Ten Plagues – Summary

The ten plagues may be divided into 4 sections, three groups of three and a final plague. The first three sections are each introduced by a warning to pharaoh that occurs in the morning. They are each ended by a plague that comes without warning. Within the three sections we also see a distinct progression with regard to the long term effect the plague has upon the land.

In section one we get temporary inconveniences that are applied to the Israelites and the Egyptians alike.

In the second section we get the separation between Israelite and Egyptian, we also get plagues that may have some long-term side effects.

In the third section Pharoah is told that God is going to destroy Egypt (9v15) and the people saw this happen (10v7). The interesting point of section three is that the servants of Pharoah (and later the people of Egypt) start to get far more involved with proceedings.

Each plague may also be viewed as an attack on one of the Egyptian Gods.

Plague	Warning	Replication	Respite	Response	God Attacked
Water into Blood	Pharoah was warned and allowed to watch	Yes	The Egyptions managed to work around the problem	Pharoahs heart was heardened	Hapi (the God of the Nile)
Frogs	Pharoah warned but was not with Moses when it happened	Yes	Pharoah named the time the frogs would go	Compromise but then Pharoah hardened his heart	Heqt (interestingly many frogs was usually viewed as a good thing)
Lice	No Warning	No. The magicians saw the lice as an act of God	We’re not told but presumably	Pharoahs heart was hardened. He doesn’t even speak to Moses.	Kheper (God of beetles and flies)
Flies	Pharoah warned but not with Moses when it happened	No. In fact they didn’t even try	The flies were removed when Pharoah promised to let the Israelites go	Pharoah hardened his heart	Kheper
Murrain	Pharoah warned and told when it would happen	Again they didn’t try	It was a one off action.. but the cattle stayed dead.	The heart of Pharoah was hardened.	Apis (Sacred Bull)
Boils	Pharoah not warned but was there when Moses did it	Magicians could not even heal themselves	We’re not told but one would imagine scarring would result	The Lord hardened Pharoah’s heart.	Imhotep (physician God) & Thoth (Magic and healing)
Hail	Pharoah and servants warned. Those that heeded the warning escaped.	Didn’t try.	No respite, crops destroyed although some crops left.	Pharoah admits sin but then sins more by hardening his heart	Nut (Sky Goddess)
Locusts	Pharoah warned and his servants almost cause him to give in	Didn’t try	Complete devastation, this years harvest gone.	Pharoah acts in haste and compromises. The Lord hardens Pharoahs heart.	Seth (God of Crops)
Dark	No Warning	Didn’t try	Yes, three days only	Pharoah heart hardened by God. Tells Moses to ‘get out of sight’	Ra (Sun God)
First Born	Yes	No	No – firstborn dead	Israelites let go	Pharoah

A table showing how the Egyptian plagues relate to the seven vials of wrath in Revelation 16 is available here.

If you would like to test your knowledge of the Biblical Plagues then a multiple choice quiz is available here.

Interested in eschatology or the bible in general? You may want to check out the sections on Daniel, Revelation or Biblical Exposition.