Most people who are acquainted with the famous story described in the Bible in which Moses, through the command of God punished Egypt with ten plagues do not recognize the real meaning behind these plagues, and what their specific purpose really was.
In total there were 11 Miracles and 10 plagues, which Moses inflicted upon Egypt, namely:
Rod turned to Serpent
The Nile turned to blood
Frogs
Lice
Flies
Murrain (death of livestock)
Boils
Hail
Locusts
Darkness
Death of first born.
An analysis of these various plagues indicates that they were specifically chosen by God to either demonstrate the impotence of the false and lifeless gods of Egypt, which they worshipped so fervently, or fundamental aspects of Egyptian existence itself.
The command by God for Moses to turn his rod into a cobra was intended as a sign to Pharaoh of Moses’ divine mission. Pharaoh refused to acknowledge this and called for his magicians and sorcerers, they too caused their rods to appear as serpets. Moses’ Serpent in turn swallowed up the spurious ones and was specifically intended to demonstrate the impotence of the cobra headed goddesses Wadjet, Renenutet, Nehebka and others. The cobra was a symbol of protection for the Pharaoh.
The first plague, and second miracle in which Aaron used Moses’ rod to turn the River Nile to blood was directed against the very source of Egypt’s existence, it was also worshiped as a god itself. It countered a number of important and not so important deities—specifically:
Osiris which was a god of the Nile as well as God of the Underworld (and of paramount importance to Egyptian culture).
Satis, protector of the Nile’s life content
Khnum, who was to protect the Nile from human blood contamination.
Hapi, who, through the Nile provided the fertility of the land,.
Hathor, an extremely important goddess of love, fertility, beauty, music, dance and also of the small fish in the Nile.
Neith, a goddess of war and of the big fish of the Nile,
Sobek (son of Neith), a god of the Nile and all water.
The annoying plague of frogs was directed against the frog-headed goddess Heqet who should of protected her ardent followers rather than tormenting them. Frogs were held as sacred to Egyptians, thus they were not able to kill them.
It is worth mentioning that Egyptian priests subscribed to strict rules of cleanliness, and guarded against the slightest risk of contamination. Since lice pervaded, the priests were unable to worship in the temples, thus it was intended against the entire Egyptian pantheon. It must be remember that the dust of the earth was turned to lice, thus the earth God Geb was implicated, as well as Set god of desert storms, among many other things.
The plague of flies was directed against Vatchit, the Egyptian god who supposedly protected it against venomous flies.
Murrain was the death of all livestock, cows, goats, rams etc. This was directed against a host of Egyptian deities. Here is just of a few of the major ones:
Hathor, the cow-headed goddess of beauty, love, fertility, women, music and dance.
Amon, the ram-headed god of Thebes, life, fertility etc.
Khnum, a ram-headed creator god.
Serapis, the sacred cow god. The Apis was supposed to be the son and incarnation of Ptah, thus Ptah was also indirectly countered.
The Boils were directed against a number of gods, a few being:
Imhotep, in early times a priest, but made into a god of healing.
Isis, goddess of magic, mother of Horus and wife of Osiris.
Selket, goddess of healing.
The terrible hail that befell Egypt was directed against Nut, the Egyptian sky and whether goddess, and Geb her husband and god of the earth. Osiris was also implicated, since he was god of vegetation, and it would have been destroyed by the hail.
The plague of locusts was directed against Serapis, whose specific work was to protect Egypt from swarms of locusts.
The darkness was directed against the greatest and most highly venerated god of Egypt Amun-Ra, the supreme deity, king of the gods, and sun-god.
The death of Egypt’s first born was directed against many gods:
Horus, the protector and guardian of Pharaoh’s Son.
Heqet, who watched over the development of children and animals.
Isis, mother of Horus.
Min, god of virility.
Bes, protector of children and the home.
Taweret, protector of pregnant women and the home.
[This message has been edited by Hydarnes (edited 05-14-2002 @ 07:47 PM).]