in this way. The seventh (hail) came when the barley was in ear, and before the wheat was grown,
and hence in February; and the tenth came in the following March or April. (4) Their significance.
The first plague was directed against the Nile one of the Egyptian deities, adored as a source of
life, not only to the produce of the land, but to its inhabitants. The second plague, that of the frogs,
struck also at the idolatry of Egypt; for the frog was an object of worship. The third plague turned
the land, which was worshipped, into a source of torment the dust produced a curse. The fourth
plague consisted in the torment of either flies of a ravenous disposition, or beetles. If the former,
then the air, which was worshipped, was turned into a source of exquisite annoyance; if the latter
then the beetle, one of the most common of the Egyptian idols, swarmed with voracious appetite,
attacking even man, as the Egyptian beetle still does and inflicting painful wounds. The fifth
plague, that of murrain, struck at the cattle-worship for which Egypt was celebrated. The sixth
plague, produced by the ashes scattered toward heaven in conformity with an ancient Egyptian
rite, as if an invocation of the sun-god, continued the warfare of Jehovah upon Egyptian idolatry;
the religious ceremony which was employed to invoke blessing brought disease. The seventh
plague, beginning a new series, seems to have been aimed like those which followed, to demonstrate
the power of Jehovah over all the elements, and even life itself, in contrast with the impotence of
the idols. The storm and the hail came at his bidding. The locusts appeared and departed at his
word. The sun itself was veiled at his command. Nay, the angel of death was held and loosed by
his hand alone. The tenth plague had an immediate relation to idolatry, since it destroyed not only
the first-born of man, but the first-born of beast; so that the sacred animals in the temples were
touched by a power higher than those they were supposed to represent. The victory was complete;
upon all the gods of Egypt, Jehovah had executed judgment.—Rev. Franklin Johnson.
Plains
This one term does duty in the Authorized Version for no less than seven distinct Hebrew words.
•Abel. This word perhaps answers more nearly to our word “meadow” than any other. It occurs
in the names of Abel-maim Abel-meholah, Abel-shittim and is rendered “plain” in (Judges
11:33)—“plain of vineyards.”
•Bik’ah. Fortunately we are able to identify the most remarkable of the bik’ahs of the Bible, and
thus to ascertain the force of the term. The great plain or valley of Coele-Syria, the “hollow land”
of the Greeks, which separates the two ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon is the most remarkable
of them all. Out of Palestine we find denoted by the word bik’ah the “plain of the land of Shiner,”
(Genesis 11:2) the “plain of Mesopotamia,” (Ezekiel 3:22,23; 8:4; 37:1,2) and the “plain in the
province of Dura.” (Daniel 3:1)
•Ha shefelah the invariable designation of the depressed, flat or gently-undulating region which
intervened between the highlands of Judah and the Mediterranean, and was commonly in possession
of the Philistines.
•Elon. Our translators have uniformly rendered this word “plain;” but this is not the verdict of the
majority or the most trustworthy of the ancient versions. They regard the word as meaning an
“oak” or “grove of oaks,” a rendering supported by nearly all the commentators and lexicographers
of the present day, The passages in which the word occurs erroneously translated “plain” are
as-follows: Plain of Moreh, (Genesis 12:6; 11:30) plain of Mamre, (Genesis 13:18; 14:13; 18:1)
plain of Zaanaim, (Judges 4:11) plain of the pillar, (Judges 9:6) plain of Meonenim, (Judges 9:37)
plain of Tabor, (1 Samuel 10:5)
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