then refuses to release the Hebrews from slavery (Exodus 9:12). YHWH then
proceeds to visit 10 plagues on the Egyptians. Jewish commentators usually
note that this protracted series of tortures were necessary to demonstrate
the power of YHWH over the Egyptian gods, although this view seems to be
somewhat out of favor today. Back when the Hebrew Bible was written, the
Hebrew were at best henotheistic, that is, believing in many gods but
contending that their god was the best 11.
Just to list the plagues, as people seem to love this stuff, just as Dante’s
“Inferno” is everyone’s favorite bit of the “Divine Comedy,” they were:
Water into blood (Exodus 7:14; fish die and the place stinks);
Frogs (my personal favorite) with suicidal tendencies – as they went
everywhere but notably into people’s ovens (Exodus 7:25 – 8:11);
Lice, although some translation have it as fleas (nasty but not fatal:
Exodus 8:16-19);
Some sort of swarms, could be flies or bugs or could be animals,
opinions and translations differ (annoying, but not fatal: Exodus 8:2032);
Death of all the Egyptians’ camels, cows, sheep, goats, donkeys and
horses (tough on the animals, but ok for the humans who were
probably reduced to a vegetarian and chicken/duck and bacon diet by
now since all the fish had already died – this shows that the authors of
the Hebrew Bible thought that the Egyptians ate the same things as
they did, not realizing that fowl made up a large portion of the
Egyptians’ meat consumption; also note that pigs were not killed:
Exodus 9:1-7);
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