Endnote 4 – The Exodus from Egypt: Myth or Reality?

JE, for example has only eight plagues (Exodus 7:14–18, 20b–21a [blood]; 7:25, 8:1–11a [frogs]; 8:16–28 [flies]; 9:1–7 [pestilence among the livestock]; 9:13–29 [hail]; 10:1–19 [locusts]; 10:21–26 [darkness]; and 11:1–9, 12:21–27, 29–36 [death of first born]). J alone would have had fewer plagues still, as pestilence (dbr) and hail (brd) form a doublet, the latter affecting cattle supposedly killed by the former. The number grew to ten in the present text.