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Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Exodus 7:20

Exodus 7:20. The waters in the river were turned into blood This was a plague justly inflicted on the Egyptians; for the river of Egypt was their idol; they and their land had so much benefit by that creature, that they served and worshipped it more than their Creator. In ancient times they annually even sacrificed a girl to it, at the opening of the canals, Univ. Hist., vol. 1. p. 413. Also they had stained the river with the blood of the Hebrew children, and now God made that river... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Exodus 7:14-25

Nine plagues (7:14-10:29)The timing, intensity and extent of these plagues show clearly that they were sent by God. It also seems fairly clear that God used the physical characteristics of the Nile valley to produce them.When the first plague struck, it polluted all the water in the Nile and in the irrigation canals and reservoirs connected with it, resulting in all the fish dying. As the dead fish floated to the banks they would force the frogs out of the water, thereby producing the second... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Exodus 7:20

river . This first plague was directed against the Nile, an object of worship, which was thus polluted, and became a means of pollution to the people. Compare Exodus 12:12 . read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Exodus 7:19-25

PLAGUE I"And Jehovah said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their ponds of water, that they may become blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both on vessels of wood, and vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so, as Jehovah commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Exodus 7:14-25

The water turned to blood (the first plague) 7:14-25The first mighty act of God serves in the narrative as a paradigm of the nine plagues that follow. Striking the Nile with the rod suggested dominion over creation and all the gods of Egyptian mythology. The Egyptians linked many of their gods with the life-giving force of the Nile. The tenth plague is unique in that it is both a part of the narrative of Exodus as a whole and is a mighty act of God in itself. [Note: Durham, p. 95.] Evidently... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 7:1-25

The Rod of Moses turned into a Serpent. The First Plague1. A god to Pharaoh] see on Exodus 4:16. Thy prophet] A prophet is a spokesman. The prophets of God are those who declare His will. In doing this they may foretell His judgments and predict the future; but prediction is a secondary feature of prophecy, and is not contained in the original and proper sense of the word in which it is used here, where Aaron is called the prophet or mouthpiece of Moses. To prophesy sometimes means to declare... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Exodus 7:14-21

THE FIRST PLAGUE.(14-21) The water turned to blood.—Moses had already been empowered to turn water into blood on a small scale (Exodus 4:9), and had exhibited his power before his own people (Exodus 4:30). But the present miracle is different. (1) It is to be done on the largest possible scale; (2) in the sight of all the Egyptians; and (3) not as a sign, but as a “judgment.” All the Nile water—whether in the main river, or its branches, or the canals derived from it, or the pools formed by its... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Exodus 7:20

(20) He lifted up the rod.—“He” is, undoubtedly, Aaron. (See Exodus 7:19.)In the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants.—If the occasion was one of a Nile festival, Pharaoh would have “gone out to the water” (Exodus 7:15) accompanied by all the great officers of the Court, by a large body of the priests, and vast numbers of the people. If it was a mere occasion of bodily ablution, he would have had with him a pretty numerous train of attendants. In either case considerable publicity... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Exodus 7:1-25

Exodus 7:1-2 The literature of France has been to ours what Aaron was to Moses, the expositor of great truths which would else have perished for want of a voice to utter them with distinctness. The relation which existed between Mr. Bentham and M. Dumont is an exact illustration of the intellectual relation in which the two countries stand to each other. The great discoveries in physics, in metaphysics, in political science, are ours. But scarcely any foreign nation except France has received... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Exodus 7:14-25

THE FIRST PLAGUE.Exodus 7:14-25.It was perhaps when the Nile was rising, and Pharaoh was coming to the bank, in pomp of state, to make official observation of its progress, on which the welfare of the kingdom depended, and to do homage before its divinity, that the messenger of another Deity confronted him, with a formal declaration of war. It was a strange contrast. The wicked was in great prosperity, neither was he plagued like another man. Upon his head, if this were Menephtah, was the... read more

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