Pestilence (dever) is the plague that recurs most frequently in the Bible, often as divine punishment brought to bear against Israel (see, e.g., Vayikra 26:25; Amos 4:10). Yechezkel (14:21) names pestilence as one of the four agents of God's judgement, along with the sword, famine, and wild animals.[1] Earlier, in their bid to convince Pharaoh to allow the Hebrews to worship God, Moses and Aaron warned that God could bring pestilence upon the Hebrews if they fail to serve Him (Shemot 5:3).[2]
For the first time in the plague narrative, a plague brings death upon God's living creatures. Pestilence can strike both humans and animals; although this plague strikes only the Egyptian animals, it carries an ominous warning.[3] Pestilence is virulent and contagious; when it begins with animals, it often mutates and spreads to humans, as God intimates to Pharaoh in 9:15.[4] The death of animals during the fifth plague thus foreshadows human mortality – a menacing sign of what is to come.
Only pestilence and the death of the firstborn result in direct loss of life, and notably, both are delivered by God Himself. To underscore the connection between these two plagues, Tehillim 78, in its retelling of the plague narrative, departs from the chronological order and places the fifth plague (pestilence) side by side with the final plague (death of the firstborn):
He levels a path for His anger and does not spare their lives from death, and He delivered their beasts to pestilence. And He struck every firstborn in Egypt, the first fruit of their strength in the tents of Ham. (Tehillim 78:50-51)
Only God holds absolute power over life and death; His direct involvement in the two plagues that cause death is a central feature of both. God's active and direct role in the tenth plague is indicated through the repeated use of first-person verbs in Shemot 12:12–13.[5] In a similar vein, God employs no instrument to bring the pestilence – neither water, nor dust, nor soot (as will be used in the next plague of boils) – instead, simply wielding His hand and sending death upon Egypt's livestock:
For if you refuse to send [them], and you continue to seize hold of them, behold, the hand of the Lord will be (hoya) upon your livestock that is in the field, upon the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the cattle, and the sheep – a very heavy pestilence. (Shemot 9:2-3)
God's messengers are notably absent from the description of this plague (9:1–7): Moses appears only once, and Aaron is not mentioned at all. Instead, the name of the Lord is invoked seven times in seven verses. Throughout the episode, God's hand hovers ominously over Egypt.[6] The verb used to describe His hand upon the animals is hoya – a unique participial form of haya ("to be")[7] that contains all four letters of the Tetragrammaton, further highlighting God's presence in this plague.[8] The fifth plague serves as a striking conclusion to the first half of the narrative and foreshadows the tenth plague, which will bring the second half to its climax.
Why Pestilence?
The demise of the livestock of the field appears to free Israel from some of their toil, which included "labor in the field" (1:14).
They would force the [Hebrew] sons to shepherd their livestock; therefore, [God] delivered pestilence to their beasts, giving respite to their sons. (SekhelTov [Buber], Shemot 8:18)
Another midrash posits that this plague is a response to the Egyptians' malicious intent to prevent increased fertility among the Hebrews, by sending the men away from their wives to shepherd in far-flung areas:
Why did He bring pestilence upon them? Because they made Israel shepherds of cattle and sheep and all beasts in the hills and the deserts so that they would not multiply and increase. The Holy One blessed be He said, "I will bring upon you a good shepherd[9] [for your livestock, namely, the pestilence]," as it says, "Behold, the hand of the Lord will be upon your livestock." (Shemot Rabba 11:4)
While these interpretations are plausible, Abravanel still grapples with the rationale behind the pestilence. He initially suggests it is divine retribution for the Egyptians' theft of Israel's livestock, and then offers a second possibility: that the plague serves to punish Egypt for overburdening the Israelites with labor, leaving them no time to care for their own animals. Abravanel does not explain his difficulty in accepting the midrashic explanations, but perhaps he is bothered by the assumption that Egypt retains Israel as shepherds for their livestock. After all, Bereishit 46:34 explicitly notes that "all shepherds of sheep" were anathema to the Egyptians.
Though not aimed at a specific Egyptian deity, the pestilence that strikes the animals may be seen as a blow to several gods associated with livestock. These include Hathor, the cow-headed goddess of love and protector of cattle; Apis, the sacred bull god; and Ptah and Amon, both of whom were linked to cattle in Egyptian religion.
The brief episode concludes in verse seven with Pharaoh's continued intransigence; a heavy heart weighted down by stubbornness. Two literary flourishes should be noted, both of which highlight Pharaoh's obstinacy. First, the word used to describe Pharaoh's hardening of his heart (vayichbad) appears in verse three to describe the very heavy (kaved) pestilence. Even a severe plague that brings death has no ability to sway Pharaoh from his inflexible posture. Secondly, the verse that ends with Pharaoh's resolve not to "send" (shilach) Israel out of Egypt opens with him sending (vayishlach) an inquiry to determine if, in fact, Israel's livestock remains unaffected by the pestilence. The use of the verb twice in verse seven underscores Pharaoh's determined disobedience of God; Pharaoh "sends" only in accordance with his own adjudication, and nothing he discovers will move him to submit and "send" as God commanded.
Conclusion
The plague of pestilence marks a turning point in the narrative: it is the first to bring death, is executed directly by God without intermediaries, and targets Egypt's animals – striking at their economy, labor force, and possibly their gods. Its thematic links to the final plague and its narrative position at the midpoint of the ten plagues underscore its significance. Despite its severity, Pharaoh remains unmoved, and the cycle of resistance and punishment continues.
[1] Yirmiyahu 14:12 lists three, also including dever: sword, famine, pestilence.
[2] On a surface level, this statement seems designed to threaten Pharaoh with the loss of his Hebrew slaves. Rashi, following the midrash in Shemot Rabba 5:15, explains that the true meaning is that God would strike Pharaoh himself if he refuses to release the people. However, the wording is deliberately altered to suggest that the blow will fall on the Israelites – an indirect phrasing meant to threaten Pharaoh indirectly.
[3] Tehillim 78:50 describes the plague of pestilence in Egypt with the words, "ve-chayatam la-dever hisgir." Radak suggests two possible translations of the word chayatam. In one, chayatam refers to their beasts, rendering the following translation: "And He delivered their beasts to pestilence." Alternatively, the word chayatam can also mean "their lives," in which case the verse suggests that Egyptian people also lost their lives as a result of the pestilence.
[4] And on the flip side, the plague of the firstborn will affect not just humans, but also the animals.
[5] Sifrei Devarim 26:8 (paraphrased in the Haggada of Pesach) picks up on this to highlight God's direct role: "'And I will pass through the land of Egypt' [Shemot 12:12], I and not an angel; 'and I will strike every firstborn' [ibid.], I and not a saraph (fiery angel)… I and not a messenger; I am the Lord."
[6] God's strong hand is frequently associated with the strike upon Egypt in later biblical passages (see, e.g., Shemot 32:11; Devarim 4:34; 6:21; Yirmiyahu 32:21; Daniel 9:15). Although God notes the role of His hand three times at the beginning of the Exodus story (in Shemot 3:20; 7:4-5), pestilence is the only plague in which God's hand is explicitly employed (in 9:3 and 15). When pestilence reappears in II Shmuel 24:14-15 (and in the parallel passage in I Divrei Ha-yamim 21:13-14(, it is also brought by God's hand.
[7] This is the only example of this participle of haya in the Tanakh.
[8] See Sekhel Tov (Buber), Shemot 8:28, which makes this point.
[9] A parallel midrash presents an alternate reading: instead of "a fine shepherd" (ro'eh yafeh), Midrash Aggada (Buber), Shemot 8:20 offers: "I will bring upon you great evil" (ra'a gedola).
No comments:
Post a Comment