Bible Synapse
If all Egypt’s livestock died in the plague, where did the later cattle and horses come from?
Hard question · The law of Moses · raised by 3 of the lists sceptics circulate
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The fifth plague strikes the livestock ‘in the field’; ‘all the cattle of Egypt died’, but none of Israel’s.
Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. And the Lord appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land. And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.
Before the hail the Egyptians are warned to bring their cattle in from the field; those who fear the Lord’s word do so.
Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die. He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses: And he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.
At the last plague the firstborn of the cattle die along with the firstborn of Egypt.
And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
Pharaoh’s horses and chariots pursue Israel to the sea.
But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi–hahiroth, before Baal–zephon.
The objection
Exodus says that in the plague on livestock “all the cattle of Egypt died”, and horses are named among the animals struck. Yet soon afterwards the Egyptians are told to bring their cattle in from the hail, the firstborn of their cattle die at the Passover, and Pharaoh chases Israel with horses and chariots. Where did these animals come from if all had died?
The answer
The announcement of the plague sets its limit: “the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field” (9:3). Animals kept in stalls and stables, such as Pharaoh’s chariot horses, were outside its range. When the narrative then says “all the cattle of Egypt died” (9:6), it uses ‘all’ in the ordinary sweeping way of Hebrew narrative, for the whole of what had just been described. Keil and Delitzsch point out that the text itself shows this, since Egyptian animals are still there in the very next plague, when boils break out “upon man, and upon beast” (9:9), and again before the hail (9:19).
The text does not say how much time passed between the plagues, and Egypt could replace its losses by buying from neighbouring lands or from the Israelites, whose herds were untouched (9:4-6). So there were cattle in the field again for the hail to strike, and those whose owners feared the Lord’s word were brought indoors and survived (9:20-21). The firstborn of the animals that remained died at the Passover (12:29), and the horses that pursued Israel (14:9) were the king’s stabled chariot horses or animals obtained since. Read in order, each statement fits the one before it.
Other answers Christians give
All kinds
Some take ‘all the cattle’ in 9:6 to mean all kinds of livestock, since the plague struck every kind named in 9:3: horses, asses, camels, oxen and sheep. On this reading it describes the plague’s range, not the death of every animal.
From the classic commentators
all is not to be taken in an absolute sense, but according to popular usage, as denoting such a quantity, that what remained was nothing in comparison; and, according to Exodus 9:3 , it must be entirely restricted to the cattle in the field.C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Exodus 9, at Bible Hub
Sources
- Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Exodus 9, at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Exodus 9, at Bible Hub