, and to all the gods of the nations; but
also, that he was the Sovereign Ruler and Controuler, as well as the Maker, of all
created things: and if we consider the miracles in this view, we shall find that they
all tend to demonstrate the uncontroulable sovereignty of Jehovah over all nature.
See ch. Exodus 10:2, Exodus 14:4; Exodus 14:18, &c.
ELLICOTT, "(5) The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.—Heb., that I am
Jehovah: i.e., that I answer to my name—that I am the only really existing God,
their so-called gods being “vapour, smoke, nothingness.” o doubt this was one of
the main lessons intended to be taught by the whole series of miraculous events
connected with the Exodus. Egypt was the greatest monarchy in the whole world.
She was now at the height of her glory. Among existent polytheisms, hers was the
most famous; and her gods must have seemed, not only to herself, but to all the
surrounding nations, the most powerful. To discredit them was to throw discredit
upon polytheism generally, and to exalt the name of Jehovah above that of all the
deities of the nations. (Comp. Exodus 14:11-16.)
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:5 And the Egyptians shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I
stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from
among them.
Ver. 5. And the Egyptians shall know.] To their cost, when the Lord’s hand, that is

38. lifted up in threatening, shall fall down in punishing. "Lord," saith the prophet,
"when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see, but they shall see," &c. [Isaiah 26:11]
God will unseal their heavy eyes with scorching plagues, and rouse them with
horror enough.
PULPIT, "That I may lay my hand on Egypt. Pharaoh's obstinacy was foreseen and
foreknown. He was allowed to set his will against God's, in order that there might be
a great display of Almighty power, such as would attract the attention both of the
Egyptians generally and of all the surrounding nations. God's glory would be
thereby promoted, and there would be a general dread of interfering with his
people. (See Exodus 15:14-16; Deuteronomy 2:25; Deuteronomy 11:25, etc.) Bring
forth my armies. See the comment on Exodus 6:26. Great judgments. See above,
Exodus 6:6.
BI, "The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.
A knowledge of God
I. That the worst of men will one day have to recognize the reality of the Divine
existence. “And the Egyptians shall know,” etc.
1. Men of bad moral character shall know this.
2. Men of sceptical dispositions shall know this.
II. That they will be brought to a recognition of the Divine existence by severe
judgments.
1. Some men will listen to the voice of reason. The Egyptians would not.
2. Such will learn the existence of God by judgment.
III. That the existence of God is a guarantee for the safety of the good. “And bring out,”
etc., from moral and temporal bondage into Canaan, of peace and quiet. (J. S. Exell, M.
A.)
The plagues
1. These plagues are arranged in regular order, and gradually advance from the
external to the internal, and from the mediate to the immediate hand of God. They
are in number ten, which is one of the numbers denoting perfection. They are
divided first into nine and one, the last one standing clearly apart from all the others
in the awful shriek of woe which it draws forth from every Egyptian home. The nine
are arranged in threes. In the first of each three the warning is given to Pharaoh in
the morning (Exo_7:15; Exo_8:20; Exo_9:13). In the first and second of each three
the plague is announced beforehand (Exo_8:1; Exo_9:1; Exo_10:1); in the third not
(Exo_8:16; Exo_9:8; Exo_10:21). At the third the magicians of Pharaoh
acknowledge the finger of God (Exo_8:19), at the sixth they cannot stand before
Moses (Exo_9:11), and at the ninth Pharaoh refuses to see the face of Moses any
more (Exo_10:28). In the first three Aaron uses the rod, in the second three it is not
mentioned, in the third three Moses uses it, though in the last of them only his hand
is mentioned. All these marks of order lie on the face of the narrative, and point to a

39. deeper order of nature and reason out of which they spring.
2. The plagues were characterized by increasing severity, a method of procedure to
which we see an analogy in the warnings which the providential government of the
world often puts before the sinner.
3. These plagues were of a miraculous character. As such the historian obviously
intends us to regard them, and they are elsewhere spoken of as the “wonders” which
God wrought in the land of Ham (Psa_105:27), as His miracles in Egypt (Psa_106:7),
and as His signs and prodigies which He sent into the midst of Egypt (Psa_135:9). It
is only under this aspect that we can accept the narrative as historical.
4. That the immediate design of these inflictions was the delivering of the Israelites
from their cruel bondage lies on the surface of the narrative, but with this other ends
were contemplated. The manifestation of God’s own glory was here, as in all His
works, the highest object in view, and this required that the powers of Egyptian
idolatry, with which the interest of Satan was at that time peculiarly identified,
should be brought into the conflict and manifestly confounded. For this reason it was
that nearly every miracle performed by Moses had relation to some object of
idolatrous worship among the Egyptians (see Exo_12:12). For this reason, also, it
was that the first wonders wrought had such distinct reference to the exploits of the
magicians, who were the wonder-workers connected with that gigantic system of
idolatry, and the main instruments of its support and credit in the world. They were
thus naturally drawn, as well as Pharaoh, into the contest, and became, along with
him, the visible heads and representatives of the “spiritual wickedness” of Egypt.
And since they refused to own the supremacy and accede to the demands of Jehovah,
or witnessing that first, and as it may be called harmless, triumph of His power over
theirs—since they resolved, as the adversaries of God’s and the instruments of
Satan’s interest in the world, to prolong the contest, there remained no alternative
but to visit the land with a series of judgments, such as might clearly prove the utter
impotence of its fancied deities to protect their votaries from the might and
vengeance of the living God. (A. Nevin, D. D.)
The variety of the plagues
The diversity and various sorts of those plagues—each sorer than other. The first and
second were upon the water, the third and fourth were upon the earth, the five next were
upon the air, and the tenth falls upon the firstborn of men, insomuch that their
punishment was absolute, not only as to the number of the plagues, which was a number
of perfection, but more especially in respect of their nature, matter, and manner, all
various and exquisite. For—
I. They were plagued by all kind of creatures.
1. By all the elements; as water, earth, air and fire.
2. By sundry animals; as frogs, lice, caterpillars, flies, and locusts.
3. By men; as Moses and Aaron were instruments in God’s hand.
4. By the angels who ministered those plagues, both the evil angels (Psa_78:44),
whom He sent among them, and the good that were employed in destroying their
firstborn (Exo_12:3, etc.), yea, by the very stars, who all combined against them—
with the sun and moon—in suspending their light from that land—during the three

40. days darkness—as all ashamed to look upon such sinful inhabitants thereof, etc.
II. They were plagued in all things wherein they most delighted.
1. In all manner of their luscious and delicious fruit, by its being universally blasted
or devoured, etc.
2. In their goodliest cattle—some of which they worshipped—all destroyed by
murrain, etc.
3. In their River Nilus, which they adored, and for which end, it is supposed,
Pharaoh was going down to pay his homage to that idol, when God bade Moses go
meet him in the morning (Exo_7:15). This is intimated in Eze_29:3; Eze_29:9,
where they are twitted twice for idolizing it, but God made it loathsome to them
(verse 18).
4. In the fish, which was their daily and delicate diet (Num_11:5), for the flesh of
many beasts they, out of superstition, would not eat of, as abominable (Exo_8:26).
All the fish died when their water was turned into blood (verse 21).
5. In their bodies, wherein they greatly prided themselves, but the boils God smote
them which spoiled all their beauties in their wellbuilt bodies.
6. In their children, when in every house there was a dead corpse, and that not of a
slave or servant, but of their firstborn. All these were the idols of Egypt (Exo_12:12;
Zep_2:11).
III. They were plagued in all their senses.
1. In their seeing; for they lost all sight when the plague of darkness took away their
light for three days, unless it were horrible sights mentioned in Apocrypha (Wis_
17:6-7). However, their comfort of seeing they lost.
2. In their hearing. Oh, what a consternation! Dread and terror seized upon them
when God uttered His terrible voice in those frightful thunders in the plague of hail,
when fire ran along upon the ground, yet did not melt the hailstones (Exo_9:23).
This must be supernatural, and therefore the more dreadful, which might make them
think that God was come to rain hell-fire out of heaven upon them as He had done,
before this, upon wicked Sodom (Gen_19:1-38.). How did this voice of the Lord
break the cedars, etc. (Psa_29:5-6, etc.), yea, every tree of the field (Exo_9:25).
3. In their smelling, both by the stench of the frogs (Exo_8:14), which might mind
them of their sin that made them stink before God, and likewise by the stinking
rotten matter that ran out of those ulcers wherewith they were smitten (Exo_9:9-11).
As they had oppressed God’s people with furnace work in making brick, so the ashes
of that furnace became burning boils that break forth into putrid running sores, etc.
4. In their tasting, both by the waters turned into blood, because in them they had
shed the blood of the male Hebrew children. These bloody men had blood to drink,
for they were worthy (Rev_16:6). Their River Nilus they used to boast of to the
Grecians, saying, in mockery to them, “If God should forget to rain, they might
chance to perish for it.” The rain, they thought, was of God, but not their river (Eze_
29:3; Eze_29:9), therefore, to confute them in their confidence, as God threatens to
dry it up (Isa_19:5-6), so here to bereave them of all the comfortable use of it; they
now loathed to drink of it (verses 18-20). God cursed their blessings (Mal_2:2), and
also by their thirst thereby procured. Drinking such bloody water did rather torture
their taste than please their palate, or quench their thirst.

41. 5. In their touching or feeling, by their dolorous shooting pangs in their body, when
the sin of their souls broke forth into sores of their bodies, which pained them so,
that, as they could not now sleep in a whole skin, so they gnawed their own tongues
for pain. This was superadded to the bitings of flies, wasps, flying-serpents, etc.,
whereby some might be stung to death (Psa_78:45), and the magicians themselves,
who had so insolently imitated Moses, the devil being God’s ape, were branded with
those boils to detect their contumacy. Besides, also, the frogs ravaging upon their
bodies so irresistibly, etc., must needs be very offensive to their sense of touching.
IV. Lastly, as if all this had been too little to fill up the measure of their plagues and
punishments, Pharaoh and all his forces, that hitherto had escaped, were all drawn
blindfold into the noose, by fair way, weather, etc., and then were drowned in the Red
Sea (Exo_14:8-9; Exo_14:21; Exo_14:24; Exo_14:28). (C. Ness.)
6 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord
commanded them.
GILL, "And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them,.... After this
they never showed any reluctance, or made any objection to any message they were sent
with, or any work they were ordered to do, but went about it at once, and performed it
with all readiness and cheerfulness:
so did they; which is not a superfluous and redundant expression, but very emphatic,
showing with what care and diligence they did every thing, and how exactly they
conformed in all things to the divine will.
HE RY, "Moses and Aaron apply themselves to their work without further
objection: They did as the Lord commanded them, Exo_7:6. Their obedience, all things
considered, was well worthy to be celebrated, as it is by the Psalmist (Psa_105:28), They
rebelled not against his word, namely, Moses and Aaron, whom he mentions, v. 26.
Thus Jonah, though at first he was very averse, at length went to Nineveh. Notice is
taken of the age of Moses and Aaron when they undertook this glorious service. Aaron
the elder (and yet the inferior in office) was eighty-three, Moses was eighty; both of them
men of great gravity and experience, whose age was venerable, and whose years might
teach wisdom, v. 7. Joseph, who was to be only a servant to Pharaoh, was preferred at
thirty years old; but Moses, who was to be a god to Pharaoh, was not so dignified until he
was eighty years old. It was fit that he should long wait for such an honour, and be long
in preparing for such a service.

42. CALVI , "6.And Moses and Aaron did. It is not for the sake of boasting that Moses
reports his own obedience; but after having ingenuously confessed his hesitation, he
now relates that he and his brother were in better courage for the performance of
their office. In the meantime he shows that he, as well as his brother, was God’s
minister, and that he brought no industry, nor talent, nor counsel, nor dexterity
himself, but simply obeyed God. Still from their example we must learn, that as we
may not set about anything except what God prescribes, so we ought obediently and
without objection to pursue whatever He commands. What follows as to their age is
meant in amplification; since it was no common case, considering the natural
coldness and heaviness of old age, that two octogenarians should have actively
engaged in so difficult a charge. For I do not assent to the opinion of those who
think that their dignity was enhanced by their age. I admit that age is venerable; but
Moses had far different views, namely, that, excluding all human means, he might
celebrate God’s glory, who performed so mighty a work by men who were failing
and decrepit with age. For although their vigor was as yet unabated, their old age
might have made them timid, and might have also affected the people with anxiety,
when they beheld their leaders to be not only of advanced age, but even naturally
not far from the grave.
COFFMA , "Verse 6-7
"And Moses and Aaron did so; as Jehovah commanded them, so did they. And
Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old when they
spake unto Pharaoh."
The perfect obedience of Moses and Aaron should be noted. It applied not merely to
the first interview about to be related but extended throughout the subsequent
chapters.
The mention of the ages of Moses and Aaron here has puzzled some, but it appears
to have been inserted for the purpose of demonstrating that the deliverance was far
more of God than of men. Both Moses and Aaron were past the age when such
exploits could have been undertaken by men, with any reason, without supernatural
endowment. We cannot allow any questioning of the ages here given. They are
confirmed by Stephen (Acts 7:23,30), and by Moses himself in Deuteronomy 31:2
and Deuteronomy 34:7.
ELLICOTT, "(6) Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them.—The
reluctance and resistance of Moses from this time ceased. He subdued his own will
to God’s, and gained the praise of being “faithful as a servant in all his house”
(Hebrews 3:5). Aaron’s obedience continued until Sinai was reached, but there
failed before the frenzy of the people (Exodus 32:1-6).
ISBET, "AUTHORITY A D OBEDIE CE
‘As the Lord commanded them, so did they.’
Exodus 7:6
ote the two outstanding facts of this Lesson—(a) the absolute obedience of Moses

43. and Aaron; (b) the Divine credentials that attested their message. They spoke their
weak words as God bade them, and He made those words authoritative by the
miracles that followed.
I. The absolute obedience.—The R.V. carefully emphasises this: ‘And Moses and
Aaron did so; as the Lord commanded them, so did they.’ While Jehovah was
everything to them, He was nothing to Pharaoh; less, indeed, than the very least of
Egypt’s gods. To the natural man how futile it would seem to summon a monarch so
great and proud to a humbling and distasteful task, and that only in a name he
despised! Every Gospel preacher probably feels this, especially in heathen lands.
How often are we tempted to alter our message; for Paul’s saying, ‘to the Greeks
foolishness,’ is still true. But no! Moses and Aaron spoke their feeble words boldly,
and God attested them by miracles.
II. Authority.—It is for God, not us, to establish the authority of His own message,
and He will whenever we speak it in the full obedience of faith. The bold utterance
of weak words, at His command and in quiet faith, commits Him to supporting acts
of power; and when, as in this case, the opposition intensifies unexpectedly, the
magician’s rod also turning into serpents, His power increases in proportion.
‘Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.’ The brave preaching of the seemingly feeble
Gospel is God’s way of power.
Illustration
(1) ‘God’s warnings will not continue for ever. To me, as to Pharaoh, will come a
final message. How do I know when it will come? How did Pharaoh know? He did
not know, nor do I. He was gratified, like a fool, by the removal of each plague, and
went on in his folly. Let me not scorn him till I am sure I am not doing the same.’
(2) ‘One of the prime objects of the plagues was to establish the superiority and
supremacy of the God of the Hebrews, so that Pharaoh might be led to acquiesce in
them, and to obey his behests. To a certain extent Satan may by his messengers
mimic the Divine working, but Aaron’s rod swallows up their rods. Who can stand
when He appeareth? The ile was one of their chief deities, and seemed all
necessary, but our dearest idols must be smitten to bring us to God.’
7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-
three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

44. CLARKE, "Moses was fourscore years old - He was forty years old when he
went to Midian, and he had tarried forty years in Midian; (see Exo_2:11, and Act_7:30);
and from this verse it appears that Aaron was three years older than Moses. We have
already seen that Miriam their sister was older than either, Exo_2:4.
GILL, "And Moses was eighty years old,.... At this time, which is observed partly to
show how long Israel had been afflicted in Egypt; for their great troubles and miseries
began about the time of the birth of Moses, or a little before, as appears from the above
history; and partly to show the patience and forbearance of God with the Egyptians, and
how just and righteous were his judgments on them; with this perfectly agrees Stephen's
account of the age of Moses, Act_7:23 and Aaron eighty three years old, when they spake
unto Pharaoh; so that they were men that had had a large experience of things, and had
been long training up for the service designed to be done by them; they were men of
wisdom and prudence, of sedate and composed countenances, and fit to appear before a
king, whose age and venerable aspect might command attention to them. Aben Ezra
observes, that"in all the Scripture there is no mention of any prophets that prophesied in
their old age but these, because their excellency was greater than all the prophets.''By
this it appears that Aaron was three years older than Moses. A Jewish chronologer says
(n), that it is affirmed in an exposition of theirs, that Aaron prophesied to the Israelites
in Egypt eighty years, which is making him to be a very young prophet when he first
entered into the office. The Arabic writers (o) say, Miriam was at this time eighty seven,
so was seven years older than Moses, and four years older than Aaron; see Exo_2:4.
JAMISO , "Moses was fourscore years old — This advanced age was a pledge
that they had not been readily betrayed into a rash or hazardous enterprise, and that
under its attendant infirmities they could not have carried through the work on which
they were entering had they not been supported by a divine hand.
BE SO , "Exodus 7:7. Moses was fourscore years old — Joseph, who was to be
only a servant to Pharaoh, was preferred at thirty years old; but Moses, who was to
be a god to Pharaoh, was not so dignified till he was eighty years old. It was fit he
should long wait for such an honour, and be long in preparing for such a service.
COKE, "Exodus 7:7. Moses was fourscore years old— So long, and indeed much
longer, the Israelites had groaned under the severities of persecution and bondage:
yet, though thus afflicted, they were not cast off and rejected by their God. The
great lesson in trials and afflictions is, to hold fast our integrity; to persevere in faith
and patience unto the end. The age and gravity of Moses and Aaron must have
given them great weight and authority before Pharaoh.
REFLECTIO S.—We have here,
1. Moses enjoined to proceed, and furnished with power to work wonders in the

45. sight of Pharaoh, and with a spokesman in his brother Aaron. And though Pharaoh
will not hearken, he shall feel God's heavy hand, and Israel shall be delivered. ote;
(1.) The contest is very unequal between a worm of earth and the mighty God. (2.)
However ministers of Christ may meet with opposition, they shall have success. (3.)
They who will not bow before the sceptre of grace, shall break beneath the rod of
judgment.
2. The obedience of Moses and Aaron at last, without farther reluctance. It is well if
at last, though late, we desire to give ourselves up wholly to the work and will of
God.
ELLICOTT, "(7) Moses was fourscore years old.—Compare Deuteronomy 34:7;
Acts 7:23; Acts 7:30. The air of Egypt. and, probably, still more that of the desert,
was favourable to longevity; and the Egyptian monuments show many cases of
officials actively employed after they were a hundred years old.
WHEDO , "7. Moses was fourscore years old — Here, at the close of the
recapitulation, we have the ages of the great actors in this drama set before us.
Aaron, it seems, was three years older than Moses; and as we hear nothing of any
special apprehensions of danger at the time of his birth, it is possible, though not
certain, that the cruel edict which endangered the life of Moses had not then been
promulgated. Miriam is not here mentioned, but she is generally supposed to be the
sister, older than Moses and Aaron, mentioned in the second chapter. Moses entered
on his great mission at fourscore, but as his ancestors Amram, Levi, and Jacob lived
beyond the third of their second century, and he himself reached the one hundred
and twentieth year, we may regard him as now having the vigour of a man of forty-
five. There are nearly contemporary Egyptian records which show similar instances
of Egyptian longevity. Stuart Poole gives (in Smith’s Dict.) a translation of a hieratic
papyrus containing a discourse of a king’s son of the fifteenth dynasty of Shepherd
Kings at Memphis, wherein the author speaks of himself as one hundred and ten
years of age, and of his father as still reigning, who must then have been older than
Moses, and probably as old as Levi. Yet these must be regarded as exceptional
instances, for the ninetieth Psalm, entitled “A prayer of Moses, the man of God,”
speaks of seventy or eighty years as the usual length of human life. And in harmony
with this, Caleb, the contemporary of Moses, says of himself at eighty-five, “Behold,
the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the
Lord spake this word unto Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness: and
now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am strong this day as I
was in the day that Moses sent me.” Joshua 14:10-11. Caleb evidently regards
himself as vigorous at eighty-five by God’s special blessing.
PULPIT, "Fourscore years old. This age is confirmed by the statement (in
Deuteronomy 31:2; Deuteronomy 34:7) that Moses was a hundred and twenty at his
death. It is also accepted as exact by St. Stephen (Acts 7:23, Acts 7:30). Moderns are
surprised that at such an age a man could undertake and carry through a difficult

46. and dangerous enterprise; but in Egypt one hundred and ten years was not
considered a very exceptionally long life, and men frequently retained their full
vigour till seventy or eighty.
BI, "Fourscore years old.
Age of Moses and Aaron
Their ages would have an important bearing toward the work of these two men.
I. Their ages would indicate that they were not likely to be misled by the enthusiasm of
youth. The world is slow to take young men into its confidence. It soon smiles at their
visions, and laughs at their enthusiastic hopes.
II. Their ages would be likely to command the respect of those with whom they had to
do. The world wants men of tried energy and long experience to achieve its moral
emancipation; men in whom hot passion has calmed into a settled force.
III. Their ages would be an incentive to fidelity, as they had spent the younger part of
life, and would be forcefully reminded of the future. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Delay in entering upon work of life
Let us learn not to be impatient for the discovery of our true lifework. Moses was eighty
years old before he entered upon that noble career by which he became the emancipator
and educator of his nation. Two-thirds of his days were gone before he really touched
that which was his great, distinctive, and peculiar labour, and his enterprise was all the
more gloriously accomplished by reason of the delay. Nor is this a solitary instance. The
Lord Jesus Himself lived thirty years, during most of which He was in training for a
public ministry, which lasted only two-and-forty months. John Knox never entered a
pulpit until he was over forty years of age; and much of the fire and energy of his
preaching was owing to the fact that the flame had been so long pent up within his
breast. Havelock was a dreary while a mere lieutenant, held back by the iniquitous
system of purchase, which was so long in vogue in the English army; but, as it happened,
that was only a life-long apprenticeship, by which he was enabled all the more efficiently
to become, at length, the saviour of the Indian Empire. So let no one chafe and fret over
the delay which seems evermore to keep him from doing anything to purpose for the
world and his Lord. The opportunity will come in its own season. It does come, sooner
or later, to every man; and it is well if, when at length he hears the voice calling, “Moses!
Moses!” he is ready with the answer, “Here am I.” For while I would comfort you with
the assurance that the hour will come, I do not mean that you should be idle until it
strikes. No; for if you adopt such a plan, the certainty is that you will not hear its stroke,
or that you will not be ready to begin at its call. The true principle is to do with your
might that which is lying at your hand day by day, in the firm conviction that you are
thereby training yourself into fitness for your future vocation. (W. H. Taylor, D. D.)

47. Aaron’s Staff Becomes a Snake
8 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
GILL, "And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron,.... After he had given
them their commission, and instructions to go to Pharaoh, and a little before they went
in to him:
saying, as follows.
HE RY 8-13, "The first time that Moses made his application to Pharaoh, he
produced his instructions only; now he is directed to produce his credentials, and does
accordingly. 1. It is taken for granted that Pharaoh would challenge these demandants to
work a miracle, that, by a performance evidently above the power of nature, they might
prove their commission from the God of nature. Pharaoh will say, Show a miracle; not
with any desire to be convinced, but with the hope that none will be wrought, and then
he would have some colour for his infidelity. 2. Orders are therefore given to turn the rod
into a serpent, according to the instructions, Exo_4:3. The same rod that was to give the
signal of the other miracles is now itself the subject of a miracle, to put a reputation
upon it. Aaron cast his rod to the ground, and instantly it became a serpent, Exo_7:10.
This was proper, not only to affect Pharaoh with wonder, but to strike a terror upon him.
Serpents are hurtful dreadful animals; the very sight of one, thus miraculously produced,
might have softened his heart into a fear of that God by whose power it was produced.
This first miracle, though it was not a plague, yet amounted to the threatening of a
plague. If it made not Pharaoh feel, it made him fear; and this is God's method of dealing
with sinners - he comes upon them gradually. 3. This miracle, though too plain to be
denied, is enervated, and the conviction of it taken off, by the magicians' imitation of it,
Exo_7:11, Exo_7:12. Moses had been originally instructed in the learning of the
Egyptians, and was suspected to have improved himself in magical arts in his long
retirement; the magicians are therefore sent for, to vie with him. And some think those
of that profession had a particular spite against the Hebrews ever since Joseph put them
all to shame, by interpreting a dream which they could make nothing of, in
remembrance of which slur put on their predecessors these magicians withstood Moses,
as it is explained, 2Ti_3:8. Their rods became serpents, real serpents; some think, by the
power of God, beyond their intention or expectation, for the hardening of Pharaoh's
heart; others think, by the power of evil angels, artfully substituting serpents in the room
of the rods, God permitting the delusion to be wrought for wise and holy ends, that those
might believe a lie who received not the truth: and herein the Lord was righteous. Yet
this might have helped to frighten Pharaoh into a compliance with the demands of
Moses, that he might be freed from these dreadful unaccountable phenomena, with
which he saw himself on all sides surrounded. But to the seed of the serpent these
serpents were no amazement. Note, God suffers the lying spirit to do strange things, that
the faith of some may be tried and manifested (Deu_13:3; 1Co_11:19), that the infidelity
of others may be confirmed, and that he who is filthy may be filthy still, 2Co_4:4. 4. Yet,
in this contest, Moses plainly gains the victory. The serpent which Aaron's rod was

48. turned into swallowed up the others, which was sufficient to have convinced Pharaoh on
which side the right lay. Note, Great is the truth, and will prevail. The cause of God will
undoubtedly triumph at last over all competition and contradiction, and will reign alone,
Dan_2:44. But Pharaoh was not wrought upon by this. The magicians having produced
serpents, he had this to say, that the case between them and Moses was disputable; and
the very appearance of an opposition to truth, and the least head made against it, serve
those for a justification of their infidelity who are prejudiced against the light and love of
it.
K&D 8-13, "The negotiations of Moses and Aaron as messengers of Jehovah with the
king of Egypt, concerning the departure of Israel from his land, commenced with a sign,
by which the messengers of God attested their divine mission in the presence of Pharaoh
(Exo_7:8-13), and concluded with the announcement of the last blow that God would
inflict upon the hardened king (Exo_11:1-10). The centre of these negotiations, or rather
the main point of this lengthened section, which is closely connected throughout, and
formally rounded off by Exo_11:9-10 into an inward unity, is found in the nine plagues
which the messengers of Jehovah brought upon Pharaoh and his kingdom at the
command of Jehovah, to bend the defiant spirit of the king, and induce him to let Israel
go out of the land and serve their God. If we carefully examine the account of these nine
penal miracles, we shall find that they are arranged in three groups of three plagues
each. For the first and second, the fourth and fifth, and the seventh and eighth were
announced beforehand by Moses to the king (Exo_7:15; Exo_8:1, Exo_8:20; Exo_9:1,
Exo_9:13; Exo_10:1), whilst the third, sixth, and ninth were sent without any such
announcement (Exo_8:16; Exo_9:8; Exo_10:21). Again, the first, fourth, and seventh
were announced to Pharaoh in the morning, and the first and fourth by the side of the
Nile (Exo_7:15; Exo_8:20), both of them being connected with the overflowing of the
river; whilst the place of announcement is not mentioned in the case of the seventh (the
hail, Exo_9:13), because hail, as coming from heaven, was not connected with any
particular locality. This grouping is not a merely external arrangement, adopted by the
writer for the sake of greater distinctness, but is founded in the facts themselves, and the
effect which God intended the plagues to produce, as we may gather from these
circumstances - that the Egyptian magicians, who had imitated the first plagues, were
put to shame with their arts by the third, and were compelled to see in it the finger of
God (Exo_8:19), - that they were smitten themselves by the sixth, and were unable to
stand before Moses (Exo_9:11), - and that after the ninth, Pharaoh broke off all further
negotiation with Moses and Aaron (Exo_10:28-29). The last plague, commonly known
as the tenth, which Moses also announced to the king before his departure (Exo_11:4.),
differed from the nine former ones both in purpose and form. It was the first beginning
of the judgment that was coming upon the hardened king, and was inflicted directly by
God Himself, for Jehovah “went out through the midst of Egypt, and smote the first-
born of the Egyptians both of man and beast” (Exo_11:4; Exo_12:29); whereas seven of
the previous plagues were brought by Moses and Aaron, and of the two that are not
expressly said to have been brought by them, one, that of the dog-flies, was simply sent
by Jehovah (Exo_8:21, Exo_8:24), and the other, the murrain of beasts, simply came
from His hand (Exo_9:3, Exo_9:6). The last blow (‫ע‬ַ‫ג‬ֶ‫נ‬ Exo_11:1), which brought about
the release of Israel, was also distinguished from the nine plagues, as the direct
judgment of God, by the fact that it was not effected through the medium of any natural
occurrence, as was the case with all the others, which were based upon the natural
phenomena of Egypt, and became signs and wonders through their vast excess above the

49. natural measure of such natural occurrences and their supernatural accumulation, blow
after blow following one another in less than a year, and also through the peculiar
circumstances under which they were brought about. In this respect also the triple
division is unmistakeable. The first three plagues covered the whole land, and fell upon
the Israelites as well as the Egyptians; with the fourth the separation commenced
between Egyptians and Israelites, so that only the Egyptians suffered from the last six,
the Israelites in Goshen being entirely exempted. The last three, again, were
distinguished from the others by the fact, that they were far more dreadful than any of
the previous ones, and bore visible marks of being the forerunners of the judgment
which would inevitably fall upon Pharaoh, if he continued his opposition to the will of
the Almighty God.
In this graduated series of plagues, the judgment of hardening was inflicted upon
Pharaoh in the manner explained above. In the first three plagues God showed him, that
He, the God of Israel, was Jehovah (Exo_7:17), i.e., that He ruled as Lord and King over
the occurrences and powers of nature, which the Egyptians for the most part honoured
as divine; and before His power the magicians of Egypt with their secret arts were put to
shame. These three wonders made no impression upon the king. The plague of frogs,
indeed, became so troublesome to him, that he begged Moses and Aaron to intercede
with their God to deliver him from them, and promised to let the people go (Exo_8:8).
But as soon as they were taken away, he hardened his heart, and would not listen to the
messengers of God. Of the three following plagues, the first (i.e., the fourth in the entire
series), viz., the plague of swarming creatures or dog-flies, with which the distinction
between the Egyptians and Israelites commenced, proving to Pharaoh that the God of
Israel was Jehovah in the midst of the land (Exo_8:22), made such an impression upon
the hardened king, that he promised to allow the Israelites to sacrifice to their God, first
of all in the land, and when Moses refused this condition, even outside the land, if they
would not go far away, and Moses and Aaron would pray to God for him, that this plague
might be taken away by God from him and from his people (Exo_8:25.). But this
concession was only forced out of him by suffering; so that as soon as the plague ceased
he withdrew it again, and his hard heart was not changed by the two following plagues.
Hence still heavier plagues were sent, and he had to learn from the last three that there
was no god in the whole earth like Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews (Heb_9:14). The
terrible character of these last plagues so affected the proud heart of Pharaoh, that twice
he acknowledged he had sinned (Exo_9:27; Exo_10:16), and gave a promise that he
would let the Israelites go, restricting his promise first of all to the men, and then
including their families also (Exo_10:11, Exo_10:24). But when this plague was
withdrawn, he resumed his old sinful defiance once more (Exo_9:34-35; Exo_10:20),
and finally was altogether hardened, and so enraged at Moses persisting in his demand
that they should take their flocks as well, that he drove away the messengers of Jehovah
and broke off all further negotiations, with the threat that he would kill them if ever they
came into his presence again (Exo_10:28-29).
Exo_7:8-13
Attestation of the Divine Mission of Moses and Aaron. - By Jehovah's directions
Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, and proved by a miracle (‫ת‬ ֵ‫ּופ‬‫מ‬ Exo_4:21) that they
were the messengers of the God of the Hebrews. Aaron threw down his staff before
Pharaoh, and it became a serpent. Aaron's staff as no other than the wondrous staff of
Moses (Exo_4:2-4). This is perfectly obvious from a comparison of Exo_7:15 and Exo_
7:17 with Exo_7:19 and Exo_7:20. If Moses was directed, according to Exo_7:15., to go
before Pharaoh with his rod which had been turned into a serpent, and to announce to

50. him that he would smite the water of the Nile with the staff in his hand and turn it into
blood, and then, according to Exo_7:19., this miracle was carried out by Aaron taking his
staff and stretching out his hand over the waters of Egypt, the staff which Aaron held
over the water cannot have been any other than the staff of Moses which had been
turned into a serpent. Consequently we must also understand by the staff of Aaron,
which was thrown down before Pharaoh and became a serpent, the same wondrous staff
of Moses, and attribute the expression “thy (i.e., Aaron's) staff” to the brevity of the
account, i.e., to the fact that the writer restricted himself to the leading facts, and passed
over such subordinate incidents as that Moses gave his staff to Aaron for him to work
the miracle. For the same reason he has not even mentioned that Moses spoke to
Pharaoh by Aaron, or what he said, although in Exo_7:13 he states that Pharaoh did not
hearken unto them, i.e., to their message or their words. The serpent, into which the
staff was changed, is not called ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫ח‬ָ‫נ‬ here, as in Exo_7:15 and Exo_4:3, but ‫ן‬ ִ ַ (lxx
δράκων, dragon), a general term for snake-like animals. This difference does not show
that there were two distinct records, but may be explained on the ground that the
miracle performed before Pharaoh had a different signification from that which attested
the divine mission of Moses in the presence of his people. The miraculous sign
mentioned here is distinctly related to the art of snake-charming, which was carried to
such an extent by the Psylli in ancient Egypt (cf. Bochart, and Hengstenberg, Egypt and
Moses, pp. 98ff. transl.). It is probable that the Israelites in Egypt gave the name ‫ן‬ ִ ַ
(Eng. ver. dragon), which occurs in Deu_32:33 and Psa_91:13 as a parallel to ‫ן‬ ֶ‫ת‬ ֶ (Eng.
ver. asp), to the snake with which the Egyptian charmers generally performed their
tricks, the Hayeh of the Arabs. What the magi and conjurers of Egypt boasted that they
could perform by their secret or magical arts, Moses was to effect in reality in Pharaoh's
presence, and thus manifest himself to the king as Elohim (Exo_7:1), i.e., as endowed
with divine authority and power. All that is related of the Psylli of modern times is, that
they understand the art of turning snakes into sticks, or of compelling them to become
rigid and apparently dead (for examples see Hengstenberg); but who can tell what the
ancient Psylli may have been able to effect, or may have pretended to effect, at a time
when the demoniacal power of heathenism existed in its unbroken force? The magicians
summoned by Pharaoh also turned their sticks into snakes (Exo_7:12); a fact which
naturally excites the suspicion that the sticks themselves were only rigid snakes, though,
with our very limited acquaintance with the dark domain of heathen conjuring, the
possibility of their working “lying wonders after the working of Satan,” i.e., supernatural
things (2Th_2:9), cannot be absolutely denied. The words, “They also, the chartummim
of Egypt, did in like manner with their enchantments,” are undoubtedly based upon the
assumption, that the conjurers of Egypt not only pretended to possess the art of turning
snakes into sticks, but of turning sticks into snakes as well, so that in the persons of the
conjurers Pharaoh summoned the might of the gods of Egypt to oppose the might of
Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews. For these magicians, whom the Apostle Paul calls
Jannes and Jambres, according to the Jewish tradition (2Ti_3:8), were not common
jugglers, but ‫ים‬ ִ‫מ‬ ָ‫כ‬ ֲ‫ח‬ “wise men,” men educated in human and divine wisdom, and ‫ים‬ ִ ֻ‫ט‬ ְ‫ר‬ ַ‫,ח‬
ᅷερογραµµατεሏς, belonging to the priestly caste (Gen_41:8); so that the power of their
gods was manifested in their secret arts (‫ים‬ ִ‫ט‬ ָ‫ה‬ ְ‫ל‬ from ‫ט‬ ַ‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ to conceal, to act secretly, like
‫ים‬ ִ‫ט‬ ָ‫ל‬ in Exo_7:22 from ‫,)לוּט‬ and in the defeat of their enchantments by Moses the gods of
Egypt were overcome by Jehovah (Exo_12:12). The supremacy of Jehovah over the
demoniacal powers of Egypt manifested itself in the very first miraculous sign, in the fact

51. that Aaron's staff swallowed those of the magicians; though this miracle made no
impression upon Pharaoh (Exo_7:13).
CALVI , "8.And the Lord spake. o wonder that Moses often repeats the same
thing, because he wrote for persons of rude and dull minds. But it behooves us, lest
we should be disgusted by his simple and popular style, diligently to examine how
little we are inclined to be acute and earnest in our consideration of the works of
God. o doubt there is here related what we have already heard respecting the
change of the rod into a serpent, except that he now tells us that the miracle which
had before been performed in the wilderness of Midian, and afterwards in Egypt, in
the sight of the people, was likewise performed once more before Pharaoh.
Moreover, we gather from hence that at the request of Pharaoh the servants of God
had proved and testified their vocation; and therefore that his pertinacity was the
less excusable, since he despised the power of God so manifestly shewn forth. For
this is usual with unbelievers, to demand proofs of God’s power, which they may
still discredit, — not that they professedly scorn God, but because their secret
impiety urges them to seek after subterfuges. The message is disagreeable and full of
what is annoying to the proud king; and because he does not dare directly to refuse
God, he invents a plausible pretext for his refusal, by asking for a miracle; and
when this is performed, he seeks still deeper lurking places, as we shall very soon
perceive. Since, therefore, it was certain that he would not pay a willing obedience to
the divine command, and would not yield before he had been miraculously
convinced, God furnishes His servants with a notable and sure testimony of His
power. Moreover, the change of the crook, or shepherd’s staff, into a serpent had
this object, namely, that the mean and rustic guise of Moses should not be despised.
For (since kings are wont to exalt themselves very highly) Pharaoh might have
laughed at the audacity of Moses and Aaron, who, forgetful, as it seemed, of their
condition, put themselves into conflict with the whole power of Egypt; but Pharaoh
knew, although they were not to be dreaded for their splendid appearance, and had
nothing magnificent about them, that they were still not destitute of sure and strong
help, when he saw the serpent come forth from the rod. In a word, God bore witness
that His power is hidden beneath the infirmity of His servants, so that at every
season He might render formidable to the greatest monarchs those who otherwise
are like earthen vessels. It is not clear to me why Aaron was commanded to cast
down the rod rather than Moses, unless, perhaps, because God would designedly
humble the pride of the arrogant king, when He did not deign to exert His power by
the hand of His superior servant, but only employed the inferior one. Therefore,
with reference to this ministration, the rod of God and of Moses is now called the
rod of Aaron. Thus Paul boasts of his gospel, the office of preaching which he knew
to be committed to him. (Romans 16:25, and 2 Timothy 2:8.)
COFFMA , "Verses 8-10
A PRELIMI ARY MIRACLE (Exodus 7:8-13)
"And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh shall
speak unto you, Show a wonder for you; then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy

52. rod, and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it become a serpent. And Moses and
Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so, as Jehovah had commanded: and
Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a
serpent."
The question of miracles in the Pentateuch troubles some people, but the
authenticity and effectiveness of the miracles described extensively in Exodus are a
vital and significant fact of the divine revelation which we hold these sacred books
to be. "When man rejects miracles, he rejects God. The real essence of miracle, then,
is the acknowledgment that God is at work."[8]
MIRACLES
There is no way to get rid of miracles. The student of God's Word is confronted with
the miraculous and the supernatural on every page of it. "To explain away or excise
one miracle will not solve the problem. The Bible is filled with them ... the removal
of one requires the removal of all!"[9] The three customary ways of trying to get rid
of miracles are:
outright denial of the supernatural, leaving man himself as the highest thing in the
universe,
finding "natural explanations" that actually do not deny the existence of God, but at
the same time remove Him from the scene, as for example, when Jesus' walking on
the sea is ascribed to an optical illusion caused by his walking EAR the water! and
they are interpreted as purely psychological. An example of this is the explanation of
Feeding the Five Thousand as being due to mass psychology that resulted from the
little boy's willingness to share his lunch. He brought it to Jesus, and the vast throng
were so shamed by his sweet example that everyone brought out his own hidden
lunch basket, and they all had a big feast! All explanations of Biblical miracles that
follow such patterns are absolutely worthless, pitiful devices of infidelity, and should
be rejected.
Being unwilling to accept miracles, some writers will not admit that they belong in
the Bible, but seek some way to ascribe them to others than to the sacred authors.
Rylaarsdam, for example, referred to the miracles in these chapters as "fantastic
stories, piously-decorated accounts." Their value is "symbolical rather than
historical."[10] Also, he and many others of the critical fraternity deny any Mosaic
connection at all, postulating a ninth or tenth century date. All such denials,
however, are futile. The Mosaic authorship of Exodus (and the whole Pentateuch) is
established beyond all efforts of unbelievers to remove it. We are thankful for the
following able scholar:
"That Moses wrote Exodus is supported by positive testimony beginning in his day
and continuing into modern times through an unbroken chain. In Moses' day it was
recorded in the Bible that, `Moses wrote all the words of the Lord' (Exodus 24:4). In

53. Joshua's day Moses law was enjoined to the people (Joshua 1:7). In David's day the
king referred to `his commandments ... written in the law of Moses' (1 Kings 2:3).
King Josiah discovered `the book of the law' in the temple (2 Chronicles 34:14).
During the Babylonian exile, Daniel read of the `curse written in the law of Moses'
(Daniel 9:11). Ezra the priest set up Passover services for the returning remnant `as
it is written in the book of Moses' (Ezra 6:18). The O.T. ends with Malachi's
exhortation, `Remember the law of my servant Moses' (Malachi 4:4). Definitive for
the Christian is the fact that Jesus quoted from Exodus 20:11, using the
introduction, `For Moses said' (Mark 7:10; Luke 20:37). The apostle Paul noted,
`Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the
law ...' (Romans 10:5f; Exodus 20:1). Finally, the testimony of both the Jewish
community and the Christian church throughout history has been to the effect that
Moses wrote the Book of Exodus. The weight of this ancient and enduring testimony
cannot be overthrown by the mere speculations of `Johnny-come-lately'
skeptics."[11]
Every device ever invented by unbelievers has failed to cast any reflection upon the
epic truth that God through Moses gave us the Pentateuch, that its miracles are
represented as historical events, designed and executed upon Egypt by God Himself
through Moses and Aaron, and that the design of those wonders was manifold,
including not only the ultimate deliverance of the Chosen Race from bondage, but
also the drastic exposure of Egyptian idolatry as a hoax. Also, the whole marvelous
account of the delivery of Israel from Egypt is a type of the salvation of all men. The
universal and perpetual significance of these wonderful events, therefore, far more
than justifies such a divine intrusion into human affairs as is unfolded in Exodus.
The man of faith, therefore, far from being disturbed by the objections of critics,
glories in every precious word of this astounding narrative.
We cannot leave this phase of our discussion without pointing out that the Jewish
Passover has been a continual celebration of the events narrated here for a time-
span of more than three millenniums. Where is there any event of human history as
well attested and confirmed as this?
Many have observed the strange fact that practically all of the wonders described in
Exodus involve purely natural phenomena. Frogs, lice, locusts, hail, etc. are in no
sense miraculous. evertheless, Bible believers account all the Ten Plagues as
MIRACLES. Here are some of the ways in which these wonders were miraculous:
In each case they were accurately foretold, as to the time and place of occurrence.
The intensity of such things as the frogs and lice was beyond all possibility of what
could have been expected naturally.
Both their occurrence and their cessation were demonstrated to be under the control
and subject to the Word of God through Moses.
There was discrimination, some of the plagues afflicting the Egyptians and yet at the
same time sparing the Israelites.

54. There was orderliness in their appearance, each event more severe than the one that
preceded it, culminating at last in the most devastating of all, the death of the
firstborn.
Also, there was progression in relation to the reaction of Pharaoh's servants. At
first, they assayed to do anything that Moses did, but at last admitted their failure
and affirmed that, "This is the finger of God!"
Over and beyond all this, "There was a moral purpose in the plagues; they were not
mere freaks of nature."[12]
We noted above that the plagues generally came in the form of phenomena that
were not uncommon to Egypt in those times, or in all times, for that matter. Critical
scholars have objected to Christian recognition of this fact. Of course, the Christian
understanding that natural phenomena were involved, along with the
understanding that the miraculous element in the events was achieved largely by
such things as intensity, timing, prediction, and control by Moses and Aaron, such
understanding leaves the critic high and dry with no valid basis of denial. The
unbeliever would much prefer to point out that frogs in Egypt are common and feel
that such a fact as that denies the miracles! The miracle in each of these great
wonders was something far different from any ordinary phenomena.
"And it became a serpent ..." (Exodus 7:10). Oddly enough, the word here rendered
"serpent" actually means crocodile,[13] a different word from that found in Exodus
4:3. Evidently, God had anticipated the action of Pharaoh's servants, and so the rod
this time became a much larger sea animal sufficiently large to swallow all the
serpents their rods would produce. We should not press such a thought, however,
because as Rawlinson said, "It is not clear that a different species is meant. More
probably it is regarded by the writer as a synonym."[14]
CO STABLE, "Verses 8-13
3. The attestation of Moses and Aaron"s divine mission7:8-13
Pharaoh requested that Moses and Aaron perform a miracle to prove their divine
authority since they claimed that God had sent them ( Exodus 7:9-10).
"What we refer to as the ten "plagues" were actually judgments designed to
authenticate Moses as God"s messenger and his message as God"s message. Their
ultimate purpose was to reveal the greatness of the power and authority of God to
the Egyptians ( Exodus 7:10 to Exodus 12:36) in order to bring Pharaoh and the
Egyptians into subjection to God." [ ote: J. Dwight Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come,
p83.]
The Jews preserved the names of the chief magicians even though the Old
Testament did not record them. Paul said they were Jannes and Jambres ( 2
Timothy 3:9). These were not sleight-of-hand artists but wise men who were

55. evidently members of the priestly caste (cf. Genesis 41:8). The power of their
demonic gods lay in their "secret arts" ( Exodus 7:11). They were able to do
miracles in the power of Satan ( 1 Corinthians 10:20; cf. Matthew 24:24; 2
Thessalonians 2:9-10; Revelation 13:13-14). [ ote: See Merrill Unger, Biblical
Demonology, p139; idem, Demons in the World Today, pp38-39.] The superiority of
the Israelites" God is clear in the superiority of Aaron"s serpent over those of the
Egyptian magicians ( Exodus 7:12). The rod again represented regal authority and
implied that Yahweh, not Pharaoh, was sovereign (cf. Exodus 4:2-5).
There are at least three possibilities regarding the Egyptian magicians" rods
becoming snakes. The magicians may have received power to create life from Satan,
with God"s premission. Second, God may have given them this power directly.
Third, their rods may have been rigid snakes that, when cast to the ground, were
seen to be what they were, serpents.
Aaron"s miracle should have convinced Pharaoh of Yahweh"s sovereignty, but he
chose to harden his heart in unbelief and disobedience. Consequently God sent the
plagues that followed.
"The point of this brief section is that Yahweh"s proof of his powerful Presence to
the Pharaoh and thus to the Pharaoh"s Egypt will be miraculous in nature." [ ote:
Durham, p92.]
WHEDO , "THE TE PLAGUES, Exodus 7:8 to Exodus 12:30.
Moses and Aaron now stand before Pharaoh as ministers of judgment, and the
conflict opens between Jehovah and the gods of Egypt. The first contest between the
messengers of Jehovah and the magicians, or enchanters, who are regarded as the
servants of the false gods, given in Exodus 7:8-13, is properly the opening scene of
the struggle, and is therefore here included in the section with it. Several general
observations on the whole subject are most conveniently introduced here for future
reference.
(1.) The great and worthy object of these “signs and wonders” is throughout to be
carefully held before the mind. There were several secondary purposes met, but the
chief aim was, not to inflict retribution upon Egypt, although they did this as
judgments, nor to give Israel independence, though they effected this by crushing
the oppressor, but to teach the world the nature of God. It was a series of most
solemn lessons in the fundamental truths of religion — in God’s attributes and
government. With perfect distinctness and reiterated emphasis is this declared from
the very beginning: “I am JEHOVAH… Ye shall know… the Egyptians shall know
that I am JEHOVAH.” Events were to burn into the national consciousness of
Israel, and into the memory of the world, the great truths revealed in the Memorial
ame; and the faith of Israel, the sin of Pharaoh, and the might and splendour of
Egyptian heathenism, were the divinely chosen instruments to accomplish this work.
The rich ile-land teemed with gods, and was the mother country of the idolatries
that, centuries afterward, covered the Mediterranean islands and peninsulas, and

56. filled the classic literature with such manifold forms of beauty. The gods of Greece
were born in Egypt, and the Sibyls of Delphos and Cumaea descended from the
sorcerers who contended with Moses. In no other land has idolatry ever reared such
grand and massive structures as in Egypt. The immense ram-headed Ammun and
hawk-headed Ra, the placid monumental Osiris, the colossal Rameses, sitting in
granite “with his vast hands resting upon his elephantine knees,” these, and their
brother gods of the age of the Pharaohs, have looked down upon the rising and
falling ile through all the centuries of European civilization. In no other land were
the manifold forms and productions of nature so deified. In their pantheistic
idolatry they offered worship not only to the sun, and moon, and earth, but to bulls,
crocodiles, cats, hawks, asps, scorpions, and beetles. They seem to have made to
themselves likenesses of almost every thing in “heaven above, in earth beneath, and
in the waters under the earth.” The Apis and Mnevis bulls were stalled in
magnificent palaces at Memphis and Heliopolis, and were embalmed in massive
marble and granite sarcophagi, grander than enclosed the Theban kings. The
sepulchres of Egyptian bulls have outlasted the sepulchres of Roman emperors.
owhere else were kings so deified as here. Pharaoh incarnated in himself the
national idolatry, and to crush the king was to crush the gods. The king made his
palace a temple, and enthroned himself among the Egyptian deities. He sculptured
himself colossal — so vast that the Arabs to-day quarry millstones from his cheeks
— sitting hand in hand and arm in arm with his gods. To-day Rameses sits in the
temple of Ipsambul between Ra and Ammun, his tall crown rising between the
hawk head of the one and the tiara of the other, looking out from his rock-hewn
shrine upon the desert, as he has sat since the Pharaohs. From Cambyses to
apoleon invasion after invasion has swept the ile valley — wave on wave — yet
here have sat these massive forms, the ile coming to bathe their feet year by year,
as if brothers to the mountains. They mark the graves of Egypt’s vanished gods,
while the name of Him who smote these gods to death with Moses’s rod liveth
forever.
(2.) But Egypt was the mother-land of philosophies as well as idolatries. Long ages
after Moses, Herodotus, Pythagoras, and Plato followed the Hebrew lawgiver to the
oldest university in the world. The Egyptian philosophy was inextricably entangled
with its religion, and deciphered papyri show that magic and sorcery were esteemed
as highly at the court of Pharaoh, as, long after, in the time of Daniel, at the court of
ebuchadnezzar. The dreamy mysticism of Plato and of Philo reveals how
hopelessly most precious truths were entangled in priestly juggleries, and how
deeply this black art, or illusion, or demonism, left its mark on the ancient world.
The heathen idolatry had no more potent allies in the old civilizations than the
soothsayers, sorcerers, and magicians, and it was needful that they too should be
signally vanquished by the prophet of the true God. Hence Moses in Egypt — as, a
thousand years later, Daniel in Babylon, and a half thousand years later still, Paul
at Salamis and Philippi — discomfited the false prophets who aped God’s mighty
works with their lying wonders. The sooth-saying and necromancy found in
Christian lands to-day belong to the same kingdom of darkness, and can be
exorcised only in that “ ame which is above every name.” Moses, then, smites for
mankind; Israel brings the Sacred ame through the wilderness for the world.

57. (3.) The weapons and tactics of this warfare were not such as to inflame the pride of
the people of Israel, or to awaken in after generations a thirst for military glory, but
such as to turn the tides of their faith and hope wholly away from themselves to
their God. Hence the Hebrew national anthems glory in Jehovah rather than in
Israel. ot the baptism of a war of national independence, but that of the Red Sea
redemption, was their great national remembrance. Enthusiasm for Jehovah thus
became the national passion. How appropriate was this in the training of a nation
which was to teach the world true religion!
The real character of these plagues, or judgment strokes, will, as a general thing,
appear from an attentive study of the Egyptian geography and natural history. They
arise, as can usually be seen on the face of the narrative, from natural causes
supernaturally intensified and directed. In the first and ninth plagues the natural
causation is less distinct. They cannot, however, be explained away as natural
events; for, if the record is to be believed at all, they were supernatural — (1) in
their definiteness, the time of their occurrence and discontinuance being distinctly
predicted; (2) in their succession; and (3) in their intensity. They were, in their
power and direction, threefold: (1) against the Egyptian faith in the diviners,
enchanters, and sorcerers, the prophets of a false religion. (2) Against their faith in
their deities, their gods of earth, and water, and air — powers of nature; and beasts,
and birds, and creeping things. Thus Jehovah’s supremacy over idolatry appeared.
But (3) they were also punishments for disobedience to God. There is from the
beginning a gradually increasing intensity in these supernatural manifestations till
the magicians are utterly discomfited, all the gods of Egypt put to shame, and
Pharaoh compelled to yield reluctant obedience. At first the magicians seem to
display the same power as Moses, (Exodus 7:11; Exodus 7:22,) then come signs
beyond their power. (Exodus 8:18;) soon the prophet of Jehovah so smites them that
they cannot appear at all, (Exodus 9:11;) and then they vanish altogether. So the
weight of the judgments increases as with increasing light the crime of disobedience
rises in magnitude — beginning with simple though sore annoyances, as blood,
frogs, and flies; then advancing to the destruction of food and cattle — smiting first
their dwelling-place and surroundings, and then themselves; till the locusts swept
the earth and the darkness filled the heaven, and only the death stroke was left to
fall. Thus we are taught how the consequence of sin is sin, and judgments unheeded
inevitably lead on to sorer judgments, till destruction comes.
(4.) Some commentators have found a special application in each plague to some
particular idolatry or idolatrous rite, but this we do not find warranted by facts.
Some, following Philo, the learned and devout but fanciful Alexandrian Jew,
separate the plagues into two groups of nine and one, and then the nine into three
groups of three, between which groups they trace what they deem instructive
contrasts and correspondences. Origen, Augustine, and others, have traced parallels
between these ten judgments and the ten commandments, the succession of the
judgments and of the creative days, etc. Most of these interpretations — not to dwell
on the extravagant conceits of the Rabbies — are amusing rather than instructive,
and would be appropriate rather to a sacred romance or drama than to a sober

58. history like this. The wild fables of the Talmud, the monstrosities of the Koran, and
the often romantically embellished history of Josephus, present here an instructive
contrast to the sacred narrative.
(5.) Thus far the Egyptian monuments give us no distinct mention of the plagues and
of the exodus. We have, however, Egyptian records of the sojourn and exodus of
Israel, although confused and fragmentary, and written more than a thousand years
after the events. Chief and most valuable among these is the narrative of the priest
Manetho, who wrote his Egyptian history during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus,
B.C. 283-247, of which a few fragments remain. Josephus has preserved all that we
have of this narrative in his work against Apion. It is, as might be expected, a very
different history, being the relation of an Egyptian priest many centuries after the
events; yet the points of agreement are very striking.
The Israelites appear in Manetho’s story as a nation of lepers, headed by Osarsiph,
a priest of Osiris, who had been educated at Heliopolis, but abandoned his order
and the Egyptian religion to take the lead of this people. He taught them to abjure
idolatry, gave them laws, a constitution and ceremonial, and when he united his
fortunes with theirs he changed his name to Moses. The war is described as a
religious war, in which, for the time, the Egyptians were discomfited, and obliged, in
compliance with prophetic warnings, to abandon the country for thirteen years, and
to flee, with their king Amenophis, into Ethiopia, taking with them the bull Apis and
other sacred animals, while this leprous nation, reinforced by shepherds from
Jerusalem, fortified themselves in Avaris, (Zoan,) a city of Goshen, robbed the
temples, insulted the gods, roasted and ate the sacred animals, and cast contempt in
every way upon the Egyptian worship. Amenophis afterwards returned with a great
army and chased the shepherds and lepers out of his dominions through a dry
desert to Palestine. (From Ewald’s trans., Hist. of Israel, 2:79.) Here, as Ewald
shows, the great outlines of the story of the exodus are to be clearly seen; the Mosaic
leadership, the war of religions, the uprising of the hostile religion in Egypt itself,
the leprous affliction of the revolting people, so pointedly mentioned in the
Pentateuch, the secret superstitious dread inspired by Moses, which seems to have
shaken the foundations of the Egyptian religion, the confession of defeat in the
struggle, and the transformation of the exodus into an expulsion from Egypt —
these are unmistakable traces of the same history coming down through Egyptian
channels. The later Egyptian writers, Chaeremon and Lysimachus, echo the story of
Manetho, mingling with it Hebrew traditions. (Josephus Against Apion, bks. i, 2.)
(6.) The exotic of Israel from Egypt is a fact now universally admitted, whatever
differences may exist in its explanation. Bunsen says, in his Egypt, that “History
herself was born on that night when Moses led forth his countrymen from the land
of Goshen.” That this event resulted from some heavy calamities which at that time
befel the Egyptians, or, in other words, that the narrative of the plagues has a solid
historical foundation, is also now maintained with unbroken unanimity by Hebrew
and Egyptian scholars, even by those who decline to see in these events anything
supernatural. Thus Ewald says, that this history, “on the whole, exhibits the essence
of the event as it actually happened.” And Knobel says, that “in the time of Moses

59. circumstances had transpired which made it possible for the Hebrews to go forth of
themselves, and impossible for the Egyptians to hinder their undertaking or to force
them to return.” In other words, they who refuse to recognise here miraculous
influence do recognise miraculous coincidence. Without any war, which, had it
happened, must, as Knobel says, have left some trace in the history — without any
invasion from abroad or insurrection from within to weaken the Egyptian power —
a nation, unified and vitalized by faith in the one Jehovah, went forth unhindered
from the bosom of a strong and prosperous empire. This is the event to be
explained. The Mosaic record alone gives an adequate cause.
LA GE, "On the whole series of Egyptian plagues, see the Introduction. But we
reckon not nine plagues (with Keil), but ten, as a complete number symbolizing the
history of the visitation. Moses’ miraculous rod forms the prologue to it; the
destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, the epilogue.
1. Moses’ miraculous rod in contest with the divining rods of the Egyptian wise men,
Exodus 7:8-13.
Exodus 7:8-9. Shew a miracle for yourselves.—It is a general assumption, shared
also by the Egyptians, that an ambassador of God must attest his mission by signs,
miraculous signs. Take thy rod.—Aaron’s rod is Moses’ rod, which, however, passes
over into his hand, as Moses’ word into his mouth.—A serpent. The Hebrew is ‫ִין‬‫נּ‬ַ‫.תּ‬
LXX. δράκων. According to Keil the expression is selected with reference to the
Egyptian snake-charmers. He says, “Comp. Bochart, Hieroz. III, p 162 sqq, ed.
Rosenmüler; and Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books, etc., p100 sqq. Probably the
Israelites in Egypt designated by ‫ִין‬‫נּ‬ַ‫,תּ‬ which occurs in Deuteronomy 32:33; Psalm
91:13, in parallelism with ‫ן‬ֶ‫ֶת‬‫פּ‬, the snake with which the Egyptian serpent-charmers
chiefly carry on their business, the Hayeh of the Arabs.” Of the Song of Solomon -
called Psylli it is only known that they are able to put serpents into a rigid state, and
in this sense to transform them into sticks. This then is the natural fact in relation
and opposition to which the sign, by which Moses attested his mission, stands. The
relation between the mysterious miracle of Moses and the symbolical development
of it is rather difficult to define.
9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a
miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and
throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become
a snake.”

60. BAR ES, "Thy rod - Apparently the rod before described Exo_4:2, which Moses on
this occasion gives to Aaron as his representative.
A serpent - A word different from that in Exo_4:3. Here a more general term, ‫תנין‬
tannıyn, is employed, which in other passages includes all sea or river monsters, and is
more specially applied to the crocodile as a symbol of Egypt. It occurs in the Egyptian
ritual, nearly in the same form, “Tanem,” as a synonym of the monster serpent which
represents the principle of antagonism to light and life.
CLARKE, "Show a miracle for you - A miracle, ‫מופת‬ mopheth, signifies an effect
produced in nature which is opposed to its laws, or such as its powers are inadequate to
produce. As Moses and Aaron professed to have a Divine mission, and to come to
Pharaoh on the most extraordinary occasion, making a most singular and
unprecedented demand, it was natural to suppose, if Pharaoh should even give them an
audience, that he would require them to give him some proof by an extraordinary sign
that their pretensions to such a Divine mission were well founded and incontestable. For
it appears to have ever been the sense of mankind, that he who has a Divine mission to
effect some extraordinary purpose can give a supernatural proof that he has got this
extraordinary commission.
Take thy rod - This rod, whether a common staff, an ensign of office, or a shepherd’s
crook, was now consecrated for the purpose of working miracles; and is indifferently
called the rod of God, the rod of Moses, and the rod of Aaron. God gave it the miraculous
power, and Moses and Aaron used it indifferently.
GILL, "When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, show a miracle for
you,.... To prove that they came from God, the Jehovah they said they did, and that they
were his ambassadors, and came in his name, and made the demand for him; which
when he seriously reflected on things, he would be ready to require, hoping they would
not be able to show any, and then he should have somewhat against them, and treat
them as impostors:
then thou shalt say unto Aaron, take thy rod; the same that Moses had in his
hand at Horeb, and brought with him to Egypt; this he had delivered into the hand of
Aaron, who was to be his agent, and with this rod do signs and wonders as he did, and
on account of them it is sometimes called the rod of God:
and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent; as it became one
before at Horeb, when Moses by the order of God cast it on the ground, and afterwards
became a rod again, as it now was, Exo_4:2 Hence Mercury, the messenger of the gods
with the Heathens, is represented as having a "caduceus", a rod or wand twisted about
with snakes (p).

61. BE SO , "Exodus 7:9. Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod — This Moses ordinarily
held in his hand, and delivered to Aaron, upon occasion, for the execution of his
commands. For this and some other miracles were to be done, not by Moses
immediately, but by Aaron, partly, perhaps, to preclude or take off the suspicion
that these miracles were wrought by some magic arts of Moses, and partly for the
greater honour of Moses, that he might be what God had said, (Exodus 7:1,) a god
to Pharaoh, who not only could work miracles himself, but also give power to others
to do so. Perhaps the conjecture of Grotius upon this place may be worth
mentioning here, which is, that the custom of ambassadors bearing a caduceus, or
rod, in their hands, had its origin in this event, being taken up first by the
neighbouring nations, and from them communicated to the Greeks and Romans.
And it is remarkable that the caduceus of Mercury, the messenger of the gods of
Greece and Rome, was formed of two serpents twisted round a rod.
COKE, "Exodus 7:9. When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle—
Hence it appears evidently, that miracles were judged, by the common sense of
mankind, a proper and sufficient proof of a commission from God. Our Saviour
constantly made this appeal: believe me for the work's sake:—the works which I do,
they witness for me, &c. Grotius has an ingenious conjecture on this place, that the
custom of ambassadors bearing a caduceus or rod in their hands, was first derived
from this event to the neighbouring nations; and from them to the Greeks and
Romans: and it is remarkable, that the caduceus of Mercury, the messenger of the
gods, was formed of two serpents twined round a rod.
ELLICOTT, "(9) Shew a miracle for you.—Pharaoh had perhaps heard of the
miracles wrought by Aaron before the people of Israel (Exodus 4:30), and was
curious to be an eye-witness of one, as was Herod Antipas (Luke 23:8). Or he may
have thought that if Moses and Aaron “shewed a miracle,” his own magicians would
be able to show greater ones, and he would then dismiss the brothers as charlatans
and impostors. He certainly did hot intend to be influenced by any miracle which
they might show, or to accept it as evidence that their message to him was a
command from God.
Thy rod.—The rod is now called Aaron’s, because Moses had entrusted him with it.
(Comp. Exodus 7:19, and Exodus 8:5; Exodus 8:16-17.)
A serpent.—Or, a snake. The word is not the same as that used in Exodus 4:3, but
appears to be a synonym.
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:9 When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle
for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast [it] before Pharaoh,
[and] it shall become a serpent.
Ver. 9. Show a miracle for you.] A persuading wonder, an admirable work, above
the power of nature, as being a kind of creation, and such as requires omnipotency.
But Pharaoh’s heart was such a nether millstone, as neither miracle, nor ministry,
nor misery, nor mercy could possibly mollify. At the burning of Bainham the

62. martyr, when his arms and legs were half consumed, he cried out to the bystanders
and said, O ye Papists, behold you look for miracles! here now you may see a
miracle: for in this fire I feel no more pain than if I were in a bed of down, or of
roses. (a) Thus he: sed surdis fabulam.
PARKER, "For All Gleaners
"When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you." — Exodus
7:9.
The world has certain rights in reference to the Church. The world is at liberty to
call upon the Church to prove its inspiration-It is not enough for any Church to say
that it can work miracles; it must prove the saying by the action.—Christianity is
the great miracle-working power. Christianity never does anything but miracles.—
The mischief is that we have affixed to the term miracle a narrow signification, and
have declared that miracles have ceased.—This is a profound misconception.—The
presence of Christianity in the world is itself a miracle. Every man who is turned
from darkness to light is a living miracle.—Every life that is turned round from
going in one direction to going in another direction illustrates the miraculous energy
of Christian inspiration.—It is better to show living miracles than to be clever in
logical arguments.—The world is not to be convinced by controversy, but by the
higher kind of miracles,—change of spirit, temper, disposition, purpose; that change
is known by the Scriptural name regeneration or the new birth—a name which
ought never to be surrendered; there is none like it for range and expressiveness.—
Even if the world can show miracles of its own, there must be a point of superiority
in Christian miracles which will instantly and finally decide the competition.—
ever disallow the power of education or of social custom to work certain wonders
in human character and purpose. othing is to be gained by such denial. Such
denial would, indeed, be unjust.—The power of Christianity is to transcend such
wonders by sublimer miracles.
PULPIT, "When Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, Shew a miracle. It is obvious
that there would have been an impropriety in Moses and Aaron offering a sign to
Pharaoh until he asked for one. They claimed to be ambassadors of Jehovah, and to
speak in his name (Exodus 5:1). Unless they were misdoubted, it was not for them to
produce their credentials. Hence they worked no miracle at their former interview.
ow, however, the time was come when their credentials would be demanded, and
an express command was given them to exhibit the first "sign."
10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did

63. just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his
staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials,
and it became a snake.
CLARKE, "It became a serpent - ‫תנין‬ tannin. What kind of a serpent is here
intended, learned men are not agreed. From the manner in which the original word is
used in Psa_74:13; Isa_27:1; Isa_51:9; Job_7:12; some very large creature, either
aquatic or amphibious, is probably meant; some have thought that the crocodile, a well-
known Egyptian animal, is here intended. In Exo_4:3 it is said that this rod was changed
into a serpent, but the original word there is ‫נחש‬ nachash, and here ‫תנין‬ tannin, the same
word which we translate whale, Gen_1:21.
As ‫נחש‬ nachash seems to be a term restricted to no one particular meaning, as has
already been shown on Genesis 3; See Clarke’s note on Gen_3:1. So the words ‫תנין‬ tannin,
‫תנינים‬ tanninim, ‫תנים‬ tannim, and ‫תנות‬ tannoth, are used to signify different kinds of
animals in the Scriptures. The word is supposed to signify the jackal in Job_30:29; Psa_
44:19; Isa_13:22; Isa_34:13; Isa_35:7; Isa_43:20; Jer_9:11, etc., etc.; and also a dragon,
serpent, or whale, Job_7:12; Psa_91:13; Isa_27:1; Isa_51:9; Jer_51:34; Eze_29:3; Eze_
32:2; and is termed, in our translation, a sea-monster, Lam_4:3. As it was a rod or staff
that was changed into the tannim in the cases mentioned here, it has been supposed that
an ordinary serpent is what is intended by the word, because the size of both might be
then pretty nearly equal: but as a miracle was wrought on the occasion, this
circumstance is of no weight; it was as easy for God to change the rod into a crocodile, or
any other creature, as to change it into an adder or common snake.
GILL, "And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh,.... Into the palace of
Pharaoh boldly, and with intrepidity, clothed with such power and authority, and
assured of success:
and they did as the Lord had commanded; they demanded in his name the
dismission of the children of Israel, and upon his requiring a miracle to confirm their
mission, wrought one as follows:
and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and it became a serpent: or a
"dragon", as the Septuagint version; this word is sometimes used of great whales, Gen_
1:21 and of the crocodile, Eze_29:3 and it is very likely the crocodile is meant here, as Dr.
Lightfoot (q) thinks; since this was frequent in the Nile, the river of Egypt, where the
Hebrew infants had been cast, and into whose devouring jaws they fell, and which also
was an Egyptian deity (r). Though no mention is made of Pharaoh's demanding a
miracle, yet no doubt he did, as the Lord had intimated he would, and without which it
can hardly be thought it would be done; and Artapanus (s), an Heathen writer, expressly

64. asserts it; for he says,"when the king required of Moses to do some sign or wonder, the
rod which he had he cast down, and it became a serpent, to the amazement of all, and
then took it by its tail and it be came a rod again;''which is a testimony from an Heathen
of the truth of this miracle.
JAMISO , "Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, etc. — It is to be
presumed that Pharaoh had demanded a proof of their divine mission.
CALVI , "10.And Moses and Aaron went in. Although they were now fully
conscious of their vocation; and knew that they were endued with divine power for
working miracles, yet would they never have dared to approach the fierce and cruel
tyrant, unless the inward inspiration of the Spirit had armed them to persevere.
Hence, then, arose their magnanimity to overcome all terrors; because God raised
them by faith above everything that is lofty on earth, and sustained them by this
support. Therefore do they come to the conflict with invincible strength, and
confirm by a miracle their most hateful mission. But as to the question which is
ordinarily raised here, whether the change of the rods was true and substantial, as
they call it; with respect to that of Moses, I am confidently persuaded that it was so;
for there is no more difficulty with God to change the forms of things, than there
was to create heaven and earth out of nothing. Philosophers are not ignorant of the
great variety of transmutations which occur in nature, nay, it is patent even to the
uninstructed; but, because the rod was changed into a serpent in an extraordinary
manner, and contrary to the course of nature, we must form the same judgment of it
as of the change of Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt; except that the rod soon after
returned into its original nature. (Genesis 19:26.) There is more reason for doubt
respecting the rods of the magicians, since it is probable that the eyes of the wicked
king were deceived by their illusions. But there would be nothing absurd in our
saying, that such liberty was conceded to them by God, not that they should create
one body out of another, but that they should set forth the work of God as being
their own. For assuredly the potency of error far surpasses the bounds of our
comprehension. This Paul affirms to be given to Satan for the punishment of
unbelievers, “that they should believe a lie,” because they will not obey the truth. (2
Thessalonians 2:11.) He says, indeed, that the coming of Antichrist shall be with
signs and lying wonders, but by adding the word “power,” he shews that the
deception or illusion shall not consist so much in the external form of things, as in
the perverse abuse of signs. (81) Therefore Christ absolutely pronounces that “false
prophets shall shew great signs and wonders.” (Matthew 24:24.) It might be, then,
that God in just vengeance might choose the rods of the magicians to be changed
into serpents; as we shall hereafter see that the waters were changed by their
enchantments into blood, that the earth was covered with frogs and lice, that the
fields were smitten with hail, and the atmosphere darkened. (82) Still we must be
assured, that not even a fly can be created except by God only; but that Satan lays
hold, for the purpose of his impostures, of things which are done by the secret
judgment of God.
BE SO , "Exodus 7:10. It became a serpent — This was proper, not only to affect
Pharaoh with wonder, but to strike a terror upon him. This first miracle, though it

65. was not a plague, yet amounted to the threatening of a plague; if it made not
Pharaoh feel, it made him fear; and this is God’s method of dealing with sinners; he
comes upon them gradually.
WHEDO , "Verse 10
OPE I G CO TEST WITH THE MAGICIA S, Exodus 7:10-13.
10. And Aaron cast down his rod… and it became a serpent — ‫,תנין‬ a dragon or
crocodile, not the serpent ( ‫נחשׁ‬ ) into which the rod was changed when Moses came
before the elders of Israel. Exodus 4:3. The shepherd’s staff is changed into the
monster of the ile. Pharaoh is thus warned, by a symbol clear to the Egyptian
mind, that the shepherd race of Israel is to be miraculously transformed into a
formidable nation, comparable in might with Egypt. The crocodile’s tail is the
hieroglyphic symbol of Egypt.
PULPIT, "THE FIRST SIG , A D ITS FAILURE TO CO VI CE. Obeying the
command given them (Exodus 7:2, Exodus 7:9), Moses and Aaron went to the court
a second time, and entering into the royal presence, probably repeated their
demand—as from God—that the king would let the Children of Israel go (Exodus
6:11), when Pharaoh objected that they had no authority to speak to him in God's
name, and required an evidence of their authority, either in the actual words of
Exodus 7:9 ("Shew a miracle for you"), or in some equivalent ones. Aaron hereupon
cast down on the ground the rod which Moses had brought from Midian, and it
became a serpent (Exodus 7:10). Possibly Pharaoh may have been prepared for this.
He may have been told that this was one among the signs which had been done in
the sight of the elders and people of Israel when the two brothers first came back
from Midian (Exodus 4:30). If he knew of it, no doubt the "magicians" knew of it,
and had prepared themselves. Pharaoh summoned them, as was natural, to his
presence, and consulted them with respect to the portent, whereupon they too cast
down the rods which they were carrying in their hands, and they "became serpents;
but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods" (Exodus 7:12). (For the explanation of
those facts, see the comment below). Pharaoh was to some extent impressed by the
miracle, but not so as to yield. His heart remained hard, and he refused to let the
people go.
Exodus 7:10
Aaron cast down his rod. The rod is called indifferently "Aaron's rod" and "Moses'
rod," because, though properly the rod of Moses (Exodus 4:2), yet ordinarily it was
placed in the hands of Aaron (Exodus 7:19, Exodus 7:20; Exodus 8:5, Exodus 8:17,
etc.) It became a serpent. The word for "serpent" is not the same as was used before
(Exodus 4:3); but it is not clear that a different species is meant. More probably it is
regarded by the writer as a synonym.

66. 11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and
sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the
same things by their secret arts:
BAR ES, "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” are the “bearers of sacred
words,” scribes and interpreters of hieroglyphic writings. Books containing magic
formulae belonged exclusively to the king; no one was permitted to consult them but the
priests and wise men, who formed a council or college, and were called in by the Pharaoh
on all occasions of difficulty.
The names of the two principal magicians, Jannes and Jambres, who “withstood
Moses,” are preserved by Paul, 2Ti_3:8. Both names are Egyptian.
Enchantments - The original expression implies a deceptive appearance, an illusion,
a juggler’s trick, not an actual putting forth of magic power. Pharaoh may or may not
have believed in a real transformation; but in either case he would naturally consider
that if the portent performed by Aaron differed from that of the magicians, it was a
difference of degree only, implying merely superiority in a common art. The miracle
which followed Exo_7:12 was sufficient to convince him had he been open to conviction.
It was a miracle which showed the truth and power of Yahweh in contrast with that of
others.
CLARKE, "Pharaoh - called the wise men - ‫חכמים‬ chacamim, the men of
learning. Sorcerers, ‫כשפים‬ cashshephim, those who reveal hidden things; probably from
the Arabic root kashafa, to reveal, uncover, etc., signifying diviners, or those who
pretended to reveal what was in futurity, to discover things lost, to find hidden treasures,
etc. Magicians, ‫חרטמי‬ chartummey, decipherers of abstruse writings. See Clarke’s note on
Gen_41:8.
They also did in like manner with their enchantments - The word ‫להתים‬
lahatim, comes from ‫להט‬ mor lahat, to burn, to set on fire; and probably signifies such
incantations as required lustral fires, sacrifices, fumigations, burning of incense,
aromatic and odoriferous drugs, etc., as the means of evoking departed spirits or
assistant demons, by whose ministry, it is probable, the magicians in question wrought
some of their deceptive miracles: for as the term miracle signifies properly something
which exceeds the powers of nature or art to produce, (see Exo_7:9), hence there could
be no miracle in this case but those wrought, through the power of God, by the ministry

67. of Moses and Aaron. There can be no doubt that real serpents were produced by the
magicians. On this subject there are two opinions:
1. That the serpents were such as they, either by juggling or sleight of hand, had
brought to the place, and had secreted till the time of exhibition, as our common
conjurers do in the public fairs, etc.
2. That the serpents were brought by the ministry of a familiar spirit, which, by the
magic flames already referred to, they had evoked for the purpose.
Both these opinions admit the serpents to be real, and no illusion of the sight, as some
have supposed. The first opinion appears to me insufficient to account for the
phenomena of the case referred to. If the magicians threw down their rods, and they
became serpents after they were thrown down, as the text expressly says, Exo_7:12,
juggling or sleight of hand had nothing farther to do in the business, as the rods were
then out of their hands. If Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods, their sleight of hand was
no longer concerned. A man, by dexterity of hand, may so far impose on his spectators as
to appear to eat a rod; but for rods lying on the ground to become serpents, and one of
these to devour all the rest so that it alone remained, required something more than
juggling. How much more rational at once to allow that these magicians had familiar
spirits who could assume all shapes, change the appearances of the subjects on which
they operated, or suddenly convey one thing away and substitute another in its place!
Nature has no such power, and art no such influence as to produce the effects attributed
here and in the succeeding chapters to the Egyptian magicians.
GILL, "Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers,.... The
cunning men and wizards, a sort of jugglers and deceivers, who pretended to great
knowledge of things, to discover secrets, tell fortunes, and predict things to come, and by
legerdemain tricks, and casting a mist before people's eyes, pretended to do very
wonderful and amazing things; and therefore Pharaoh sent for these, to exercise their art
and cunning, and see if they could not vie with Moses and Aaron:
now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their
enchantments; or by their secret wiles and juggles, making things seem to appear to
the sight when they did not really, but by dazzling the eyes of men by their wicked and
diabolical art, they fancied they saw things which they did not; for the word has the
signification of flames of fire, or of a flaming sword, or lance, which being brandished to
and fro dazzles the sight. The Targum of Jonathan gives the names of two of these
magicians, whom he calls Jannes and Jambres, as does the apostle; see Gill on 2Ti_3:8.
Josephus (t) calls these magicians of Egypt priests, and Artapanus (u) says, they were
priests that lived about Memphis. According to the Arabs (w), the name of the place
where they lived was Ausana, a city very ancient and pleasant, called the city of the
magicians, which lay to the east of the Nile: their name in the Hebrew language is either
from a word which signifies a style, or greying tool, as Fuller (x) thinks, because in their
enchantments they used superstitious characters and figures; or, as Saadiah Gaon (y),
from two words, the one signifying a "hole", and the other "stopped"; because they bored
a hole in a tree to put witchcrafts into it, and stopped it up, and then declared what
should be, or they had to say.
JAMISO , "Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, etc.

68. — His object in calling them was to ascertain whether this doing of Aaron’s was really a
work of divine power or merely a feat of magical art. The magicians of Egypt in modern
times have been long celebrated adepts in charming serpents, and particularly by
pressing the nape of the neck, they throw them into a kind of catalepsy, which renders
them stiff and immovable - thus seeming to change them into a rod. They conceal the
serpent about their persons, and by acts of legerdemain produce it from their dress, stiff
and straight as a rod. Just the same trick was played off by their ancient predecessors,
the most renowned of whom, Jannes and Jambres (2Ti_3:8), were called in on this
occasion. They had time after the summons to make suitable preparations - and so it
appears they succeeded by their “enchantments” in practising an illusion on the senses.
CALVI , "11.Then Pharaoh also called. The impiety of the tyrant, which had
before lain hid in the recesses of his heart, now breaks forth; when he does not
hesitate to enter into the lists with God. For he was sufficiently instructed in the
wonderful power of God, had not his iniquity urged him onwards into desperate
madness. In asking for a sign, he thought (as I before said) that he should have had
just cause for despising Moses; as the wicked trust that they may do anything with
impunity, unless God should openly appear from heaven to prohibit them; but,
because inflexible perversity altogether has possession of their hearts, they do not
hesitate to resist the manifest power of God. Thus the wickedness of Pharaoh
blinded his eyes, that, seeing the light, he saw it not; but, though convinced, still he
sought for darkness to hide the sight of the light from him. He received, therefore,
the just reward of such impious and diabolical arrogance, when he was deceived by
the juggles of his own magicians. This is an example of great use, and well worthy to
be noted; by which we are, first of all, taught, that the wicked, whatever disposition
to be taught they may assume, still remain inwardly rebellious and stubborn; and,
moreover, that they are not only inclined to error, but are eagerly borne towards it
with all their heart. This vice is not always conspicuous in every individual; but
when God brings His light nearer to them, it is easily detected, and betrays itself.
How many, now-a-days, among the Papists are followers of wicked superstitions
under the pretext of simplicity? As long as, under the garb of ignorance, they
deceive themselves and others, they seem to be worthy of pity; but, as soon as the
truth shines forth, they demonstrate their love for the impostures by which they
perish, and their delight in falsehoods. Assuredly (as Paul says) they have “received
not the love of the truth.” ( 2 Thessalonians 2:10.) Are we surprised at Pharaoh
calling for the magicians, in order to repel from himself his sense of God’s power?
As if there were not many at this time, who hire for themselves certain impious
brawlers, (83) by whose fascinating and fair words they may become besotted in
their errors. It is remarkable, that they are honourably called “wise men” by
courtesy, although they were but inventors of deceit, and destitute of sound
learning. For although astronomy flourished among them, and the study of liberal
arts was cultivated, it yet appears from the context that they were devoted to many
foolish imaginations, nay, that all their degenerate science was but vanity. For
‫מכשפים‬,)84 ) makshephim, and ‫,חרתמים‬ chartumim, are the names of superstitious
arts; the former signifying jugglers, or those who deceive the eyes and the senses by
their enchantments; but the latter is used for those who cast nativities, telling

69. people’s fortunes by the horoscope, and prognosticating by the aspect of the stars.
Therefore, although the Egyptian magicians had departed from genuine philosophy,
they still retained the name of “wise men,” that they might obtain credit for their
delusions: as the devil, in order to appropriate God’s glory, or to change himself
into an angel of light, is wont to conceal his falsehoods by specious titles. Doubtless
Pharaoh sought, as in a case of perplexity, to examine it more certainly by
comparison; but yet for no other reason than to conceal his impiety under a fresh
covering. The word ‫להט‬,)85 ) lahat, although properly signifying the blade of a
sword, is here used for enchantment. I think, however, that they mistake, who
assign the reason for this to be, that they exercised their sorceries by a sword, or
some similar weapon. It rather designates metaphorically the versatile motion, by
which the magicians exhibit one thing for another; for it properly signifies “a
flame.” This severe and terrible vengeance upon Pharaoh ought to inspire us with
terror, lest, in our hatred of truth, we should seek after deceptions. For this is
intolerable profaneness, if designedly we desire to pervert the distinction between
truth and falsehood. Therefore it is not to be wondered at, if God plunges into the
deepest darkness of error, those who shut their eyes against the light presented to
them; and if He hands those over to be the disciples of Satan, who refuse to listen to
Him as their master.
BE SO , "Exodus 7:11. Moses had been originally instructed in the learning of the
Egyptians, and was suspected to have improved in magical arts in his long
retirement. The magicians are therefore sent for to vie with him. The two chief of
them were Jannes and Jambres. Their rods became serpents, probably by the power
of evil angels, artfully substituting serpents in the room of the rods, God permitting
the delusion to be wrought for wise and holy ends. But the serpent which Aaron’s
rod was turned into, swallowed up the others: which was sufficient to have
convinced Pharaoh on which side the right lay.
COFFMA , "Verse 11-12
"Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers: and they also, the
magicians of Egypt, did in like manner with their enchantments, For they cast down
every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their
rods."
"Then Pharaoh called for the wise men and the sorcerers ..." Along with groups
called "astrologers," and "soothsayers," those servants of Pharaoh mentioned here
were the principal support system for the ancient monarchy. Ellison was probably
correct in viewing all such retainers as "priests."[15] Thus, the confrontation here is
between the religions of Israel and Egypt. Aaron, the high priest (to be) of Israel and
the priests of Egypt's nature gods are face-to-face in this encounter.
"They did in like manner ..." The Bible gives us no word on how these men
performed such wonders, and, therefore, we shall spare the reader any explanation
of our own. Many have followed the older commentators on this, explaining how
snake charmers "by pressing the nape of the neck throw them into a state of

70. paralysis, rendering them stiff and immovable, thus seeming to change them into
rods."[16] That Pharaoh's servants actually possessed supernatural powers is
disputed. The usual explanation of what they did, or appeared to do, is that sleight-
of-hand, deception, and illusion were used. Unger classified their deeds here as
"lying wonders" (2 Thessalonians 2:8-10).[17] The important thing in this episode is
not HOW the Egyptians' rods were changed into serpents but WHAT happened to
them. Aaron's rods swallowed all of theirs!
"This was a miracle sufficient to convince Pharaoh had he been open to
conviction."[18]
The O.T. nowhere gives the names of those opponents who threw down their rods
before Moses and Aaron; but, strangely enough, Paul mentions two of them,
"Jannes and Jambres" (2 Timothy 3:8). Cook believed that these men were the
"principal magicians" in view here.[19] Some of the rabbinical legends report that,
"Jannes and Jambres were so impressed by Moses that they eventually joined the
Israelites, but died in the course of the Exodus."[20]
COKE, "Verse 11
Exodus 7:11. Then Pharaoh also called the wise-men, &c.— Moses and Aaron
performing their commission according to the commandment of the Lord, and
working the miracle, which, no doubt, Pharaoh demanded, in proof of their Divine
legation; he, desirous to know whether the God of Israel was superior to his gods,
sent for the wise-men and the sorcerers to counterwork this miracle of Moses and
Aaron; and they also did in like manner, we are told, with their inchantments. The
word ‫להטי‬ lahati, the LXX and Theodotion render by φαρµακειαι, inchantments by
drugs; and the word, says Parkhurst upon it, properly refers to the burning or
heating their magical drugs in incantations, which frequently made a part in those
infernal ceremonies, and, no doubt, was originally designed to do honour to, and
procure the assistance of their gods, the fire and air. Thus the witch Canidia, in
Horace, orders her abominable ingredients, flammis aduri colchicis, to be burnt in
magic flames, Epod. 5: and Ovid in his Metamorphoses, lib. 7: describes Medea,
"firing the infected wood on the flagrant altars; purging thrice with flames, and
thrice with sulphur, while the medicine boils in hollow brass, and, swelling high,
labours in foaming bubbles." The same word is used Genesis 3:24. Other
derivations are given of the word; but none which appear more satisfactory. That
the wise-men and sorcerers are only other appellations for the magicians, is evident
from the verse itself. For an explanation of the word magicians, see note on Genesis
41:8. The two chief of these magicians are mentioned by St. Paul, 2 Timothy 3:8.
Artapanus, in Eusebius, calls them priests, inhabiting the country above Memphis.
The word, rendered sorcerers, is derived from an Arabic original, signifying to
disclose or reveal; it is always, in the Hebrew Bible, applied to some species of
conjuring; and may therefore have particular reference to the pretended discovery
of things hidden or future by magical means. The LXX constantly render it by
φαρµακον, a drug, or some of its derivatives, to use pharmaceutic inchantments, or
to apply drugs, whether vegetable, mineral, or animal, to magical purposes. The
reader may find some account of these abominable processes, as practised by the

71. later heathens, in Archbishop Potter's Antiquities of Greece, b. 2 Chronicles 18.; see
Parkhurst and Stockius.
ELLICOTT, "(11) The magicians of Egypt.—These persons are called indifferently
khàkâmim, “wise men,” më-kashshëphim, “mutterers of charms,” and khartum-
mim, “scribes,” perhaps “writers of charms.” Magic was very widely practised in
Egypt, and consisted mainly in the composition and employment of charms, which
were believed to exert a powerful effect, both over man and over the brute creation.
A large part of the “Ritual of the Dead” consists of charms, which were to be
uttered by the soul in Hades, in order to enable it to pass the various monsters
which it would encounter there. Charms were also regarded as potent in this life to
produce or remove disease, and avert the attacks of noxious animals. Some Egyptian
works are mere collections of magical receipts, and supply strange prescriptions
which are to be used, and mystic words which are to be uttered. A Jewish tradition,
accepted by the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 3:6), spoke of two magicians as the special
opponents of Moses, and called them “Jannes and Jambres.” (See the Tar-gums of
Jerusalem and of Jonathan, and comp. umen, ap. Euseb. Prœp. e ν. ix. 8.) The
former of these, Jannes, obtained fame as a magician among the classical writers,
and is mentioned by Pliny (H. . xxx. 1) and Apuleius (Apolog. p. 108). It has been
supposed by some that the magicians were really in possession of supernatural
powers, obtained by a connection with evil spirits; but, on the whole, it is perhaps
most probable that they were merely persons acquainted with many secrets of
nature not generally known, and trained in tricks of sleight-of-hand and conjuring.
They also did in like manner.—The magicians had entered into the royal presence
with, apparently, rods in their hands, such as almost all Egyptians carried. These
they cast down upon the ground, when they were seen to be serpents. This was,
perhaps, the mere exhibition of a trick, well known to Egyptian serpent-charmers in
all ages (Description de l’Egypte, vol. i. p. 159), by which a charmed serpent is made
to look like a stick for a time, and then disenchanted. Or it may have been effected
by sleight-of-hand, which seems to be the true meaning of the word lĕhâtim,
translated “enchantments.” (Rosenmüller, Scholia in Exodum, p. 110.)
TRAPP, "Verse 11
Exodus 7:11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the
magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
Ver. 11. The wise men and the sorcerers.] Magic is either pure and natural, or
impure and diabolical, which implieth a compact with the devil; either overt or
covert. The chief of these magicians here were Jannes and Jambres, [2 Timothy 3:8]
whose names are also mentioned in the Talmud; Tract. de Oblat., cap. 9. umenius
also, the Pythagorean philosopher, speaketh of them.
WHEDO , "Verse 11
11. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers — Literally, mutterers,
(of magic formulas.)

72. ow the magicians — Priestly scribes who were skilled in the hieroglyphic wisdom.
They also did in like manner with their enchantments — Their secret arts, the black
or hidden arts or tricks which constitute magic or sorcery. The Apostle Paul,
doubtless following the Jewish traditions, names these magicians Jannes and
Jambres, (2 Timothy 3:8,) and this tradition is found in the Targums and the
Talmud.
EXPOSITOR'S DICTIO ARY, "Exodus 7:11
We cannot close such a review of our five writers without melancholy reflections.
That cause which will raise all its zealous friends to a sublime eminence on the last
and most solemn day the world has yet to behold, and will make them great for ever,
presented its claims full in sight of each of these authors in his time. The very lowest
of these claims could not be less than a conscientious solicitude to beware of
everything that could in any point injure the sacred cause. This claim has been
slighted by so many as have lent attraction to an order of moral sentiments greatly
discordant with its principles. And Song of Solomon , many are gone into eternity
under the charge of having employed their genius, as the magicians employed their
enchantments against Moses, to counteract the Saviour of the World.
—John Foster on The Aversion of Men of Taste to Evangelical Religion (ix.).
PULPIT, "Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers. That magic was an
object of much attention and study in Egypt is abundantly evident from "The tale of
Setnau", "The Magic Papyrus", and many other writings. It consisted, to a large
extent, in charms, which were thought to have power over men and beasts,
especially over reptiles. What amount of skill and power the Egyptian magicians
possessed may perhaps be doubted. Many commentators believe them to have been
in actual communication With the unseen world, and to have worked their wonders
by the assistance of evil spirits. Others, who reject this explanation, believe that they
themselves were in possession of certain supernatural gifts. But the commonest view
at the present day regards them as simply persons who had a knowledge of many
secrets of nature which were generally unknown, and who used this knowledge to
impress men with a belief in their supernatural power. The words used to express
"magicians" and "enchantments" support this view. The magicians are called
khakamim, "wise men," "men educated in human and divine wisdom" (Keil and
Delitzsch); mekashshephim, "charmers," "mutterers of magic words" (Gesenius);
and khartummim, which is thought to mean either "sacred scribes" or "bearers of
sacred words" (Cook). The word translated "enchantments" is lehatim, which
means "secret" or "hidden arts" (Gesenius). On the whole, we regard it as most
probable that the Egyptian "magicians" of this time were jugglers of a high class,
well skilled in serpent-charming and other kindred arts, but not possessed of any
supernatural powers. The magicians of Egypt did in like manner with their
enchantments. The magicians, aware of the wonder which would probably be
wrought, had prepared themselves; they had brought serpents, charmed and
stiffened so as to look like rods in their hands; and when Aaron's rod became a

73. serpent, they threw their stiffened snakes upon the ground, and disenchanted them,
so that they were seen to be what they were—shakos, and not really rods.
BI 11-12, "They also did in like manner with their enchantments.
Moses and the magicians
I. Moses divinely warned of Pharaoh’s demand for a supernatural credential. When men
profess to bring a message from God, they should be prepared to substantiate it by
satisfactory evidence.
II. Moses divinely sustained in meeting the demand.
1. God will never forsake those who go forth to implicitly work His will.
2. God often permits His enemies to temporarily triumph.
III. Moses commanded to appeal again to Pharaoh (Exo_7:14-17).
1. God’s knowledge of the human heart.
2. God’s knowledge of the purposes and plans of men.
3. God’s recognition of free agency, and its correlative responsibility.
4. God deals with men on the basis of their moral freedom, and according to their
constitutional nature.
Lessons:
1. Here we have a type of the conflict of ages.
(1) In its spirit.
(2) In its aims.
(3) In its result.
2. The side to which we lean, and for which we fight, shows the party to which we
really belong. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
Lessons
1. Miracles from God will not persuade wicked hearts to believe.
2. Unbelieving sinners are apt to call in all instruments of Satan to gainsay God.
3. Providence hath of old suffered wisdom to be abused to sorcery and pernicious
acts (Exo_7:11).
4. God hath suffered creatures by Satan’s help to do some like things to His miracles.
5. Under God’s permission Satan may work strange changes in creatures, but no
miracles.
6. God’s true miracles devour all lying wonders of Satan (Exo_7:12).
7. Wicked hearts harden themselves by lying wonders against God, and therefore are
hardened by Him.
8. The fruit of such hardening is rebellion against God’s word and will.

74. 9. God’s word is made good in all the disobedience of the wicked foretold (Exo_
7:13). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Man’s effort to repudiate the message of God by an imitation of its
miraculous credentials
I. That man has a right to expect that any special revelation from God should be
accompanied by infallible and unimpeachable credentials. (Exo_7:9).
1. We require these credentials to vindicate the authority of the speaker. The Bible
contains the evidences of its Divine origin on its own pages, for on every page we see
the miracle repeated, the rod is turned into a serpent. And the miracles which the
book contains, and the miracle which it is in itself, are sufficient token to the honest
mind that it comes from God. This evidence is equal to the case. It leaves
disobedience without excuse.
2. We require these credentials to vindicate the credibility of the speaker. God would
never give men power to work a miracle to authenticate a lie. The miracle not only
demonstrated the authority of these men, but also the unimpeachable honesty and
verity of their statements. And so men take the Bible to-day; they perhaps say that in
general terms the hook has come from God, and has His authority, and yet how
many question the verity of its corn tents. They call one part of the message a myth,
another part a fable, until, indeed, there is very little remaining as true.
3. That God anticipates these requests on the part of man, and provides His
messengers with the needed credentials. Any one who rejects the claims of the Bible,
rejects the highest proof, the most reliable evidence; hence his condemnation will be
awful as that of the rebellious king.
4. The spirit in which these credentials should be investigated and received—
(1) Thoughtfully.
(2) Devoutly.
(3) Never sceptically.
(4) Remember that the messengers of God can only offer the credentials divinely
permitted to them.
II. That men have recourse to many devices to weaken and nullify the credentials which
are presented to them in token and support of a Divine message and claim. “Then
Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they
also did in like manner with their enchantments.”
1. We find that men in the investigation of a Divine message are not satisfied with
the evidence they themselves propose. A sceptical mind will not yield even when it
has attained evidence for the truth of its own seeking. It is most criminal in its
unbelief.
2. We find that men in the investigation of a Divine message often seek others to
supply them with sceptical arguments they are not clever enough to produce
themselves.
3. We find that men endeavour to confirm their comrades in scepticism by imitating
the credentials of the messengers of God. But in vain. The truth-seeker can

75. distinguish between the productions of the two; he never mistakes the enchantment
of the Egyptian for the miracle of Moses.
4. That the men who endeavour to confirm their comrades in scepticism respecting
the Divine credentials are subject to the truth. The rods of the Egyptian magicians
were swallowed up by Aaron’s rod.
III. That the men who reject the credentials of Divine messengers commence a conflict
which will be productive of great woe and of final overthrow to them. “And He hardened
Pharaoh’s heart that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.” Lessons:
1. That the messengers of God can always produce Divine credentials.
2. That Divine credentials are often rejected by men of high social position.
3. That a continued rejection of Divine credentials will end in destruction.
4. That the servants of God are often perplexed by the conduct of men in rejecting
Divine claims. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Imitation of the good
The mode in which the magicians “withstood Moses” (see 2Ti_3:1-9) was simply by
imitating, so far as they were able, whatever he did. From this we learn the solemn truth
that the most Satanic resistance to God’s testimony in the world is offered by those who,
though they imitate the effects of the truth, have but “the form of godliness,” and “deny
the power thereof.” Persons of this class can do the same things, adopt the same habits
and forms, use the same phraseology, profess the same opinions, as others. How needful
to understand this! How important to remember that “as Jannes and Jambres withstood
Moses,” so do those self-loving, world-seeking, pleasure-hunting professors “resist the
truth!” They would not be without “a form of godliness”; but while adopting “the form,”
because it is customary, they hate “the power,” because it involves self-denial. “The
power” of godliness involves the recognition of God’s claims, the implanting of His
kingdom in the heart, and the consequent exhibition thereof in the whole life and
character; but the formalist knows nothing of this, nor does he desire to know it. He
does not want his lusts subdued, his pleasures interfered with, his passions curbed, his
affections governed, his heart purified. He wants just as much religion as will enable him
“ to make the best of both worlds.” (A. Nevin, D. D.)
Egyptian magicians
They must have possessed a knowledge of nature beyond that of their countrymen, who
had sufficient experience of the utility of such knowledge to reverence teachers endued
with any rare portion of it. The magicians must have considered this knowledge as
Divine; and have come more and more to regard the different powers of nature and the
different objects in which these powers were exhibited, as themselves Divine. They will
have been politicians as well as naturalists, ready to employ their lore and the mastery
which it gave them over the things of the earth, to uphold the authority of the monarch,
or to promote his plans. They will therefore have fallen into a scheme of trick and
dissimulation, which would have been ineffectual and impossible if there had not been
some truths lying at the root of it; and some real assurance in their own minds both of
those truths and of their own capacities. It is this mixture of faith with insincerity—of

76. actual knowledge with the assumption of knowledge, of genuine power with the desire to
make the power felt and worshipped, a readiness therefore to abuse it to low grovelling
purposes—which we have to recognize in the impostures of all subsequent ages, and to
which we are here introduced in one of its primitive manifestations. It was most natural
for a politic monarch to wish that a body of strangers, who were doing little good in a
certain portion of his land, should be made slaves, and so become agents in carrying out
what seemed to him magnificent projects. It was most natural that a body of politic
priests—disliking these strangers, for the traditions and customs which separated them
from their influence—should readily co-operate with him in that plan, or should be the
first suggesters of it. It is equally natural that his Egyptian subjects should sympathize
with the design, and should feel that they were raised in the degradation of another race.
But it was impossible that king, priests, and people, should effect this seemingly sage
and national purpose, without forging new chains for themselves, without losing some
perceptions of a moral order in the world and a moral Ruler of it, which had been
implied in their government and worship, and which Joseph’s arrangements had drawn
out; it was impossible but that with the loss of this feeling, they should sink further and
further into natural and animal worship. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
The power of Aaron’s rod
I. Let us turn aside to see this great sight—the Divine triumphant over the diabolical: the
spiritual subduing the natural—Aaron’s rod swallowing all its rivals.
1. Let us take the case of the awakened sinner. That man was, a few days ago, as
worldly, as carnal, as stolid, as he well could be. If any one should propose to make
that man heavenly-minded, the common observer would say, “Impossible! As in old
Roman walls, the cement has become so strong, that the stone is no longer a separate
piece, but has become a part of the wall itself—so this man is cemented to the world,
he cannot lie separated from it. You must break him in pieces with the hammer of
death; you cannot separate him in any other way from the cares of life.” Ah, but
Aaron’s rod shall swallow up this rod. The man listens to the Word; the truth comes
with power into his soul; the Holy Ghost has entered him; and the next day, though
he goes to his business, he finds no true contentment in it, for he pants after the
living God. Now, his spirit pleads its needs, and outstrips the body in the contest for
its warmest love. He spurns the trifles of a day: he seeks the jewels of eternity. Grace
has won the day, and the worldling seeks the world to come.
2. The same fact, with equal distinctness, is to be observed in the individual when he
becomes a believer in Jesus Christ; his faith destroys all other confidences.
3. The same fact is very manifest after faith in all who truly love the Saviour. They
who love Christ aright, love no one in comparison with Him.
4. You will notice this in the man who makes his delight in the Lord Jesus. He who
makes his delight in Christ after a true sort, will discover that this delight swallows
up all other delights.
5. Yet more is it so in a man who is devoted to God’s service. The service of God
swallows up everything else when the man is truly God’s servant. When a man gets
fully possessed with an enthusiastic love for Jesus, difficulties to him become only
things to be surmounted, dangers become honours, sacrifices pleasures, sufferings

77. delights, weariness rest.
II. We now draw an inference. If it be so, that wherever true religion—the finger of
God—comes into a man, it becomes a consuming passion, till the zeal of God’s house
eats the man up. Then there are many persons who profess religion, who cannot have
found the right thing. Those who are mean, miserly, and miserable in the cause of Christ,
whose only expenditure is upon self, and whose main object is gain, what can we say of
them? Why, that they look upon religion as some great farmers do upon their little off-
hand farms. They think it is well to have a little religion; they can turn to it for
amusement sometimes, just to ease them a little of their cares; besides, it may be very
well, after having had all in this world, to try to get something in the next. They are
moral and decent in all ways; they can pray very nicely in prayer-meetings, yet they
never dream of consecrating their secular employments unto God. Aaron’s rod, in their
case, has never swallowed up their rods.
III. Now, I will give some reasons why i put the service of God so prominent, and think
that Aaron’s rod ought to swallow up all other rods. What does the great gospel
revelation discover to us? Does it not show us an awful danger, and one only way of
escape from it? Does not our religion also reveal to us the joyous reward of another
world? It opens to us yonder pearly gates, and bids us gaze on angels and glorified
spirits. By hell, and by heaven, therefore, I do entreat you, let Aaron’s rod swallow up all
other rods; and let love and faith in Jesus be the master passion of your soul. Moreover,
do we not learn in our holy faith of a love unexampled? Where was there love such as
that which brought the Prince of Glory down to the gates of death, and made Him pass
the portals amid shame and scoffing? Shall such love as this have half our hearts? (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
12 Each one threw down his staff and it became a
snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.
CLARKE, "Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods - As Egypt was remarkably
addicted to magic, sorcery, etc., it was necessary that God should permit Pharaoh’s wise
men to act to the utmost of their skill in order to imitate the work of God, that his
superiority might be clearly seen, and his powerful working incontestably ascertained;
and this was fully done when Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. We have already seen
that the names of two of the chief of these magicians were Jannes and Jambres; see
Clarke on Exo_2:10 (note), and 2Ti_3:8 (note). Many traditions and fables concerning
these may be seen in the eastern writers.

78. GILL, "For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents,....
That is, they seemed to be so, as Josephus (z) expresses it, but not really, in which he is
followed by many; though some think that the devil assisted in this affair, and in an
instant, as soon as the rods were cast down, removed them and put real serpents in their
room:
but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods; that is, the serpent that Aaron's rod was
turned into, swallowed up the rods of the magicians, which never were otherwise than
rods only in appearance; or if real serpents were put in the room of them, these were
devoured by his serpent called his rod, because it was before turned into a serpent, as
Aben Ezra observes; though the Targums of Jonathan, Jarchi, and R. Jeshua, suppose
this was done after the serpent became a rod again; which makes the miracle the greater
and more wonderful, that a rod should devour other rods; and supposing them real
serpents, this was what the magicians could not make their rods do, and in which they
were outdone by Aaron.
JAMISO , "but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods — This was what they
could not be prepared for, and the discomfiture appeared in the loss of their rods, which
were probably real serpents.
CALVI , "12.For they cast down every man. The number of the magicians is not
expressed; and although Paul names two, Jannes and Jambres, (86) (2 Timothy 3:8,)
it is probable that they were not the only ones, but the chief, and, as it were, the
ringleaders. But I will not dispute this questionable point. The admonition of Paul is
more to the purpose, that “as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses,” so also there
should always be false teachers, who would oppose Christ’s true ministers, and
indeed should “wax worse and worse.” (Verse 13.) It is an awful fact that the reins
were so given to these magicians, that they contended with Moses in almost an equal
contest. But the ingratitude of the world is worthy of bearing the same punishment
of blindness. God elsewhere testifies that when He permits false prophets to work
miracles to deceive, it is to prove men’s hearts. (Deuteronomy 13:3.) And truly,
unless our own hypocrisy were like a veil to take away the distinction between black
and white, Satan would avail nothing by such arts and deceptions; but we ourselves,
as if devoted to destruction, willingly cast ourselves into his nets; but especially
against the reprobate, who obstinately seek for occasions of error, God casts this last
thunderbolt, namely, He gives efficacy to the delusion, and so deprives them of their
senses at the same time, that they do not guard themselves from manifest
destruction. Many indeed would excuse Pharaoh, because, being deceived by his
magicians, he did not disentangle himself from the error which he could not escape;
for what could he do when he saw the contest equally maintained? But it must be
thoroughly understood that none are so hurried away except those whom God
would resist; especially the spirit of confusion and mental blindness seizes on those
who have been obstinate in their wickedness. or must the mark of distinction be
overlooked, that the rod of Moses swallowed up the rods of the magicians. How then
was it that Pharaoh did not perceive Moses to be victorious? how was it that he
rather turned aside to his own impostors? how was it, in fine, that he did not
acknowledge God’s servant who had been superior in the contest, except that the

79. wicked maliciously close their eyes against the manifested power of God?
Whosoever will aim at the right mark shall certainly never be destitute of God as his
guide. Therefore blame is justly thrown upon Pharaoh, because through the
hardness of his heart he would not attend. Too frivolous is that cavil which the
Papists advance, that the serpent is called the rod of Moses, as the bread
transubstantiated into the body of Christ retains the name of bread; (87) for they
unskillfully confound two altogether different things; because, in the mystery of the
Lord’s Supper, the analogy between the sign and the thing signified always remains;
in this miracle the case is entirely otherwise. Again, because the change was only
temporary, Moses properly called that a rod to which its previous form was
presently to be restored. Besides, in comparing the true serpent with the fictitious
ones, he was unwilling to make a difference in names. But, to pass all this over, the
Papists will prevail nothing, until they have shewn that the bread is
transubstantiated into the body. (88) ay, what they foolishly wrest against us, we
may retort upon them, namely, that the bread is called the body of Christ although
it remains bread, just as the serpent which then appeared is called the rod.
The subject is somewhat more fully discussed by C. himself —Institutes, Book 4., ch.
17. 15. — C. Soc. Transl. , Vol. 3, pp. 402, 403.
BE SO ,"Exodus 7:12. They became serpents — The authors of the Universal
History cast considerable light on this subject: “If it be asked,” say they, “why God
suffered the magicians to act thus, by a power borrowed from the devil, in order to
invalidate, if possible, those miracles which his servant wrought by his divine power,
the following reasons may be given for it: First, It was necessary that those
magicians should be suffered to exert the utmost of their power against Moses, in
order to clear him from the imputation of magic or sorcery; for as the notion of such
an extraordinary art was very rife, not only among the Egyptians, but all other
nations, if they had not entered into this strenuous competition with him, and been
at length overcome by him, both the Hebrews and Egyptians would have been more
apt to attribute all his miracles to his skill in magic, than to the divine power.
Secondly, It was necessary in order to confirm the faith of the wavering and
desponding Israelites, by making them see the difference between Moses’s acting by
the power of God, and the sorcerers by that of Satan. And, lastly, In order to
preserve them afterward from being seduced by any false miracles, from the true
worship of God.”
COKE, "Verse 12
Exodus 7:12. For they cast down every man his rod— The ancient magicians were a
species of profane conjurors, who, claiming Divine assistance, used frequently to
contend with each other, in proof of the power of those deities whose assistance they
claimed. That they were aided by the craft and subtlety of those diabolic beings,
whom they idolized and worshipped, there can be no question, from the history of
idolatry. But one would have thought, that the evident superiority of Moses and
Aaron, discovered by their rod, (that is, the serpent, into which the rod was turned,)
swallowing up the rods, i.e. the serpents of the magicians, would have convinced

80. them, that the power by which these Israelites acted, was really divine. This was an
evident prognostic of the event of the ensuing contest, wherein Jehovah vanquished
and destroyed all the gods of Egypt in reality, as he did here in symbols. It has been
remarked, that a serpent, in the Egyptian Hieroglyphics, denoted the Supreme
Deity; see Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. 1: &c. Some have supposed, and Josephus
among the rest, that what the magicians produced, were only the appearances of
serpents: but the text knows no such distinction. othing can be plainer, than that
real serpents were produced by the magicians. "If it be asked," say the Authors of
the Universal History, "why God suffered the magicians to act thus, by a power
borrowed from the devil, in order, if possible, to invalidate those miracles which his
servant wrought by his Divine power; the following reasons may be given for it:
First, It was necessary that those magicians should be suffered to exert the utmost of
their power against Moses, in order to clear him from the imputation of magic or
sorcery: for, as the notion of such an extraordinary art was very rife, (and with good
reason,) not only among the Egyptians, but all other nations; if they had not entered
into this strenuous competition with him, and been at length overcome by him, both
the Hebrews and Egyptians would have been apter to attribute all his miracles to his
skill in magic, than to the Divine Power. Secondly, It was necessary, in order to
confirm the faith of the wavering and desponding Israelites, by making them know
the difference between Moses's acting by the power of GOD, and the sorcerers by
that of Satan. And, lastly, in order to preserve them afterwards from being seduced,
by any false miracles, from the true worship of God."
TRAPP, "Verse 12
Exodus 7:12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but
Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
Ver. 12. And they became serpents.] ot really such, but in appearance only. The
devil’s miracles are mere impostures, phantasms, delusions. And this was the first
plague that God inflicted upon Pharaoh.
Swallowed up their rods.] That is, their dragons. So hath Christ, who is life
essential, swallowed up death in victory. [1 Corinthians 15:55]
WHEDO , "12. They cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents —
Crocodiles, as above. Moses wrought a miracle which they could easily imitate, for
all the apparent transformations with which our modern jugglers have made us
familiar, and even more wonderful ones than these, have been practised in Egypt
and the East from an unknown antiquity. The author describes the transaction just
as it appeared to those who saw it, as we would describe similar apparent
transformations wrought by a juggler today, but his language cannot fairly be
pressed to prove that these magicians possessed any supernatural power. The most
famous magicians have always professed to deceive, and declared that their most
striking exploits were mere illusions; and how much more than deception there is in
magic and sorcery, and whether all their wonders are literally “lying wonders,”
must be held as still open questions; but it is certain that Satan has ever used such

81. dark arts and powers to resist the truth. See the Introduction to the History of the
Plagues, 2.
But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods — This was prophetic of the religion that
was soon to swallow up all the boasted wisdom of Egypt, and the true miracle was
thus also distinguished from the “lying wonder.”
13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he
would not listen to them, just as the Lord had
said.
BAR ES, "And he hardened - Or Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. See Exo_4:21.
CLARKE, "And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart - ‫פרעה‬ ‫לב‬ ‫ויחזק‬ vaiyechezak leb
Paroh, “And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened,” the identical words which in Exo_7:22
are thus translated, and which should have been rendered in the same way here, lest the
hardening, which was evidently the effect of his own obstinate shutting of his eyes
against the truth, should be attributed to God. See Clarke’s note on Exo_4:21.
GILL, "And he hardened Pharaoh's heart,.... Or, "notwithstanding the heart of
Pharaoh was hardened" (a); though he saw the rods of his magicians devoured by rod; or
"therefore" (b) his heart was hardened, because he saw that the rods of his magicians
became serpents as well as Aaron's; in which there was a deception of sight, and which
was suffered for the hardening of his heart, there being other wonders and miracles to be
wrought, for showing forth the divine power, before Israel must be let go:
that he hearkened not unto them; to Moses and Aaron, and comply with their
demand, to dismiss the people of Israel:
as the Lord had said; or foretold he would not.
COFFMA , "Verse 13

82. "And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them,' as Jehovah
had spoken."
Faith is always a moral decision, and, in keeping with that principle, God has
provided a nail in every episode of the whole Bible where Satan may hang his hat.
The evil heart of Pharaoh discounted the miracle wrought by Moses and Aaron "as
a fifteen-cent stunt that was not about to make him relinquish his lofty views of his
own omnipotence!"[21] In a sense, his servants duplicated, or imitated the wonder,
and that part about Aaron's rod swallowing all of theirs(!), well, he just ignored
that.
ELLICOTT, "(13) He hardened Pharaoh’s heart.—This is a mis-translation. The
verb is intransitive, and “Pharaoh’s heart” is its nominative case. Translate,
“Pharaoh’s heart hardened itself.” It is essential to the idea of a final penal
hardening that in the earlier stages Pharaoh should have been left to himself.
That he hearkened not.—Heb., and he hearkened not.
As the Lord had said.—See above, Exodus 3:19; Exodus 7:4
TRAPP, "Verse 13
Exodus 7:13 And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as
the LORD had said.
Ver. 13. And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart.] ot by bare prescience, or permission
only, but by withdrawing his grace, directing the tyrant’s actions to his own glory,
irritating his corruptions by oracles and miracles, and delivering him up to Satan to
be further hardened.
WHEDO , "13. And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart — Rather, And hard was the
heart of Pharaoh. (Samuel, Septuagint, Vulg., Onk., Syr.) The presence of
superhuman power, and the solemn symbolic lessons, though they may have created
in Pharaoh a momentary awe, yet failed to arouse his torpid conscience. Here, in
this “sign,” was no infliction of punishment, but a simple manifestation of power in
attestation of the mission of Moses and Aaron, as well as a symbolic prediction
hereafter to be more fully understood.
The Plague of Blood

83. 14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart
is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go.
CLARKE, "Pharaoh’s heart is hardened - ‫כבד‬ cabed, is become heavy or stupid;
he receives no conviction, notwithstanding the clearness of the light which shines upon
him. We well know the power of prejudice: where persons are determined to think and
act after a predetermined plan, arguments, demonstrations, and even miracles
themselves, are lost on them, as in the case of Pharaoh here, and that of the obstinate
Jews in the days of our Lord and his apostles.
GILL, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened,.... Or
"heavy" (c), dull and stupid, stiff and inflexible, cannot lift up his heart, or find in his
heart to obey the will of God:
he refuseth to let the people go; which was an instance and proof of the hardness
and heaviness of his heart, on which the above miracle had made no impression, to
regard what God by his ambassadors had required of him.
HE RY 14-15. "Here is the first of the ten plagues, the turning of the water into
blood, which was, 1. A dreadful plague, and very grievous. The very sight of such vast
rolling streams of blood, pure blood no doubt, florid and high-colored, could not but
strike a horror upon people: much more afflictive were the consequences of it. Nothing
more common than water: so wisely has Providence ordered it, and so kindly, that that
which 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. Fish was much of their food (Num_11:5), but the changing of the waters was the
death of the fish; it was a pestilence in that element (Exo_7:21): The fish died. In the
general deluge they escaped, because perhaps they had not then contributed so much to
the luxury of man as they have since; but in this particular judgment they perished (Psa_
105:29): He slew their fish; and when another destruction of Egypt, long afterwards, is
threatened, the disappointment of those that make sluices and ponds for fish is
particularly noticed, Isa_19:10. Egypt was a pleasant land, but the noisome stench of
dead fish and blood, which by degrees would grow putrid, now rendered it very
unpleasant. 2. It was a righteous plague, and justly inflicted upon the Egyptians. For, (1.)
Nilus, the river of Egypt, was their idol; they and their land derived so much benefit
from it that they served and worshipped it more than the Creator. The true fountain of
the Nile being unknown to them, they paid all their devotions to its streams: here
therefore God punished them, and turned that into blood which they had turned into a
god. Note, That creature which we idolize God justly removes from us, or embitters to
us. He makes that a scourge to us which we make a competitor with him. (2.) They had

84. stained the river with the blood of the Hebrews' children, and now God made that river
all bloody. Thus he gave them blood to drink, for they were worthy, Rev_16:6. Note,
Never any thirsted after blood, but, sooner or later, they had enough of it. 3. It was a
significant plague. Egypt had a great dependence upon their river (Zec_14:18), so that in
smiting the river they were warned of the destruction of all the productions of their
country, till it came at last to their firstborn; and this red river proved a direful omen of
the ruin of Pharaoh and all his forces in the Red Sea. This plague of Egypt is alluded to in
the prediction of the ruin of the enemies of the New Testament church, Rev_16:3, Rev_
16:4. But there the sea, as well as the rivers and fountains of water, is turned into blood;
for spiritual judgments reach further, and strike deeper, than temporal judgments do.
And, lastly, let me observe in general concerning this plague that one of the first
miracles Moses wrought was turning water into blood, but one of the first miracles our
Lord Jesus wrought was turning water into wine; for the law was given by Moses, and it
was a dispensation of death and terror; but grace and truth, which, like wine, make glad
the heart, came by Jesus Christ. Observe,
I. Moses is directed to give Pharaoh warning of this plague. “Pharaoh's heart is
hardened (Exo_7:14), therefore go and try what this will do to soften it,” Exo_7:15.
Moses perhaps may not be admitted into Pharaoh's presence-chamber, or the room of
state where he used to give audience to ambassadors; and therefore he is directed to
meet him by the river's brink, whither God foresaw he would come in the morning,
either for the pleasure of a morning's walk or to pay his morning devotions to the river:
for thus all people will walk, every one in the name of his god; they will not fail to
worship their god every morning. There Moses must be ready to give him a new
summons to surrender, and, in case of a refusal, to tell him of the judgment that was
coming upon that very river on the banks of which they were now standing. Notice is
thus given him of it beforehand, that they might have no colour to say it was a chance, or
to attribute it to any other cause, but that it might appear to be done by the power of the
God of the Hebrews, and as a punishment upon him for his obstinacy. Moses is expressly
ordered to take the rod with him, that Pharaoh might be alarmed at the sight of that rod
which had so lately triumphed over the rods of the magicians. Now learn hence, 1. That
the judgments of God are all known to himself beforehand. He knows what he will do in
wrath as well as in mercy. Every consumption is a consumption determined, Isa_10:23.
2. That men cannot escape the alarms of God's wrath, because they cannot go out of the
hearing of their own consciences: he that made their hearts can make his sword to
approach them. 3. That God warns before he wounds; for he is long-suffering, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
JAMISO , "Pharaoh’s heart is hardened — Whatever might have been his first
impressions, they were soon dispelled; and when he found his magicians making similar
attempts, he concluded that Aaron’s affair was a magical deception, the secret of which
was not known to his wise men.
K&D 14-21, "When Pharaoh hardened his heart against the first sign,
notwithstanding the fact that it displayed the supremacy of the messengers of Jehovah
over the might of the Egyptian conjurers and their gods, and refused to let the people of
Israel go; Moses and Aaron were empowered by God to force the release of Israel from
the obdurate king by a series of penal miracles. These ‫ים‬ ִ‫ת‬ ְ‫ּפ‬‫מ‬ were not purely
supernatural wonders, or altogether unknown to the Egyptians, but were land-plagues

85. with which Egypt was occasionally visited, and were raised into miraculous deeds of the
Almighty God, by the fact that they burst upon the land one after another at an unusual
time of the year, in unwonted force, and in close succession. These plagues were selected
by God as miraculous signs, because He intended to prove thereby to the king and his
servants, that He, Jehovah, was the Lord in the land, and ruled over the powers of
nature with unrestricted freedom and omnipotence. For this reason God not only caused
them to burst suddenly upon the land according to His word, and then as suddenly to
disappear according to His omnipotent will, but caused them to be produced by Moses
and Aaron and disappear again at their word and prayer, that Pharaoh might learn that
these men were appointed by Him as His messengers, and were endowed by Him with
divine power for the accomplishment of His will.
Exo_7:14-21
The Water of the Nile Turned into Blood. - In the morning, when Pharaoh went to the
Nile, Moses took his staff at the command of God; went up to him on the bank of the
river, with the demand of Jehovah that he would let His people Israel go; and because
hitherto (‫ּה‬ⅴ‫ד־‬ ַ‫)ע‬ he had not obeyed, announced this first plague, which Aaron
immediately brought to pass. Both time and place are of significance here. Pharaoh went
out in the morning to the Nile (Exo_7:15; Exo_8:20), not merely to take a refreshing
walk, or to bathe in the river, or to see how high the water had risen, but without doubt
to present his daily worship to the Nile, which was honoured by the Egyptians as their
supreme deity (vid., Exo_2:5). At this very moment the will of God with regard to Israel
was declared to him; and for his refusal to comply with the will of the Lord as thus
revealed to him, the smiting of the Nile with the staff made known to him the fact, that
the God of the Hebrews was the true God, and possessed the power to turn the fertilizing
water of this object of their highest worship into blood. The changing of the water into
blood is to be interpreted in the same sense as in Joe_3:4, where the moon is said to be
turned into blood; that is to say, not as a chemical change into real blood, but as a
change in the colour, which caused it to assume the appearance of blood (2Ki_3:22).
According to the statements of many travellers, the Nile water changes its colour when
the water is lowest, assumes first of all a greenish hue and is almost undrinkable, and
then, while it is rising, becomes as red as ochre, when it is more wholesome again. The
causes of this change have not been sufficiently investigated. The reddening of the water
is attributed by many to the red earth, which the river brings down from Sennaar (cf.
Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses, pp. 104ff. transl.; Laborde, comment. p.
28); but Ehrenberg came to the conclusion, after microscopical examinations, that it
was caused by cryptogamic plants and infusoria. This natural phenomenon was here
intensified into a miracle, not only by the fact that the change took place immediately in
all the branches of the river at Moses' word and through the smiting of the Nile, but even
more by a chemical change in the water, which caused the fishes to die, the stream to
stink, and, what seems to indicate putrefaction, the water to become undrinkable;
whereas, according to the accounts of travellers, which certainly do not quite agree with
one another, and are not entirely trustworthy, the Nile water becomes more drinkable as
soon as the natural reddening beings. The change in the water extended to “the
streams,” or different arms of the Nile; “the rivers,” or Nile canals; “the ponds,” or large
standing lakes formed by the Nile; and all “the pools of water,” lit., every collection of
their waters, i.e., all the other standing lakes and ponds, left by the overflowings of the
Nile, with the water of which those who lived at a distance from the river had to content
themselves. “So that there was blood in all the land of Egypt, both in the wood and in
the stone;” i.e., in the vessels of wood and stone, in which the water taken from the Nile
and its branches was kept for daily use. The reference is not merely to the earthen

86. vessels used for filtering and cleansing the water, but to every vessel into which water
had been put. The “stone” vessels were the stone reservoirs built up at the corners of the
streets and in other places, where fresh water was kept for the poor (cf. Oedmann's
verm. Samml. p. 133). The meaning of this supplementary clause is not that even the
water which was in these vessels previous to the smiting of the river was turned into
blood, in which Kurtz perceives “the most miraculous part of the whole miracle;” for in
that case the “wood and stone” would have been mentioned immediately after the
“gatherings of the waters;” but simply that there was no more water to put into these
vessels that was not changed into blood. The death of the fishes was a sign, that the
smiting had taken away from the river its life-sustaining power, and that its red hue was
intended to depict before the eyes of the Egyptians all the terrors of death; but we are
not to suppose that there was any reference to the innocent blood which the Egyptians
had poured into the river through the drowning of the Hebrew boys, or to their own
guilty blood which was afterwards to be shed.
CALVI , "14.And the Lord said unto Moses. Moses now begins to relate the two
plagues which were inflicted upon Egypt before Pharaoh was induced to obey; and
although there was something prodigious in the madness which strove against God’s
hand so powerfully constraining him, yet in the person of this single reprobate, the
picture of human pride and rebellion, when it is not controlled by a spirit of
tractableness, is presented to our view. Let the faithful then be admonished by this
narrative diligently to beware, lest, by wantonly rebelling against God, they provoke
a similar vengeance upon themselves. For the same Being who hardened Pharaoh’s
heart is the constant avenger of impiety, and, smiting His enemies with a spirit of
confusion, renders them as furious as they are senseless. Moreover, lest Moses,
stumbling against this obstacle, should desist from the course he had begun, God
encourages him to the combat, as much as to say, that he had to contend with a very
hard stone until it should be broken. Hearing that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened,
he might begin to waver, unless a hope of victory were shewn him from elsewhere.
But since the obstinacy of this beast is indomitable, God arms His servant with new
weapons, as much as to say, that he must be worn down though he could not be
broken. But although to some the analogy may appear far-fetched, between the ten
plagues and the ten precepts of the law, yet, in my opinion, it is probable, and
agreeable to reason, that before God promulgated the law the wicked were smitten
with as many plagues as He was about to give precepts to His people, that in this
way He might confirm their authority. First, however, He commands Moses to take
up the rod, and reminds him of the recent miracle that he may gird himself to the
new conflict with greater confidence. Then, after the Hebrew manner, He more fully
lays open what He had briefly touched upon; for, at first, no mention is made of
Aaron, but God only announces to Moses what He would have done; then He
explains that the hand of Aaron was to be interposed. Where God reminds them
that the rod was lately turned into a serpent, He shews that we profit but little by
His works, unless our faith gathers strength from them. Besides, when God
denounces to Pharaoh what He is going to do, He renders him more inexcusable,
because he is not awakened by threats to repentance. God indeed knew that this
would be without success; but although he knows the disease to be incurable, He
still ceases not to apply the remedies — not indeed such as will restore health, but
such as will draw out the secret poison from the mind. Many are here at issue

87. (litigant) with God, because He not only speaks to the deaf, but even, by
admonishing or chastising them in vain, exasperates their malice more and more.
But it is for us, when any appearance of unreasonableness perplexes us, reverently
to adore the secret judgments of God and to be soberly wise. Meanwhile the event
shews that God’s threatenings do not fall ineffectually, but that the contempt of
them doubles both the crime and the punishment.
COFFMA , "Verses 14-18
"And Jehovah said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is stubborn, he refuses to let the
people go. Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo he goeth out unto the water;
and thou shalt stand by the river brink to meet him; and the rod which was turned
to a serpent shalt thou take in thy hand. And thou shalt say unto him, Jehovah, the
God of the Hebrews, hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they
may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou hast not hearkened.
Thus saith Jehovah, In this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah: behold, I will smite
with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they
shall be turned to blood. And the fish that are in the river shall die, and the river
shall become foul; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink water from the river."
Both the plague and its results were here predicted, the onset of it being specifically
tied to the rod in Moses' hand, and to his stretching it out over the waters. These
facts absolutely forbid any conclusion that the fouling of the great river was merely
a natural occurrence. Even critical scholars like oth have affirmed that, "Any
connection with the yearly rise of the ile seems quite impossible ... Rather we have
here a unique divine wonder."[22] We can only marvel at the comment of Keller
who rejected the Exodus account of the part played by the plagues in the exodus of
Israel, declaring that such, "can neither be affirmed nor denied, since no
contemporary evidence on the subject has so far been found."[23] Indeed, indeed, if
scholars like Keller are waiting to uncover an ancient Egyptian monument detailing
such a disaster to Egypt as the release of 2,000,000 of their slaves to liberty, and the
drowning of one of their Pharaoh's in the Red Sea with his entire army, they shall
never find it. o nation ever inscribed its shame on their public monuments! But
note the blindness and unfairness and bias in such a complaint. Exodus is historical.
Here is affirmed dogmatically and effectively the very thing that Keller can
" either confirm nor deny." Our own view is that if some ancient monument could
be uncovered that would deny anything in Exodus, it would only prove that
monuments lie, as indeed they do. By old Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall
Streets, ew York City, an impressive monument upon the grave of Robert Fulton
hails him as "The Inventor of the Steamboat," which he was OT! The inventor
was John Fitch, officially designated by the Congress of the United States, and
honored by a great granite shaft at Bardstown, Kentucky, as the RIGHTFUL claim
of that honor.
"In the morning ..." Why was Pharaoh going to the ile river in the morning?
Several possible reasons appear:

88. He customarily did so for the sake of taking a dip in its sacred waters. To Pharaoh,
the ile was his god. Dipping in its waters was supposed to provide all kinds of
benefits.
The occasion could have been a spectacular public ceremonial honoring the river, a
ceremony that would have required the king's presence.
It could have been merely taking a morning stroll.
Keil wrote that it was none of these, but that, "Without doubt, it was to present his
daily worship of the ile."[24]
"Let my people go ..." These words like an awesome refrain echo again and again
through the sacred record: Exodus 7:16; 8:1; 8:20; 9:1; 9:13; also in Exodus 10:7;
3:12; and Exodus 4:23.
"Behold I will smite with the rod that is in my hand ..." This affords an
understanding of the question of whose was the rod? Or who actually stretched it
out? In these words the rod is in God's hand, and God will stretch it out, the true
meaning being simply that God will do it through Moses. The Scriptures have
already informed us that the relationship between God and Moses is also that which
existed between Moses and Aaron (Exodus 7:1). Thus, there was no need in
recurring narrative to multiply detail, as for example, by saying: "God commanded
Moses to take the rod and say or do thus and so; and then Moses commanded Aaron
to take the rod and do thus and so; and then Aaron took the rod and did thus and so
etc." That is exactly the kind of needless repetition that one finds in the Samaritan
version of these events.[25] For ages scholars have had no difficulty understanding
the type of usage found here. "This rod is called the rod of God, the rod of Moses,
and the rod of Aaron, God gave it miraculous power, and Moses and Aaron used it
indifferently (first one, then the other)."[26] Only the critics have trouble with the
rod!
CO STABLE, "Verses 14-19
4. The first three plagues7:14-8:19
Psalm 78:43 places the scene of the plagues in northern Egypt near Zoan.
The plagues were penal; God sent them to punish Pharaoh for his refusal to obey
God and to move him to obey Yahweh. They involved natural occurrences rather
than completely unknown phenomena. At various times of the year gnats, flies,
frogs, etc, were a problem to the Egyptians. Even the pollution of the ile, darkness,
and death were common to the Egyptians.
Evidence that the plagues were truly miraculous events is as follows. Some were
natural calamities that God supernaturally intensified (frogs, insects, murrain, hail,
darkness). Moses set the time for the arrival and departure of some. Some afflicted
only the Egyptians. The severity of the plagues increased consistently. They also

89. carried a moral purpose ( Exodus 9:27; Exodus 10:16; Exodus 12:12; Exodus
14:30). [ ote: Free, p95.]
"The plagues were a combination of natural phenomena known to both the
Egyptians and Israelites alike (due to their long sojourn in Egypt) heightened by the
addition of supernatural factors." [ ote: Ramm, p62.]
God designed them to teach the Egyptians that Yahweh sovereignly controls the
forces of nature. [ ote: See R. orman Whybray, Introduction to the Pentateuch,
p72; and Sailhamer, The Pentateuch . . ., pp252-53.] The Egyptians attributed this
control to their gods.
"Up to now the dominate [sic] theme has been on preparing the deliverer for the
exodus. ow, it will focus on preparing Pharaoh for it. The theological emphasis for
exposition of the entire series of plagues may be: The sovereign Lord is fully able to
deliver his people from the oppression of the world so that they might worship and
serve him alone." [ ote: The ET Bible note on7:14.]
Some writers have given a possible schedule for the plagues based on the times of
year some events mentioned in the text would have normally taken place in Egypt.
For example, lice and flies normally appeared in the hottest summer months. Barley
formed into ears of grain and flax budded ( Exodus 9:31) in January-February.
Locusts were a problem in early spring. The Jews continued to celebrate the
Passover in the spring. This schedule suggests that the plagues began in June and
ended the following April. [ ote: Flinders Petrie, Egypt and Israel, pp35-36; and
Greta Hort, "The Plagues of Egypt," Zeitschrift fr die Alttestamentliche
Wissenschaft69 (1957):84-103; ibid, 70 (1958):48-59.]
"The Egyptians were just about the most polytheistic people known from the
ancient world. Even to this day we are not completely sure of the total number of
gods which they worshipped. Most lists include somewhere in the neighborhood of
eighty gods ..." [ ote: Davis, p86. Cf. Frankfort, p4. Other studies have discovered
more than1 ,200 gods. See E. A. W. Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, pp. ix-x; and
B. E. Shafer, ed, Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice,
pp7-87.]
Many students of the plagues have noticed that they appeared in sets of three. The
accounts of the first plague in each set (the first, fourth, and seventh plagues) each
contain a purpose statement in which God explained to Moses His reason and aim
for that set of plagues (cf. Exodus 7:17; Exodus 8:22; Exodus 9:14). God had
announced His overall purpose for the plagues in Exodus 7:4-5. [ ote: Kaiser, "
Exodus ," pp348-49. Cf. C. J. Labuschagne, The Incomparability of Yahweh in the
Old Testament, pp74-75 , 92-94.] The last plague in each set of three came on
Pharaoh without warning, but Moses announced the others to him beforehand. The
first set of three plagues apparently affected both the Egyptians and the Israelites,
whereas the others evidently touched only the Egyptians.

90. CO STABLE, "Verses 14-25
The water turned to blood (the first plague) 7:14-25
The first mighty act of God serves in the narrative as a paradigm of the nine plagues
that follow. Striking the ile with the rod suggested dominion over creation and all
the gods of Egyptian mythology. The Egyptians linked many of their gods with the
life-giving force of the ile. The tenth plague is unique in that it is both a part of the
narrative of Exodus as a whole and is a mighty act of God in itself. [ ote: Durham,
p95.]
Evidently Pharaoh had his morning devotions on the banks of the sacred ile River.
Moses and Aaron met him there as he prepared to honor the gods of the river (
Exodus 7:15).
We could perhaps interpret the statement that the water turned into blood ( Exodus
7:20) in the same way we interpret Joel"s prophecy that the moon will turn into
blood ( Joel 2:31 cf. Revelation 6:12). Moses may have meant that the water
appeared to be blood. [ ote: The ew Bible Dictionary, s.v. "Plagues of Egypt," by
Kenneth A. Kitchen, p1002.] evertheless something happened to the water to make
the fish die. The Hebrew word translated "blood" means blood, so a literal meaning
is possible. [ ote: Durham, p97.] Furthermore the passage in Joel is poetry and
therefore figurative, whereas the passage here in Exodus is narrative and may be
understood literally. [ ote: Sailhamer, The Pentateuch . . ., p254.] ote too that this
plague affected all the water in pools and reservoirs formed by the overflowing ile
as well as the water of the ile and its estuaries ( Exodus 7:19). Understood
figuratively or literally a real miracle took place, as is clear from the description of
the effects this plague had on the Egyptians and the fish in the ile. The Egyptian
wizards were able to duplicate this wonder, but they could not undo its effects.
"The most that can be said for their miracle-working is that it is a copy of what
Moses and Aaron have accomplished and that it actually makes matters worse for
their master and their people." [ ote: Durham, p98.]
"It was appropriate that the first of the plagues should be directed against the ile
River itself, the very lifeline of Egypt and the center of many of its religious ideas.
The ile was considered sacred by the Egyptians. Many of their gods were
associated either directly or indirectly with this river and its productivity. For
example, the great Khnum was considered the guardian of the ile sources. Hapi
was believed to be the "spirit of the ile" and its "dynamic essence." One of the
greatest gods revered in Egypt was the god Osiris who was the god of the
underworld. The Egyptians believed that the river ile was his bloodstream. In the
light of this latter expression, it is appropriate indeed that the Lord should turn the
ile to blood! It is not only said that the fish in the river died but that the "river
stank," and the Egyptians were not able to use the water of that river. That
statement is especially significant in the light of the expressions which occur in the
"Hymn to the ile": "The bringer of food, rich in provisions, creator of all good,
lord of majesty, sweet of fragrance". [ ote: James B. Pritchard, ed, Ancient ear

91. Eastern Texts, p272.] With this Egyptian literature in mind, one can well imagine
the horror and frustration of the people of Egypt as they looked upon that which
was formerly beautiful only to find dead fish lining the shores and an ugly red
characterizing what had before provided life and attraction. Crocodiles were forced
to leave the ile. One wonders what worshipers would have thought of Hapi the god
of the ile who was sometimes manifest in the crocodile. Pierre Montet relates the
following significant observation:
""At Sumenu (the modern Rizzeigat) in the Thebes area, and in the central district
of the Fayum, the god Sepek took the form of a crocodile. He was worshipped in his
temple where his statue was erected, and venerated as a sacred animal as he
splashed about in his pool. A lady of high rank would kneel down and, without the
slightest trace of disgust, would drink from the pool in which the crocodile
wallowed. Ordinary crocodiles were mummified throughout the whole of Egypt and
placed in underground caverns, like the one called the Cavern of the Crocodiles in
middle Egypt." [ ote: Pierre Montet, Eternal Egypt, p172.]
"Surely the pollution of the ile would have taken on religious implications for the
average Egyptian. Those who venerated eith, the eloquent warlike goddess who
took a special interest in the lates, the largest fish to be found in the ile, would have
had second thoughts about the power of that goddess. athor was supposed to have
protected the chromis, a slightly smaller fish. Those Egyptians who depended
heavily on fish and on the ile would indeed have found great frustration in a
plague of this nature." [ ote: Davis, pp94-95.]
"Each year, toward the end of June, when the waters of the ile begin to rise, they
are colored a dark red by the silt carried down from the headwaters. This continues
for three months, until the waters begin to abate, but the water, meanwhile, is
wholesome and drinkable. The miracle of Exodus 7:17-21 involved three elements
by which it differed from the accustomed phenomenon: the water was changed by
the smiting of Moses" rod; the water became undrinkable; and the condition lasted
just seven days ( Exodus 7:25)." [ ote: Johnson, p58.]
The commentators have interpreted the reference to blood being throughout all
Egypt "in (vessels of) wood and in (vessels of) stone" ( Exodus 7:19) in various ways.
Some believe this refers to water in exterior wooden and stone water containers.
Others think it refers to water in all kinds of vessels used for holding water. Still
others believe Moses described the water in trees and in wells. However this
expression may refer to the water kept in buildings that the Egyptians normally
constructed out of wood and stone.
"In the Bible a totality is more often indicated by mentioning two fundamental
elements; see e.g, "milk and honey" (Ex. iii8 , etc.) and "flesh and blood" (Matt.
xvi17)." [ ote: C. Houtman, "On the Meaning of Uba"esim Uba"abanim in Exodus
VII:19 ," Vetus Testamentum36:3 (1968):352.]
This is a synecdoche, a figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole or the

92. whole represents a part. The quotation above supports the idea that God changed
even the water stored in buildings to blood.
"Each of the first nine of the mighty-act accounts may be said to have the same
fundamental point, expressed in much the same way. That point, concisely
summarized, is that Yahweh powerfully demonstrates his Presence to a Pharaoh
prevented from believing so that Israel may come to full belief." [ ote: Durham,
p99.]
ELLICOTT, "Verses 14-21
THE FIRST PLAGUE.
(14-21) The water turned to blood.—Moses had already been empowered to turn
water into blood on a small scale (Exodus 4:9), and had exhibited his power before
his own people (Exodus 4:30). But the present miracle is different. (1) It is to be
done on the largest possible scale; (2) in the sight of all the Egyptians; and (3) not as
a sign, but as a “judgment.” All the ile water—whether in the main river, or its
branches, or the canals derived from it, or the pools formed by its inundation or by
percolation through its banks, or in artificial reservoirs, including the tanks of wood
or stone attached to houses (Exodus 7:19)—is to be “turned to blood:” i.e., not
merely turned of a red colour, either by admixture of earthy matter or of Infusoriae,
but made to have all the qualities and appearance of blood, so as to become
offensive, horrible, loathsome (Exodus 7:18). The judgment strikes the Egyptians
two several blows. (1) It involves an insult to their religion, and brings it into
discredit, since the ile-god, Hapi, was a main object of worship, closely connected
with Osiris, and even with Amnion, celebrated in hymns with the most extravagant
titles of honour (Records of the Past, vol. iv. pp. 108-110), and a frequent object of
public adoration in festivals. (2) It is a great physical affliction. They are
accustomed to use the ile water for drinking, for ablutions, for the washing of their
clothes, and for culinary purposes; they have great difficulty in procuring any
other; they delight in the ile water, regard it as the best in the world, are in the
habit of drinking deep draughts of it continually. This is all put a stop to. They
suffer from thirst, from enforced uncleanliness, from the horror of blood all about
them, even in their cisterns. Again, their fish are killed. Fish was one of their
principal foods, perhaps the main food of the common people; and the river was the
chief source whence the fish supply was obtained, for even the Lake Moeris was an
off-shoot from the river (Herod. ii. 149). Their fish supply is stopped. The
punishment is retaliatory: for as they had made the ile the means of destroying
Hebrew infants (Exodus 1:22), so that Hebrew parents had loathed to drink of it, as
though stained with the blood of their children, so is it now made by means of blood
undrinkable for themselves. The plague lasts seven days (Exodus 7:25), a longer
time than any other; and if not so destructive as the later ones, was perhaps of all
the most nauseous and disgusting.
TRAPP, "Verse 14
Exodus 7:14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart [is] hardened, he
refuseth to let the people go.

93. Ver. 14. Pharaoh’s heart is hardened.] Heb., Heavy; clogged with corruption, and
held down by the devil: as, on the contrary, Jehoshaphat’s "heart was light, and
lifted up in the ways of the Lord." [2 Chronicles 17:6] So were Dr Taylor’s and
George Roper’s, the martyrs: the former fetched a frisk, the latter a great leap,
when they came to the stake. (a)
WHEDO , "Verses 14-18
FIRST PLAGUE — BLOOD, Exodus 7:14-25.
15. Lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink —
Some think that this was the time of the commencement of the annual rise of the
river, because that the ile then assumes a reddish hue produced by the mud of the
upper country; but this annual redness of the river is an indication of palatability
and wholesomeness. Yet, as all these plagues are found, as far as we understand
them, to correspond remarkably with peculiarities of the country, being, as
Hengstenberg has shown, specially fitted to the Egyptian geography, climate, soil,
vegetable and animal life, it is possible that the very peculiarity of the miracle lay in
the fact that the reddish hue, which is usually a sign of wholesomeness in the ile,
then deepened to a bloody tinge, which was the token of loathsomeness and death.
The water which is usually drank with such avidity became nauseous and
poisonous. If this be so, then the time of the infliction is fixed at about the middle of
June. Yet this must be taken as supposition only, the first sure note of time
occurring in the account of the hail, (Exodus 9:31-32,) which destroyed the barley in
the ear and the flax in blossom, which in Egypt must have been in February. The
tenth plague occurred about the middle of April. ow the ile begins to regularly
rise in Lower Egypt, which is the scene of this history, about the summer solstice, or
toward the end of June; about the end of August it begins to pour through the
canals and fall over the valley in sheets of water, and the inundation then properly
commences; toward the end of September it reaches its height, and then sinks to its
lowest point at about the Vernal Equinox, or the last of March. If now the first of
the plagues took place in the middle of June, it will be seen that the ten ran through
the whole ile period, thus cursing every several part of the Egyptian year. This is
the view of Hengstenberg in his Egypt and the Books of Moses.
Probably Pharaoh went forth in the morning to worship, since the ile was
regarded as the embodiment of the god Osiris, of whom the bull Apis was
considered the living emblem. On the monuments we find it called the “god ile,”
the “Father of the gods,” the “life-giving Father of all things.” At ilopolis ( ile-
city) there was a temple and an order of priests for the worship of the river. Thus
was Pharaoh’s god smitten to death before his eyes as he offered him his morning
prayer.
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY, "
THE PLAGUES.
Exodus 7:14.

94. There are many aspects in which the plagues of Egypt may be contemplated.
We may think of them as ranging through all nature, and asserting the mastery of
the Lord alike over the river on which depended the prosperity of the realm, over
the minute pests which can make life more wretched than larger and more
conspicuous ills (the frogs of the water, the reptiles that disgrace humanity, and the
insects that infest the air), over the bodies of animals stricken with murrain, and
those of man tortured with boils, over hail in the cloud and blight in the crop, over
the breeze that bears the locust and the sun that grows dark at noon, and at last
over the secret springs of human life itself.
o pantheistic creed (and the Egyptian religion struck its roots deep into pantheistic
speculation) could thus completely exalt God above nature, as a superior and
controlling Power, not one with the mighty wheels of the universe, of which the
height is terrible, but, as Ezekiel saw Him, enthroned above them in the likeness of
fire, and yet in the likeness of humanity.
o idolatrous creed, however powerful be its conception of one god of the hills and
another of the valleys, could thus represent a single deity as wielding all the arrows
of adverse fortune, able to assail us from earth and sky and water, formidable alike
in the least things and in the greatest. And presently the demonstration is completed,
when at His bidding the tempest heaps up the sea, and at His frown the waters
return to their strength again.
And no philosophic theory condescends to bring the Ideal, the Absolute, and the
Unconditioned, into such close and intimate connection with the frog-spawn of the
ditch and the blain upon the tortured skin.
We may, with ample warrant from Scripture, make the controversial application
still more simple and direct, and think of the plagues as wreaking vengeance, for the
worship they had usurped and the cruelties they had sanctioned, upon all the gods
of Egypt, which are conceived of for the moment as realities, and as humbled, if not
in fact, yet in the sympathies of priest and worshipper (Exodus 12:12).
Then we shall see the domain of each impostor invaded, and every vaunted power to
inflict evil or to remove it triumphantly wielded by Him Who proves His equal
mastery over all, and thus we shall find here the justification of that still bolder
personification which says, "Worship Him, all ye gods" (Psalms 97:7).
The ile had a sacred name, and was adored as "Hapee, or Hapee Mu, the Abyss, or
the Abyss of Waters, or the Hidden," and the king was frequently portrayed
standing between two images of this god, his throne wreathed with water-lilies. The
second plague struck at the goddess HEKT, whose head was that of a frog. The
uncleanness of the third plague deranged the whole system of Egyptian worship,
with its punctilious and elaborate purifications. In every one there is either a
presiding divinity attacked, or a blow dealt upon the priesthood or the sacrifice, or a

95. sphere invaded which some deity should have protected, until the sun himself is
darkened, the great god RA, to whom their sacred city was dedicated, and whose
name is incorporated in the title of his earthly representative, the Pharaoh or PH-
RA. Then at last, after all these premonitions, the deadly blow struck home.
Or we may think of the plagues as retributive, and then we shall discover a
wonderful suitability in them all. It was a direful omen that the first should afflict
the nation through the river, into which, eighty years before, the Hebrew babes had
been cast to die, which now rolled bloody, and seemed to disclose its dead. It was fit
that the luxurious homes of the oppressors should become squalid as the huts of the
slaves they trampled; that their flesh should suffer torture worse than that of the
whips they used so unmercifully; that the loss of crops and cattle should bring home
to them the hardships of the poor who toiled for their magnificence; that physical
darkness should appal them with vague terrors and undefined apprehensions, such
as ever haunt the bosom of the oppressed, whose life is the sport of a caprice; and at
last that the aged should learn by the deathbed of the prop and pride of their
declining feebleness, and the younger feel beside the cradle of the first blossom and
fruit of love, all the agony of such bereavement as they had wantonly inflicted on the
innocent.
And since the fear of disadvantage in war had prompted the murder of the Hebrew
children, it was right that the retributive blow should destroy first their children
and then their men of war.
When we come to examine the plagues in detail, we discover that it is no arbitrary
fancy which divides them into three triplets, leading up to the appalling tenth. Thus
the first, fourth, and seventh, each of which begins a triplet, are introduced by a
command to Moses to warn Pharaoh "in the morning" (Exodus 7:15), or "early in
the morning" (Exodus 8:20, Exodus 9:13). The third, sixth and ninth, on the
contrary, are inflicted without any warning whatever. The story of the third plague
closes with the defeat of the magicians, the sixth with their inability to stand before
the king, and the ninth with the final rupture, when Moses declares, "Thou shalt see
my face no more" (Exodus 8:19, Exodus 9:11, Exodus 10:29).
The first three are plagues of loathsomeness--blood-stained waters, frogs and lice;
the next three bring actual pain and loss with them--stinging flies, murrain which
afflicts the beasts, and boils upon all the Egyptians; and the third triplet are
"nature-plagues"--hail, locusts and darkness. It is only after the first three plagues
that the immunity of Israel is mentioned; and after the next three, when the hail is
threatened, instructions are first given by which those Egyptians who fear Jehovah
may also obtain protection. Thus, in orderly and solemn procession, marched the
avengers of God upon the guilty land.
It has been observed, concerning the miracles of Jesus, that not one of them was
creative, and that, whenever it was possible, He wrought by the use of material
naturally provided. The waterpots should be filled; the five barley-loaves should be
sought out; the nets should be let down for a draught; and the blind man should

96. have his eyes anointed, and go wash in the Pool of Siloam.
And it is easily seen that such miracles were a more natural expression of His
errand, which was to repair and purify the existing system of things, and to remove
our moral disease and dearth, than any exercise of creative power would have been,
however it might have dazzled the spectators.
ow, the same remark applies to the miracles of Moses, to the coming of God in
judgment, as to His revelation of Himself in grace; and therefore we need not be
surprised to hear that natural phenomena are not unknown which offer a sort of
dim hint or foreshadowing of the terrible ten plagues. Either cryptogamic vegetation
or the earth borne down from upper Africa is still seen to redden the river, usually
dark, but not so as to destroy the fish. Frogs and vermin and stinging insects are the
pest of modern travellers. Cattle plagues make ravage there, and hideous diseases of
the skin are still as common as when the Lord promised to reward the obedience of
Israel to sanitary law by putting upon them none of "the evil diseases of Egypt"
which they knew (Deuteronomy 7:15).(11) The locust is still dreaded. But some of
the other visitations were more direful because not only their intensity but even
their existence was almost unprecedented: hail in Egypt was only not quite
unknown; and such veiling of the sun as occurs for a few minutes during the storms
of sand in the desert ought scarcely to be quoted as even a suggestion of the
prolonged horror of the ninth plague.
ow, this accords exactly with the moral effect which was to be produced. The
rescued people were not to think of God as one who strikes down into nature from
outside, with strange and unwonted powers, superseding utterly its familiar forces.
They were to think of Him as the Author of all; and of the common troubles of
mortality as being indeed the effects of sin, yet ever controlled and governed by
Him, let loose at His will, and capable of mounting to unimagined heights if His
restraints be removed from them. By the east wind He brought the locusts, and
removed them by the south-west wind. By a storm He divided the sea. The common
things of life are in His hands, often for tremendous results. And this is one of the
chief lessons of the narrative for us. Let the mind range over the list of the nine
which stop short of absolute destruction, and reflect upon the vital importance of
immunities for which we are scarcely grateful.
The purity of water is now felt to be among the foremost necessities of life. It is one
which asks nothing from us except to refrain from polluting what comes from
heaven so limpid. And yet we are half satisfied to go on habitually inflicting on
ourselves a plague more foul and noxious than any occasional turning of our rivers
into blood. The two plagues which dealt with minute forms of life may well remind
us of the vast part which we are now aware that the smallest organisms play in the
economy of life, as the agents of the Creator. Who gives thanks aright for the cheap
blessing of the unstained light of heaven?
But we are insensible to the every-day teaching of this narrative: we turn our rivers
into fluid poison; we spread all around us deleterious influences, which breed by

97. minute forms of parasitical life the germs of cruel disease; we load the atmosphere
with fumes which slay our cattle with periodical distempers, and are deadlier to
vegetation than the hail-storm or the locust; we charge it with carbon so dense that
multitudes have forgotten that the sky is blue, and on our Metropolis comes down at
frequent intervals the darkness of the ninth plague, and all the time we fail to see
that God, Who enacts and enforces every law of nature, does really plague us
whenever these outraged laws avenge themselves. The miraculous use of nature in
special emergencies is such as to show the Hand which regularly wields its powers.
At the same time there is no more excuse for the rationalism which would reduce the
calamities of Egypt to a coincidence, than for explaining away the manna which fed
a nation during its wanderings by the drug which is gathered, in scanty morsels,
upon the acacia tree. The awful severity of the judgments, the series which they
formed, their advent and removal at the menace and the prayer of Moses, are
considerations which make such a theory absurd. The older scepticism, which
supposed Moses to have taken advantage of some epidemic, to have learned in the
wilderness the fords of the Red Sea,(12) to have discovered water, when the caravan
was perishing of thirst, by his knowledge of the habits of wild beasts, and finally to
have dazzled the nation at Horeb with some kind of fireworks, is itself almost a
miracle in its violation of the laws of mind. The concurrence of countless favourable
accidents and strange resources of leadership is like the chance arrangement of a
printer's type to make a poem.
There is a common notion that the ten plagues followed each other with breathless
speed, and were completed within a few weeks. But nothing in the narrative asserts
or even hints this, and what we do know is in the opposite direction. The seventh
plague was wrought in February, for the barley was in the ear and the flax in
blossom (Exodus 9:31); and the feast of passover was kept on the fourteenth day of
the month Abib, so that the destruction of the firstborn was in the middle of April,
and there was an interval of about two months between the last four plagues. ow,
the same interval throughout would bring back the first plague to September or
October. But the natural discoloration of the river, mentioned above, is in the
middle of the year, when the river begins to rise; and this, it may possibly be
inferred, is the natural period at which to fix the first plague. They would then
range over a period of about nine months. During the interval between them, the
promises and treacheries of the king excited alternate hope and rage in Israel; the
scribes of their own race (once the vassals of their tyrants, but already estranged by
their own oppression) began to take rank as officers among the Jews, and to exhibit
the rudimentary promise of national order and government; and the growing fears
of their enemies fostered that triumphant sense of mastery, out of which national
hope and pride are born. When the time came for their departure, it was possible to
transmit orders throughout all their tribes, and they came out of Egypt by their
armies, which would have been utterly impossible a few months before. It was with
them, as it is with every man that breathes: the delay of God's grace was itself a
grace; and the slowly ripening fruit grew mellower than if it had been forced into a
speedier maturity.

98. FOOT OTES:
(11) To this day, amid squalid surroundings for which nominal Christians are
responsible, the immunity of the Jewish race from such suffering is conspicuous,
and at least a remarkable coincidence.
Verses 14-25
THE FIRST PLAGUE.
Exodus 7:14-25.
It was perhaps when the ile was rising, and Pharaoh was coming to the bank, in
pomp of state, to make official observation of its progress, on which the welfare of
the kingdom depended, and to do homage before its divinity, that the messenger of
another Deity confronted him, with a formal declaration of war. It was a strange
contrast. The wicked was in great prosperity, neither was he plagued like another
man. Upon his head, if this were Menephtah, was the golden symbol of his own
divinity. Around him was an obsequious court. And yet there was moving in his
heart some unconfessed sense of awe, when confronted once more by the aged
shepherd and his brother, who had claimed a commission from above, and had
certainly met his challenge, and made a short end of the rival snakes of his own
seers. Once he had asked "Who is Jehovah?" and had sent His ambassadors to their
tasks again with insult. But now he needs to harden his heart, in order not to yield
to their strange and persistent demands. He remembers how they had spoken to him
already, "Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, My firstborn, and I have said unto
thee, Let My son go that he may serve Me; and thou hast refused to let him go:
behold, I will slay thy son, thy firstborn" (Exodus 4:22, R.V.). Did this awful
warning come back to him, when the worn, solemn and inflexible face of Moses
again met him? Did he divine the connection between this ultimate penalty and what
is now announced--the turning of the pride and refreshment of Egypt into blood?
Or was it partly because each plague, however dire, seemed to fall short of the
tremendous threat, that he hoped to find the power of Moses more limited than his
warnings? "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily,
therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."
And might he, at the last, be hardened to pursue the people because, by their own
showing, the keenest arrow in their quiver was now sped? Whatever his feelings
were, it is certain that the brothers come and go, and inflict their plagues
unrestrained; that no insult or violence is attempted, and we can see the truth of the
words "I have made thee as a god unto Pharaoh."
It is in clear allusion to his vaunt, "I know not Jehovah," that Moses and Aaron
now repeat the demand for release, and say, "Hitherto thou hast not hearkened:
behold, in this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah." What follows, when attentively
read, makes it plain that the blow falls upon "the waters that are in the river," and
those that have been drawn from it into canals for artificial irrigation, into
reservoirs like the lakes Moeris and Mareotis, and even into vessels for immediate

99. use.
But we are expressly told that it was possible to obtain water by digging wells.
Therefore there is no point whatever in the cavil that if Moses turned all the water
into blood, none was left for the operations of the magicians. But no comparison
whatever existed between their petty performances and the immense and direful
work of vengeance which rolled down a putrid mass of corrupt waters through the
land, spoiling the great stores of water by which later drought should be relieved,
destroying the fish, that important part of the food of the nation, for which Israel
afterwards lusted, and sowing the seeds of other plagues, by the pollution of that
balmy air in which so many of our own suffering countrymen still find relief, but
which was now infected and loathsome. Even Pharaoh must have felt that his gods
might do better for him than this, and that it would be much more to the point just
then to undo his plague than to increase it--to turn back the blood to water than
contribute a few drops more. If this was their best effort, he was already helpless in
the hand of his assailant, who, by the uplifting of his rod, and the bold avowal in
advance of responsibility for so great a calamity, had formally defied him. But
Pharaoh dared not accept the challenge: it was effort enough for him to "set his
heart" against surrender to the portent, and he sullenly turned back into the palace
from the spot where Moses met him.
Two details remain to be observed. The seven days which were fulfilled do not
measure the interval between this plague and the next, but the period of its
infliction. And this information is not given us concerning any other, until we come
to the three days of darkness.(13) It is important here, because the natural
discoloration lasts for three weeks, and mythical tendencies would rather exaggerate
than shorten the term.
Again, it is contended that only with the fourth plague did Israel begin to enjoy
exemption, because then only is their immunity recorded.(14) But it is strange
indeed to suppose that they were involved in punishments the design of which was
their relief; and in fact their exemption is implied in the statement that the
Egyptians (only) had to dig wells. It is to be understood that large stores of water
would everywhere be laid up, because the ile water, however delicious, carries
much sediment which must be allowed to settle down. They would not be forced,
therefore, to fall back upon the polluted common sources for a supply.
And now let us contrast this miracle with the first of the ew Testament. One
spoiled the happiness of the guilty; the other rescued the overclouded joy of the
friends of Jesus, not turning water into blood but into wine; declaring at one stroke
all the difference between the law which worketh wrath, and the gospel of the grace
of God. The first was impressive and public, as the revelation upon Sinai; the other
appealed far more to the heart than to the imagination, and befitted well the
kingdom that was not with observation, the King who grew up like a tender plant,
and did not strive nor cry, the redeeming influence which was at first unobtrusive as
the least of all seeds, but became a tree, and the shelter of the fowls of heaven.

100. FOOT OTES:
(13) x. 22. The accurate Kalisch is therefore wrong in speaking of "The duration of
the first plague, a statement not made with regard to any of the subsequent
inflictions."--Commentary in loco.
ISBET, "THE HARDE ED TYRA T
‘Pharaoh’s heart is hardened.’
Exodus 7:14
I. It is necessary to recognise a change which the R.V. makes. The A.V. renders, ‘I
will harden Pharaoh’s heart’ (ver. 3); the R.V., simply that his ‘heart was stubborn’
(ver. 14). In the first stages of this terrible conflict, such was the case. There was no
Divine intention in the hardening of the tyrant’s heart. On the contrary, everything
that could be devised was done to show him who Jehovah was, and to turn him from
his purpose. That God’s dealings really issued in hardening was not the end of those
dealings, but incidental to them.
II. Speaking after the manner of men, what God meant for good, Pharaoh’s nature
transmuted into evil. God sent sunshine to soften, but in Pharaoh’s condition of
mind it only hardened. God sent rain to fertilise, but when it touched the surface of
his heart it turned to ice. God’s love showered flowers, but as in Dante’s poem, when
they entered the atmosphere of his soul, they were changed to hot ashes, like those
that cover the top of Vesuvius.
III. There were three processes in Pharaoh’s case, clearly indicated by the words
used. First, his heart was hardened; this was the natural and automatic result of
hearing and not doing. ext, he hardened his heart, by deliberately setting his will
against his conscience. And, lastly, God hardened his heart, by leaving him to follow
his own evil ways.
Illustrations
(1) ‘The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is predicted in Exodus 4, but nothing of the
kind takes place, until a solemn demand has been made upon him and
contumeliously refused. From the beginning of chapter 5 down to chapter Exodus
9:34 we have two forms of statement intermixed; the one, that the Lord hardened
Pharaoh’s heart, and the other that he hardened his own heart. From this stage
onward, Pharaoh seems to have fallen into an incurable obstinacy; and we are told
in another place only that God hardened his heart. And so it is that would not ever
passes into could not; that under the stern law of mental habits grounded in nature,
the evil we have chosen takes deeper and deeper root, and at last passes beyond our
power to recall. There are gradations of impenitence marked; an opportunity of free
pardon is offered, and lighter punishments foreshadow the greater. When it is said
that Pharaoh hardened his heart, we are viewing the voluntary and human side;
when it is said that God hardened his heart, we see the judicial and penal.’
—W. E. Gladstone.

101. (2) ‘The Almighty made him a monument of judgment. In that passage of Romans
9:17, the Divine side only appears, whilst the history of Pharaoh in the book of
Exodus shows the double picture of human action arousing Divine condemnation.
Men are “raised up” to different elevations; some, like David and Daniel, use their
positions for God’s glory; others, like Pharaoh and Saul, use them for their own
selfish ends, and falling from their high estate, exhibit the justice of God, after
despising and rejecting his long continued goodness and mercy.’
(3) ‘It is an awful thing when the human will comes into collision with the Divine. If
it will not bend it must break. For once Pharaoh, the child of an imperial race, had
met his superior, and had to learn that it were better for a potsherd to strive with
potsherds than for a mortal to enter the lists with his Maker. At the same time God
is not unreasonable. He sets Himself to show us who He is, who demands our
homage.’
PULPIT, "THE FIRST PLAGUE. The first miracle had been exhibited, and had
failed. It had been a mere "sign,'' and in no respect a "judgment." ow 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 ile, and
to warn him that a plague is coming upon all Egypt on account of his obstinacy; that
the waters of the ile 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 7:15-18).
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), Aaron is to stretch his rod over the ile, and the water is
at once to become blood, the fish to die, and the river in a short time to become
offensive, or, in the simple and direct language of the Bible, to stink. The commands
given by God are executed, and the result is as declared beforehand by Moses
(Exodus 7:20, Exodus 7:21).
Exodus 7:14
Pharaoh's heart is hardened. Rather, "is hard, is dull." The adjective used is
entirely unconnected with the verb of the preceding verse.
BI 14-25, "They shall be turned to blood.
The river which was turned into blood
I. The river. Has received various names. “The river of Egypt” (Gen_15:18); Sihor (Job_
13:3); Shihor (1Ch_13:5). Diodorus Siculus says: The Nile was first called Egypt. Best
and longest known by the term Nile, which is derived from the Arabic words Nil, which
means “blue,” and Nileh, which means “indigo.” Designated, therefore, “the dark blue
river,” on account of its waters assuming at times that appearance.
1. Its sources. These are three “branches.” The White River, which is the western
branch, and takes its rise in the Mountains of the Moon; the Blue River, which is the
central branch, and rises in the highlands of the Galla country, south of Abyssinia;
the Black River, which is the eastern branch, and rises in the Mountains of Laska.

102. These three required to make the Nile what it is. Owes its abundance and majesty to
each of them. Learn the necessity and the advantage of combined efforts in doing
good.
2. Its course. Referring here not to the flow of the three rivers just named and their
various tributaries; but coming down to the confluence of the last of these, the Nile
runs in a directly northern course to a distance of 1,150 miles. During all this way it
receives no permanent streams, although in the rainy season it is often swollen by
torrents from the mountains which lie between it and the Red Sea Fifteen miles
below Cairo it divides into two arms. One of these runs into the Mediterranean Sea
below Rosetta, the other flows into it near Damietta. The whole extent of the river
from its farthest source is 3,300 miles. Has been pursuing this course for the last
6,000 years. As deep and broad as ever. Why? For the same reason that the rays of
the sun are as numerous and powerful as at first. He who has supplied the sun with
light has supplied the Nile with water. How thankful we should be to Him.
3. Its uses. It has helped to form the clouds. The sun has visited it every day; has
received from it some of the human family in various forms. Above all it has been,
and continues to be, the life of Egypt.
II. The river changed. As at the marriage-feast of Cana in Galilee, the waters in the
water-pots blushed into wine, because the Lord willed the transformation; so the waters
of the Nile blushed into blood for the same reason. The locomotive in the hands of the
driver, the ship and the pilot, the horse and the rider; all the elements of nature much
more under God. He can do with every one of them just as He pleases. This, great
comfort to all that love Him. They are safe, for nothing can harm them, contrary to His
mind respecting them. This should deeply impress those who do not love Him. May be
conquered at any moment by the lightning, the wind, or the water.
III. The river changed for three reasons.
1. It was changed on account of idolatry. The Egyptians reverenced the Nile; boasted
that it made them independent of the rain; believed that all their gods, particularly
Vulcan, were born on its banks. In honour of it observed rites, ceremonies, and
celebrated festivals.
2. It was changed that the priests of Egypt might be deeply impressed. Nothing
which the priests more abhorred than blood. If the slightest stain of blood had been
on their persons, even on their sandals or garments, they would have thought
themselves deeply polluted. How terrified they must have been when they saw that
“there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.” God meant this, that they might
begin to think of Him, and turn from their dumb idols to Him. Events, as well as
words, are teachers. May we listen at all times to truth.
3. It was changed to show that God is all-powerful. (A. McAuslane, D. D.)
The river turned into blood; or, man’s chief pleasure and pride made the
medium of Divine retribution
I. That Divine retributions are sent when other and merciful measures have failed to
accomplish the purpose of God in man.
II. Divine retributions often consist in making the source of man’s truest pleasure the
cause of his greatest misery.

103. 1. Sometimes the religious notions of men are made the medium of retributive pain.
2. Sometimes the commercial enterprises of men are made the medium of
retributive pain. He who might have been prosperous, had he obeyed the behest of
God, is ruined by his folly.
3. Sometimes all the spheres of a man’s life are made the medium of retributive pain.
If a man gets wrong with God, it affects the entirety of his life. Moral questions
penetrate into every realm and department of being, and affect the whole of them,
either gladly or wofully, all being dependant upon the attitude of the soul toward the
Eternal. Hence it is wise for men to obey the command of God if they would be
prosperous.
4. Thus we see how easily and completely God can make human life a retribution to
the evil doer. He can turn our glory into shame.
III. That the Divine retributions are extensive in their effect, and are operative before
the impotent presence of the socially great. “And Moses and Aaron did,” etc.
1. This Divine retribution extended throughout all the land of Egypt.
2. This Divine retribution, in the act of infliction, was witnessed by Pharaoh, and he
was unable to prevent it.
IV. That the Divine retributions are not always effectual to the subjugation of the wicked
heart. “And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments,” etc. “And Pharaoh
turned,” etc.
1. The hardihood of a.disobedient soul.
2. The resistance of a tyrannic will.
3. The effort of men to mitigate the retribution of God. “All the Egyptians digged,”
etc. Vain effort.
V. That the Divine retribution sometimes evokes presumptive conduct on the part of the
wicked. Lessons:
1. That Divine retributions are often merited by men.
2. That God can soon turn our joy into pain.
3. That obedience is the wisdom of man. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Opportunity in Christian service
I. That there are favourable times at which to approach men with the messages of God.
“Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning.”
II. That there are favourable places in which to approach men with the messages of God.
“And thou shalt stand,” etc.
III. That the servants of God are often Divinely instructed as to the best opportunity of
christian service. “Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning.” By a deep conviction, by a
holy impression, and by keen moral vision, God unfolds to good men the most
favourable opportunity in which to declare His message to the wicked. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)

104. The river changed into blood
I. That God can change the scene of life into death.
II. That God can change useful things into useless. All life dependent on His will.
III. That God can change beautiful things into loathsome. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Superstitions respecting the Nile
One of its names was Hapi, or Apis, which is the same as the sacred bull. There is extant
a hymn to the Nile, written about the time of the Exodus, beginning thus—“Hail, O Nile,
thou comest forth over this ]and, thou comest in peace, giving life to Egypt, O hidden
God!” Plutarch, following the jargon of the priests, calls the Nile “the Father and Saviour
of Egypt” (Symp. 8, 8); and affirms, “There is nothing so much honoured among the
Egyptians as the river Nile.” Even the fish and reptiles which it nourished, and the very
reeds and flowers which grew in it, were held sacred. About midsummer every year a
great festival was celebrated throughout the country in honour of the Nile. Men and
women assembled from all parts of the country in the towns of their respective Nomes;
grand festivities were proclaimed, and the religious solemnities which then took place
were accompanied with feasting, dancing, and a general rejoicing. A wooden image of
the river god was carried by the priests through the villages in solemn procession,
appropriate hymns were sung, and the blessings of the anticipated inundation were
invoked. By the miraculous change of the waters into blood, a practical rebuke was given
to these superstitions. This sacred and beautiful river, the benefactor and preserver of
their country, this birthplace of their chief gods, this abode of their lesser deities, this
source of all their prosperity, this centre of all their devotion, is turned to blood: the
waters stink; the canals and pools, the vessels of wood and vessels of stone, which were
replenished from the river, all
15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to
the river. Confront him on the bank of the ile,
and take in your hand the staff that was changed
into a snake.
BAR ES, "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 devotions, the miracle would
have special force and suitableness. It was also the season of the yearly overflowing,

105. about the middle of June; and the daily rise of the water was accurately recorded, under
the personal superintendence of the king. In early inscriptions the Nilometer is the
symbol of stability and providential care.
CLARKE, "Lo, he goeth out unto the water - Probably for the purpose of
bathing, or of performing some religious ablution. Some suppose he went out to pay
adoration to the river Nile, which was an object of religious worship among the ancient
Egyptians. “For,” says Plutarch, De Iside., ουδεν οᆓτω τιµη Αιγυπτιοις ᆞς ᆇ Νειλος “nothing
is in greater honor among the Egyptians than the river Nile.” Some of the ancient Jews
supposed that Pharaoh himself was a magician, and that he walked by the river early
each morning for the purpose of preparing magical rites, etc.
GILL, "Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning,.... The next morning, a time in
which the mind is most composed and sedate, and fit to attend to what may be
suggested:
lo, he goeth out unto the water; the river Nile, either to take his morning's walk, and
to refresh himself at the waterside, as the Jerusalem Targum; or to observe divinations
upon the water, as a magician, as the Targum of Jonathan. So in the Talmud (d) it is
said, that the Pharaoh in the days of Moses was a magician. Or rather, as Aben Ezra
thinks, which he says is a custom of the kings of Egypt to this day, to go out in the
months of Tammuz and Ab, i.e. June, and July, when the river increases, to observe how
many degrees it has ascended, by which the fruitfulness of the ensuing season was
judged of. See Gill on Amos 8:8 Or else he went to worship the rising sun, or the Nile, to
pay his morning devotions to it: for not only Jarchi, and other Jewish writers, say it was
their chief god, but Plutarch (e) also affirms, that nothing was so much honoured with
the Egyptians as the Nile; and both Theodoret on this place, and Athanasius (f)
elsewhere says, that they reckoned it a god, and worshipped it as such; and it has been
usual with other nations to worship rivers, as Aelianus (g) reports:
and thou shall stand by the river's brink against he come; over against the
brink of the river Nile, in order to meet him:
and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand; as a
terror to Pharaoh, on sight of which he might be put in mind of what had been done, and
by means of which he might fear other wonders would be wrought; by this it appears,
that after the rod had been turned into a serpent, it became a rod again, as it did at
Horeb, Exo_4:4. Moses having previous notice of all this, shows the prescience of God,
and his certain knowledge of future contingent events.
JAMISO , "Get thee unto Pharaoh — Now began those appalling miracles of
judgment by which the God of Israel, through His ambassadors, proved His sole and
unchallengeable supremacy over all the gods of Egypt, and which were the natural
phenomena of Egypt, at an unusual season, and in a miraculous degree of intensity. The
court of Egypt, whether held at Rameses, or Memphis, or Tanis in the field of Zoan
(Psa_78:12), was the scene of those extraordinary transactions, and Moses must have

106. resided during that terrible period in the immediate neighborhood.
in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water — for the purpose of ablutions
or devotions perhaps; for the Nile was an object of superstitious reverence, the patron
deity of the country. It might be that Moses had been denied admission into the palace;
but be that as it may, the river was to be the subject of the first plague, and therefore, he
was ordered to repair to its banks with the miracle-working rod, now to be raised, not in
demonstration, but in judgment, if the refractory spirit of the king should still refuse
consent to Israel’s departure for their sacred rites.
COKE, "Exodus 7:15. Lo, he goeth out unto the water— It was most probably
Pharaoh's custom to go to wash himself in the ile, see ch. Exodus 2:5 that, after
purification, he might pay the proper worship to his gods; see ch. Exodus 8:20.
Some have supposed, that he went to pay his devotion to the river ile itself, which
was sacred among the Egyptians. But it is most reasonable to believe, that he went
for the purpose of bathing or religious purifications.
ELLICOTT, "(15) He goeth out unto the water.—Perhaps to bathe, like the princess
who saved Moses (Exodus 2:5), perhaps to inaugurate some festival in the river’s
honour. Of these the Egyptian calendar contained several.
The river’s brink.—Heb., the lip of the river. (Comp. Exodus 2:3.)
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:15 Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto
the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod
which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.
Ver. 15. In the morning.] It was in the night then that God appeared to Moses. But
afterwards "mouth to mouth," "apparently," by special privilege, [ umbers 12:6;
umbers 12:8 Exodus 33:11] "as a man speaketh with his friend."
PULPIT, "In the morning. The expression used both here and again in Exodus:20
seems rather to imply a daily custom of the Pharaoh. It is conjectured; not without
reason, that among the recognised duties of the monarch at this time was the
offering of a morning sacrifice to the ile on the banks of the river (Keil and
Delitzsch, Kalisch, etc.). Possibly, however, this may not have been the case, and
God may have chosen for certain miracles particular days, on which the king was
about to proceed to the river in view of some special ceremony connected with the
annual inundation. Against he come. Literally, "to meet him." In their hand. When
the time came for smiting the waters, the rod was transferred to Aaron's hand
(verse 19).

107. 16 Then say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the
Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people
go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness.
But until now you have not listened.
GILL, "And thou shalt say unto him,.... Upon meeting him:
the Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee; still appearing in the
character of the ambassador of Jehovah, the God of the children of Israel:
saying, let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness; the
demand is once more renewed, before any punishment is inflicted for refusal, that the
patience and forbearance of God might be the more visible, and his judgments appear
the more righteous when inflicted, as well as Pharaoh be left more inexcusable. The
reason of the demand is observed:
that they may serve me; keep a feast, and sacrifice to him, as is before expressed, and
the place where is pointed at:
in the wilderness; at Sinai, in Arabia, where were the mountains of Sinai and Horeb;
but the time of their service is not here expressed, as elsewhere, namely, three days:
and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear; and obey the voice of the Lord,
upbraiding him with his disobedience, and the hardness of his heart; but signifying it
was not now too late, though it was advisable to be quick, or the blow would be given,
and the plagues inflicted.
ELLICOTT, "(16) The Lord God of the Hebrews.—Heb., Jehovah, the God of the
Hebrews. On the first application made to him by Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh had
professed not to know who Jehovah was (Exodus 5:2). To prevent his again doing
so, Moses is ordered to give both name and title.
Hath sent me—Rather, sent me.
Let my people go.—Comp. Exodus 5:1. The reference is to Moses’ first appearance
before Pharaoh, and the message then delivered.
Thou wouldest not hear.—Rather, thou hast not heard: i.e., thou hast not obeyed.

108. TRAPP, "Exodus 7:16 And thou shalt say unto him, The LORD God of the
Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me
in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.
Ver. 16. Hitherto thou wouldest not hear.] Indeed, he could not hear; as little as
those Jews could believe Christ’s miracles, John 12:37. "Therefore they could not
believe," saith the text, "because that Isaiah had said, He hath blinded their eyes,
and hardened their hearts," &c.
17 This is what the Lord says: By this you will
know that I am the Lord: With the staff that is in
my hand I will strike the water of the ile, and it
will be changed into blood.
BAR ES, "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 June it becomes clear, and then
yellow, and gradually reddish like ochre; an effect due to the presence of microscopic
cryptogams and infusoria. The supernatural character of the visitation was tested by the
suddenness of the change, by its immediate connection with the words and act of Moses,
and by its effects. It killed the fish, and made the water unfit for use, neither of which
results follows the annual discoloration.
CLARKE, "Behold, I will smite - Here commences the account of the Ten plagues
which were inflicted on the Egyptians by Moses and Aaron, by the command and
through the power of God. According to Archbishop Usher these ten plagues took place
in the course of one month, and in the following order: -
The first, the Waters turned into Blood, took place, he supposes, the 18th day of the
sixth month; Exo_7:20.
The second, the plague of Frogs, on the 25th day of the sixth month; Exo_8:2.
The third, the plague of Lice, on the 27th day of the sixth month; Exo_8:16.

109. The fourth, grievous Swarms of Flies, on the 29th day of the sixth month; Exo_8:24.
The fifth, the grievous Murrain, on the 2d day of the seventh month; Exo_9:3.
The sixth, the plague of Boils and Blains, on the 3d day of the seventh month; Exo_
9:10.
The seventh, the grievous Hail, on the 5th day of the seventh month; Exo_9:18.
The eighth, the plague of Locusts, on the 8th day of the seventh month; Exo_10:12.
The ninth, the Thick Darkness, on the 10th day of Abib, (April 30), now become the
first month of the Jewish year; Exo_10:22. See Clarke’s note on Exo_12:2.
The tenth, the Slaying the First-Born, on the 15th of Abib; Exo_12:29. But most of
these dates are destitute of proof.
GILL, "Thus saith the Lord, in this thou shalt know that I am the Lord,.... By
the following instance of his power and vengeance:
behold, I will smite with the rod that is in my hand; which though in the hand of
Moses, Exo_7:18 yet he being his ambassador, and representing him, is said to be in the
hand of the Lord; and with this he threatens to smite
upon the waters which are in the river; the river Nile, and the canals thereof:
and they shall be turned to blood; and if this river was their god, it would
abundantly appear that the God of the Hebrews was Jehovah, and above all gods, and
particularly above theirs.
JAMISO , "Aaron lifted up the rod and smote the waters, etc. — Whether
the water was changed into real blood, or only the appearance of it (and Omnipotence
could effect the one as easily as the other), this was a severe calamity. How great must
have been the disappointment and disgust throughout the land when the river became of
a blood red color, of which they had a national abhorrence; their favorite beverage
became a nauseous draught, and the fish, which formed so large an article of food, were
destroyed. [See on Num_11:5.] The immense scale on which the plague was inflicted is
seen by its extending to “the streams,” or branches of the Nile - to the “rivers,” the
canals, the “ponds” and “pools,” that which is left after an overflow, the reservoirs, and
the many domestic vessels in which the Nile water was kept to filter. And accordingly the
sufferings of the people from thirst must have been severe. Nothing could more humble
the pride of Egypt than this dishonor brought on their national god.
COKE, "Exodus 7:17. In this thou shalt know, &c.— Words and signs had been
hitherto unavailing with Pharaoh: Moses therefore is now commanded to stretch the
awful rod of punishment over him; and to threaten him with such severe plagues, as
should cause him to acknowledge that Jehovah, of whom he had said so tauntingly,
who is Jehovah? I know him not, ch. Exodus 5:2.
The waters which are in the river—shall be turned to blood— The Author of the

110. Book of Wisdom, ch. Exodus 2:6-7 observes, that this giving the Egyptians bloody
water to drink, was for a manifest reproof of that commandment whereby the
infants were slain in the water. It is not expressed how far this plague extended: the
words of the text would lead one to believe, that all the water of the ile was thus
affected; from which three terrible evils ensued. All their fish, Exodus 7:18 which
was their common food, died: the waters of the river corrupted and stunk; and thus
were rendered unfit for drinking, as well as for all other ordinary uses. Ainsworth
observes, that, in allusion to this plague, the contrary happiness of the Holy Land is
described by the healing of the waters; so that all creatures shall live, and the fish be
multiplied, Ezekiel 47:8-9. It is to be remembered, that none of these plagues
affected the Israelites; and this tended still more to prove the power and providence
of Jehovah.
ELLICOTT, "(17) In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord.—See the comment on
Exodus 7:5.
The rod that is in my hand, i.e., “in the hand of my servant.” God is here
represented as about to do that which was actually done by Aaron (Exodus 7:20).
“Qui facit per alium, facit per se.”
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:17 Thus saith the LORD, In this thou shalt know that I [am] the
LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that [is] in mine hand upon the waters
which [are] in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.
Ver. 17. In this thou shalt know,] q.d., I shall really answer thee to that stomachful
question of thine. [Exodus 5:2] {See Trapp on "Exodus 5:2"}
LA GE, "Exodus 7:17. “The transformation of the water into blood Isaiah,
according to Joel 3:4, 2:31], according to which the moon is changed into blood, to
be conceived as a blood-red coloring by which it acquired the appearance of blood (
2 Kings 3:22), not as a chemical transformation into real blood. According to the
reports of many travellers, the ile water, when lowest, changes its color, becomes
greenish and almost undrinkable, whereas, when rising, it becomes red, of an ochre
hue, and then begins to be more wholesome. The causes of this change have not yet
been properly investigated” (Keil). Two causes are alleged: the red earth in
Sennaar, or, according to Ehrenberg, microscopic infusoria. Even the Rhine
furnishes a feeble analogue. The heightening of the natural event into a miraculous
one lies in the prediction of its sudden occurrence and in its magnitude, so that the
red ile water instead of becoming more wholesome assumes deadly or injurious
properties.
PULPIT, "In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Pharaoh had declared on the
occasion specially referred to, "I know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go"
(Exodus 5:2). He is now told that he shall "know Jehovah" in the coming visitation;
he shall know, i.e; that there is a great and truly existent God who controls nature,
does as he will even with the ile, which the Egyptians regarded as a great deity;

111. and can turn, if he see fit, the greatest blessings into curses. Behold, I will smite. God
here speaks of the acts of Moses and Aaron as his own acts, and of their hands as his
hand, because they were mere instruments through which he worked. The Roman
law said: "Qui facit per alium, tacit per se." The waters … shall be turned to blood.
ot simply, "shall be of the colour of blood," as Rosenmuller paraphrases, but shall
become and be, to all intents and purposes, blood. It is idle to ask whether the water
would have answered to all the modern tests, microscopic and other, by which blood
is known. The question cannot be answered. An that we are entitled to conclude
from the words of the text is, that the water had all the physical appearance the
look, taste, smell, texture of blood: and hence, that it was certainly not merely
discoloured by the red soil of Abyssinia, nor by cryptegamic plants and infusoria.
Water thus changed would neither kill fish, nor "stink," nor be utterly undrinkable.
18 The fish in the ile will die, and the river will
stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its
water.’”
BAR ES, "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.
CLARKE, "
The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water - The force of this expression
cannot be well felt without taking into consideration the peculiar pleasantness and great
salubrity of the waters of the Nile. “The water of Egypt,” says the Abbe Mascrier, “is so
delicious, that one would not wish the heat to be less, or to be delivered from the
sensation of thirst. The Turks find it so exquisite that they excite themselves to drink of
it by eating salt. It is a common saying among them, that if Mohammed had drank of it
he would have besought God that he might never die, in order to have had this continual
gratification. When the Egyptians undertake the pilgrimage of Mecca, or go out of their
country on any other account, they speak of nothing but the pleasure they shall have at
their return in drinking of the waters of the Nile. There is no gratification to be
compared to this; it surpasses, in their esteem, that of seeing their relations and families.
All those who have tasted of this water allow that they never met with the like in any
other place. When a person drinks of it for the first time he can scarcely be persuaded

112. that it is not a water prepared by art; for it has something in it inexpressibly agreeable
and pleasing to the taste; and it should have the same rank among waters that
champaign has among wines. But its most valuable quality is, that it is exceedingly
salutary. It never incommodes, let it be drank in what quantity it may: this is so true that
it is no uncommon thing to see some persons drink three buckets of it in a day without
the least inconvenience! When I pass such encomiums on the water of Egypt it is right to
observe that I speak only of that of the Nile, which indeed is the only water drinkable, for
their well water is detestable and unwholesome. Fountains are so rare that they are a
kind of prodigy in that country; and as to rain water, that is out of the question, as
scarcely any falls in Egypt.” “A person,” says Mr. Harmer, “who never before heard of the
deliciousness of the Nile water, and of the large quantities which on that account are
drank of it, will, I am sure, find an energy in those words of Moses to Pharaoh, The
Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river, which he never observed before.
They will loathe to drink of that water which they used to prefer to all the waters of the
universe; loathe to drink of that for which they had been accustomed to long, and will
rather choose to drink of well water, which in their country is detestable!” -
Observations, vol. iii., p. 564.
GILL, "And the fish that is in the river shall die,.... Their element being changed,
and they not able to live in any other but water:
and the river shall stink; with the blood, into which it should be congealed, and with
the putrefied bodies of fishes floating in it:
and the Egyptians shall loath to drink of the water of the river; the very colour
of it, looking like blood, would set them against it, and create a nausea in them; or "shall
be weary" (h), tired of drinking it in a little time, through the loathsomeness of it; or be
weary in digging about it, Exo_7:24 to get some clear water to drink of; or in seeking to
find out ways and methods to cure the waters, that so they might be fit to drink of, as
Jarchi interprets it.
BE SO , "Exodus 7:18. The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water — “There
are a few wells,” says Harmer, “in Egypt, but their waters are not drunk, being
unpleasant and unwholesome. The water of the ile is what they universally make
use of in this country, which is looked upon to be extraordinarily wholesome, and at
the same time extremely delicious.” And he refers to Maillett and another author, as
affirming that the Egyptians have been wont to excite thirst artificially, that they
might drink the more of it. He then quotes, the Abbot Mascrier (let. 1, pp. 15, 16) in
the following words: “The water of Egypt is so delicious that one would not wish the
heat should be less, nor to be delivered from the sensation of thirst. The Turks find
it so exquisitely charming that they excite themselves to drink of it by eating salt. It
is a common saying among them, that if Mohammed had drunk of it he would have
begged of God not to have died, that he might always have done it.” On these facts
Harmer remarks as follows: “A person that never before heard of this delicacy of
the water of the ile, and of the large quantities which on that account are drunk of
it, will, I am sure, find an energy in those words of Moses to Pharaoh, which he
never observed before, The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the river. They shall
loathe to drink of that water which they used to prefer to all the waters in the
universe — that which they had been wont eagerly to long for; and will rather drink

113. of well-water, which in their country is detestable.” — Harmer, vol. 2. p. 295.
COKE, "Exodus 7:18. The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the
river— There are a few wells in Egypt; but their waters are not drank, being
unpleasant and unwholesome: the water of the ile is what they universally make
use of in this country; being looked upon to be extraordinarily wholesome, and at
the same time extremely delicious; "so delicious," says the Abbot Mascrier, in his
letters, (let. 1: p. 15, 16.) "that one would not wish the heat of the country should be
less, nor to be delivered from the sensation of thirst. The Turks find it so exquisite,
that they excite themselves to drink it, by eating salt. It is a common saying among
them, that if Mohammed had drank of it, he would have begged of God not to let
him die, that he might always have done so. They add, that whoever has once drank
of it, he ought to drink of it a second time. This is what the people of the country
told me, when they saw me return after a ten years' absence. When the Egyptians
undertake the pilgrimage of Mecca, or go out of their country on any other account,
they speak of nothing but the pleasure they shall find at their return in drinking the
ile-water. There is nothing in their esteem to be compared to this satisfaction: it
surpasses that of seeing their relations and families again. Agreeably to this, all
those who have tasted of this water, allow that they never met with the like in any
other place. In truth, when one drinks of it the first time, it seems to be water
prepared by art: it has something in it inexpressibly pleasing and agreeable; and we
ought to give it, perhaps, the same rank among waters, which Champagne has
among wines. I must confess, however, that it has, to my taste, too much sweetness:
but its most valuable quality is, that it is wonderfully salutary. Drink it in what
quantities you will, it never in the least incommodes you. This is so true, that it is no
uncommon thing to see some persons drink three buckets of it in a day, without
finding the least inconvenience. When I give these encomiums, it is right to observe,
that I speak only of that of the ile, which, indeed, is the only water there that is
drinkable. Well-water is detestable and unwholesome: fountains are so rare, that
they are a kind of prodigy; and as for rain-water, it would be in vain to attempt
preserving that, since scarcely any falls in Egypt." Perhaps there may be some of the
embellishments of a Frenchman in this very remarkable account: the fact, however,
in general, is indubitable; and hence, a person who never before heard of this
delicacy of the water of the ile, and of the large quantities which are drank of it on
that account, will, we presume, find an energy in the words of the text, which he
never observed before. The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the waters of the
river. They will loathe to drink of that water, which they used to prefer to all the
waters of the universe: loathe to drink of that, which they had wont eagerly to long
for; and will rather choose to drink of well-water, which is, in their country, so
detestable.
ELLICOTT, "(18) The fish that is in the river shall die.—The natural discoloration
of the ile, whether by red earth or by Cryptogams and Infusoriæ, has no
pernicious effect at all upon the fish, nor is the water rendered by these
discolorations at all unfit for use. The ile naturally abounds with fish of various
kinds; and though to Europeans they have, most of them, an insipid taste, yet, both
in ancient and in modern times, the subsistence of the natives has been largely

114. drawn from this source. It was a severe punishment to the Egyptians to be deprived
of their fish supply. It was also implied contempt in regard of their religious
worship, since at least three species of the ile fish were sacred—the oxyrhineus, the
lepidotus, and the phagrus, or eel. (Herod. ii. 72; Plut. De Ibid. et Osir. vii. 18, 22.)
The river shall stink.—The ile is said to have sometimes an offensive odour
naturally; but the phenomenon is not marked, and can scarcely be that which is
here alluded to, when the blood-like waters, laden with the bodies of putrid fish,
caused a disgust and horror that were unspeakable.
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:18 And the fish that [is] in the river shall die, and the river shall
stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.
Ver. 18. Shall loathe to drink of the river.] ile. God will confute them in their
confidences. The Egyptians used to brag of their river, and in mockery to tell the
Grecians that if God should forget to rain, they might chance to perish for it. The
rain, they thought, was of God, but not the river. He therefore threateneth to dry it
up, and here to bereave them of all comfortable use of it. [Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 29:9
Isaiah 19:5-6]
PULPIT, "The fish … shall die. This would increase the greatness of the calamity,
for the Egyptians lived to a very large extent upon fish, which was taken in the ile,
in the canals, and the Lake Morris (Herod. 2.149). The river shall stink. As Keil and
Delitzsch observe, "this seems to indicate putrefaction." The Egyptians shall loathe
to drink. The expression is stronger in Exodus 7:24, where we find that "they could
not drink." We may presume that at first, not supposing that the fluid could really
be blood, they tried to drink it, took it into their mouths, and possibly swallowed so
19 The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take
your staff and stretch out your hand over the
waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals,
over the ponds and all the reservoirs—and they
will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in
Egypt, even in vessels[a] of wood and stone.”

115. BAR ES, "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 rendered “ponds” refers either to natural
fountains, or more probably to cisterns or tanks found in every town and village. The
“pools”, literally “gathering of waters,” were the reservoirs, always large and some of
enormous extent, containing sufficient water to irrigate the country in the dry season.
In vessels of wood - The Nile water is kept in vessels and is purified for use by
filtering, and by certain ingredients such as the paste of almonds.
CLARKE, "That there may be blood - both in vessels of wood, and in
vessels of stone - Not only the Nile itself was to be thus changed into blood in all its
branches, and the canals issuing from it, but all the water of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs,
was to undergo a similar change. And this was to extend even to the water already
brought into their houses for culinary and other domestic purposes. As the water of the
Nile is known to be very thick and muddy, and the Egyptians are obliged to filter it
through pots of a kind of white earth, and sometimes through a paste made of almonds,
Mr. Harmer supposes that the vessels of wood and stone mentioned above may refer to
the process of filtration, which no doubt has been practiced among them from the
remotest period. The meaning given above I think to be more natural.
GILL, "And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Pharaoh still being obstinate, and
refusing to let the people go:
say unto Aaron, take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of
Egypt; upon all of them in general, what were in the river Nile, or derived from it, as
follows:
upon their streams; the seven streams of the river Nile; see Gill on Isa_11:15.
upon their rivers; the canals that were cut out of the river Nile, for the watering of
their fields and gardens, for they had no other river:
and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of waters; which were dug near
the river, or to which pipes were laid to convey the water thither:
that they may become blood; and so not fit to drink:
and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt,
both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone; in which water were kept in
private houses, fetched from the river for the use of families; all which were to be turned
into blood everywhere, in all parts of the land, and in all places mentioned, immediately

116. upon Aaron's taking his rod, and smiting the waters with it in that part of the river that
was before him.
HE RY, " Aaron (who carried the mace) is directed to summon the plague by
smiting the river with his rod, Exo_7:19, Exo_7:20. It was done in the sight of Pharaoh
and his attendants; for God's true miracles were not performed, as Satan's lying wonders
were, by those that peeped and muttered: truth seeks no corners. An amazing change
was immediately wrought; all the waters, not only in the rivers but in all their ponds,
were turned into blood. 1. See here the almighty power of God. Every creature is that to
us which he makes it to be, water or blood. 2. See the mutability of all things under the
sun, and what changes we may meet with in them. That which is water today may be
blood tomorrow; what is always vain may soon become vexatious. A river, at the best, is
transient; but divine justice can quickly make it malignant. 3. See what mischievous
work sin makes. if the things that have been our comforts prove our crosses, we must
thank ourselves: it is sin that turns our waters into blood.
CALVI , "19.And the Lord spake unto Moses. This is the more extended narrative
of which I spoke; for Moses mentions nothing different from what went before, but
explains more distinctly his mode of action in the performance of the miracle,
namely, that what God had commanded was completed by the instrumentality of
Aaron. There was a reason for commencing with this miracle, that the Egyptians
might know that there was no safeguard for them in the resources upon which they
prided themselves the most. We know what great wealth, defense, and conveniences
arose to them from the ile; thence came their abundant fisheries, thence the
fertility of their whole country, which it irrigated in its inundation, a thing that, in
other lands is injurious; its navigation was most advantageous for their merchants,
it was also a strong fortification to a good part of the kingdom. Therefore, in order
to cast down the Egyptians from their principal dependence, He turns its waters
into blood. Besides, because water is one of the two elements of which man’s life
consists, in depriving the Egyptians of one part of their life, He used the best and
shortest method of humiliating their haughtiness, had they not been altogether
intractable. He might, indeed, by a single breath, have dried up all the sources of
water, and overwhelmed the whole nation by drought; but this would have been
commonly believed to have happened by chance, or naturally, and therefore would
have been a less apparent prodigy, whilst it would have shut up the way for others.
It would, then, have been sufficient, by the terror of death it awakened, to turn them
to the fear of God, unless their madness had been desperate. Moses enumerates,
besides the river, the streams, and ponds, and pools of water; because, in different
parts of the country, as well artificially as naturally, the ile was so diffused, that
scarcely any other country is provided in all directions with such an abundance of
water; as though God should say, “It shall avail you nothing to possess such an
immense supply of water; because you shall thirst as much as if the ile were dry.”
He adds, “both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone;”meaning, that in whatever
kind of vessel they came to draw, they would find nothing but blood.
BE SO , "Exodus 7:19. Upon their streams, &c., — both in vessels of wood and
vessels of stone — “To what purpose this minuteness?” says the last-mentioned

117. author. “May not the meaning be that the water of the ile should not only look red
and nauseous, like blood, in the river, but in their vessels too, and that no method of
purifying it should take place, but, whether drunk out of vessels of wood or out of
vessels of stone, by means of which they were wont to purge the ile water, it should
be the same, and should appear like blood.” — Harmer, vol. 2. p. 292.
COFFMA , "Verses 19-25
PLAGUE I
"And Jehovah said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod and stretch out thy
hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their
pools, and over all their ponds of water, that they may become blood throughout all
the land of Egypt, both on vessels of wood, and vessels of stone. And Moses and
Aaron did so, as Jehovah 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. And the fish
that were in the river died,' and the river became foul, and the Egyptians could not
drink water from the river; and the river blood was throughout all the land of
Egypt. And the magicians of Egypt did in like manner with their enchantments: and
Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as Jehovah had
spoken. And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he lay even this to
heart. And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for
they could not drink of the water of the river. And seven days were fulfilled, after
that Jehovah had smitten the river."
This was the first of the Ten Plagues. Water was changed to blood, suggesting first
of all that the delivery of Israel would not be without blood. We are not told what
effect this plague had upon the Israelites. Josephus' words are of doubtful value,
despite their having a ring of truth:
"The water was not only the color of blood, but it brought upon those who ventured
to drink it, great pains and bitter torment. Such was the water to the Egyptians, but
it was sweet and fit for the drinking to the Hebrews, and no way different from
what it naturally used to be."[27]
The repeated use of "all" in these verses is hyperbole for the sake of emphasis, a
well known, oft-recurring Biblical figure of speech.
Here upon the occasion of Plague I is an appropriate place to note the organization
of these wonders as revealed in the Bible:
"The first nine fall into three groups of three each. umbers one and two, four and
five, seven and eight were announced to Pharaoh beforehand. The first three fell
upon both Israel and Egypt; the last six fell upon Egyptians only. The plagues were
progressively more and more severe, the last three almost destroying the land
(Exodus 10:7). Plague X is in a class by itself, not only because it was the
culmination of judgment and the basis of Israel's redemption, but also because it
was a direct visitation of God, and not a judgment through secondary causes.[28]

118. "The rivers of Egypt ..." This is not a reference to rivers as usually understood, but
to the canals, channels, and streams into which the ile breaks up before it enters
the sea.
"Seven days were fulfilled ..." This apparently indicates that the disaster lasted only
a week, which was merciful indeed, as any long continuation would have destroyed
many people. This also shows that the visitation had nothing whatever to do with
annual inundations of the ile which do indeed produce changes in the quality and
color of the water, but which also last weeks or months, not a mere matter of a
week.
COKE, "Exodus 7:19. And the Lord spake, &c.— Pharaoh despising the Divine
threatening, the Lord orders Moses to put it into execution: and Aaron is
accordingly commanded to stretch out his hand upon the waters of Egypt; that is,
not to stretch out his hand over all the waters of Egypt; but to stretch it out in token
of the Divine malediction which was immediately to operate upon the waters.
Upon the waters, &c.— Travellers tell us, that it is common for the ile-water to
turn red and become disagreeable in one part of the year; whence, perhaps, some
may imagine, that this corruption of the waters was only a natural occurrence: but,
besides the event's taking place before the usual time, immediately upon the smiting
of the river by Moses and Aaron, and its being followed by other wonders; the
universality of the corruption, and the effects it produced, evidently shew the finger
of God. Let us consider the universality of it with a little distinctness: a variety of
words are made use of to set it forth, nor is that variety made use of without a
meaning. The ile was the only river in Egypt; but it was divided into branches, and
entered by several mouths into the sea. umberless canals were formed by art for
better watering the lands; several vast lakes, by the ile's inundations; and many
reservoirs, for retaining the water, in order to the watering the gardens and
plantations, or having sweet water when the river corrupts.
All these seem to be distinctly pointed out in the text: the words of which, however,
in our versions are not so well chosen as might be wished, nor so happily selected as
those of the translation of Pagninus and Arius Montanus, which runs thus: super
flumina—rivos—paludes—omnem congregationem aquarum: upon their rivers, (or
branches of their river,) their canals—their lakes, or large standing waters—and all
reservoirs of water of a smaller kind. ow, had it been a natural event, the lakes and
reservoirs, which had then no communication with the river, on account of the
lowness of the water at that time of the year, could not have been infected; which yet
they were, according to the Mosaic history; and they were forced to dig wells,
instead of resorting to their wonted reservoirs. The effects which the corruption
produced, prove the same thing in the second place. Had it been a sort of corruption
which happened not unfrequently, would the Egyptians have been surprised at it?
or would their magicians have attempted to imitate it? would they not rather have
shewn it to be a natural and common event? and is the common corruption such as
kills the fish in the ile? That in the time of Moses did; but nothing of that sort
appears in modern travels. We see then, that a variety of evident circumstances

119. concur to determine it a miracle.
Both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone— "To what purpose," says the
Author of the Observations, "is this minuteness? this corrupting the waters which
had been taken up into vessels before the stretching out the fatal rod? and, if vessels
are mentioned at all, why are those of wood and stone distinguished from each
other?—But perhaps these words do not signify, that the water, which had been
taken up into their vessels, was changed into blood. The water of the ile is known
to be very thick and muddy; and they purify it either by a paste made of almonds,
or by filtrating it through certain pots made of white earth, which, it seems, is the
preferable way; and therefore the possession of one of these pots is thought a great
happiness; see Le Bruyn, tom. 2: p. 103 and Thevenot, part 1: p. 245 and 260. ow,
may not the meaning of this passage be, that the water of the ile should not only
look red and nauseous like blood, in the river, but in their vessels too, when taken
up in small quantities; and that no method whatever of purifying it should take
place; but whether drank out of vessels of wood, or out of vessels of stone, (by means
of which they were wont to purge the ile-water) it should be the same, and should
appear like blood? There is no doubt but they were accustomed, even in early days,
to clarify the water of the ile; and the merely letting it stand to settle, was hardly
sufficient for the early elegance which obtained in Egypt. So simple a method then,
as filtrating vessels, may easily be supposed to be as ancient as the times of Moses;
and therefore it seems natural to suppose, that partly to them the threatening in the
text refers."
ELLICOTT, "(19) The waters of Egypt consist of the main stream of the ile; its
branches; canals derived from it; natural lakes, pools, or ponds, either left by the
inundation or anticipative of it, being derived by percolation from the main stream;
and artificial reservoirs of a larger or smaller size in gardens, courts, and houses.
There is no other stream but the ile in the whole country; and there are no natural
springs, fountains, or brooks. Water may, however, at all times, and in all parts of
the ile Valley, be obtained by digging wells; but, as the soil is impregnated with
nitre, the well water is highly unpalatable. It is generally allowed that the author of
Exodus shows in the present verse, coupled with Exodus 7:24, a very exact
knowledge of the Egyptian water system.
Vessels of wood, and vessels of stone.—It was usual to store the ile water in tanks
or cisterns within the houses, in order that it might deposit its sediment. These tanks
or cisterns, which existed in all the houses of the better class, were either of wood or
stone.
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:19 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy
rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon
their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may
become blood; and [that] there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both
in [vessels of] wood, and in [vessels of] stone.
Ver. 19. Upon their ponds.] Fish ponds are in Hebrew called Berechoth, Blessings.

120. But how soon can God "curse our blessings," [Malachi 2:2] and destroy us, "after
that he hath done us good!" [Joshua 24:20]
WHEDO , "19. Stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt — The language
of this verse shows a minute acquaintance with the extensive and complicated water
system which was peculiar to Egypt. The streams are the arms which branch out
from the ile, just north of modern Cairo, through the great plain of the delta,
carrying the waters down to the Mediterranean. There are two principal and five or
more lesser streams. The rivers are the canals running each side of the ile, and
receiving their waters through sluices at the time of the inundation. As the land
sloped northward, the water was conveyed through main canals running along the
southern or higher side of each field, and thence it spread through branches,
straight or curved, down northward over the land. The ponds were the large
standing lakes left by the inundation; and the pools — literally, every collection of
their waters — were the smaller ponds and reservoirs which they used who lived at
a distance from the river.
Wood… stone — This is also a peculiarly Egyptian touch, for the ile water was
kept in large stone tanks for public use, and was also filtered and purified for
domestic use in smaller vessels.
PULPIT, "Say unto Aaron. There is an omission here (and generally throughout the
account of the plagues) of the performance by Moses of God's behest. The
Samaritan Pentateuch in each case supplies the omission. It has been argued
(Kennicott) that the Hebrew narrative has been contracted; but most critics agree
that the incomplete form is the early one, and that, in the Samar. version, the
original narrative has been expanded. The waters of Egypt … streams … rivers …
ponds … pools of water. The waters of Lower Egypt, where this miracle was
wrought, consisted of
20 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had
commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of
Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of
the ile, and all the water was changed into blood.

121. CLARKE, "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; Exo_7:21.
GILL, "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.
CALVI , "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 ile, 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 shameful
a manner, on the one hand proud, and on the other amazed, they betrayed not a
single spark of sound intelligence.
BE SO , "Exodus 7:20. The waters in the river were turned into blood — This was
a plague justly inflicted on the Egyptians; for the river of Egypt was their idol; they
and their land had so much benefit by that creature, that they served and
worshipped it more than their Creator. In ancient times they annually even
sacrificed a girl to it, at the opening of the canals, Univ. Hist., vol. 1. p. 413. Also
they had stained the river with the blood of the Hebrew children, and now God
made that river all bloody; thus he gave them blood to drink, for they were worthy,
Revelation 16:6. See the power of God! Every creature is that to us which he makes

122. it to be, water or blood. See the mutability of all things under the sun, and what
changes we may meet with in them. That which is water to-day may be blood to-
morrow; what is always vain may soon become vexatious. And see what mischievous
work sin makes! It is sin that turns our waters into blood. All the waters — It seems
the word all here, and in the foregoing verse, is either to be understood in a limited
sense, as it frequently is in Scripture, meaning not all in the strictest sense, but only
a very great part; or else that although Moses’s commission extended to all the
waters in Egypt, yet it was only executed upon the river ile: because we read that
the magicians did the same thing; but if Moses had turned all the waters into blood,
as some scoffers have, with great raillery and triumph, observed, how could the
magicians do the same, there being, on this supposition, no water for them upon
which to make the trial.
ELLICOTT, "(20) He lifted up the rod.—“He” is, undoubtedly, Aaron. (See Exodus
7:19.)
In the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants.—If the occasion was one of
a ile festival, Pharaoh would have “gone out to the water” (Exodus 7:15)
accompanied by all the great officers of the Court, by a large body of the priests,
and vast numbers of the people. If it was a mere occasion of bodily ablution, he
would have had with him a pretty numerous train of attendants. In either case
considerable publicity was given to the miracle, which was certainly not “done in a
corner.”
TRAPP, "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.
Ver. 20. Were turned into blood.] To show them, as in a mirror, their blood
guiltiness. These bloody and deceitful men had "blood to drink, for they were
worthy." [Revelation 16:6] {See Trapp on "Revelation 16:6"}
WHEDO , "20, 21. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood
— Also, by implication, (Exodus 7:19,) all the waters that had been drawn from the
river into the ponds, tanks, etc., underwent the change. The sweet, beneficent ile
water became red and putrid like stagnant blood, so that it poisoned the fishes and
became unfit for use. The red moon of the eclipse is said to be turned into blood,
Joel 2:3. Only the ile water was smitten, for water could yet be obtained from the
wells and by digging, as we see from Exodus 7:24.
PULPIT, "He lifted up the rod. "He" must be understood to mean "Aaron" (see
Exodus 7:19); but the writer is too much engrossed with the general run of his
narrative to be careful about minutia. All that he wants to impress upon us is, that
the rod was used as an instrument for the working of the miracle. He is not thinking
of who it was that used it. In the sight of Pharaoh. See the comment on Exodus 7:15.
And of his servants. Either "his courtiers generally," or, at any rate, a large troop of

123. attendants.
21 The fish in the ile died, and the river smelled
so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its
water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.
BAR ES, "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.
GILL, "And the fish that was in the river died,.... Which was a full proof that the
conversion of it into blood was real; for had it been only in appearance, or the water of
the river had only the colour of blood, and looked like it, but was not really so, it would
not have affected the fishes, they would have lived as well as before; and this plague was
the greater affliction to the Egyptians, not as it affected their drink but their food, fish
Num_11:5 being what the common people chiefly lived upon; see Gill on Isa_19:8 and
the river stunk; the blood into which it was turned being corrupted through the heat of
the sun, and the dead fishes swimming upon it being putrefied:
and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and they had no
other water to drink of (k); for rain seldom fell in Egypt, though sometimes it did in
some places; see Gill on Zec_14:18. The water of the river Nile was not only their
common drink, but it was exceeding pleasant, and therefore the loss of it was the
greater; it was so remarkable for the sweetness and delicacy of its taste, that in the time
of Pescennius Niger, when his soldiers murmured for want of wine, he is reported to
have answered them,"what! crave you wine, and have the water of the Nile to
drink?''which Mr. Maillett, who lived sixteen years consul for the French nation at Grand
Cairo, confirms, and says, that it is grown to be a common proverb, that whoever has
once tasted it will ever after pine for it (l); with this compare Jer_2:18,
and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt; in the river, wherever it
flowed, in all its streams and channels, and wherever any water was collected out of it, or
fetched from it, let it be in what reservoir it would. This is the first plague executed on
the Egyptians, and a very righteous one by the law of retaliation for shedding the blood
of innocent babes, through casting them into this river; and this will be the second and
third vials of God's wrath, which will be poured on antichrist, or mystical Egypt, who will
have blood given to drink because worthy, see Rev_16:3. Artapanus (m), an Heathen
writer, bears testimony to this miracle, though he does not so fully and clearly express it
as it was; he says,"a little after, that is, after the former miracle of the rod turned into a

124. serpent, the Nile, that river whose swelling waves overflow all Egypt, was smitten with
the rod; and the water being gathered and stagnated, boiled up, and not only the fishes
were destroyed, but the people perished through thirst.''
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:21 And the fish that [was] in the river died; and the river stank,
and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood
throughout all the land of Egypt.
Ver. 21. And the fish.] That was their common food. [ umbers 11:5] The flesh of
many beasts, they, through superstition, would not eat of, as one well noteth from
Exodus 8:26.
PULPIT, "The fish that was in the river died. It is most natural to understand "all
the fish." There was blood, etc. Literally, "and the blood was throughout all the
land of Egypt." The exact intention of the phrase is doubtful, since undoubtedly "in
numberless instances, the Hebrew terms which imply universality must be
understood in a limited sense (Cook). "All the land" may mean no more than "all
the Delta."
22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same
things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart
became hard; he would not listen to Moses and
Aaron, just as the Lord had said.
CLARKE, "And the magicians - did so - But if all the water in Egypt was turned
into blood by Moses, where did the magicians get the water which they changed into
blood? This question is answered in Exo_7:24. The Egyptians dug round about the river
for water to drink, and it seems that the water obtained by this means was not bloody
like that in the river: on this water therefore the magicians might operate. Again, though
a general commission was given to Moses, not only to turn the waters of the river (Nile)
into blood, but also those of their streams, rivers, ponds, and pools; yet it seems pretty
clear from Exo_7:20 that he did not proceed thus far, at least in the first instance; for it
is there stated that only the waters of the river were turned into blood. Afterwards the
plague doubtless became general. At the commencement therefore of this plague, the
magicians might obtain other water to imitate the miracle; and it would not be difficult
for them, by juggling tricks or the assistance of a familiar spirit, (for we must not

125. abandon the possibility of this use), to give it a bloody appearance, a fetid smell, and a
bad taste. On either of these grounds there is no contradiction in the Mosaic account,
though some have been very studious to find one.
The plague of the bloody waters may be considered as a display of retributive justice
against the Egyptians, for the murderous decree which enacted that all the male children
of the Israelites should be drowned in that river, the waters of which, so necessary to
their support and life, were now rendered not only insalubrious but deadly, by being
turned into blood. As it is well known that the Nile was a chief object of Egyptian
idolatry, (See Clarke’s note on Exo_7:15), and that annually they sacrificed a girl, or as
others say, both a boy and a girl, to this river, in gratitude for the benefits received from
it, (Universal Hist., vol. i., p. 178, fol. edit)., God might have designed this plague as a
punishment for such cruelty: and the contempt poured upon this object of their
adoration, by turning its waters into blood, and rendering them fetid and corrupt, must
have had a direct tendency to correct their idolatrous notions, and lead them to
acknowledge the power and authority of the true God.
GILL, "And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments,.... Who
were either in company with Pharaoh and his nobles, or were immediately sent for to try
their art, and confront Moses and Aaron with it; and who very probably got a little water
in a vessel, and by some juggling trick imposing upon, and deceiving the sight of
Pharaoh and his servants, made it look like blood; and the devil might help them to a
sufficient quantity of blood, and discolour the water with it, and make it appear as if it
was blood, and which was a poor business; had they turned the bloody river into water
again, they would have equalled the miracle of Moses and Aaron, and done some service
to their country; but to deceive the sight of people, or to spoil a small quantity of water
that was good, by mixing it with blood, was but a mean and unworthy action. Should it
be asked from whence they had this water, when all was turned into blood? it may be
answered, either from Goshen, as the Targum of Jonathan, the waters of the Hebrews
not being affected with this plague: though Aben Ezra thinks they were; or from the sea,
as Theodoret; but both these places were too far distant to fetch water from, in the time
that Pharaoh stayed here before his return home: rather therefore this water was had
from some habitation of the Israelites in the city near at hand, where Pharaoh lived, or
was dug for immediately by the magicians, as in Exo_7:24 or it may be that all the
waters were not immediately turned into blood, but successively and gradually, first the
river, and then its streams, &c. so that there might be near at hand a pool of water, not
yet turned into blood, and a vessel of water might be fetched from it, on which they
exercised their juggling art:
and Pharaoh's heart was hardened: by seeing his magicians do what was similar to
what Moses and Aaron had done; and therefore concluded that it was not by the hand of
God, but owing to a magic art they were masters of, as his magicians were:
neither did he hearken unto them; to Moses and Aaron, and what they said to him,
to let the people go:
as the Lord had said; had before told he would not hearken to the
HE RY, "Pharaoh endeavours to confront the miracle, because he resolves not to
humble himself under the plague. He sends for the magicians, and, by God's permission,
they ape the miracle with their enchantments (Exo_7:22), and this serves Pharaoh for an

126. excuse not to set his heart to this also (Exo_7:23), and a pitiful excuse it was. Could they
have turned the river of blood into water again, this would have been something to the
purpose; then they would have proved their power, and Pharaoh would have been
obliged to them as his benefactors. But for them, when there was such scarcity of water,
to turn more of it into blood, only to show their art, plainly intimates that the design of
the devil is only to delude his devotees and amuse them, not to do them any real
kindness, but to keep them from doing a real kindness to themselves by repenting and
returning to their God.
JAMISO , "And the magicians ... did so with their enchantments, etc. —
Little or no pure water could be procured, and therefore their imitation must have been
on a small scale - the only drinkable water available being dug among the sands. It must
have been on a sample or specimen of water dyed red with some coloring matter. But it
was sufficient to serve as a pretext or command for the king to turn unmoved and go to
his house.
K&D, "Exo_7:22-25
This miracle was also imitated by the magicians. The question, where they got any
water that was still unchanged, is not answered in the biblical text. Kurtz is of opinion
that they took spring water for the purpose; but he has overlooked the fact, that if spring
water was still to be had, there would be no necessity for the Egyptians to dig wells for
the purpose of finding drinkable water. The supposition that the magicians did not try
their arts till the miracle wrought by Aaron had passed away, is hardly reconcilable with
the text, which places the return of Pharaoh to his house after the work of the magicians.
For it can neither be assumed, that the miracle wrought by the messengers of Jehovah
lasted only a few hours, so that Pharaoh was able to wait by the Nile till it was over, since
in that case the Egyptians would not have thought it necessary to dig wells; nor can it be
regarded as probable, that after the miracle was over, and the plague had ceased, the
magicians began to imitate it for the purpose of showing the king that they could do the
same, and that it was after this that the king went to his house without paying any need
to the miracle. We must therefore follow the analogy of Exo_9:25 as compared with
Exo_10:5, and not press the expression, “every collection of water” (Exo_7:19), so as to
infer that there was no Nile water at all, not even what had been taken away before the
smiting of the river, that was not changed, but rather conclude that the magicians tried
their arts upon water that was already drawn, for the purpose of neutralizing the effect of
the plague as soon as it had been produced. The fact that the clause, “Pharaoh's heart
was hardened,” is linked with the previous clause, “the magicians did so, etc.,” by a vav
consecutive, unquestionably implies that the imitation of the miracle by the magicians
contributed to the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. The expression, “to this also,” in Exo_
7:23, points back to the first miraculous sign in Exo_7:10. This plague was keenly felt by
the Egyptians; for the Nile contains the only good drinking water, and its excellence is
unanimously attested by both ancient and modern writers (Hengstenberg ut sup. pp.
108, 109, transl.). As they could not drink of the water of the river from their loathing at
its stench (Exo_7:18), they were obliged to dig round about the river for water to drink
(Exo_7:24). From this it is evident that the plague lasted a considerable time; according
to Exo_7:25, apparently seven days. At least this is the most natural interpretation of the
words, “and seven days were fulfilled after that Jehovah had smitten the river.” It is
true, there is still the possibility that this verse may be connected with the following one,

127. “when seven days were fulfilled...Jehovah said to Moses.” But this is not probable; for
the time which intervened between the plagues is not stated anywhere else, nor is the
expression, “Jehovah said,” with which the plagues are introduced, connected in any
other instance with what precedes. The narrative leaves it quite undecided how rapidly
the plagues succeeded one another. On the supposition that the changing of the Nile
water took place at the time when the river began to rise, and when the reddening
generally occurs, many expositors fix upon the month of June or July for the
commencement of the plague; in which case all the plagues down to the death of the
first-born, which occurred in the night of the 14th Abib, i.e., about the middle of April,
would be confined to the space of about nine months. But this conjecture is a very
uncertain one, and all that is tolerably sure is, that the seventh plague (the hail) occurred
in February (vid., Exo_9:31-32), and there were (not three weeks, but) eight weeks
therefore, or about two months, between the seventh and tenth plagues; so that between
each of the last three there would be an interval of fourteen or twenty days. And if we
suppose that there was a similar interval in the case of all the others, the first plague
would take place in September or October-that is to say, after the yearly overflow of the
Nile, which lasts from June to September.
CALVI , "22.And the magicians of Egypt did so. A question arises as to how the
magicians could imitate Moses, when the material to work upon no longer
remained; for, if there were no water left in Egypt, its transmutation was
impossible. But I have no doubt but that, for the purpose of their illusion, pure and
clear waters appeared for a little while, and then were changed into blood. For,
since the season for concluding the contests was not yet arrived, doubtless God
opened a way for Himself, until they reached their end. The supposition of
Augustine (89) is a forced one, that the magicians took the water, which remained
pure and unaltered among the habitations of the Israelites. I should more willingly
accept what he says, that, perhaps the waters were smitten by them at the same
instant, so that in one place the power of God shone forth, in another their deception
prevailed — although the solution I have given is very sufficient. Whether the
change were true or imaginary, I dare not decide; except that it is more in
accordance with the delusions of Satan, that the eyes of the wicked were deceived.
or is there any necessity to philosophize more subtilely with Augustine, (90) that
there is a seminal principle infused into all created things, so that one species may
generate another. We may rather take our stand on the teaching of Paul, that God
sends strong delusion to ensnare the unbelievers with lies, because they refuse to
embrace the truth, (2 Thessalonians 2:11;) and I have already shewn from another
passage of Moses, that, by the just judgment of God, false prophets perform signs
and wonders. Moses, however, seems to hint that it was only an illusion, where he
adds, “the magicians did so with their enchantments; ” as if the flashes, as of
lightning, dazzled the eyes of the spectators; for this I have shewn to be the meaning
of the word. Yet I do not question but that God altogether preserved His people
from this calamity, so that these guests and strangers were supplied with the water
of Egypt, whilst not a drop was left for the natives of the land. Thus was the king
convicted of obstinacy, because he was not more attentive to observe this distinction;
nay, he must have been doubly mad and foolish, to the destruction of himself and
his kingdom, to set the delusion of the magicians against the power of God. But this

128. often happens to the reprobate, that they rush eagerly as it were to their own
destruction, whilst they are borne away by satanic impulse in opposition to God. Yet
this was no slight temptation to God’s servants, to see the ministers of Satan almost
rivaling themselves. For, if God chose to bear witness to their deliverance by
miracles, — when they saw their enemies endued with a similar power, how could
their own vocation be ratified and sure? And indeed it is probable that their faith
was shaken by these machinations; yet I count it certain that it did not yield and
give way; for, if Moses had been overcome by doubt, he would have confessed it, as
it was his custom to do. But God opened their eyes, so that they should regard with
contempt the tricks and deceptions of the magicians; besides, the divine vision had
shone upon them together with the word, so that it was no marvel that, thus
supported, they should repel, or sustain, every assault with firmness.
BE SO , "Exodus 7:22. The magicians did so — By God’s permission; with their
enchantments — It seems they performed real miracles, for the text says expressly
they did the same as Moses, and probably to their own surprise, as well as that of
others, not knowing that any such effect would follow upon their using
enchantments. Certainly they were ignorant of the extent of their own power, or
rather, what Satan would or could do by them, and by what means these things
came to pass, otherwise they would not have disgraced themselves, by making an
attempt to bring forth lice, which they could not perform. What they did do served
Pharaoh for an excuse not to set his heart to this also. And a poor excuse it was.
Could they have turned the river of blood into water again, and by a word have
purified those waters which the almighty power of God had rendered corrupt, they
would have proved their power and done Pharaoh a signal favour. But the
superiority of the miracles of Moses, even in these instances in which they vied with
him, was incontestible: and they were compelled to acknowledge that what he did
was by the finger of God. “God, by permitting them to succeed thus far in their
opposition, rendered their folly more conspicuous: for by suffering them to change
the waters into blood, and putting it out of their power to restore them to their
former purity; and by permitting them to produce frogs, which they were not able
to remove, he only put it in their power to increase those plagues upon themselves
and their countrymen at the same time that they demonstrated their own
inability.”— Bishop Kidder.
COKE, "Exodus 7:22. And the magicians—did so with their inchantments— There
was perhaps no great difficulty for the magicians to imitate this miracle; and, when
all the water of the land was turned into blood, to make a change in some small
quantity, sufficient to mock the credulity of Pharaoh's hardened heart. The true test
of their power, and of that of their gods, would have been, to have purified by a
word these waters, which the Omnipotence of Jehovah had thus terribly corrupted.
But God, as an expositor observes, by permitting these deluded men thus far to
succeed in their opposition, took occasion to render their impious folly more
conspicuous; since, by permitting them to change the waters into blood, and putting
it out of their power to restore them to their former purity; and by permitting them
to produce frogs which they were not able to remove; he only put it in their power to

129. increase those plagues upon themselves and their countrymen, at the same time that
they demonstrated their own inability. See Bishop Kidder. If we consider that the
ile was not only the prime source of great plenty, but the great object of Egyptian
honour and adoration; that their country was watered wholly by it; and that they
gloried particularly in it; we shall see the striking propriety of this miracle, as well
as the extreme severity of the punishment. See Plutarch de Isid. & Osir. There is
nothing, says Plutarch, which the Egyptians have in greater veneration than the
ile. It is also to be observed, that the Egyptians, in ancient times, used to sacrifice
annually, at the opening of the canals, a girl to the ile, as a tribute paid to that
river, for all the benefits received from it; and, therefore, "this turning its waters
into blood," as Owen on Miracles remarks, "was a just and suitable punishment for
such bloody cruelties." See Univ. Hist. vol. 1: p. 413.
ELLICOTT, "(22) The magicians . . . did so with their enchantments.—The act of
the magicians must have been a very poor imitation of the action of Moses and
Aaron. The two brothers had turned into blood all the waters of the river, the
canals, the pools or lakes, and the reservoirs. The magicians could not act on this
large scale. They could only operate, or seem to operate, on some small quantity of
water, obtained probably in the way noticed in Exodus 7:24. On this they succeeded,
so far as to satisfy Pharaoh, who was probably easy to satisfy, and perhaps so far as
to satisfy the courtiers. They turned the liquid of a red colour, or by sleight-of-hand
substituted blood for it. The result was subjected to no test, and was perhaps not
even done in the presence of any hostile witness. But it enabled the king to harden
himself, and refuse the request of the brothers.
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:22 And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments:
and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the LORD
had said.
Ver. 22. Did so with their enchantments.] With their secret sleights and magic, they
seemed to do so. See Exodus 7:12, for Pharaoh’s hardening.
WHEDO , "22. And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and
Pharaoh’s heart was hardened — The two things are connected as cause and effect.
He tried to believe that their pretended miracle was as real as Jehovah’s judgment
“sign.” They could as easily obtain water for their trick as could the Egyptians for
drinking. If they had the power to which they pretended, their part, of course, was
to turn back the water as it was before, and so relieve the distress of the Egyptians.
LA GE, "Exodus 7:22. How could the Egyptian sorcerers do the like, when the
water had already been all changed to blood? Kurtz says, they took well-water. But
see Keil in reply.[F 6] According to the scriptural representation of such miracles
of darkness, they knew how, by means of lying tricks, to produce the appearance of
having made the water. In this case it was not difficult, if they also used
incantations, and the reddening of the water subsequently increased.
PULPIT, "On the occurrence of the second sign and first plague, the magicians

130. were again consulted; and, by means which it is impossible to do more the.
conjecture, they produced a seeming transformation into blood of a certain quantity
of water. The inquiry, whence they procured the water, is answered by Exodus 7:24.
That they actually turned water into blood is scarcely asserted in the vague "did so"
of Exodus 7:22. Perhaps they had recourse to sleight of hand, and made a
substitution, like modem conjurors; perhaps they merely turned the water of a red
colour. All that was necessary was to convince Pharaoh that they were able to do
what Moses and Aaron had done—there was no one to watch, and test, and examine
their pretended miracle, which consequently passed muster, though it may have
been no more than a trick. Pharaoh, however, suffered himself to be convinced, and
"turned and went into his house" without paying any attention to the marvel
wrought (Exodus 7:23).
Exodus 7:22
The magicians of Egypt did so. They could not do what Moses and Aaron had
done—stretch out, that is, a rod over the ile, and turn it and all its branches, and
ponds, and pools, into blood, for this was already done. They could only show their
skill upon some small quantity of water in a cup or other vessel. o doubt they
produced some apparent change, which was accepted by Pharaoh as an equivalent
to what had been effected by the Israelite chiefs, but which must have fallen far
short of it. Pharaoh would not be a severe critic.
23 Instead, he turned and went into his palace,
and did not take even this to heart.
GILL, "And Pharaoh turned, and went into his house,.... Turned away from
Moses and Aaron, and turned back from the river to which he came, and went to his
palace in the city; it being perhaps now about dinner time, when all before related had
passed:
neither did he set his heart to this also: had no regard to this miracle of turning
the waters into blood, as well as he had none to the rod being turned into a serpent, and
devouring the rods of the magicians; he neither considered the one nor the other, or
seriously and closely thought of this, any more than of the other.

131. CALVI , "23.And Pharaoh turned. In this word Moses teaches us that the hardness
of heart, to which God had devote Pharaoh, was voluntary; so that the sin rested in
himself, nor did the secret appointment of God avail anything to lessen his
culpability, for his folly is condemned, because he did not “set his heart to this also.”
Whence it follows that he was the author of his own obstinacy, because, being
blinded by pride and contempt, he took no account of the glory of God. Thus the
wicked, although as being vessels of wrath, they are cast of God into a reprobate
mind, still harden themselves, because wittingly and willfully they run against God,
and thus their security, audacity, and perverseness take away from them the excuse
of ignorance or error. Wherefore this example warns us not to slumber when God
arouses us, but attentively to consider His works, which may instruct us to
reverence and fear Him. The statement that the Egyptians dug wells for themselves
increases the certainty of the miracle, as does also what is added as to the seven
days; for if the corruption of the water had only been momentary, some suspicion of
delusion might have crept in, which was removed both by the continued taste and
appearance. Therefore it was said before, that the Egyptians would suffer
inconvenience and pain (91) from the want of water; for thus I explain it, that they
should be sorrowful and afflicted, viz., because they had nothing to drink.
ELLICOTT, "(23) either did he set his heart to this also.—Heb., either did he set
his heart (i.e., pay attention) even to this. Pharaoh did not lay even this to heart. He
passed it over as a slight matter, unworthy of much thought, and “turned, and went
into his house. “Probably care was taken to keep him constantly supplied with the
well water, which, however brackish, would be sufficient for his customary
ablutions. He drank, no doubt, a more generous liquid.
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he
set his heart to this also.
Ver. 23. either did he set his heart.] But to his "iron sinews" he added "brows of
brass." [Isaiah 48:4] To his natural and hereditary hardness, adventitious and
habitual.
PULPIT, "Pharaoh turned—i.e. "returned"—quitted the river-hank, satisfied with
what the magicians had done, and went back to the palace. either did he set his
heart to this also. A better translation is that of Booth-royd—" or did he lay even
this to heart." In the expression "even this" there is an allusion to the previous
neglect of the first sign (Exodus 7:13).
24 And all the Egyptians dug along the ile to get

132. drinking water, because they could not drink the
water of the river.
GILL, "And all the Egyptians digged round about the river,.... On each side of
it, in order to get clear water; and Aben Ezra thinks the Hebrews also, who were affected
with this, and the two following plagues, the frogs and lice: but it is much more
reasonable to conclude that they were free from them all. This they did
for water to drink: for there was none in the river, streams, ponds and pools, or in
vessels, in which they used to reserve it, and therefore could come at none but by
digging; and whether they obtained any in that way is not said:
for they could not drink of the waters of the river; it being turned into blood, and
stunk so exceedingly; and though they might strain it, and make it in some measure,
drinkable, and might make use of the juice of herbs, and other things, to extinguish their
thirst, and the better sort might have a stock of wine, yet multitudes must be greatly
distressed, and many perish, as Philo (n) the Jew says they did.
HE RY, " The Egyptians, in the mean time, are seeking for relief against the plague,
digging round about the river for water to drink, Exo_7:24. Probably they found some,
with much ado, God remembering mercy in the midst of wrath; for he is full of
compassion, and would not let the subjects smart too much for the obstinacy of their
prince.
BE SO , "Exodus 7:24. The Egyptians digged round about the river for water —
Josephus says, they lost their labour, and found only blood there: but if they found
water, or water less bloody, it is not material to us, as it does not lessen Moses’s
miracle, it not being within the compass of his commission to prevent their getting
water by digging.
ELLICOTT, "(24) All the Egyptians digged round about the river.—Wells may be
sunk in any part of the alluvium, and will always yield water, which is, however,
brackish and unpalatable. This water is, no doubt, derived by percolation from the
river; but the percolation is a slow process, and blood would scarcely percolate far.
The water obtained was probably in the ground before the miracle took place, and
was not made subject to it.
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:24 And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water
to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.

133. Ver. 24. Digged round about.] If by drawing the waters they might purify them. But
"they looked not to the Maker thereof"; they "returned not to him that smote
them." [Isaiah 22:11; Isaiah 9:13]
PULPIT, " ecessity is the mother of invention. Finding the ile water continue
utterly undrinkable, the Egyptians bethought themselves of a means of obtaining
water to which they never had recourse in ordinary times. This was to dig pits or
wells at some distance from the river, and so obtain the moisture that lay in the
ground, no doubt derived from the river originally, but already there before the
change of the water into blood took place. This, it appears, remained water, and was
drinkable, though probably not very agreeable, since, owing to the nitrous quality of
the soil in Egypt, well-water has always a bitter and brackish taste. It sufficed,
however, for drinking and culinary purposes during the "seven days" that the
plague continued (Exodus 7:25).
Exodus 7:24
All the Egyptians digged. ot the Hebrews. The water stored in the houses of the
Hebrews in reservoirs, cisterns, and the like, was (it would seem) not vitiated; and
this would suffice for the consumption of seven days. Water to drink. Blood would
not become water by percolation through earth, as Canon Cook appears to think;
but there might have been sufficient water in the ground before the plague began, to
fill the wells dug, for seven days.
The Plague of Frogs
25 Seven days passed after the Lord struck the
ile.
BAR ES, "Seven days - This marks the duration of the plague. The natural
discoloration of the Nile water lasts generally much longer, about 20 days.
CLARKE, "And seven days were fulfilled - So we learn that this plague
continued at least a whole week.

134. The contention between Moses and Aaron and the magicians of Egypt has become
famous throughout the world. Tradition in various countries has preserved not only the
account, but also the names of the chief persons concerned in the opposition made by
the Egyptians to these messengers of God. Though their names are not mentioned in the
sacred text, yet tradition had preserved them in the Jewish records, from which St. Paul
undoubtedly quotes 2Ti_3:8, where, speaking of the enemies of the Gospel, he compares
them to Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses. That these names existed in the
ancient Jewish records, their own writings show. In the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel
on this place they are called ‫וימבריס‬ ‫יניס‬ Janis and Jambris; and in the Babylonian Talmud
they are named Joanne and Mambre, and are represented as chiefs of the sorcerers of
Egypt, and as having ridiculed Moses and Aaron for pretending to equal them in magical
arts. And Rabbi Tanchum, in his Commentary, names them Jonos and Jombrus. If we
allow the readings of the ancient editions of Pliny to be correct, he refers, in Hist. Nat., l.
xxx., c. 2, to the same persons, the names being a little changed: Est et alia magices
factio, a Mose et Jamne et Jotape Judaeis pendens, sed multis millibus annorum post
Zoroastrem; “There is also another faction of magicians which took its origin from the
Jews, Moses, Jamnes, and Jotapes, many thousands of years after Zoroaster;” where he
confounds Moses with the Egyptian magicians; for the heathens, having no just notion
of the power of God, attributed all miracles to the influence of magic. Pliny also calls the
Egyptian magicians Jews; but this is not the only mistake in his history; and as he adds,
sed multis millibus annorum post Zoroastrem, he is supposed by some to refer to the
Christians, and particularly the apostles, who wrought many miracles, and whom he
considers to be a magical sect derived from Moses and the Jews, because they were Jews
by nation, and quoted Moses and the prophets in proof of the truth of the doctrines of
Christianity, and of the Divine mission of Christ.
Numenius, a Pythagorean philosopher, mentioned by Eusebius, names these
magicians, Jamnes and Jambres, and mentions their opposition to Moses; and we have
already seen that there was a tradition among the Asiatics that Pharaoh’s daughter had
Moses instructed by the wise men Jannes and Jambres; see Abul Faraje, edit. Pococ., p.
26. Here then is a very remarkable fact, the principal circumstances of which, and the
chief actors in them, have been preserved by a sort of universal tradition. See Ainsworth.
When all the circumstances of the preceding case are considered, it seems strange that
God should enter into any contest with such persons as the Egyptian magicians; but a
little reflection will show the absolute necessity of this. Mr. Psalmanazar, who wrote the
Account of the Jews in the first volume of the Universal History, gives the following
judicious reasons for this: “If it be asked,” says he, “why God did suffer the Egyptian
magicians to borrow power from the devil to invalidate, if possible, those miracles which
his servant wrought by his Divine power, the following reasons may be given for it:
1. It was necessary that these magicians should be suffered to exert the utmost of their
power against Moses, in order to clear him from the imputation of magic or sorcery; for
as the notion of such an extraordinary art was very rife, not only among the Egyptians,
but all other nations, if they had not entered into this strenuous competition with him,
and been at length overcome by him, both the Hebrews and the Egyptians would have
been apter to have attributed all his miracles to his skill in magic, than to the Divine
power.
“2. It was necessary, in order to confirm the faith of the wavering and desponding
Israelites, by making them see the difference between Moses acting by the power of God,
and the sorcerers by that of Satan.
“3. It was necessary, in order to preserve them afterwards from being seduced by any

135. false miracles from the true worship of God.”
To these a fourth reason may be added: God permitted this in mercy to the Egyptians,
that they might see that the gods in whom they trusted were utterly incapable of saving
them; that they could not undo or counteract one of the plagues sent on them by the
power of Jehovah; the whole of their influence extending only to some superficial
imitations of the genuine miracles wrought by Moses in the name of the true God. By
these means it is natural to conclude that many of the Egyptians, and perhaps several of
the servants of Pharaoh, were cured of their idolatry; though the king himself hardened
his heart against the evidences which God brought before his eyes. Thus God is known
by his judgments: for in every operation of his hand his design is to enlighten the minds
of men, to bring them from false dependencies to trust in himself alone; that, being
saved from error and sin, they may become wise, holy, and happy. When his judgments
are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants learn righteousness. (See Clarke’s note on Exo_
4:21).
GILL, "And seven days were fulfilled,.... Or there were full seven days, a whole
week:
after that the Lord had smitten the river, and turned it into blood; here the
miracle is ascribed to him; Moses and Aaron, and the rod they used, were only
instruments, nothing short of almighty power could do such a miracle; it seems this
lasted seven days at least. It began, as Bishop Usher (o) computes it, on the eighteen day
of the sixth month, or Adar, part of February and part of March, and ended the twenty
fifth of the same. It is not said that Pharaoh requested to have it removed, though Philo
(p) says he did; his stubborn heart not being humbled enough as yet to ask such a
favour, and therefore perhaps it was taken off without asking for it, to make way for
another.
HE RY, " The plague continued seven days (Exo_7:25), and, in all that time,
Pharaoh's proud heart would not let him so much as desire Moses to intercede for the
removal of it. Thus the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath; they cry not when he binds
them (Job_36:13); and then no wonder that his anger is not turned away, but his hand is
stretched out still.
COKE, "Exodus 7:25. And seven days were fulfilled— It seems to follow from these
words, compared with the beginning of the next chapter, that, after this plague had
continued one whole week, God removed it, in order to introduce another display of
his power.
REFLECTIO S.—God gives warning before he strikes. Vengeance is his strange
work; but when admonition is vain, then he draws the glittering sword. The
judgment is heavy: all the water turned into blood, their fish destroyed, their land
thus threatened with dearth, and themselves to die with thirst. The waters of the
ile were the cause of Egypt's fruitfulness, but now they are its plague; so easily can
God turn our comforts into curses. They had stained its streams with the blood of
Hebrew children, and now they shall in return have blood to drink. Thus God will
repay in kind; and this done openly for their greater conviction. Truth never needs

136. or seeks the covert. Learn hence, (1.) How ill we can do without the most common
blessings: the want of water only would destroy us. (2.) That we must blame our sins
as the cause of all our sufferings.
ELLICOTT, "(25) And seven days were fulfilled.—These words seem to mark the
duration of the first plague, which was the longer because Pharaoh made no
submission at all in consequence of it. Obtaining sufficient water for his own
purposes (see the comment on Exodus 7:23), he thought little of its continuance.
TRAPP, "Exodus 7:25 And seven days were fulfilled, after that the LORD had
smitten the river.
Ver. 25. And seven days were fulfilled.] So long the plague continued; that they
might be sensible of it; and not do as the dog, who getting out of the water, shakes
his ears, and there is an end. Surely if these Egyptians had believed the prediction of
this plague, they would have done as Pliny saith camels do - Implentur cameli, cum
bibendi est occasio et in praeteritum et in futurum. They would have drunk for
hereafter also. (a)
LA GE, "Exodus 7:25. Seven days were fulfilled. The duration of the plague. The
beginning of the plague is by many placed in June or July, “according to which view
all the plagues up to the killing of the first-born, which occurred in the night of the
14 th of Abib, i.e., about the middle of April, must have occurred in the course of
about nine months. Yet this assumption is very insecure, and only so much is
tolerably certain, that the seventh plague (of the hail) took place in February (see on
Exodus 9:31 sq.)” (Keil). Clearly, however, the natural basis of the miraculous
plagues is a chain of causes and effects.
PULPIT, "And seven days were fulfilled. This note of time has been regarded as
merely fixing the interval between the first plague and the second. But it is more
natural to regard it as marking the duration of the first plague. The intervals
between one plague and another are nowhere estimated.