Psalms 78:44

44 He turned their rivers to blood, and from their streams they could not drink.

Psalms 78:44 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 78:44

And had turned their rivers into blood
The river Nile and its seven streams; this was the first of the plagues of Egypt, ( Exodus 7:20 Exodus 7:21 ) , and was a just retaliation for drowning the infants of the Israelites in their river, ( Exodus 1:22 ) , a like plague will be inflicted on spiritual Egypt, and with equal justice; see ( Revelation 11:8 ) ( 16:3-7 ) ,

and their floods, that they could not drink;
the rivulets that flowed from the Nile, and every spring or confluence of water; or rather by these rivers and floods are meant the canals and ditches, which, as Jarchi ^F5 observes, were made by the hands of men, from the banks of the river Nile, to water their fields with.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 Comment. on Exod. vii. 19. so Kimchi in Sepher Shorash. rad. (ra) .

Psalms 78:44 In-Context

42 They did not remember His power — the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

43 when He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

44 He turned their rivers to blood, and from their streams they could not drink.

45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.

46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper, the fruit of their labor to the locust.