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Home > Magazines > Bible Review > April 2003

Beasts or Bugs?

Solving the Problem of the Fourth Plague

By Gary A. Rendsburg

Blood, frogs, lice, cattle disease, boils … Every spring at the Jewish holiday of Passover, the ten nasties that plagued Egypt are described in the Haggadah, the midrashic retelling of the Exodus from Egypt that is read aloud during the Passover Seder meal. It is thus appropriate, in this April issue of BR, to raise a question that may spark some discussion among Jews (and some Christians)1 at the Seder ceremony this year: Just what is the fourth plague? The identities of the other nine are clear: The first three (already mentioned) are blood, frogs and lice; and numbers […]

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Footnotes

1.

Midrash (plural midrashim, from the Hebrew for “search, investigate”) is a genre of rabbinic literature that seeks to interpret the biblical text. The direction of midrash often results in elaborate—and sometimes fantastic—expansions of the biblical story. In the present instance, however, it is simply a matter of two rabbis attempting to elucidate the plain meaning of a difficult word in the text.

Endnotes

1.

More and more Christians also have become familiar with the Passover celebration in recent years, due partly to an increased awareness that the Last Supper may have been a Passover meal. On this question, see Baruch M. Bokser, “Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder?” BR 03:02, and Jonathan Klawans, “Was Jesus’ Last Supper a Seder?” BR 17:05.

2.

For more on the plagues, see Ziony Zevit, “Three Ways to Look at the Ten Plagues,” BR 06:03.

3.

Umberto Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1967), p. 93.

4.

Note also the pairing of ‘arov, “swarms of insects,” and kinnim, “lice,” in Psalm 105:31—a poetic rehearsal of the plagues. However, one should be careful not to push this evidence too far, since in another poetic account, Psalm 78:45, ‘arov is paired with “frogs.”