Pitch–Porcius Festus

The occasion on which the plagues were sent is described in Exod 3-12.

The plague of blood.When Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh, a miracle was required of them. Then Aaron’s rod became “a serpent (Authorized Version), or rather “a crocodile.” Its being changed into an animal reverenced by all the Egyptians, or by some of them, would have been an especial warning to Pharaoh, The Egyptian magicians called by the king produced what seemed to be the same wonder, yet Aaron’s rod swallowed up the others. (Exodus 7:3-12) This passage, taken alone would appear to indicate that the magicians succeeded in working wonders, but, if it is compared with the others which relate their opposition on the occasions of the first three plagues, a contrary inference seems more reasonable for the very first time that Moses wrought his miracle without giving previous notice, the magicians “did so with their enchantments,” but failed. A comparison with other passages strengthens us in the inference that the magicians succeeded merely by juggling. After this warning to Pharaoh, Aaron, at the word of Moses, waved his rod over the Nile, and the river was turned into blood, with all its canals and reservoirs, and every vessel of water drawn from them; the fish died, and the river stank. The Egyptians could not drink of it, and digged around it for water. This plague was doubly humiliating to the religion of the country, as the Nile was held sacred, as well as some kinds of its fish, not to speak of the crocodiles, which probably were destroyed. (Exodus 7:16-25) Those who have endeavored to explain this plague by natural causes have referred to the changes of color to which the Nile is subject, the appearance of the Red Sea, and the so called rain and dew of blood of the middle ages; the last two occasioned by small fungi of very rapid growth. But such theories do not explain why the wonder happened at a time of year when the Nile is most clear nor why it killed the fish and made the water unfit to he drunk. The plague of frogs .—When seven days had passed after the first plague, the river and all the open waters of Egypt brought forth countless frogs, which not only covered the land but filled the houses, even in their driest parts and vessels, for the ovens and kneading-troughs are specified. This must have been an especially trying judgment to the Egyptians, as frogs were included among the sacred animals. (Exodus 8:1-15) The plague of lice .—The dry land was now smitten by the rod, and very dust seemed turned into minute noxious insects, so thickly did they swarm on man and beast, or rather “in” them. The scrupulous cleanliness of the Egyptians would add intolerably to the bodily distress of this plague, by which also they again incurred religious defilement. As to the species of the vermin, there seems no reason to disturb the authorized translation of the word. The magicians, who had imitated by their enchantments the two previous miracles, were now foiled. They struck the ground, as Aaron did, and repeated their own incantations. but it was without effect. (Exodus 8:16-19) The plague of flies .—After the river and the land, the air was smitten, being filled with winged insects, which swarmed in the houses and devoured the land, but Goshen was exempted from the plague. The word translated “swarms of flies” most probably denotes the great Egyptian beetle, Scarabaeus sacer, which is constantly represented in their sculptures. Besides the annoying and destructive habits of its tribe, it was an object of worship, and thus the Egyptians were again scourged by their own superstitions. (Exodus 8:20-32) The plague of the murrain of beasts .—Still coming closer and closer to the Egyptians, God sent a disease upon the cattle, which were not only their property but their deities. At the precise time of which Moses forewarned Pharaoh, all the cattle of the Egyptians were smitten with a murrain and died, but not one of the cattle of the Israelites suffered. (Exodus 9:1-7) The plague of boils—From the cattle the hand of God was extended to the persons of the Egyptians. Moses and Aaron were commanded to take ashes of the furnace, and to “sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.” It was to become “small dust” throughout Egypt, and “be a boil breaking forth [with] blains upon man and upon beast.” (Exodus 9:8-12) This accordingly came to pass. The plague seems to have been the leprosy, a fearful kind of elephantiasis which was long remembered as “the botch of Egypt.” (28:27,35) The plague of hail .—The account of the seventh plague is preceded by a warning which Moses was commanded to deliver to Pharaoh, respecting the terrible nature of the plagues that were to ensue if he remained obstinate. Man and beast were smitten, and the herbs and every tree broken, save in the land of Goshen. The ruin caused by the hail was evidently far greater than that effected by any of the earlier plagues. Hail is now extremely rare, but not unknown, in Egypt, and it is interesting that the narrative seems to imply that if sometimes falls there. (Exodus 9:13-34) The plague of locusts .—The severity of this plague can be well understood by those who have been in Egypt in a part of the country where a flight of locusts has alighted. In this case the plague was greater than an ordinary visitation, since it extended over a far wider space, rather than because it was more intense; for it is impossible to imagine any more complete destruction than that always caused by a swarm of locusts. (Exodus 10:1-20) The plague of darkness .—“There was a darkness in all the land of Egypt three days;” while “all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.” It has been illustrated by reference to the samoom and the hot wind of the Khamaseen. The former is a sand-storm which occurs in the desert, seldom lasting more than a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, but for the time often causing the darkness of twilight, and affecting man and beast. The hot wind of the Khamaseen usually blows for three days and nights, and carries so much sand with it that it produces the appearance of a yellow fog. It thus resembles the samoom, though far less powerful and less distressing in its effects. It is not known to cause actual darkness. The plague may have been an extremely severe sandstorm, miraculous in its violence and duration, for the length of three days does not make it natural since the severe storms are always very brief. (Exodus 10:21-29) The death of the first-born .—Before the tenth plague Moses went to warn Pharaoh: “Thus saith the Lord, about midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt; and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne even to the first-born of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of beasts.” (Exodus 11:4,5) The clearly miraculous nature of this plague, its falling upon man and in its beast; and the singling out of the firstborn, puts it wholly beyond comparison with any natural pestilence, even the severest recorded in history, whether of the peculiar Egyptian plague or of other like epidemics. The history of the ten plagues strictly ends with the death of the first-born. The gradual increase in severity of the plagues is perhaps the best key to their meaning. They seem to have been sent as warnings to the oppressor, to afford him a means of seeing God’s will and an opportunity of repenting before Egypt was ruined. The lesson that Pharaoh’s career teaches us seems to be that there are men whom the meet signal judgments do not affect so as to cause any lasting repentance. The following characteristics of the plagues may be specially noticed: (1) Their relation to natural phenomena. Each of the inflictions has a demonstrable connection with Egyptian customs and phenomena; each is directly aimed at some Egyptian superstition all are marvellous, not for the most part as reversing, but as developing, forces inherent in nature, and directing them to a special end.—Canon Cook . (2) Their order. They are divided first into nine and one the last one standing clearly apart from all the others. The nine are arranged in threes. In the first of each three the warning is given to Pharaoh in the morning. In the first and second of each three the plague is announced beforehand in the third, not. At the third the magicians acknowledge the finger of God; at the sixth they cannot stand before Moses; and at the ninth Pharaoh refuses to see the face of Moses any more. The gradation of the severity of these strokes is no less obvious. In the first three no distinction is made among the inhabitants of the land; in the remaining seven a distinction is made between the Israelites, who are shielded from, and the Egyptians who are exposed to, the stroke. -Kurlz, (3) Their duration. It is probable that the plagues extended through a period of several months. The first plague occurred probably during the annual inundation of the Nile, hence about the middle of June (Edersheim). The second, that of the frogs, in September, the time when Egypt often suffers in this way. The seventh (hail) came when the barley was in ear, and before the wheat was grown, and hence in February; and the tenth came in the following March or April. (4) Their significance. The first plague was directed against the Nile one of the Egyptian deities, adored as a source of life, not only to the produce of the land, but to its inhabitants. The second plague, that of the frogs, struck also at the idolatry of Egypt; for the frog was an object of worship. The third plague turned the land, which was worshipped, into a source of torment the dust produced a curse. The fourth plague consisted in the torment of either flies of a ravenous disposition, or beetles. If the former, then the air, which was worshipped, was turned into a source of exquisite annoyance; if the latter then the beetle, one of the most common of the Egyptian idols, swarmed with voracious appetite, attacking even man, as the Egyptian beetle still does and inflicting painful wounds. The fifth plague, that of murrain, struck at the cattle-worship for which Egypt was celebrated. The sixth plague, produced by the ashes scattered toward heaven in conformity with an ancient Egyptian rite, as if an invocation of the sun-god, continued the warfare of Jehovah upon Egyptian idolatry; the religious ceremony which was employed to invoke blessing brought disease. The seventh plague, beginning a new series, seems to have been aimed like those which followed, to demonstrate the power of Jehovah over all the elements, and even life itself, in contrast with the impotence of the idols. The storm and the hail came at his bidding. The locusts appeared and departed at his word. The sun itself was veiled at his command. Nay, the angel of death was held and loosed by his hand alone. The tenth plague had an immediate relation to idolatry, since it destroyed not only the first-born of man, but the first-born of beast; so that the sacred animals in the temples were touched by a power higher than those they were supposed to represent. The victory was complete; upon all the gods of Egypt, Jehovah had executed judgment.—Rev. Franklin Johnson .

This one term does duty in the Authorized Version for no less than seven distinct Hebrew words.

Abel . This word perhaps answers more nearly to our word “meadow” than any other. It occurs in the names of Abel-maim Abel-meholah, Abel-shittim and is rendered “plain” in (Judges 11:33)—“plain of vineyards.” Bik’ah . Fortunately we are able to identify the most remarkable of the bik’ahs of the Bible, and thus to ascertain the force of the term. The great plain or valley of Coele-Syria, the “hollow land” of the Greeks, which separates the two ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon is the most remarkable of them all. Out of Palestine we find denoted by the word bik’ah the “plain of the land of Shiner,” (Genesis 11:2) the “plain of Mesopotamia,” (Ezekiel 3:22,23; 8:4; 37:1,2) and the “plain in the province of Dura.” (Daniel 3:1) Ha shefelah the invariable designation of the depressed, flat or gently-undulating region which intervened between the highlands of Judah and the Mediterranean, and was commonly in possession of the Philistines. Elon . Our translators have uniformly rendered this word “plain;” but this is not the verdict of the majority or the most trustworthy of the ancient versions. They regard the word as meaning an “oak” or “grove of oaks,” a rendering supported by nearly all the commentators and lexicographers of the present day, The passages in which the word occurs erroneously translated “plain” are as-follows: Plain of Moreh, (Genesis 12:6; 11:30) plain of Mamre, (Genesis 13:18; 14:13; 18:1) plain of Zaanaim, (Judges 4:11) plain of the pillar, (Judges 9:6) plain of Meonenim, (Judges 9:37) plain of Tabor, (1 Samuel 10:5)

Lyrical poetry .—Of the three kinds of poetry which are illustrated by the Hebrew literature, the lyric occupies the foremost place. That literature abounds with illustrations of all forms of Lyrical poetry, in its most manifold and wide-embracing compass, from such short ejaculations as the songs of the two Lamechs and Psal 15, 117 and others, to the longer chants of victors and thanksgiving, like the songs of Deborah and David. Judg 5; Psal 18. The Shemitic nations have nothing approaching to an epic poem, and in proportion to this defect the lyric element prevailed more greatly, commencing in the pre-Mosaic times, flourishing in rude vigor during the earlier periods of the judges, the heroic age of the Hebrews, growing with the nation’s growth and strengthening with its strength, till it reached its highest excellence in David, the warrior poet, and from thenceforth began slowly to decline. Gnomic poetry .—The second grand division of Hebrew poetry is occupied by a class of poems which are peculiarly Shemitic, and which represent the nearest approaches made by the people of that race to anything like philosophic thought. Reasoning there is none: we have only results, and those rather the product of observation and reflection than of induction or argumentation. As lyric poetry is the expression of the poet’s own feelings and impulses, so gnomic poetry is the form in which the desire of communicating knowledge to others finds vent. Its germs are the floating proverbs which pass current in the mouths of the people, and embody the experiences of many with the wit of one. The utterer of sententious sayings was to the Hebrews the wise man, the philosopher. Of the earlier isolated proverbs but few examples remain. Dramatic poetry .—It is impossible to assert that no form of the drama existed among the Hebrew people. It is unquestionably true, as Ewald observes, that the Arab reciters of romances will many times in their own persons act out a complete drama in recitation, changing their voice and gestures with the change of person and subject. Something of this kind may possibly have existed among the Hebrews; still there is no evidence that it did exist, nor any grounds for making even a probable conjecture with regard to it. But the mere fact of the existence of these rude exhibitions’ among the Arabs and Egyptians of the present day is of no weight when the question to be decided is whether the Song of Songs was designed to be so represented, as a simple pastoral drama, or whether the book of Job is a dramatic poem or not. Inasmuch as it represents an action and a progress, it is a drama as truly and really as any poem can be which develops the working of passion and the alter-nations of faith, hope, distrust, triumph and confidence and black despair, in the struggle which it depicts the human mind as engaged in while attempting to solve one of the most intricate problems it can be called upon to regard. It is a drama as life is a drama, the most powerful of all tragedies but that it is a dramatic poem, intended to be represented upon a stage, or capable of being so represented, may be confidently denied. One characteristic of Hebrew poetry, not indeed peculiar to it, but shared by it in common with the literature of other nations, is its intensely national and local coloring. The writers were Hebrews of the Hebrews, drawing their inspiration from the mountains and rivers of Palestine, which they have immortalized in their poetic figures, and even while uttering the sublimest and most universal truths never forgetting their own nationality in its narrowest and intensest form. Examples of this remarkable characteristic the Hebrew poets stand thick upon every page of these writings, and in striking contrast with the vague generalizations of the indian philosophic poetry. About one third of the Old Testament is poetry in the Hebrew—a large part of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, besides a great part of the prophets. Fragments of poetry are also found in the historical books. (The form which biblical poetry takes is not of rhyme and metre—the rhythm of quantity in the syllables—as with us, but the rhythm of the thought—there usually being two corresponding members to each distich or verse, which is called a parallelism. To some extent there is verbal rhythm. Sometimes there were alliterations, as in the 119th Psalm, which is divided up into sections, one for each letter of their alphabet, and each of the eight verses in a section begins with the same letter in the Hebrew; and chap. 31, vs. 10-31, of the book of Proverbs is an alphabetical acrostic in praise of “the virtuous woman.” The poetry of the Hebrews, in its essential poetic nature, stands in the front rank. It abounds in metaphors and images and in high poetic feeling and fervor.—ED.)

The general kindly spirit of the law toward the poor is sufficiently shown by such passages as (15:7) for the reason that (ver. 11) “the poor shall never cease out of the land.” Among the special enactments in their favor the following must be mentioned:

The right of gleaning. (Leviticus 19:9,10; 24:19,21) From the produce of the land in sabbatical years the poor and the stranger were to have their portion. (Exodus 23:11; Leviticus 25:6) Re-entry upon land in the jubilee year, with the limitation as to town homes. (Leviticus 25:25-30) Prohibition of usury and of retention of pledges. (Exodus 22:25-27; Leviticus 25:3,5,37) etc. Permanent bondage forbidden, and manumission of Hebrew bondmen or bondwomen enjoined in the sabbatical and jubilee years. (Leviticus 25:39-42,47-54; 15:12-15) Portions from the tithes to be shared by the poor after the Levites. (14:28; 26:12,13) The poor to partake in entertainments at the feasts of Weeks and Tabernacles. (16:11,14) see Nehe 8:10 Daily payment of wages. (Leviticus 19:13) Principles similar to those laid down by Moses are inculcated in the New Testament, as (Luke 3:11; 14:13; Acts 6:1; Galatians 2:10; James 2:15)

Ulam, or ulam . (1 Chronicles 28:11) Misderon ulam, (Judges 3:23) strictly a vestibule, was probably a sort of veranda chamber in the works of Solomon, open in front and at the sides, but capable of being enclosed with awnings or curtains. The porch, (Matthew 26:71) may have been the passage from the street into the first court of the house, in which, in eastern houses, is the mastabah or stone bench, for the porter or persons waiting, and where also the master of the house often receives visitors and transacts business.