The 10 Plagues Of Egypt

The first plague was the turning of water into blood. The belief goes that divine power turned the water of the Nile River to red 'blood' so that the water tank and all the fish died. The lack of clean water to drink and use caused much fear and hardship to the people of Egypt.

Potential Explanation 1: “Volcanic Ash”

Research has shown that the sediments collected at the Nile Delta substantially prove that there must have been some volcanic ash deposited there at a time close to the Middle Bronze Age. This time is incidentally close to Herodotus’s conjectured time of the plagues. Volcanic ash contamination is the most plausible scientific reason for the reddening of the water. The acidic conditions created by the ash could easily have caused the death of the fish, while also being undrinkable.

Potential Explanation 2: “Algae Bloom”

A naturalistic study conducted in the 1950s by Greta Hort demonstrated that algae like Haematococcus Pluvialis and Euglena Sanguinea flourished in hot and arid conditions. Geological studies of the local Egyptian caves provide information about the weather patterns of the region. A survey of stalagmites confirmed the belief that the region used to be wet and tropical, but towards the end of Ramesses rule became dry. The Nile’s flowing water became sedate and muddy due to the rising temperatures, thus forming the perfect conditions for the uncontrolled growth of the algae mentioned before. The red pigment of the water was therefore caused by the increasing number of Astaxanthin cells (which is essentially a toxin).

Dr. Stephan Pflugmacher believed that this alteration in the Nile led to the growth of the toxic algae Planktothrix Rubescens, which when dying, turned the water in a shade of red likened to “burgundy blood”. This water is incredibly smelly, undrinkable, and contains toxins that can poison the wildlife.

An infestation of frogs characterized the second plague. The frogs plagued the entire country, relentlessly invading living spaces, and did not have a single use for the people of Egypt. The belief is that they were summoned from the waters of Egypt by Divine order to punish the reigning Pharaoh. The frogs were everywhere. They infiltrated homes, clothes, and even in their food! Suffice to say the plague made people very miserable. Once the Pharaoh 'repented,' all the pestering frogs met their demise, and then there were dead frogs everywhere.

It is interesting to know that the ancient Egyptian goddess of life and fertility, named ‘Heqet,’ is symbolized by a frog in Egyptian art. The final result of the 'plague of the frogs' was heaps of decaying frog bodies and the terrible stench of the rotting dead forms.

Potential Explanation: “Algae Bloom”

Algae blooms release toxic fumes and chemicals into the ecosystem, effectively killing off any fish living in affected waters. As a result of this decrease in fish, a large number of frog eggs, generally eaten by fish, hatched. The resulting tadpoles grew at an accelerated pace as a result of stress induced by the algae bloom’s effects on their environment. These young frogs then swarmed onto the land to escape the toxic waters, subsequently invading homes, fields, and other human-occupied areas, where they soon died due to their distance from the river.

Based on the Hebrew word ‘Keenim’, the plague of ‘lice’ could mean lice, fleas, or gnats. All across Egypt, lice emerged in swarms from the dust to cover the land. These small insects infested everything, from homes to public spaces, continually biting at the locals and making life incredibly unbearable for them. This plague was to punish the Pharaoh and his people, as the very dust that made the man was then designed to plague him.

Potential Explanation: “Dead Frogs”

The expulsion and subsequent deaths of the frogs from the Nile could easily have caused swarms of insects to multiply the way they did. Dr. Stephan Pflugmacher explained how usually frogs eat the insects, but the fact that they died in such large numbers allowed insects to feast on the millions of dead frogs and then breed untrammeled.

The fourth plague was that of wild animals. This included an assortment of animals that wrought destruction on livestock, people and crops. There is some debate relating to what animals this plague refers to, and the collection ranges from hornets and wolf-like beasts to scorpions and bears. However, there is no questioning the fact that these swarms of wild animals ruined land and livelihoods throughout Egypt. There is some conjecture that even wild animals that had been tamed and kept by the Egyptians went back to their original feral state, viciously attacking everything in their path.

Potential Explanation: “The ecological impact of the previous plagues”

A possible reason for the invasion of wild animals could be the fact that the presence of rotting frogs and swarms of insects might have attracted the animals by the stench. When a side of a food web is out of balance, it allows a disproportionate growth of other members in the food web, and perhaps this was the case here.

The fifth plague came in the form of a deadly pestilence that caused the deaths of the domestic animals and livestock belonging to the Egyptians. This pestilence could have been the Bluetongue or African horse sickness (AHS) that belonged to the Reoviridae family. These Orbiviruses could have mushroomed quickly with the help of insects from the Culicoides species. Modern research has proven that domestic animals heavily infested with stable flies have lower milk yields as they become anemic. This pestilence did not just kill domestic animals, it also made the remaining animals significantly less productive.

This pestilent plague had an effect similar to a more modern plague commonly known as ‘rinderpest’. Rinderpest refers to the spread of the lethally infectious viral diseases that caused animals to develop fever, ulcers in the mouths and noses, as well as diarrhea, thus hastening their premature end.

The virus spread rapidly via direct and close contact, spreading through the secretions like that of the mouth, nose, eyes, feces, blood, milk, urine, and reproductive fluids.

This plague had a severe effect on the Egyptians by seriously crippling their economy. Livestock was used for food, transportation, carrying military supplies, farming, and for essential economic goods such as leather.

Potential Explanation: “Dead frogs”

The viral agents that caused the deaths of innumerable cattle could have multiplied because of the rotting frogs that made up the second plague. Usually, frogs consume common pests; thus their absence allowed the growth and spread of the pestilence that killed off so many animals. Additionally, the toxins of the previous plagues might have made their way to the pastures in which the livestock fed. The consumption of the toxins could have ‘poisoned’ the livestock and caused them to die in large numbers.

As its name suggests, the sixth plague covered the bodies of Egyptians with large, red, painful boils. Boils are extremely painful bumps surrounded by inflamed reddish skin, typically caused by a type of bacteria found on the skin, named Staphylococcus aureus.

This sickness is also believed to have spread among domestic animals. The presence of such painful boils on the Egyptians’ themselves indicates a transitioning of the plagues to become a more personal realm. In Egyptian society, cleanliness was paramount to their sense of self, and the idea of oozing boils on their bodies made the people feel “unclean”. Egyptian worshippers found themselves unable to worship their deities and perform rituals in this “unclean” state. They also believed that there would be chaos in their temples if they were unable to worship their gods and goddesses.

Potential Explanation 1: “Flies"
Swarms of "stable flies" are possible causes of the boil outbreak. Apart from their ability to bite humans and thus cause boil-like rashes on skin, this species of flies can carry Trypanosomid parasites that further contributed to the boils. Other flies such as the common house fly, are also referred to as the "filth fly" and can also be blamed for this outbreak as they act as vectors for such diseases.

Potential Explanation 2: "Smallpox"

There is evidence suggesting an outbreak of smallpox in Egyptian communities due to suggestive scars found on mummies (including that of Pharaoh Ramses V) that according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, date back to Egypt around 3500 years ago. Smallpox produces red, rash-like blisters on the skin similar to those experienced in the plague of boils. This theory is further supported by the fact that smallpox is highly infectious which highlights how it could have spread throughout Egypt, giving the disease a plague-like appearance.

Read more about the ten plagues