Page 22 - Biblical Backgrounds

Hathor: Goddess of protection and The Egyptian cattle and Hathor could not protect the
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love. (Had the head of a cow). livestock die. Egyptian food supply, and this
proved that Yahweh was the true
power over their life or death.
Isis: Goddess of health and wellness Boils and Sores affect the Isis could not prevent or remove the

Sekhmet: Goddess of pestilence and Egyptians but not the Jews. sores, thus proving she could not
healing. best the power of Yahweh.

Nut: Goddess of the firmament Fire-filled hail rained down from Nut could not control the sky as
the sky. Yahweh proved he alone was lord of
the sky.

Seth: God of chaos Locust swarms eat the Seth was supposed to be able to
remaining crops. command and remove destructive
forces. Yet Yahweh could send them,
and Seth could not remove them.
This proved Yahweh was greater
than Seth.

Ra: God of the sun Complete darkness for three Ra was the most well-known God
days. from Egypt because he was the most
revered. In this mighty act, Yahweh
decisively proves He, not Ra, is in
control of the sun.

Pharaoh: Claims to be a God In response to Pharaoh’s This decisively proved that Yahweh,
himself. His firstborn son would also decision to kill every firstborn not Pharaoh, was the ultimate God.
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be seen as a God in that culture. son of the Jews, Yahweh kills After being broken by this plague,
the firstborn sons of the the Pharaoh lets the Jews go.
Egyptians.

Yahweh was showing in no uncertain terms that He and He alone was the true God. He alone deserved
the worship that was being wrongly directed toward the so-called gods of Egypt. Ira Friedman purports
that though the judgment of the plagues was directed at all of the Egyptian deities, it was particularly
directed at the most popular deity of the time, whose name was Sekhmet. According to Friedman,
Sekhmet was responsible for sending plague and pestilence. She was the daughter of Ra and sister of
Hathor. The Egyptians came to believe that Sekhmet could send pestilence on them or their enemies.
As a result, they worshipped her to entice her to send it on their enemies. She was seen as able to send
healing.

40 Friedman, Ira. ""And Upon All the Gods of Egypt I Will Execute Judgment": The Egyptian Deity in the Ten
Plagues." Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought 48, no. 1 (2015): 8-18. Accessed July 14, 2020.
www.jstor.org/stable/44821255.
41 Zondervan Academic. Egyptian Gods Against Whom the Plagues Were Possibly Directed.
https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/what-the-bible-tells-us-about-the-10-plagues-of-egypt; Also
consulted was Ten Egyptian Plagues for Ten Egyptian Gods and Goddesses.
http://www.stat.rice.edu/~dobelman/Dinotech/10_Eqyptian_gods_10_Plagues.pdf and
Plagues." Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought 48, no. 1 (2015): 8-18. Accessed July 14, 2020.
www.jstor.org/stable/44821255.

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