Exodus 7:22
Read Exodus 7:22 Using Other Translations
What does Exodus 7:22 mean?
And the magicians of Egypt did so with their
enchantments,
&c.] Who were either in company with Pharaoh and his nobles,
or were immediately sent for to try their art, and confront Moses
and Aaron with it; and who very probably got a little water in a
vessel, and by some juggling trick imposing upon, and deceiving
the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, made it look like blood;
and the devil might help them to a sufficient quantity of blood,
and discolour the water with it, and make it appear as if it was
blood, and which was a poor business; had they turned the bloody
river into water again, they would have equalled the miracle of
Moses and Aaron, and done some service to their country; but to
deceive the sight of people, or to spoil a small quantity of
water that was good, by mixing it with blood, was but a mean and
unworthy action. Should it be asked from whence they had this
water, when all was turned into blood? it may be answered, either
from Goshen, as the Targum of Jonathan, the waters of the Hebrews
not being affected with this plague: though Aben Ezra thinks they
were; or from the sea, as Theodoret; but both these places were
too far distant to fetch water from, in the time that Pharaoh
stayed here before his return home: rather therefore this water
was had from some habitation of the Israelites in the city near
at hand, where Pharaoh lived, or was dug for immediately by the
magicians, as in ( Exodus 7:24 ) or it may
be that all the waters were not immediately turned into blood,
but successively and gradually, first the river, and then its
streams so that there might be near at hand a pool of water, not
yet turned into blood, and a vessel of water might be fetched
from it, on which they exercised their juggling art:
and Pharaoh's heart was hardened:
by seeing his magicians do what was similar to what Moses and
Aaron had done; and therefore concluded that it was not by the
hand of God, but owing to a magic art they were masters of, as
his magicians were:
neither did he hearken unto them;
to Moses and Aaron, and what they said to him, to let the people
go:
as the Lord had said;
had before told he would not hearken to them, ( Exodus 7:4 ) .
