Chapter vii., v. 1. What is meant by the words 'I have made thee a God to Pharaoh?' In what sense could Moses be considered as Pharaoh's God? He was not worshipped by Pharaoh, nor did he rule Pharaoh.
Verses 10, 11, and 12. Is it necessary to argue in the middle of the nineteenth century that the whole account of these miracles are unreasonable as well as impossible? unreasonable, because even the most pious Theist, if he claimed for God the power to turn a rod into a serpent, would hardly concede the same power to the sorcerers and magicians of Egypt. The throwing down the rod by Aaron, its change into a serpent, and the swallowing the other rods, form a display without purpose or utility, because God has already predestined that they should produce no effect whatever upon Pharaoh.
Verses 19, 20, and 21. These verses, if they mean anything, mean that the whole of the water in Egypt was turned to blood; if so, the twenty-second verse would be incorrect in stating that the magicians did the same, because, if all the water were already turned to blood by Aaron, there would not be any left for the magicians to operate upon. We are told that this plague was throughout the whole of the land of Egypt; if so, the Jews must have suffered equally with the Egyptians. This for seven days in a warm country would have been a terrible plague. The same remarks apply to the following plague of frogs.
Chapter viii., w. 17 and 18. It is scarcely a matter for wonder that the magicians could not turn the dust into lice, when we are told that all the dust had been previously changed bv Aaron.
Verses 22 and 23. It is evident from these verses that the Jews had been equal participators in all the evils attaching to the previous plagues.
Chapter ix., v. 10. What beasts could the boils break out on, when all were killed by murrain in verse 6? Verses 19, 20, 21, and 25. Either the cattle which were dead in verse 6 had been restored to life, of which we have no account, or these verses are positively absurd as well as false.
Chapter xi., v. 3. 'And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians.' The Douay reads, 'And the Lord will give favour to his people.' Our version is evidently incorrect, because the Egyptians afterwards suffered another plague, which would have been unnecessary. 'And the man Moses was very great in the land.' Moses can scarcely be supposed to have written this.
Chapter xii., v. 29. In this verse is related the horrible consummation of a series of plagues which God had caused to fall on the Egyptians. And why all this punishment? Was it because the Egyptians as a nation had oppressed the Israelites? If so, the cattle, the trees, and the green herbs were sharers in the punishment although not in the offence, and the Egyptians could never have oppressed the Israelites if it had not been permitted by the Omnipotent Deity who had sworn to protect and cherish them. Was the punishment because Pharaoh would not let the Children of Israel go? If so, what had the first-born of the 'maid-servant in the mill and of the captive in the dungeon' to do with his offence? But even Pharaoh was specially controlled by God; in chap, iv., v. 21, chap, vii., v. 3, chap, ix., v. 12, chap, x., vv. 1, 20, and 27, chap, xi., v. 10, and chap, xiv., v. 4, we have distinct repetitions of the statement that God himself hardened Pharaoh's heart and prevented him from allowing the Children of Israel to go. Then, why all this punishment? In chap, ix., v. 16, chap, x., v. 2, and chap. xiv. v. 4, we are told that God raised Pharaoh up for the very purpose of smiting him and his people, so that the name of God might be declared throughout all the earth, that the Israelites might worship the Lord, and that the name of God might be honoured amongst the Egyptians; and to attain this result, God plagues and torments the Egyptian nation with most painful and destructive plagues, killing the first-born in every family, from him that sat on the throne to the captive in the dungeon, and ending by drowning Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. The religious thinker who attempts to contemplate this horrible picture, and who might, perhaps, be tempted to blaspheme by questioning God's justice and goodness, will be saved from this dilemma by a consciousness of the falsity of the whole tale, which is manifested in a most ridiculous manner. According to chap, ix., vv. 3 and 6, all the cattle of the Egyptians, their horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep, were killed by the murrain; by verse 10 of the same chapter, a boil breaking forth with blains is sent upon the same cattle; by verse 19 the Egyptians are cautioned to gather in their already dead cattle lest they should again die from the effects of the hail, and those who feared the Lord amongst the servants of Pharaoh made his dead cattle flee into the house lest they should be killed again, and those who did not fear the Lord had their cattle killed a second time by the hail; in chap, x., v. 25, Moses asks Pharaoh to give him some of his twice killed cattle that he may kill them a third time as sacrifices to the Lord; in chap. xii., v. 29, God, in the night, kills the first-born of all the cattle, some of which must have been thrice killed; yet, despite all this (notwithstanding they had all been killed by the murrain, nearly killed over again by the boils and blains, killed another time by the hail, and the first-born destroyed in the night-time by the Lord) we find Pharaoh with an army of chariots, horses, and Horsemen, who are finally and irreversably got rid of by being drowned in the Red Sea. In Thomas Paine's 'Essay on Dreams,' he makes some very severe remarks upon the contemptible picture which Old Testament writers give of their God in relation to these plagues upon the Egyptians.
Chapter xii., vv. 35 and 36. This is clearly nothing but robbery. The Egyptians simply lent because they could not avoid doing so; it was quite a Russian loan, raised by force. After saying that the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, the expression, 'And they spoiled the Egyptians,' reads with a curious meaning.
Verses 40 and 41 have been noticed on page 32 of this work. Stephen, in Acts, chap, vii., v. 6, says it was four hundred years. Dr. John Pye Smith, with all his orthodoxy, felt that there was a great difficulty to encounter, and writes as follows:—