Moses and Aaron before Pharoah
by Gustov Doré
(larger image)

The plagues as they appear in the Torah are:

Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh,
BJU Museum and Gallery, Benjamin West

The Torah also relates God's instructions to Moses that the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt must be celebrated yearly on the holiday of Passover ("Pesah" פסח); the rituals observed on Passover recall the events surrounding the Exodus from Egypt. The Torah additionally cites God's sparing of the Israelite firstborn as a rationale for the commandment of the redemption of the firstborn (Exodus 13:11-16).

The plagues of Egypt are recognized by Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

THE PLAGUES
The beginning of the curses
(Ex. 5:1 - 5:9, 7:8 - 7:13)

• PLAGUE ONE: THE Nile TURNED INTO BLOOD
  (Exod. 7:14-25)
  דָם

  ¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. ¹⁵ Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 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 desert. But until now you have not listened. 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 Nile, and it will be changed into blood. ¹⁸ The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.' " 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 the wooden buckets and stone jars."

  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 Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. ²¹ The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.

  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. ²³ Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. ²⁴ And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river. (Exod. 7:14-25)

• PLAGUE TWO: THE FROGS
  (Exod. 8:1-15)
  צְּפַרְדֵּעַ

  ¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. ² If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. ³ The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. ⁴ The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials.' "

  ⁵ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.' "

  ⁶ So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land. ⁷ But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

  ⁸ Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD."

  ⁹ Moses said to Pharaoh, "I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile."

  ¹⁰ "Tomorrow," Pharaoh said. Moses replied, "It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the LORD our God. ¹¹ The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile."

  ¹² After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the LORD about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. ¹³ And the LORD did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. ¹⁴ They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them. ¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said. (Exod. 8:1-15)

• PLAGUE THREE: THE GNATS
  (Exod. 8:16-19)
  כִנִּים

  ¹⁶ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,' and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats." ¹⁷ They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. ¹⁸ But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals. ¹⁹ The magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the LORD had said. (Exod. 8:16-19)

   

• PLAGUE FOUR: THE FLIES
  (Exod. 8:20-32)
  עָרוֹב

  ²⁰ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the water and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. ²¹ If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground where they are.

  ²² " 'But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land. ²³ I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will occur tomorrow.' "

  ²⁴ And the LORD did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh's palace and into the houses of his officials, and throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.

  ²⁵ Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God here in the land."

  ²⁶ But Moses said, "That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the LORD our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us? ²⁷ We must take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, as he commands us."

  ²⁸ Pharaoh said, "I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the LORD your God in the desert, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me."

  ²⁹ Moses answered, "As soon as I leave you, I will pray to the LORD, and tomorrow the flies will leave Pharaoh and his officials and his people. Only be sure that Pharaoh does not act deceitfully again by not letting the people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD."

  ³⁰ Then Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD, ³¹ and the LORD did what Moses asked: The flies left Pharaoh and his officials and his people; not a fly remained. ³² But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go. (Exod. 8:20-32)

   

• PLAGUE FIVE: LIVESTOCK KILLED
  (Exod. 9:1-7)
  דֶּבֶר

  ¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, so that they may worship me." ² If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, ³ the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats. ⁴ But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.' "

  ⁵ The LORD set a time and said, "Tomorrow the LORD will do this in the land." ⁶ And the next day the LORD did it: All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died. ⁷ Pharaoh sent men to investigate and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go. (Exod. 9:1-7)

• PLAGUE SIX: BOILS
  (Exod. 9:8-12)
  שְׁחִין

  ⁸ Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. ⁹ It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land." ¹⁰ So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on men and animals. ¹¹ The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them and on all the Egyptians. ¹² But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said to Moses. (Exod. 9:8-12)

• PLAGUE SEVEN: THE STORM
  (Exod. 9:13-35)
  בָּרָד

  ¹³ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, ¹⁴ or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. ¹⁵ For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. ¹⁶ But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. ¹⁷ You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go. ¹⁸ Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. ¹⁹ Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.' " ²⁰ Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. ²¹ But those who ignored the word of the LORD left their slaves and livestock in the field.

  ²² Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt—on men and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt." ²³ When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt; ²⁴ hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. ²⁵ Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields—both men and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree. ²⁶ The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.

  ²⁷ Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. "This time I have sinned," he said to them. "The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. ²⁸ Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don't have to stay any longer."

  ²⁹ Moses replied, "When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD's. ³⁰ But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the LORD God."

  ³¹ (The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom. ³² The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later.)

  ³³ Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands toward the LORD; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land. ³⁴ When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts. ³⁵ So Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had said through Moses. (Exod. 9:13-35)

   

• PLAGUE EIGHT: LOCUSTS
  (Exod. 10:1-20)
  אַרְבֶּה

  Swarm of Locusts,
  (larger image)
  ¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them ² that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD."

  ³ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. ⁴ If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. ⁵ They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. ⁶ They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.' " Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh.

  ⁷ Pharaoh's officials said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?"

  ⁸ Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. "Go, worship the LORD your God," he said. "But just who will be going?"

  ⁹ Moses answered, "We will go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a festival to the LORD."

  ¹⁰ Pharaoh said, "The LORD be with you—if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil. ¹¹ No! Have only the men go; and worship the LORD, since that's what you have been asking for." Then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh's presence.

  ¹² And the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts will swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail."

  ¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the LORD made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; ¹⁴ they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. ¹⁵ They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.

  ¹⁶ Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you. ¹⁷ Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me."

  ¹⁸ Moses then left Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD. ¹⁹ And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt. ²⁰ But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go. (Exod. 10:1-20)

• PLAGUE NINE: DARKNESS
  (Exod. 10:21-29)
  חוֹשֶך

  ²¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt." ²² So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. ²³ No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

  ²⁴ Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, "Go, worship the LORD. Even your women and children may go with you; only leave your flocks and herds behind."

  ²⁵ But Moses said, "You must allow us to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to the LORD our God. ²⁶ Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind. We have to use some of them in worshiping the LORD our God, and until we get there we will not know what we are to use to worship the LORD."

  ²⁷ But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to let them go. ²⁸ Pharaoh said to Moses, "Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die."

  ²⁹ "Just as you say," Moses replied, "I will never appear before you again." (Exod. 10:21-29)

   

• PLAGUE TEN: DEATH OF FIRSTBORN
  (Exod. 11:1 - 12:36)
  מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת

  The tenth and final plague of Egypt was the death of all Egyptian first born sons — no one escaped, from the lowest servant to Pharaoh's own first-born son, including first-born of livestock. This was the hardest and cruelest blow upon Egypt and the plague that finally convinced Pharaoh to submit, and let the Israelites go.

  After this, Pharaoh, furious and saddened, ordered the Israelites to go away, taking whatever they wanted. The Israelites didn't hesitate; and at the end of that night Moses led them out of Egypt with "arms upraised."

Context

If God triumphed over the gods of Egypt, a world power at that time, then the people of God would be strengthened in their faith, although they are a small people, and would not be tempted to follow the deities that God put to shame. Although some have advanced theories as to which of the Egyptian gods would have been discredited by which plague, this is only scantily supported by Midrashic sources, and these attempts have generally produced widely divergent results.

Textual issues

Traditional views

Another significant feature is that some plagues, but not others, are instigated by Aaron, rather than Moses. Many critical religious commentaries resolve this situation by saying that due to the principle of Ha-karat ha-tov, Moses was obliged to appreciate the help he received earlier from the Nile, as a baby (Exodus 2:1-10), and the dust, when he murdered a guard in his youth, (Exodus 2:11-12) and was therefore unable to smite either of these.

Secular views

In an historical context, the greatest candidate for the Israelite presence in Egypt is that of the Hyksos. However, rather than being slaves who escaped, the Hyksos were rulers who were chased out of Egypt. The extreme resistance, in the story, of the unnamed Pharaoh to releasing them therefore, according to such an historical-critical view, serves to provide an explanation of why an Egyptian Pharaoh so angrily chased after the Israelites.

Versions of the Jahwist and Elohist

By contrast, although the Elohist presents a similar set of plagues, the story is much less naturalistic. The Elohist has Moses threatening Pharaoh, and then, via his rod, carrying out each plague, until eventually he threatens to kill all the firstborn of Egypt, even giving a ritual to the Israelites so that they can cause this death to pass over their houses. At this point, the fear of Moses amongst the Egyptians reaches such a point that they are described as being insistent that the Israelites should get out of Egypt as soon as possible, before the final plague, apparently not carried out, is visited upon them. The Israelites then leave with a high hand, but are soon chased away by Pharaoh's army.

The Elohist also splits up some of the Jahwist's plagues, making them more elaborate,

• Making the plague of the river, which in the Jahwist, involves the smiting of the river, leading to the death of the fish, and subsequent swarms of frogs seven days later, into two plagues, one involving the river turning into blood, and a separate involving swarms of frogs
• Making the plague of hail, which in the Jahwist, is a pestilence attacking everything in the fields, crops and cattle, into two plagues, one involving the cattle being attacked by a pestilence, and the other involving hail and fire against the crops.
• Making the plague of locusts, which, in the Jahwist, is so great that it covers the land, into a plague of locusts, and a later plague of darkness.

While the Jahwist's presentation of the plagues is much more naturalistic, the plagues just happening, and Moses just praying that they end, it is the Elohist description of the Egyptians' motive in chasing after the Israelites that accords better with an identification of the Israelites as the Hyksos. Generally, in critical scholarship, both these versions are seen as being based on a shared tradition, rather than one taking precedence over the other, with the Elohist seeking to spin Moses as having supernatural powers and the Israelites as being chased because they are feared, rather than hated like the Hyksos.

Versions of the
Priestly source
and JE

The Priestly source, however, completely changes the framing of the plagues. Instead of threats to Pharaoh, or punishment for which Pharaoh begs forgiveness, the plagues are presented merely as a trial to prove Yahweh's authority. Each plague is followed by the magicians attempting to duplicate the plague, succeeding on the first two, leading to Pharaoh hardening his heart. The second pair of plagues are also made more immediate and relevant to the magicians, these plagues are of lice rather than flies, and of boils rather than an unspecified pestilence, leading to the magicians being unable to perform these activities. The final plague, the death of firstborn, is also altered to appear as a punishment against the Egyptians.

The Priestly source, keen to assert God as only acting via the Aaronid priesthood, also describes Aaron as being the one instigating the plagues, starting, "And The LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron", whereas it is always Moses who is involved in either carrying out, or stopping, the plagues in JE.

Historicity

Archaeology

There is archaeological material that some Christian archaeologists, such as William F. Albright, have considered historical evidence of the Ten Plagues; for example, an ancient water-trough found in El Arish bears hieroglyphic markings detailing a period of darkness. Albright, and other Christian archaeologists have claimed that such evidence, as well as careful study of the areas ostensibly traveled by the Israelites after the Exodus, make discounting the biblical account untenable. However, their arguments have not persuaded many archaeologists who do not initially assume the Biblical account is accurate.

The Egyptian Ipuwer papyrus describes a series of calamities befalling Egypt, including a river turned to blood, men behaving as wild ibises, and the land generally turned upside down. However, this is usually thought to describe a general and long term ecological disaster lasting for a period of decades, such as that which destroyed the Old Kingdom. The document is usually dated to the end of the Middle Kingdom, or more rarely, to its beginning, fitting the Old Kingdom destruction, but in both cases long before the usual theorized dates for the Exodus.

Immanuel Velikovsky decided that the Egyptian papyrus did, in fact, describe the events of Exodus, along with the major natural catastrophes that he thought preceded it; in his opinion it was the conventional chronologies of Egypt that were wrong by several hundred years. His theory has never gained credibility among Egyptologists, not even those who are evangelical Christians such as Kenneth Kitchen.

Natural explanations

However, why would all of these "natural" events have occurred one after the other? This seems highly unlikely.

The word we know as "firstborn" may have meant the higher social class rather than literally the eldest sons, but the same argument applies.

In the 2006 documentary Exodus Decoded, Jewish Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici hypothesised the selectiveness of the tenth plague was under the circumstances similar to the 1986 disaster of Lake Nyos that is related to geological activities that caused the previous plagues in a related chain of events. The hypothesis was that the plagues took place shortly after the eruption of Thera (now known as Santorini), which is thought to have happened some time between 1450 BCE and 1650 BCE. The eruption sets off a chain of events resulting in the plagues and eventually the killing of the first born. Jacobovici suggests that the first borns in ancient Egypt had the privilege to sleep close to the floor while other children slept on higher ground or even on roofs. Like in Lake Nyos, when carbon dioxide or other toxic gases escape the surface tension of a nearby waterbody either due to geological activity or over satuation, the gas being heavier than air, "flooded" the nearby area displacing oxygen and killing those who were in its path. Jewish households escaped the fate because they were told to observe their first Passover rituals.

A volcanic eruption which happened in antiquity and could have caused some of the plagues if it occurred at the right time is the eruption of the Thera volcano 650 miles to the northwest of Egypt. Controversially dated to about 1628 BC, this eruption is one of the largest on record, rivaling that of Tambora, which resulted in 1816's Year Without a Summer. The enormous global impact of this eruption has been recorded in an ash layer deposit found in the Nile delta, tree ring frost scars in the bristlecone pines of the western United States, and a coating of ash in the Greenland ice caps, all dated to the same time and with the same chemical fingerprint as the ash from Thera.

The volcanic ash could have polluted the Nile, turning it red, leading to frogs leaving the river. The ash and lack of frogs in the river would have affected the ecology of the Eastern Mediterranean, possibly resulting in the plagues of lice, flies, pestilence, and locusts. Hot ash coming into contact with skin could have caused the plague of boils, if not caused by the lice/flies, and storms caused by the Theran ash cloud could have resulted in the plague of hail, and the ash would have subsequently blotted out the sun (a phenomenon well documented in the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens) to make day into night for the plague of darkness.

However, all estimates of the date of this eruption are hundreds of years before the Exodus is believed to have taken place; thus the eruption can only have caused some of the plagues if one or other of the dates is wrong, or if the plagues did not actually immediately precede the Exodus.

These explanations do not account for the selectiveness the Torah attributes to the plagues: according to the Hebrew Bible the plagues damaged only Egyptians, while the Hebrews remained untouched. Typically, modern writers, and particularly skeptics, account for such details of the account as being pious exaggerations, or literary devices, intended to encourage faith.

Following the assumption that at least some of the details are accurately reported, many modern Jews believe that some of the plagues were indeed natural disasters, but argue for the fact that, since they followed one another with such uncommon rapidity, God's hand was behind them. Indeed, several Biblical commentators (Nachmanides and, more recently, Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky) have pointed out that, for the plagues to be a real test of faith, they had to contain an element leading to religious doubt.

Morality

When Moses went to Pharaoh to demand of him that he let the people go, the whole event is happening in front of Pharaoh's first born son who teases and mocks his father for allowing the Hebrew shepherd to humiliate him. Enraged by the insult and mad with pride, Pharaoh resolved to have revenge for the plagues, and told Moses that he shall deal with the Hebrews in such a manner that a great cry will be heard in Egypt, such that has never been heard before. This was an allusion to the crimes of his father, who ordered the drowning of the male children of the Hebrews. Therefore, Pharaoh brought this harsh punishment upon his own people. His cruel plan was turned back upon him, so that what Pharaoh wanted to do to the Hebrews, God made to happen to him.

This Midrash justifies the last plague with two main arguments:

1. Retribution in kind מידה כנגד מידה (Mida ke-neged mida): in the Bible the punishment fits to the crime, not only in severity, but also in symbolism. This is for a pedagogic reason: so that everyone, including the sinner himself, shall know why he has been punished by God.
2. Self defence הקם להרגך, השכם להורגו (Ha-kam le-horgecha hashkem le-horgo): Pharaoh planned to slaughter all Hebrew children. By inflicting upon Pharaoh the same thing he planned for the Hebrews, his plan was thwarted.
However, under this rationale, God is basically committing the same evil that Pharaoh intended to commit. By sending a plague that will kill innocent Egyptian children God is performing the same "crime" for which Pharaoh deserved punishment, that of wanting to kill innocent people. After all, what did the Egyptian children have to do with Pharaoh's murderous desire? Self defense would have only required killing Pharaoh himself. Furthermore, since Pharaoh had not yet done the crime, God's act cannot be seen as retribution.

Literature

• Hermann and Anna Levinson: Zur Biologie der zehn biblischen Plagen DGaaE Nachrichten 22 (2008), 83-102 (German)

References

• possibly Ramesses II, making the Pharaoh of the Oppresion Horemheb
• Rabbi Samuel ben Meir on Exodus 8:17
• Exodus 14:8
• The Reconstruction of Ancient History Retrieved 4/09/2009
• Becher, Mordechai (2005). "Zero to Thirteen: Redemption of the Firstborn - Pidyon Haben". Gateway to Judaism: the what, how, and why of Jewish life. Mesorah Publications. pp. 46. ISBN 1422600300. "Some scholars explain that the firstborn were generally the leaders of each family, as well as the priests of the Egyptian religion. Since they were the moral and cultural role models and leaders of Egypt, they were most responsible for the evils that were perpetrated against the Jews."
• The Plagues of Egypt: Archaeology, History, and Science Look at the Bible, by Siro Igino Trevisanato : Georgia Press LLC, 2005
• Marr JS, Malloy CD. An epidemiologic analysis of the ten plagues of Egypt. Caduceus (Springfield, Ill. 1996 Spring;12(1):7-24. See An epidemiological analysis of the Ten Plagues of Egypt (21st century edition) Retrieved 4/09/2009