The Plagues as Warfare on Egypt

A¹nd in the sixth year of the third week of the forty-ninth jubilee thou didst depart and dwell in 2372 A.M. the land of Midian, five weeks and one year. And thou didst return into Egypt in the second week in the second year in the fiftieth jubilee.

² And thou thyself knowest what He spake unto thee on 2410 A.M. Mount Sinai, and what prince Mastêmâ desired to do with thee when thou wast returning into Egypt on the way when thou didst meet him at the lodging-place. ³ Did he not with all his power seek to slay thee and deliver the Egyptians out of thy hand when he saw that thou wast sent to execute judgment and vengeance on the Egyptians? ⁴ And I delivered thee out of his hand, and thou didst perform the signs and wonders which thou wast sent to perform in Egypt against Pharaoh, and against all his house, and against his servants and his people. ⁵ And the Lord executed a great vengeance on them for Israel's sake, and smote them through (the plagues of) blood and frogs, lice and dog-flies, and malignant boils breaking forth in blains; and their cattle by death; and by hail-stones, thereby He destroyed everything that grew for them; and by locusts which devoured the residue which had been left by the hail, and by darkness; and by the death of the first-born of men and animals, and on all their idols the Lord took vengeance and burned them with fire. ⁶ And everything was sent through thy hand, that thou shouldst declare (these things) before they were done, and thou didst speak with the king of Egypt before all his servants and before his people. ⁷ And everything took place according to thy words; ten great and terrible judgments came on the land of Egypt that thou mightest execute vengeance on it for Israel. ⁸ And the Lord did everything for Israel's sake, and according to His covenant, which he had ordained with Abraham that He would take vengeance on them as they had brought them by force into bondage. ⁹ And the prince Mastêmâ stood up against thee, and sought to cast thee into the hands of Pharaoh, and he helped the Egyptian sorcerers, ¹⁰ and they stood up and wrought before thee the evils indeed we permitted them to work, but the remedies we did not allow to be wrought by their hands. ¹¹ And the Lord smote them with malignant ulcers, and they were not able to stand, for we destroyed them so that they could not perform a single sign. ¹² And notwithstanding all (these) signs and wonders the prince Mastêmâ was not put to shame because he took courage and cried to the Egyptians to pursue after thee with all the powers of the Egyptians, with their chariots, and with their horses, and with all the hosts of the peoples of Egypt. ¹³ And I stood between the Egyptians and Israel, and we delivered Israel out of his hand, and out of the hand of his people, and the Lord brought them through the midst of the sea as if it were dry land. ¹⁴ And all the peoples whom he brought to pursue after Israel, the Lord our God cast them into the midst of the sea, into the depths of the abyss beneath the children of Israel, even as the people of Egypt had cast their children into the river He took vengeance on 1,000,000 of them, and one thousand strong and energetic men were destroyed on account of one suckling of the children of thy people which they had thrown into the river. ¹⁵ And on the fourteenth day and on the fifteenth and on the sixteenth and on the seventeenth and on the eighteenth the prince Mastêmâ was bound and imprisoned behind the children of Israel that he might not accuse them. ¹⁶ And on the nineteenth we let them loose that they might help the Egyptians and pursue the children of Israel. ¹⁷ And he hardened their hearts and made them stubborn, and the device was devised by the Lord our God that He might smite the Egyptians and cast them into the sea. ¹⁸ And on the fourteenth we bound him that he might not accuse the children of Israel on the day when they asked the Egyptians for vessels and garments, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of bronze, in order to despoil the Egyptians in return for the bondage in which they had forced them to serve. ¹⁹ And we did not lead forth the children of Israel from Egypt empty handed.

A¹nd at the end of two years, the Lord again sent Moses to Pharaoh to bring forth the children of Israel, and to send them out of the land of Egypt.

² And Moses went and came to the house of Pharaoh, and he spoke to him the words of the Lord who had sent him, but Pharaoh would not hearken to the voice of the Lord, and God roused his might in Egypt upon Pharaoh and his subjects, and God smote Pharaoh and his people with very great and sore plagues. ³ And the Lord sent by the hand of Aaron and turned all the waters of Egypt into blood, with all their streams and rivers. ⁴ And when an Egyptian came to drink and draw water, he looked into his pitcher, and behold all the water was turned into blood; and when he came to drink from his cup the water in the cup became blood. ⁵ And when a woman kneaded her dough and cooked her victuals, their appearance was turned to that of blood. ⁶ And the Lord sent again and caused all their waters to bring forth frogs, and all the frogs came into the houses of the Egyptians. ⁷ And when the Egyptians drank, their bellies were filled with frogs and they danced in their bellies as they dance when in the river. ⁸ And all their drinking water and cooking water turned to frogs, also when they lay in their beds their perspiration bred frogs. ⁹ Notwithstanding all this the anger of the Lord did not turn from them, and his hand was stretched out against all the Egyptians to smite them with every heavy plague. ¹⁰ And he sent and smote their dust to lice, and the lice became in Egypt to the height of two cubits upon the earth. ¹¹ The lice were also very numerous, in the flesh of man and beast, in all the inhabitants of Egypt, also upon the king and queen the Lord sent the lice, and it grieved Egypt exceedingly on account of the lice. ¹² Notwithstanding this, the anger of the Lord did not turn away, and his hand was still stretched out over Egypt. ¹³ And the Lord sent all kinds of beasts of the field into Egypt, and they came and destroyed all Egypt, man and beast, and trees, and all things that were in Egypt. ¹⁴ And the Lord sent fiery serpents, scorpions, mice, weasels, toads, together with others creeping in dust. ¹⁵ Flies, hornets, fleas, bugs and gnats, each swarm according to its kind. ¹⁶ And all reptiles and winged animals according to their kind came to Egypt and grieved the Egyptians exceedingly. ¹⁷ And the fleas and flies came into the eyes and ears of the Egyptians. ¹⁸ And the hornet came upon them and drove them away, and they removed from it into their inner rooms, and it pursued them. ¹⁹ And when the Egyptians hid themselves on account of the swarm of animals, they locked their doors after them, and God ordered the Sulanuth which was in the sea, to come up and go into Egypt. ²⁰ And she had long arms, ten cubits in length of the cubit of a man. ²¹ And she went upon the roofs and uncovered the raftering and flooring and cut them, and stretched forth her arm into the house and removed the lock and the bolt, and opened the houses of Egypt. ²² Afterward came the swarm of animals into the houses of Egypt, and the swarm of animals destroyed the Egyptians, and it grieved them exceedingly. ²³ Notwithstanding this the anger of the Lord did not turn away from the Egyptians, and his hand was yet stretched forth against them. ²⁴ And God sent the pestilence, and the pestilence pervaded Egypt, in the horses and asses, and in the camels, in herds of oxen and sheep and in man. ²⁵ And when the Egyptians rose up early in the morning to take their cattle to pasture they found all their cattle dead. ²⁶ And there remained of the cattle of the Egyptians only one in ten, and of the cattle belonging to Israel in Goshen not one died. ²⁷ And God sent a burning inflammation in the flesh of the Egyptians, which burst their skins, and it became a severe itch in all the Egyptians from the soles of their feet to the crowns of their heads. ²⁸ And many boils were in their flesh, that their flesh wasted away until they became rotten and putrid. ²⁹ Notwithstanding this the anger of the Lord did not turn away, and his hand was still stretched out over all Egypt. ³⁰ And the Lord sent a very heavy hail, which smote their vines and broke their fruit trees and dried them up that they fell upon them. ³¹ Also every green herb became dry and perished, for a mingling fire descended amidst the hail, therefore the hail and the fire consumed all things. ³² Also men and beasts that were found abroad perished of the flames of fire and of the hail, and all the young lions were exhausted. ³³ And the Lord sent and brought numerous locusts into Egypt, the Chasel, Salom, Chargol, and Chagole, locusts each of its kind, which devoured all that the hail had left remaining. ³⁴ Then the Egyptians rejoiced at the locusts, although they consumed the produce of the field, and they caught them in abundance and salted them for food. ³⁵ And the Lord turned a mighty wind of the sea which took away all the locusts, even those that were salted, and thrust them into the Red Sea; not one locust remained within the boundaries of Egypt. ³⁶ And God sent darkness upon Egypt, that the whole land of Egypt and Pathros became dark for three days, so that a man could not see his hand when he lifted it to his mouth. ³⁷ At that time died many of the people of Israel who had rebelled against the Lord and who would not hearken to Moses and Aaron, and believed not in them that God had sent them. ³⁸ And who had said, We will not go forth from Egypt lest we perish with hunger in a desolate wilderness, and who would not hearken to the voice of Moses. ³⁹ And the Lord plagued them in the three days of darkness, and the Israelites buried them in those days, without the Egyptians knowing of them or rejoicing over them. ⁴⁰ And the darkness was very great in Egypt for three days, and any person who was standing when the darkness came, remained standing in his place, and he that was sitting remained sitting, and he that was lying continued lying in the same state, and he that was walking remained sitting upon the ground in the same spot; and this thing happened to all the Egyptians, until the darkness had passed away. ⁴¹ And the days of darkness passed away, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron to the children of Israel, saying, Celebrate your feast and make your Passover, for behold I come in the midst of the night amongst all the Egyptians, and I will smite all their first born, from the first born of a man to the first born of a beast, and when I see your Passover, I will pass over you. ⁴² And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, thus did they in that night. ⁴³ And it came to pass in the middle of the night, that the Lord went forth in the midst of Egypt, and smote all the first born of the Egyptians, from the first born of man to the first born of beast. ⁴⁴ And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry throughout Egypt in that night, for there was not a house in which there was not a corpse. ⁴⁵ Also the likenesses of the first born of Egypt, which were carved in the walls at their houses, were destroyed and fell to the ground. ⁴⁶ Even the bones of their first born who had died before this and whom they had buried in their houses, were raked up by the dogs of Egypt on that night and dragged before the Egyptians and cast before them. ⁴⁷ And all the Egyptians saw this evil which had suddenly come upon them, and all the Egyptians cried out with a loud voice. ⁴⁸ And all the families of Egypt wept upon that night, each man for his son and each man for his daughter, being the first born, and the tumult of Egypt was heard at a distance on that night. ⁴⁹ And Bathia the daughter of Pharaoh went forth with the king on that night to seek Moses and Aaron in their houses, and they found them in their houses, eating and drinking and rejoicing with all Israel. ⁵⁰ And Bathia said to Moses, Is this the reward for the good which I have done to thee, who have reared thee and stretched thee out, and thou hast brought this evil upon me and my father's house?