Original Post in Chinese: https://henryau.org/2024/03/23/why_the_ten_plagues/
Reader’s Question: Why did God punish innocent Egyptian civilians with the “Ten Plagues", especially with the plague of killing the firstborn, when it was the Pharaoh and his officials who refused to let the Israelites leave?
Answer：
The primary culprits for refusing to let the Israelites leave were indeed the Pharaoh and his officials. However, were the Egyptian people truly “innocent"? Let’s delve into the analysis below.
The Ungrateful Egyptians
Exodus 1:6-10 (ESV):
Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.
But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land."
Due to the help of Joseph, who was favored by God with prophetic dreams to guide the then Pharaoh through seven years of great famine, Egypt not only survived but became stronger (Genesis 47:13-26). However, after Joseph’s death, the Egyptians, fearing the numerous and growing Israelite population as a potential threat, ill-treated those who had once been a benefactor to them.
According to the prophecy in Genesis, several generations of the Israelites were mistreated over a period of four hundred years:
Genesis 15:13-14 (ESV):
Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.
But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions."
The Egyptian response to the Israelites, despite the latter’s historical contributions to their nation’s welfare, is a stark example of ingratitude and strategic cruelty driven by fear and the desire for control.
Nationwide Oppression
Exodus 1:8-14 (ESV):
8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land."
11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.
12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.
13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves
14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
Exodus 2:11 (ESV):
11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.
Exodus 3:7-10 (ESV):
7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,
8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to the most arduous tasks and oppressed them severely.
Planned Destruction of Israelite Boys
Exodus 1:15-17 (ESV):
15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,
16 “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live."
17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.
Exodus 1:22 (ESV):
22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live."
Although the Israelites were oppressed with hard labor, God continued to bless them with many offspring. To prevent their population from increasing further, there was even a plan to systematically kill their newborn male children.
If it could be said that the people were merely following Pharaoh’s orders, this does not absolve them of their guilt. The Hebrew midwives feared God and did not obey the king’s command, and Pharaoh’s daughter did not kill the infant Moses. Just like in modern times during World War II when the Nazi regime systematically exterminated six million Jews, although the orders were issued by Hitler, every person who executed, participated in, or was complicit in these horrific and brutal actions also bears responsibility. Although we do not know how long this plan to kill the male babies was in effect or exactly how many Israeli male infants were killed (judging from the subsequent generation of young men, including Joshua, it seems that this extermination plan did not last long), the Egyptian populace were not innocent.
Refusal to Heed God’s Escalating Warnings
The original Biblical text does not refer to the miracles God performed in Egypt as “Ten Plagues"; instead, they are called אוֹת (signs). In fact, the signs given to Pharaoh and others numbered twelve:
- Aaron’s staff becomes a snake (Exodus 7:10-13)
- The Nile turns to blood (Exodus 7:20-25)
- The plague of frogs (Exodus 8:1-15)
- The plague of gnats (Exodus 8:16-19)
- The plague of flies (Exodus 8:20-32)
- The plague on livestock (Exodus 9:1-7)
- The plague of boils (Exodus 9:8-12)
- The plague of hail (Exodus 9:13-35)
- The plague of locusts (Exodus 10:1-19)
- The plague of darkness (Exodus 10:21-16)
- The death of the firstborn (Exodus 12:29-36)
- The drowning of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea (Exodus 14:23-28)
Through this series of signs, The LORD warned the Egyptians to obey His command to release the Israelites, demonstrating the support of a powerful God behind Israel. From the initial inconveniences of water turning to blood and the proliferation of frogs; to the mild discomfort of gnats and flies; to more severe losses such as the death of livestock or painful boils; to the unprecedented complete darkness—all these did not compel Egypt, from Pharaoh downwards, to surrender to God out of fear.
With each new plague, Moses and Aaron provided advance warnings to Pharaoh to let the people go, and the plagues were only unleashed following his refusal. After each plague, when Pharaoh expressed regret, the affliction was lifted, but time after time, they ignored increasingly severe warnings and repeatedly broke their promises. God warned that He had the power to wipe them out completely and reminded them not to take His warnings as empty threats, but still, some did not take His word seriously:
Exodus 9:13-21 (NIV):
13 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me,
14 or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.
15 For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth.
16 But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
17 You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go.
18 Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now.
19 Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every person and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.’”
20 Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside.
21 But those who ignored the word of the LORD left their slaves and livestock in the field.
Finally, God intended to execute judgment against all the Egyptian gods and against Egypt by striking down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt:
Exodus 12:12 (NIV):
12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD."
God’s Foreknowledge that Without Mighty Miracles, the Egyptians Would Not Let Go
Exodus 3:19-22 (ESV):
19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.
20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.
21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty-handed,
22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
Exodus 12:29-33 (ESV):
At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.
And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.
Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said.
Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”
The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.”
The Egyptians once killed the firstborn male children of the Israelites who helped build their nation, without reason and without distinction of age. Compared to this, the punishment of killing only their firstborn might seem merciful. God foresaw that the Egyptians would not easily give up the cheap labor force of the Israelites. It was also because every Egyptian family suffered loss that they were willing to urge the Israelite people to leave.
The abolitionist movement that began in the 19th century also took years of education, legislation, the slaves’ own resistance, the increasing costs of maintaining slavery, and even wars to achieve success. Those with vested interests do not easily give up their existing benefits, and the initial mild resistance of the Israelites only led to more severe persecution:
Exodus 5:4-19 (ESV):
But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.”
And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!”
The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen,
“You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves.
But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’
Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”
So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I will not give you straw.
Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’”
So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.”
And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”
Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this?
No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.”
But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’
Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.
The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricksIt appears you have provided a biblical narrative from the book of Exodus, detailing the foreknowledge of God regarding the obstinacy of Pharaoh in releasing the Israelites, the subsequent plagues, including the death of the firstborn as a divine act of judgment, and the eventual exodus of the Israelites from Egypt with their neighbors’ wealth. You also made a comparison with the abolitionist movement, noting the difficulties of overcoming entrenched systems of oppression.
Conclusion
The plagues were not arbitrary but were manifestations of God’s judgment against a nation that had oppressed His people for centuries, rejected His authority, and refused to heed His warnings. While The Pharaoh and his officials bore primary responsibility, ordinary Egyptians cannot be considered innocent, given their complicity in the oppression and, in some cases, their active participation in the mistreatment of the Israelites. Moreover, the plagues served not only as judgments but also as opportunities for the Egyptians to recognize the power and authority of the God of Israel and to turn to Him in repentance.
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