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| The Seventh Plague (Artist: John Martin) |
Agricultural areas near Cairo were devastated by these "millions upon millions" of voracious bugs. Egyptian armed
forces were brought in to deal with the problem, which was deemed far too intense for civilian do-it-yourself efforts. The only noted "silver lining" was that locusts themselves are edible.
And so, what comes around, goes around…
This saying seems to also hold true for the ancient Pharaoh from the Exodus story. When repeatedly implored to free the Israelite slaves, he adamantly refused. Yahweh
therefore responded with ten plagues that were allegedly intended to compare the power of the Israelite God with the relative impotence of the Ancient Egyptian gods.
According to Wikipedia, these ten plagues were as follows: water that
turned to blood; frogs, lice, flies and wild animals; livestock disease; incurable boils; thunder and fiery hail; locusts; darkness; and death of the firstborn of all Egyptian humans and animals. "Passover" received its name because God "passed over" those Israelite homes that were marked with the sacrificial blood of the Paschal lamb (the significance of which was later also emphasized within Christianity).
Historians have long wondered whether such plagues might have actually occurred. These "natural explanations" have been proposed: volcanic silt from the eruption of Santorini circa 1600 BC could have caused the Nile to turn blood red; this water pollution could have caused a multitude of frogs to die; insects that frogs normally eat would have therefore greatly proliferated; the "biting flies" in particular could have spread livestock illnesses; Santorini's activity could have severely altered weather patterns, thus causing thunder and fiery (lightning) hail; locusts might have increased due to a lack of usual predators; the volcanic ash might have also caused extreme darkness; and death of the firstborn could have been from food polluted by either locusts or "the black mold Cladosporium" (the Egyptian firstborn would have been most affected because they generally received the first servings from these crops).
Resources
http://now.msn.com/plague-of-locusts-descend-on-egypt-in-time-for-passover
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagues_of_Egypt
Copyright March 29, 2013 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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