• Common Threads in Mythology
    Mankind’s Search for God

    • 36. (a) What was the religious setting for Israel in the 16th century B.C.E.? (b) What special significance did the Ten Plagues have?

      36 The Egyptians also had many animal gods and goddesses in their pantheon, such as Apis the bull, Banaded the ram, Heqt the frog, Hathor the cow, and Sebek the crocodile. (Romans 1:21-23) It was in this religious setting that the Israelites found themselves in captivity as slaves in the 16th century B.C.E. To release them from Pharaoh’s stubborn grip, Jehovah, the God of Israel, had to send ten different plagues against Egypt. (Exodus 7:14–12:36) Those plagues amounted to a calculated humiliation of the mythological gods of Egypt.​—See box, page 62.

  • Common Threads in Mythology
    Mankind’s Search for God

    • [Box on page 62]

      Egypt’s Gods and the Ten Plagues

      Jehovah executed judgment on Egypt’s impotent gods by means of the Ten Plagues.​—Exodus 7:14–12:32.

      Plague Description

      1 Nile and other waters turned to blood. Nile-god Hapi

      disgraced

      2 Frogs. Frog-goddess Heqt powerless to prevent it

      3 Dust turned to gnats. Thoth, lord of magic, could not help

      the Egyptian magicians

      4 Gadflies on all Egypt except Goshen where Israel dwelt. No

      god was able to prevent it​—not even Ptah, creator of the

      universe, or Thoth, lord of magic

      5 Pestilence on livestock. Neither sacred cow-goddess Hathor

      nor Apis the bull could prevent this plague

      6 Boils. Healer deities Thoth, Isis, and Ptah unable to help

      7 Thunder and hail. Exposed the impotence of Reshpu,

      controller of lightning, and Thoth, god of rain and

      thunder

      8 Locusts. This was a blow to the fertility-god Min,

      protector of crops

      9 Three days of darkness. Ra, the preeminent sun-god, and

      Horus, a solar god, disgraced

      10 Death of the firstborn including Pharaoh’s, who was

      considered to be a god incarnate. Ra (Amon-Ra), sun-god

      and sometimes represented as a ram, was unable to impede

      it