that until now they have contended with Moses and Aaron upon earthly ground, with human means, and there they have overcome, but now God appears.* .* It should rather be explained By the power of God have they obtained the victory. They certainly also ascribe to Elohim (not Jehovah) their former success; the whole contest was a contest of God, Gen. 30: 8, and therefore their present inability must be to them of just so much greater significance.

It deserves to be noticed also, that the present condition of the Psylli in Egypt is entirely one of decay. It is torn loose from its natural connexion, the soil of natural religion from which it originally sprung. It exists in a land in which even now modern illumination has variously exerted its influence and hindered its freedom. Accordingly nothing is more natural than that very much that is artificial should be added to the exstatic condition, and that very much charlatanry should creep in. But what now remains of ecstacy is entirely sufficient to convince us of the intensity of it, as it existed in the time of the glory of the Egyptian religion and priesthood.

The opinion expressed upon the proceedings of the modern Psylli, which we find among observers who are most free from prejudice, and also among those who on the other hand are decidedly under the dominion of prejudice, guide us in explaining the fact, that the author of the Pentateuch does not speak definitely upon the nature and origin of the results produced by the Egyptian magicians. Were the thing so simple as it is generally considered to be, were it either common jugglery or something really miraculous, performed by the permission of God through satanic influence, then the author of the Pentateuch would not, it may be presumed, fail to express an opinion upon it. But, since the ground on which these things rest-a very dark and difficult one-is

*Calvin says: Digitum dei opponunt suae solertiae et peritiae. Pudebat enim fateri quenquam mortalium scientia praecellere.

not yet indeed but imperfectly explained by the most thorough investigations, it was preferable to remain standing at the outer edge without going deeper into the nature of these results.* As respects the thing itself, a further insight into the nature of these consequences avails nothing. Whatever opinion they had of it, this is certain, that even in the first three signs, the superior power of the God of Israel made itself sufficiently known to any one who did not studiously seek a support for his unbelief and rebellion. They change, it matters not whether really or in appearance, their rods into serpents, but the rod of Moses swallows up their rods; they also change, at least on a small scale, water into blood, but they are not able to restore the blood to its former state; in like manner, imitating on a small scale the miracle of Moses, they brought up frogs upon the land, but they were not able to free it from the plague of frogs. "For the punishment of the Egyptians," says Theodoret, "God gave also to magicians power, bút not for removing punishment; since the king had not enough of his plagues, but even commanded the magicians to increase the chastisement, so God also punished him through these: Thou art not yet satisfied with the punishment inflicted by my servants, so punish I thee also by thine own." And the relative power of the Egyptian magicians in the beginning, must serve to show in so much clearer light their entire impotence as it was first exhibited in the little gnats and then continued invariable. The contest was first intentionally carried on in a sphere in which the Egyptian magicians, as we certainly know with reference to the first sign, had hitherto shown their principal power. After they had there been vanquished,

*The word in chap. 7: 22 and 8: 3, 14, in which it is often affirmed that a verdict of the author upon this matter is found, contains no such thing; and the whole contest is a vain one, since there is nothing existing which can give us any information concerning his opinion.

the scene was changed to a sphere in which they could not at all further contend, and the doom which in this way came upon them, fell through them upon their gods.*

The first Plague-the Water of Egypt changed to Blood.

We turn now to the second sign which is also the first plague. It consists in changing the waters of the Nile, and the other waters of Egypt into blood. It appears from Joel 3: 4, according to which, the moon shall be changed into blood, that there is no reason to suppose that literal blood is here meant. On the contrary the change into blood can properly only have reference to the blood red color; so that the blood here is the same as the water red as blood in 2 Kings 3: 22. The designation is here evidently chosen for the sake of the symbolic character which this plague bears, as also the water red as blood in the passage referred to in the book of Kings has a symbolic significance, announcing destruction to the enemies of Israel. To the Egyptians shall the reddened water be blood, reminding them of the innocent blood which they have shed, and pointing to the flowing guilty blood to be shed. In this characteristic this plague is coupled with the darkness which afterwards covered the whole land, as both also appear connected in Joel 3: 4: "The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood." In the symbolic colors arranged by the Egyptians, black was the color of death and mourning,—for that which is base and its author, the red color was chosen, probably as the color of blood.t

That there is found something analogous to this plague in the natural phenomena of Egypt has already long ago been said. The water of the Nile, a short time before the inundation, takes a green, and at the beginning of the inundation

* Ex. 12: 12.

+ Drummann, Ueber die Inschrift in Rosette, S. 108, 109.

a red color. The cause of this change of color has not yet been sufficiently investigated.* According to Antest the inhabitants name the water when the flood has reached its

highest point of increase, slo (ma ahmar), red water. In the year 1673 the Nile reddened as early as the beginning of July and continued of a red color to the end of December, when it assumed again its usual hue.‡

In common years, the water when it is green and red is drinkable. Sonnini says: "During the continuance of my journey, I with my companions had no other drink than the unmingled water of the Nile. We drank it without any one of us experiencing inconvenience, at all seasons of the year, even when the inundation so fills it with slime that it is thick and reddish, and appears truly loathsome."

But sometimes, in years of great heat, this peculiarity of water becomes a great calamity. Thus Abdollatiph|| relates: "In the year 596 (1199) the increase of the Nile was smaller than had ever been known. About two months before the first indications of the inundation, the waters of the river assumed a green color. This increased by degrees, and it became putrid, and offensive to the taste. Sick people

* Le Père Aîné in the Memoir sur la Vallée du Nil, in the Descr. t. 18 p. 571 says: "The water at Cairo is found by analysis to be five times purer than that of the Seine at Paris. It, however, has this degree of purity only at the time when the inundation begins to diminish. The noxious qualities which are attributed to it, at the time when the water is low and stagnant, and when it begins to increase, appear to proceed from an innumerable multitude of insects which the heat generates in it. The causes which destroy the purity of the water at different seasons of the year, are not yet sufficiently investigated. The red color originates, probably, from the earthy particles which the flood brings along with it from Sennaar."

† In De Sacy upon Abdollatiph, p. 346.

‡ Hartmann, Aegypten, S. 128.

|| De Sacy, p. 332,

§ Th. 2. S. 13.

د

avoided drinking from it and drank well-water.* By boiling, its smell and taste became worse. There also appeared in it worms and other animals which live in stagnant water.”

That in our account the common plague existed in an entirely uncommon degree is evident, since the ordinary means of purification did not at all take effect, verse 19. The Egyptians could not drink at all from the river, verse 21, and the fish also died in it, verse 18. Of this last effect there is no other example on record. But what passes beyond the boundaries of the barely extraordinary and carries the occurrence into the region of the miraculous, is, that the changing of the waters took place not merely suddenly while it commonly is gradual,† but it also was in accordance with the prediction of Moses, and just at the moment when he lifted his rod.

The circumstances which are also sometimes referred to as proof of the difference between this change of the water and the one which is common, namely, that it occurred at an entirely unusual time, and that it also ceased far more suddenly than common, are shown on closer examination to be without foundation. For with reference to the time of this first plague, there is nothing said in the account, and it is therefore most probable that in this respect it offered nothing extraordinary. The reason which De Wettet adduces, that the first plagues, in reference to time, must border nearly on the last which took place some time between the end of February and the beginning of April: 'They must follow each other at short intervals if they shall produce wonder and fear,' has little force. For the facts were of a kind, that could not fail to make a deep impression, if they were separated from one another by even longer intervals; and

* See Ex. 7: 24.

+ Compare the interesting cases of the change of water to a red color in other countries. Rosenm. A. u. N. Morgenl. Th. 1. S. 281 ff. Krit. der Isr. Gesch. S. 193.