Глава 7

1–9. Moses receives a command from God to go to Pharaoh. 10–13. The first sign is the transformation of the rod into a serpent. 14. The first execution is the transformation of water into blood. Ex.7:1. But the Lord said to Moses: Look, I have made you God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet: Ex.7:2. You will tell [him] everything that I command you, and Aaron your brother will tell Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of his land; In response to the words of Moses: “How will Pharaoh listen to me?” (Exodus 6:30) - The Lord says to him: “Look, I have made you God to Pharaoh.” You are not afraid of Pharaoh. I have determined to give you and, indeed, I will give you such power that he will fear you as his god. And if kings obey and listen only to God, recognizing Him as superior to themselves, then surely he too will ultimately submit to you; your tongue-tiedness, which you refer to as the reason for the king’s disobedience, will also not matter. Your brother Aaron will speak for you, through your mouth, as a prophet (Ex. 4:15). Ex.7:3. but I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and will show many of My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt; Ex.7:4. Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will lay My hand on Egypt and will bring My army, My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt with great judgments; Ex.7:5. Then [all] the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand against Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them. Ex.7:6. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, and so they did. Ex.7:7. Moses was eighty, and Aaron [his brother] eighty-three years old, when they began to speak to Pharaoh. Ex.7:8. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Ex.7:9. If Pharaoh says to you, Do a [sign or] miracle, then you say to Aaron [your brother], Take your rod and throw it [on the ground] before Pharaoh [and his servants], and he will become a serpent. Ex.7:10. Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh [and his servants] and did as the Lord commanded [them]. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. From a comparison of Art. 15 and 17. of this chapter from its 19th Art. it follows without doubt that the rod of Aaron (10) is the rod of Moses, miraculously transformed into a serpent at Horeb (Ex. 4:2–4) and appointed to serve as an instrument for subsequent miracles. If it is called Aaronic, it is because it passes into the hands of Aaron, like the words of Moses into his mouth (Ex. 4:30). Expression of snakes, Heb. “tannin”, into which the rod is turned, means all sea or river monsters and is specially attached to the crocodile, as a symbol of Egypt (Isa. 51:9, Ezek. 32:2, Ps. 73:13). In this place, this term is thought to mean some particular type of serpent, perhaps an asp, or an ureus, the royal serpent. Ex.7:11. And Pharaoh called the wise men [of Egypt] and the sorcerers; and these magicians of Egypt did the same with their spells: Ex.7:12. Each of them cast down his rod, and they became serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. Contrasting the divine power, of which Moses was an organ, with the knowledge and art of his magicians, Pharaoh invites wise men and sorcerers. The term "wise men", Heb. "hakamim", literally - skilled in the arts, means representatives of one of the classes of the priestly caste, and "sorcerer", Heb. “mekashefim” (speaking quietly, in a whisper), indicates persons who perform sorcery, in particular, the spell of harmful animals through unclear muttering of a magical formula. These persons, also called Magi (Hebrew “hargumim”), and by the Apostle Paul and by name - Jannes and Jambres 8 (2 Tim. 3:8) did with their spells - secret magical art the same thing as Aaron, i.e. turned their rods into kites. How they did this, the text does not indicate. The newest exegetes explain the transformation of rods into snakes through an analogy with the art of charming snakes, known in ancient Egypt and mentioned in the Bible (Eccl. 10:11), bringing them into a state of numbness, in which they became like sticks. The Fathers of the Church attribute the art of magicians to the power of the devil. If the transformation of the magicians’ staffs into snakes served for Pharaoh as clear proof that there was no superiority on Moses’ side, then the next moment of the first sign – the absorption of the magicians’ staffs by the staff of Moses should have convinced him of the greater power of the messenger of God and the Most High himself, on whose behalf he acts. As can be seen from Egyptian monuments, the rod and snakes were symbols, emblems of deity and attributes of royal power. And if the rod of Moses devours the rods of the magicians, symbols of the deity, then this is undoubted proof that the power and strength of Jehovah, on whose behalf he appears, is higher than the power of the Egyptian gods. Pharaoh, who considered Jehovah to be more powerless than his gods and therefore did not find it necessary to obey His demand to release the Jews, must now fulfill this command as coming from the name of almighty God. Ex.7:13. Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to [them]. Pharaoh paid attention to the first half of the sign, did not take into account the second, and therefore, not finding in Moses any superiority over his wise men, he continued to persist. Ex.7:14. And the Lord said to Moses: Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn: he does not want to let the people go. Exodus 7:15. Go to Pharaoh tomorrow: behold, he will come out to the water, stand in his way, on the bank of the river, and take the rod that turned into a snake in your hand Exodus 7:16. and say to him: The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to say to you: Let My people go, so that they may serve Me in the wilderness; but behold, you have not listened until now. Exodus 7:17. Thus says the Lord: By this you will know that I am the Lord: with this rod that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the river, and it will turn to blood, Exodus 7:18. and the fish in the river will die, and the river will stink, and it will be disgusting for the Egyptians to drink water from the river. Pharaoh's disobedience, resulting from the fact that he does not want to recognize the authority of the Most High over himself, His power and strength (Exodus 5:2), leads to a whole series of signs and executions, proving the superiority of the Lord over the gods of Egypt (v. 17, Exodus 18:11). The first of these is the transformation of Nile water into blood. The prediction about it is given to the pharaoh at the time when he went “to the water” either for ablution, or to worship the Nile as a deity. The turning of the Nile water into blood, accompanied by the inability to drink it and the extinction of the fish (v. 18), was supposed to convince Pharaoh that Jehovah is Lord (v. 17). As you know, Nile was one of the main deities revered throughout Egypt (Plutarch), was considered an emanation of Osiris and was deified under various names, among other things, the name of Gaia. In honor of him, “the life-giving father of everything that exists, the father of the gods,” churches were built (for example, in Nikopolis), sacrifices were made (in the church of Jebel Semelech, Ramesses II is depicted making a sacrifice to the Nile), holidays were established, etc. In the very first execution, this popular deity loses its beneficial properties (spoilage of water combined with the extinction of fish) depending on the actions of Aaron and Moses (vv. 17, 20) - submits, in other words, to the will of That God, whose representatives they are. Previously sacred, the Nile now becomes an object of disgust, desecrated, since blood, the symbol of Typhon, made, according to the views of the Egyptians, unclean of anyone who touched it. All this taken together served as obvious proof of the insignificance of the god of the Nile in comparison with the Jewish God. Blessed Theodoret assimilates this meaning to the first execution. To the question: “Why did the first execution consist of turning water into blood?” - he answers: “because the Egyptians thought highly of the river and, as a substitute for clouds, they called them god.” Ex.7:19. And the Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron [your brother], “Take your staff [in your hand] and stretch out your hand over the waters of the Egyptians: over their rivers, over their streams, over their lakes, and over every receptacle of their waters; and they will turn into blood, and there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, in vessels of wood and of stone. Ex.7:20. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded [them]. And [Aaron] lifted up [his] rod and struck the water of the river before the eyes of Pharaoh and before the eyes of his servants, and all the water in the river turned to blood, The widespread change of water into blood is indicated, firstly, by indicating “rivers” - the Nile branches, “streams” - numerous canals with which Egypt was cut for irrigation purposes, “lakes” - cisterns and “every receptacle of water”, swampy or muddy places, as well as reservoirs built by the Egyptians living far from the river, and secondly, by the remark: “there was blood all over the land Egyptian" and, finally, a mention of digging wells (v. 24). Exodus 7:21. and the fish in the river died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water from the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. Exodus 7:22. And the Magi of Egypt did the same with their spells. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken. Exodus 7:23. And Pharaoh turned and went to his house; and his heart was not touched by this. Exodus 7:24. And all the Egyptians began to dig near the river to find water to drink, because they could not drink water from the river. Exodus 7:25. And seven days were fulfilled after the Lord struck the river. Based on the expression: “and the magicians of Egypt did the same with their spells,” one can think that they made the same significant change in the water as Moses and Aaron did. By imitating them, the Magi paralyzed the impression that Pharaoh should have received from the miracle. “And they did the same. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened." According to the story of the book. Exodus, as well as the consciousness of other Old Testament writers (Ps. 77:44, 105:29), the first execution was a miraculous phenomenon that took place according to the will of God. Meanwhile, not only naturalists, but even biblical scholars of a positive direction consider it a natural phenomenon - the coloring of its water observed annually during the Nile flood. But such an identification of the transformation of water into blood with its natural coloring does not find any basis in the text. According to the Bible, the first plague falls at the time of the normal level of the Nile water, when the Nile flows in its banks. So, Pharaoh receives a prediction about the onset of execution at the moment when he goes to the river bank (v. 15), the Egyptians are digging wells near the river (v. 24). Both messages are understandable only on the assumption that the area adjacent to the Nile is not covered with water. The time of the first execution does not allow the thought of the Nile flood. The flood lasts from July to September, and the first execution falls in January, as can be seen from the following. According to the Bible, flax and barley especially suffered from the 7th plague: “the flax and barley were killed, because the barley was eared, and the flax was seeded; but the wheat and spelt were not killed, because they were late” (Ex. 9:31–32). Since flax blooms in lower Egypt at the end of February, and in mid-March it is harvested and the barley is harvested, it is obvious that the seventh plague took place at the end of February or beginning of March. From this time until the last execution, which fell at the beginning of April, a month passed; Consequently, the last four executions took place within a month, separated from each other by almost a week. If the same time was used to determine the intervals separating the first six executions, then it took 1 1/2 months to complete them, with the first execution falling in January. Secondly, the flood of the Nile is not only not accompanied by spoilage of water, but even represents the cessation of its unhealthy state, in which it was in the previous time, during the period of the so-called green Nile. Thirdly, during a flood, the fish in the Nile do not die, and the flood itself does not last 7 days (v. 25), but from July to September. The totality of all these data does not allow us to identify the transformation of water into blood with its coloring during the Nile flood. The validity of this view is supported, among other things, by the authority of the fathers and teachers of the Church. “The water turned into blood,” says Blessed Theodoret, “accused the Egyptians of committing infanticide.” “Moses,” notes Ephraim the Syrian, “struck the waters of the river, and the waters turned into blood.” Cyril of Alexandria expresses the idea of ​​the substantial transformation of water into blood even more clearly. “Is it possible to understand,” he asks, “how water was transformed into a creature of blood?” Their names, with some variations, are preserved in Targ. Jonath., in the Talmud, etc. You might be interested in: