Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Lord sends Moses to Pharaoh and gives him signs to perform: Moses therefore turns his staff into a serpent before Pharaoh; then, at verse 17, he converts all the waters of Egypt into blood; the sorcerers of Pharaoh do similar things, verse 22: hence Pharaoh hardens himself so as not to let the Hebrews go.
Vulgate Text: Exodus 7:1-25
1. And the Lord said to Moses: Behold, I have appointed you the god of Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. 2. You shall speak to him all that I command you, and he shall speak to Pharaoh, that he may let the children of Israel go from his land. 3. But I will harden his heart, and I will multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4. and he will not hear you: and I will lay My hand upon Egypt, and will bring forth My army and My people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by very great judgments. 5. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord who have stretched forth My hand over Egypt, and have brought out the children of Israel from their midst. 6. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded: so they acted. 7. And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharaoh. 8. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 9. When Pharaoh shall say to you: Show signs; you shall say to Aaron: Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, and it shall be turned into a serpent. 10. So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and did as the Lord had commanded, and Aaron took the staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it was turned into a serpent. 11. Then Pharaoh called the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also did in like manner by Egyptian enchantments and certain secret arts. 12. And they each cast down their staffs, and they were turned into serpents; but Aaron's staff devoured their staffs. 13. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not hear them, as the Lord had commanded. 14. And the Lord said to Moses: Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he will not let the people go. 15. Go to him in the morning; behold, he will go out to the waters; and you shall stand to meet him on the bank of the river, and you shall take in your hand the staff that was turned into a serpent. 16. And you shall say to him: The Lord God of the Hebrews sent me to you, saying: Let My people go that they may sacrifice to Me in the wilderness, and until now you would not hear. 17. Thus therefore says the Lord: In this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, I will strike with the staff that is in my hand the water of the river, and it shall be turned into blood. 18. And the fish that are in the river shall die, and the waters shall putrefy, and the Egyptians shall be afflicted when they drink the water of the river. 19. The Lord also said to Moses: Say to Aaron: Take your staff, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, and over their rivers, and streams, and marshes, and all the pools of water, that they may be turned into blood; and let there be blood in all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and of stone. 20. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded, and lifting up the staff, he struck the water of the river before Pharaoh and his servants; and it was turned into blood. 21. And the fish that were in the river died, and the river putrefied, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river, and there was blood in all the land of Egypt. 22. And the sorcerers of the Egyptians did likewise with their enchantments; and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not hear them, as the Lord had commanded. 23. And he turned away and went into his house, and did not set his heart to it even this time. 24. And all the Egyptians dug around the river for water to drink; for they could not drink the water of the river. 25. And seven days were fulfilled after the Lord struck the river.
Verse 1: Behold, I Have Appointed You the God of Pharaoh
1. AND THE LORD SAID TO MOSES. — Here God responds to the timidity and complaint of Moses, which he raised in the preceding chapter, verse 12.
BEHOLD, I HAVE APPOINTED YOU THE GOD OF PHARAOH. — "God," not by nature, nor by hypostatic union: for such a one is not appointed, especially one who already subsists beforehand, as Moses already subsisted here; but by participation in the eminence and power of God against Pharaoh, as if to say: Do not, O Moses, fear the cruelty and pride of Pharaoh, because I have made you as God to Pharaoh, not one whom he would faithfully worship, but whom he would slavishly fear as a punisher, and beseech as a healer; and, as Rupert says: "Since you, the meekest of men, consider it beneath you to contend with Pharaoh, and you abase yourself, behold I will lift you up; and I will make you the god of Pharaoh, that you may command the waters by the power of God, that you may create frogs; that you may command the earth and ashes, and produce gnats and boils upon the king and his army; that you may command the air, and it may generate pestilence; that you may command the fire, and mixed with hail it may fall upon sinners; by commanding the elements you shall be Pharaoh's god: behold how glorious is humility, queen of the virtues, which is accustomed to soar to heaven." So far Rupert. Whence the Chaldean translates: I have made you rab, that is, prince, of Pharaoh.
In a similar way St. Basil became the god of the Emperor Valens; St. Ambrose, of the Empress Justina; St. Athanasius, Hilary, Hosius, and Lucifer, of the Emperor Constantius, since they most freely rebuked them, indeed compared them to Nero, Decius, Diocletian, and the Antichrist, as is clear from their words which I cited at 2 Timothy 1:7. Thus St. Bernard to Pope Eugene: "Consider, he says, that you ought to be the pattern of justice, the mirror of holiness, the defender of faith, etc., the staff of the powerful; the hammer of tyrants, the father of kings, the salt of the earth, the light of the city, the priest of the Most High, the vicar of Christ, the anointed of the Lord, and finally the god of Pharaoh." Thus Elijah was the god of King Ahab through his threats and plagues: whence in 3 Kings 18:17, when the king said to him: "Are you the one who troubles Israel?" he answered fearlessly: "It is not I who have troubled Israel, but you, and the house of your father, who have forsaken the Lord." See here what humility deserves, and how it exalted Moses, making him the god of Pharaoh. Just as Moses conquered Pharaoh, so the humble man conquers the devil.
We read in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chapter 18, that the devil met St. Macarius and wished to strike him with a sharp sickle, but was unable to, and therefore cried out and said: "I suffer great violence from you, Macarius, for when I desire to harm you, I cannot: while whatever you do, I am the more surpassed. For you sometimes fast; I am never refreshed with any food. You often keep vigil; sleep has never overcome me. But in one thing you conquer me, I confess." And when Macarius asked him what that thing was, he said: "Your humility alone conquers me," and having said this, while Macarius prayed, he vanished into the air.
In the same place another Abbot says: "However much a man abases himself in humility, so much does he advance upward; for just as pride, if it ascends to heaven, is brought down to hell: so also humility, if it descends to hell, is then exalted to heaven."
In the same place another compares humility to St. John the Baptist, and charity to Christ. "All labor, he says, without humility is vain. For humility is the precursor of charity. Just as John was the precursor of Jesus, drawing all to Him: so also humility attracts to charity, that is, to God Himself, because God is charity."
In the same place, chapter 15, a certain tanner of wonderful humility is preferred to St. Anthony in merits, who constantly said: "This entire city enters the kingdom of God because of their righteousness; but I alone shall enter eternal punishment because of my sins."
Hence St. Hilary, in book VII of On the Trinity, teaches that Christ is called God in Scripture differently, namely not by appointment, but first, by name, because He is simply and precisely called God, as in John chapter 1: "The Word was God;" second, by birth, because He is called God not by adoption but by generation: for He is called the Son of God begotten by the Father; third, by nature, because He Himself said: "I and the Father are one;" fourth, by power: for He Himself said: "All power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth;" fifth, by profession, because He professed before the Jews who persecuted Him that He was consubstantial and equal to the Father, as in John 5: "He called God His Father, making Himself equal to God," and He confirmed this His profession by miracles, and sealed it by His death and martyrdom. So St. Hilary.
Note: For "God," the Hebrew is Elohim, which is attributed also to others than God, namely to angels and men, especially those to whom God has communicated His power, whether judicial or princely authority.
Thus in Exodus 22:28 it is said: "You shall not revile the gods (that is, judges), and you shall not curse the prince of your people." Psalm 8:6: "You have made him a little less than the angels," in Hebrew, than Elohim. Psalm 138: "In the sight of the angels (Hebrew: Elohim) I will sing praise to You."
Note here: This name Elohim is customarily limited by its context, lest the true God be understood: for when it is used absolutely, it is attributed to the true God alone; thus in Psalm 81:1 it is said: "God stood in the congregation of gods, and in their midst He judges gods:" Gods, that is, judges; for the true God, who is the supreme judge of all, is judged by no one; and in verse 6: "I said, you are gods," as if to say: Not truly, but by My communication and appointment you are gods. Hence Christ, citing this passage in John 10:35, says: "If He called them gods, to whom the word of God was addressed," as if to say: If those are called gods who are gods only by participation and appointment, how much more am I God, who am God by nature?
See here how greatly God exalts His friends. Truly Philo, in book I of The Life of Moses, says: "Since all things of friends are held in common, God shares His power and riches with His saints." Hence Moses, on account of his virtues and his miracles, was called God by the Egyptians, as St. Cyril relates in book I Against Julian, and St. Justin in his Exhortation to the Greeks, after the beginning, and Eusebius in book IV of Preparation for the Gospel, near the end, adding that he was called Mercury, on account of his understanding and interpretation of the sacred writings. The same author relates that he was also called Musaeus. See here in Moses how true is the ancient saying: "A good prince is the living image of God on earth."
THE GOD OF PHARAOH. — Erroneously in Theodoret it reads "God of Aaron": for thus we already read in him, Question 18: "How was Moses the God of Aaron himself?" and he responds: "As God commanded Moses, so Moses commanded Aaron; whence Aaron was also called the Prophet of Moses." However, the manuscript codex of Theodoret reads Pharaoh instead of Aaron, and it appears that this is what Theodoret actually wrote. But some ignorant scribe, from the fact that Aaron as prophet of Moses follows immediately, substituted Aaron for Pharaoh in the preceding text also, but erroneously.
Note: Moses was God not only of Pharaoh but also of Israel; yet in different ways: for he was God of Pharaoh by punishing him; of Israel, by protecting, leading, governing, and sustaining them; for what Elisha says of Elijah in 4 Kings 2:12: "My father, the chariot of Israel and its driver" — this you may say more truly of Moses. Just as God, seated upon the Cherubic chariot in Ezekiel 1, is the driver of the world, so Moses was the driver of Israel, Numbers 11:11. Thus we read in the Lives of the Fathers, in Saying 107, that St. Macarius was called the God of the monks. "They used to say, he writes, of Abbot Macarius the Great, that just as God protects the whole world and bears the sins of men, so also he was as a kind of earthly god among the brethren, covering their faults, and what he saw or heard, as though not seeing and not hearing." In like manner, be you also an angel, indeed a god among your brothers and companions.
Learn here that the glory which comes from men is vain, while true glory is that which is sought and received from God. Whence St. Chrysostom, in Homily 2 on the Epistle to Titus, says: "I do not forbid you to seek glory, but I want you to pursue that which is true, which is from God, whose praise is not from men but from God. Let us look to one thing alone, let our entire intention be directed to this: namely how we may deserve to be praised by the mouth of God. If we consider this attentively, we shall always count all human things as nothing. This or that person does not praise you — you lose nothing thereby; and if someone should blame you, he has in no way harmed you. For whether praise or blame, only that which comes from God has either benefit or detriment." He then teaches that contempt for human praise makes us like God. For just as He was glorious from eternity, and always glorified immeasurably by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and therefore does not need the praise of men, which for all eternity before He created the world did not exist: so also He is a despiser of glory; whence he concludes: "Whenever, he says, you find it difficult to despise glory, turn this over in your mind: if I despise it, I shall become equal to God, that is, like Him, and immediately contempt for glory will arise from the soul."
AND AARON YOUR BROTHER SHALL BE YOUR PROPHET. — Just as you have now been appointed by Me as God, not by nature, but by participation: so you shall have a corresponding prophet in Aaron, not one who is properly a prophet, that is, to whom God immediately reveals future things; but to whom you may reveal the things you understand from Me, so that with him as interpreter you may speak them before Pharaoh, as is now explained; so that the Hebrew word nabi, that is, prophet, alludes to the root nub, which means to speak. Thus the Apostle, in 1 Corinthians 14, verses 4, 5, 42, 22, 29, 30, 39, calls prophets the heralds of God's word, and calls prophecy preaching, as I said there, where I also brought forward the various significations of the name prophet. Therefore from this passage it cannot be concluded that Aaron was properly a prophet, although this may be gathered from other passages, namely from chapter 4:27, where God revealed to him Moses' return, saying: "Go to meet Moses;" and in 1 Kings 2:27, the Lord says to the priest Eli, descended from Aaron: "Did I not clearly reveal Myself to the house of your father?"
Rupert says beautifully: "Since, he says, Pharaoh is not worthy to speak with you, O Moses, who have been appointed his god, Aaron shall be your prophet, to proclaim the plagues which you will bring about, or to inflict them as your minister: following the example of Myself, who do not speak to men through Myself, but through My prophets I command the things which must either be proclaimed to them or done by Me; and these two men so conducted themselves: one having authority in speech, the other exercising authority in performing signs before Pharaoh."
Note here that Aaron was not only the prophet of Moses because he was his interpreter before Pharaoh, but also because at his command he performed signs and inflicted plagues on Egypt, as is clear from the staff turned into a serpent in this chapter, verse 10; whence in chapter 19 the Lord says to Moses: "Say to Aaron: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, etc., that they may be turned into blood." And chapter 8:5: "Say to Aaron: Stretch out your hand over the rivers, etc., and bring forth frogs." And verse 16: "Speak to Aaron: Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, and let there be gnats." Therefore it was Aaron who brought serpents, blood, frogs, and gnats upon Egypt, but at the command of Moses, as of his God commanding. Whence also it was Moses, not Aaron, who by praying to God recalled and stopped these plagues, as is added in those same passages. Furthermore, the subsequent plagues, being more severe — namely the boils of chapter 9:9, the pestilence of chapter 9:15, the hail, thunder, and lightning of chapter 9:23, the locusts of chapter 10:12, and the darkness of chapter 10:22 — were inflicted on Egypt not by Aaron but by Moses alone stretching out his hands.
Tropologically, Nazianzen in Oration 22, and his scholiast Nicetas, fittingly apply these things to two brothers, namely St. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa: "Moses, he says, was the lawgiver of the Hebrews; so Basil was the lawgiver of the monks, while Nyssen was the most holy one, like Aaron. Basil was the chief of the priests, Nyssen was closest to him, and as it were his tongue initiating others; both afflicted sin with ten plagues, divided the sea of vices; cast down the Egyptians, that is, heretics and demons; put to flight Amalek, that is Julian, by the typical extension of the hands in the form of the cross; and they nourished the Israelites with heavenly bread and the water of heavenly doctrine, and led them to the heavenly kingdom."
Verse 3: I Will Harden His Heart
3. I WILL HARDEN HIS HEART. — Calvin at this passage, as with a battering ram, defends his heresy about God actively and properly hardening, so that he boasts that by it he prostrates all sophists: and so Calvin himself translates: I will constrain his heart. Therefore this is Calvin's mind and opinion, although it is convoluted, seeking to conceal or rather embellish so infamous a poison: that God properly and actively hardened Pharaoh, not by sending him hardness, but partly by giving him over and consigning him to Satan, so that Satan would harden his already hard heart all the more; and partly because by a certain hidden impulse, which surpasses our understanding, He governed his heart and hardened it to obstinacy: and yet God was not the author of sin, because He did this by a just judgment; for the hardness of Pharaoh was a sin, but the hardening was God's judgment. So he says.
But this is a heresy unheard of in all ages, and an execrable blasphemy, which Sacred Scripture refutes both elsewhere throughout and here; for that Pharaoh was hardened not by God but by himself and by his own malice, properly and directly, is demonstrated: First, from the fact that God, having sent Moses, ten times commanded Pharaoh to release the Jewish people; therefore He willed that he should send the people away, and therefore He did not will to harden him so that he would retain them: for to will this properly is to will efficaciously that Pharaoh refuse to release the people; but to will that he release them, and to command this, and then again to efficaciously not will it, and therefore to harden him, are manifestly contradictory. Again, if it was God's will to harden Pharaoh, then Pharaoh by conforming to His will was not sinning: for the will of God is the measure of every good will.
Second, God most severely punished the resisting Pharaoh; but God is not the author of those things of which He is the avenger, says St. Fulgentius, book I to Monimus, chapter 3.
Third, Pharaoh himself gradually yielded to God, Moses, and the Hebrews, when first he allowed them to go without their offspring and cattle; second, with their offspring but without their cattle; third, he permitted them to depart entirely with all their possessions: therefore he himself was bending and hardening himself; indeed Pharaoh himself was not so impious as to spew forth the cause of his hardness upon God; but he attributed it to himself in Exodus 10:16: "I have sinned, he said, against the Lord."
For when Calvin claims to free God from guilt by attributing the sin to Pharaoh and the hardening to God, he does so as impiously as ignorantly. For if the hardness of Pharaoh is a sin, why is not the hardening equally a sin, which is the cause of the hardness? For a cause that impels to sin certainly sins, John 8:34; Romans 1:32; and especially so when it impels so efficaciously that the other cannot resist.
But Calvin insists that to harden on the part of God is not guilt, because this is a just judgment of God; but this is a frivolous and empty mask: for if hardness is guilt, by whatever end, by whatever judgment you impel to it, you commit guilt: for what is evil and guilt in itself is permitted by no end: and therefore this is not a just but an impious judgment of Calvin, and amounts to saying as if you openly declared: God is the author of sin, but with this end, that He may exercise His judgment and the punishment of preceding sins.
Fourth, not only Pharaoh himself attributed the guilt and hardening to himself, but Scripture also attributes them to him, when it narrates that, once free and immune from punishment, he voluntarily returned to his own character, Exodus 8:15: "Seeing, it says, that rest had been given, Pharaoh hardened his heart;" and chapter 9:34: "Seeing that the rain had ceased, Pharaoh increased his sin, and his heart was hardened," that is, as the Hebrew has it, jachbed libbo, that is, he himself made heavy his heart. The same is clear from chapter 8, the last verse, in the Hebrew: whence whenever our Translator renders in Exodus ingravatum est (it was hardened), understand ingravavit se cor (the heart, that is, the will, of Pharaoh hardened itself): for thus you should translate the Hebrew everywhere.
Therefore Pharaoh himself properly and positively hardened himself; but God did so only permissively and indirectly, as I shall say in Question 2. So all the Fathers and Catholic interpreters everywhere hold and explain.
Calvin objects, first: There is a great difference between acting and suffering, between acting and permitting; but to harden is to act, therefore it is not merely to permit hardening, but to effect the hardness itself. I respond: In Hebrew and Latin usage, permission, indeed even occasion, is often called action; whence the well-known saying: "The indulgent kindness of fathers makes children lazy." And so we commonly speak. Again, to act among the Hebrews is the broadest term, and is taken most broadly, as about Joseph in Genesis 41:13, in the Hebrew the cupbearer says: Joseph restored me (that is, through his prophecy, he predicted that I would be restored) to my office; and he hanged that one, the baker, that is, predicted that he would be hanged. Thus here in chapter 5, verse 22, Moses says to the Lord: "Why have You afflicted Your people?" that is, why were You the occasion of their affliction by sending me to Pharaoh, and thereby further exasperating him against the Hebrews? With even greater reason, then, God, whose providence encompasses all things, defining the manner, time, degree, and limit beyond which all human actions whatsoever may not progress, when He allows the wicked to act wickedly and to harden themselves, and assists them with His concurrence so that they may do what they wish, is said to act.
Calvin presses further: Permission, like other negations and privations, is not a judgment, is not a punishment, is not a penalty; for these are positively inflicted by a judge. But hardening is a judgment, a punishment, and a penalty for preceding sins: therefore it is inflicted by God not merely permissively but also positively. I respond that the major premise is false: for although the sentence of a judge must be positive, the punishment imposed through it is often privative, as when a judge punishes someone with the deprivation of goods, disqualification from offices and dignities, etc. Thus the Julian law punishes adulteresses by permitting their parents to kill them with impunity. In like manner, the decree to permit this or that person to be hardened is in God something positive, and a positive act; yet the permission of hardening itself is not a positive act, but is nonetheless a great punishment; for who does not see that it is a great punishment for sinners when God permits them to do whatever they like with impunity, and to plunge into the depths of evil and of hell? Add that in this hardening there is not merely permission, but also other positive acts of God, as I shall say in Question 3.
He objects second: Not once, but frequently it is said here that God hardened Pharaoh, but not that Pharaoh hardened himself: but it does not seem probable that Scripture would use improper speech so many times. I respond: It is said more often here that Pharaoh hardened himself, as is clear from what has been said; less often that God hardened him, namely only during the 6th, 8th, and 9th plagues, and when he pursued the Hebrews after they had departed from Egypt, and this was foretold here to Moses so that He might encourage him, since he was about to experience such great obstinacy from the king, and so that Moses would not be overwhelmed, thinking that Pharaoh was not hardened without God's providence and foreknowledge, and would know that the king's heart was in the hand of God, and would eventually be softened by Him, so that he would release the Hebrews, as he did after the last plague of the firstborn.
He objects third: God, in chapter 10, verse 1, says that He hardened Pharaoh in order to show His signs, plagues, and power in him: therefore He did not harden Pharaoh by His signs and scourges, but rather He hardened him with this end, that He might have an occasion for scourging him and displaying His justice and power in him. I respond: God showed His power in Pharaoh not by hardening him, but by scourging and punishing him once hardened, about which more in the proper places: for otherwise, if Pharaoh did not freely harden himself but God hardened him, what contest was there between Pharaoh and God? For then God did everything and Pharaoh nothing. What power, I ask, does God display in a hardened stone; or what contest can there be with a stone?
Question 2: In What Ways Did God Harden Pharaoh?
You ask second: if not directly and positively, then in what ways is God said to have hardened Pharaoh?
I respond first: permissively, and note here: God permits sins in a different and far more powerful way than a man, for example a prince, might permit the same: for God holds the wills of all men in His hand, so that He can bend them in any direction; but the will of man without God's consent cannot issue forth into any work whatsoever, whether good or evil, unless God loosens the reins of His permission, and indeed positively concurs and cooperates with it, to produce this act and work. Therefore, just as one who holds a lion bound by a rope, if he loosens and releases it, and the loosed lion kills someone, the one holding the lion is said to have killed that man, not by himself, but through the lion which he released: so also God, by allowing the will to sin and to harden itself in sins, is said to harden that same will, especially because by His concurrence He concurs in this act of hardening.
Second, Pineda on Job chapter 8, verse 20, number 3, explains it thus: I will harden, and, as the Hebrew has it, I will make heavy, or I will strengthen the heart of Pharaoh, that is, I will make the heart of Pharaoh hard, strong, capable of resisting, and by no means timid or soft: for this natural constancy and spiritedness, by which it came about that Pharaoh was tenacious of his purpose and did not easily change it, was from God the author of nature, but Pharaoh himself abused it as if it were weapons, to resist his Creator. This explanation is true, but not complete; for this hardness of Pharaoh was not merely a certain natural constancy, but moreover obstinacy, impudence, and stubbornness of a proud spirit; of which vices God was not the author, but rather God hardened Pharaoh through miracles — first, those of the magicians: for when Pharaoh saw his magicians performing the same wonders that Moses performed, he despised the wonders of Moses and of God; hence at that point it was not so much God as the magicians who are said to have hardened Pharaoh. But after the magicians were defeated by Moses and struck by him with ulcers, and could no longer stand before Pharaoh and harden him, then at last God is said to have hardened him, chapter 9, verse 12: for there it is first said that God hardened Pharaoh, because these miracles of God were at the same time plagues and blows which, striking the hard heart of Pharaoh, did not soften but made it harder. Add, thirdly, that after the plagues God set before Pharaoh these or similar thoughts: God wills that you yield to Him and humble yourself; He wills that you put aside your proud and hard disposition; He wills that you release the Hebrew people, whom you tyrannically oppress, even though they are of great honor, usefulness, and glory to you. Provoked by these thoughts, the proud spirit of Pharaoh swelled all the more, grew harder, burned with anger, and resisted God, saying: Who shall command me? I am Pharaoh, the great king. Who is the God of the Hebrews to snatch this prize from me? I will not yield, I will not let the people go. And this is precisely what the words of Scripture seem to signify, where after most of the plagues it is immediately added: "And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them." And in this sense Augustine says, in Book V Against Julian, chapter III, that God hardened Pharaoh not only by His patience but also by His power (that is, by His powerful command, plagues, and scourges). Therefore God hardened Pharaoh — that is, by that mode of providence in sending and then withdrawing miracles and scourges, in permitting the arts of the magicians, in the severity and rigid demands of Moses, and in other things God employed around him, by which Pharaoh grew harder, and by which God foreknew that he would harden himself further out of his own malice and by his own free will — but not by which God Himself intended to harden him.
Third, God hardened Pharaoh by withdrawing from him His grace, which would have softened his heart, just as the sun hardens mud — not by positively producing hardness, but by drawing out the moisture that tempered and softened the mud. So too God, says St. Augustine, hardens the heart by not applying grace, but not by impelling toward wickedness. Understand "grace" here not as all grace, but as abundant, powerful, and efficacious grace; for God leaves to the hardened some grace, by which He occasionally moves and knocks at their door. Otherwise they would be entirely without hope of salvation and virtually damned. But this grace is rare, slight, and meager.
Fourth, by giving him wealth, courage, dominion, glory, and resources, by which he entrenched himself in his tyranny.
Fifth, and most fittingly, God is said to have hardened Pharaoh because, seeing him hard and obstinate, He did certain things around him from which Pharaoh took occasion to harden himself further. Note this well: Pharaoh, eager for dominion, had firmly resolved to retain the Hebrews so that he could rule over them and employ so distinguished and industrious a nation in the public works of his kingdom; for he derived enormous profit from them. Hence it happened that when God wished to draw them away from him and lead them out, Pharaoh all the more desired to detain them, and all the more entrenched his will in this ambition and tyranny.
God therefore hardened Pharaoh, first, by His plagues and scourges, and that by sending them not all at once and excessively, but gradually, moderately, and at intervals — so that He gave him rest by withdrawing the scourge for a time, with the result that these scourges were less than his tyranny and hardness, and could not soften or break his spirit, so inflamed and entrenched in the lust of dominating the Hebrews; rather they kindled and entrenched him all the more. For his heart was hard like a diamond, which the more it is struck, the harder it becomes; for a hard and depraved disposition converts everything into its own hardness and depravity. And although during the scourge he seemed at times to soften (as hard men are temporarily softened by alternating emotions), yet when it ceased, he immediately returned to his nature and hardness. Hence in Exodus 8:15 it is said: "Pharaoh, seeing that rest was given, hardened his heart." So St. Augustine here, Question XXXVI, and Anastasius of Nicaea, Question XXIX. And so just as wicked and stubborn boys are made harder by beatings, so also was Pharaoh by the beatings of God. Hence just as a teacher, by flogging a stubborn boy, is said to harden him with his scourges and make him more stubborn, so God by His plagues is said to have hardened and made harder the heart of Pharaoh — not by sending him hardness, but by setting before him scourges by which he hardened himself all the more and resisted God more strongly.
Question 3: What Is Hardness of Heart?
You will ask thirdly: What is hardness of heart, and what are its properties and effects?
St. Bernard answers, Book I of On Consideration, to Eugenius: "A hard heart," he says, "is one that is not pierced by compunction, not softened by piety, not moved by prayers, does not yield to threats, and indeed is hardened further by scourges. A hard heart is ungrateful for benefits, faithless toward counsels, cruel in judgments, shameless before base things, fearless before dangers, inhuman toward human things, reckless toward divine things: forgetful of the past, neglectful of the present, improvident about the future. For it is that heart for which nothing of the past, except injuries alone, does not pass away entirely; nothing of the present does not perish; of the future there is no foresight, except perhaps for vengeance. And, to embrace briefly all the evils of this horrible evil: a hard heart is one that neither fears God nor respects men."
Now the properties of a hard heart are these. First, those hardened of heart refuse to understand so as to act rightly; they close their eyes and ears to salutary admonitions; they refuse to hear what pertains to virtue and salvation. "Who, as Job says, chapter 21, verse 14, said to God: Depart from us, we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways." So Pharaoh, Exodus 5:2: "Who is the Lord," he says, "that I should hear His voice? I do not know the Lord." Hence Job, chapter 24, says such people are rebels against the light.
Hence, second, God in turn abandons, rejects, and despises such people, Proverbs 1: "You have despised all My counsel and neglected My reproofs: I also will laugh at your destruction and mock you."
Third, such people, as the Wise Man says, Proverbs 2, rejoice when they have done evil and exult in the worst things; whose ways are perverse and whose steps are infamous; and chapter 12: "A fool commits wickedness as though in sport."
Fourth, the hardened have come into the depth of evils and despise both God and men. Proverbs 18: "The wicked," it says, "when he has come into the depth of sins, despises, but disgrace and reproach follow him."
Fifth, their sin is called indelible, and their wound incurable, because it is scarcely and barely forgiven. Hence Jeremiah 17: "The sin of Judah," he says, "is written with an iron pen, with a diamond point." And chapter 30: "Your wound is incurable."
Sixth, they are not ashamed even of the most disgraceful crimes, but, as Jeremiah says, chapter 3: "You have the forehead of a harlot, you refuse to blush."
Seventh, such people are nearly incorrigible: hence the Wise Man says of them, Ecclesiastes 7: "Consider the works of God, that no one can correct whom He has despised." And Wisdom 12: "Their nation is wicked, and their malice natural, and their thought could not be changed forever."
Eighth, such people when struck by God do not feel it. Jeremiah 5: "Lord, You have struck them, and they did not grieve." Such people also do not feel the stings and remorse of conscience, because they have virtually extinguished it.
Ninth, on account of the ingrained and strengthened habit of sinning, it becomes virtually impossible for them to do good and not sin. Jeremiah 13: "If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots, then you also may do good, who have learned evil." And St. Augustine, Book VI of the Confessions: "I sighed," he says, "bound not by another's iron, but by my own iron will. The enemy held my will, and from it had made chains for me. For from a perverse will came habit, and when habit was not resisted, it became necessity; by certain links, as it were, joined one to another, a hard bondage held me fast."
Tenth, St. Paul in Romans 1 and 2 says such people treasure up wrath for themselves and have been handed over to a reprobate mind, and elsewhere he calls them children of perdition and distrust, and vessels fitted for destruction, who, despairing, have given themselves over to every kind of uncleanness.
Eleventh, they heap sins upon sins and grow worse day by day, and, as is said in Revelation 22, those who are in filth become filthier still. "Then wretchedness is complete," says Seneca in the Proverbs, "when base things not only delight but also please; and there ceases to be room for remedy when what were vices become customs." Such was Cain, Genesis 4:18; the sons of Eli, 1 Kings 2:22; Saul, 1 Kings 17:18; Zedekiah, 2 Chronicles 36:13; the Jews, Jeremiah 2:20; the chief priests, Matthew 27:4.
Question 4: How Does God Treat the Hardened?
You will ask fourthly: How does God treat the hardened, and how does He conduct Himself toward them?
I answer: As punishment for the sins they have committed, first, He permits them to follow their desires and lusts, and does not remove from them the allurements, occasions, and temptations to sin. Psalm 80: "I let them go according to the desires of their hearts; they shall walk in their own inventions." And Paul in Romans 1 says God delivered them over to the desires of their hearts. Hence also Psalm 72 says: "They passed over into the affection of their heart," that is, whatever they desired and lusted after in their heart, this they obtained, and everything turned out according to their wishes.
Second, God gives them an abundance of temporal goods and prosperous outcomes, by which they, blinded, rush into every crime and their own destruction. Psalm 72: "Their iniquity proceeded as it were from fatness," that is, from a heart fattened and rich, on account of the abundance of temporal goods, their iniquity proceeded.
Third, God removes from them the tribulations by which chastened sinners return to right reason. Psalm 72: "They are not in the labor of men, and they shall not be scourged with men." Or if He does scourge them, He sends them lesser afflictions than what would be needed to bend or break their hardness, with the result that they harden themselves all the more by the scourges of God.
Fourth, God forbids the saints to pray for such people. Jeremiah 7: "Do not pray for this people, and do not stand against Me, for I will not hear you." And chapter 15: "If Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My soul would not be inclined toward this people."
Fifth, God removes from them good counselors, confessors, teachers, and holy angels. Jeremiah 51: "We tried to cure Babylon, and she was not healed: let us therefore abandon her, for her judgment has reached to heaven." And Paul in Acts 13, to the Jews: "Since you reject it (the word and kingdom of God), behold, we turn to the Gentiles; for so the Lord has commanded us."
Sixth, He takes away from them the preaching of His word, by which the mind is enlightened, nourished, moved, and stirred to repentance. Amos 8: "I will send a famine upon the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord."
Seventh, by God's permission such people fall among flatterers and evil counselors who drive them into evils and their own ruin. So Rehoboam, following the counsel of foolish young men, lost a great part of his kingdom. So Absalom neglected the useful counsel of Ahithophel and preferred the counsel of Hushai, which was his destruction.
Eighth, God permits false teachers and prophets to arise, who by their signs, hypocrisy, and flattering speech seduce the hardened, as the magicians did before Pharaoh, and as Antichrist will do, 2 Thessalonians 2:12.
Ninth, God loosens the reins on the devil, giving him wider scope for plotting against and harming such people. And having received this scope, the devil marvelously harasses and tempts them — both by seducing their minds with vain and false opinions, by setting before them various objects of pleasure and various allurements to vice, by disturbing their phantasms and inflaming their passions, and by sending false prophets to deceive them, concerning which matter there is a remarkable vision of the prophet Micaiah in 3 Kings 22:19.
Tenth, He takes away from them good examples, good rulers and princes, good companions, and virtually all aids to salvation, and permits contrary things to be set before them, which incite them to every evil, so that they stumble and fall at every turn — which Isaiah illustrates with the beautiful image of the vineyard in chapter 5. So Pererius.
Finally, the reward of an obstinate will is the obstinate and perpetual fire of hell. Hear St. Bernard, Letter 253: "For this reason the evil of an inflexible and obstinate mind is punished eternally, although committed temporally; because what was brief in time, or in deed, is proven to be long in a pertinacious will: so that if such a person never died, he would never cease to will to sin; indeed, he would always wish to live so that he might always be able to sin."
Verse 4: And I Will Lay My Hand
4. "And I will lay My hand" — I will strike, afflict, punish. "By great judgments" — by the greatest plagues. Hence the Septuagint translates it as "with great vengeance," which displays to all the most just judgment of God upon the Egyptians.
Verse 6: So They Did
6. "So they did." — This is a Hebrew pleonasm: for it has already said they did thus.
Verse 7: Moses Was Eighty Years Old
7. "Now Moses was eighty years old." — Therefore, since Moses led the people in the desert for 40 years (Deuteronomy 8:2), and died at the age of 120 (Deuteronomy 34:7), it follows that he began these signs and plagues before Pharaoh immediately, and completed them all in a short time, when he was beginning his 81st year, and in that same year, at the beginning of spring, led the people out of Egypt. So Rupertus and Abulensis.
Verse 8: The Lord Said to Moses and Aaron
8. "And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron" — to Aaron indirectly; for God spoke directly to Moses alone. Hence He adds: "You shall say to Aaron."
Verse 9: Show Signs
9. "Show signs." — In Hebrew it is "give a sign for yourselves," that is, prove by a sign what you say, namely that God wills that I release the Hebrews from Egypt.
"Take your rod." — The same rod is now called Moses', now Aaron's, now God's, because it was the instrument of all of them for working miracles and the plagues of Egypt.
Verse 10: They Did as the Lord Had Commanded
10. "They did as the Lord had commanded." — Therefore Moses and Aaron first asked Pharaoh, on behalf of God, to let the Hebrews go a three days' journey for the purpose of sacrifice; but when Pharaoh refused this and demanded a sign, Aaron immediately produced the rod, which was turned into a serpent. For God did not want these signs thrust upon Pharaoh unsolicited, but only performed at his request, as is clear from verse 9.
"He took." — In Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Greek it is "he threw down."
Verse 11: Pharaoh Called the Wise Men and Sorcerers
11. "Then Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers." — "Wise men" here means those skilled in secret matters or in the wondrous art, who were also sorcerers and enchanters. For "sorcerers" the Hebrew is meccassephim, which properly signifies tricksters, but is extended to all kinds of magicians. The Septuagint translates it as "sophists and sorcerers," that is, poisoners; Onkelos translates it as "magicians"; Aquila as "those who know and perform hidden things."
The chief of these were Jannes and Mambres, as is clear from 2 Timothy 3:8, about whose tomb Palladius narrates remarkable things in the Life of Blessed Macarius, which he himself saw and confirmed: namely, that they were buried in gardens in which, while they lived, they had planted trees of every kind, hoping that after death they would enjoy delights in that quasi-paradise. But this place was occupied by demons, who accordingly attacked Blessed Macarius when he entered, but were put to flight by his sign of the cross. Macarius, examining each thing, found pomegranate fruits that had nothing inside — for they had been dried up by the sun — and also very many golden votive offerings.
Note: Pliny, Justin, St. Augustine, and others commonly relate that the inventor of magic was Zoroaster, who laughed on the very day he was born and lived around the time of Ninus and Abraham, about 600 years before Moses. Some would have this Zoroaster be Ham, the son of Noah.
According to Cassian, however, Abbot Serenus, Conference 7, chapter 21, places the origin of magic before the Flood; for he says it began at the time when the sons of God intermingled with the daughters of men, Genesis 6; and that magic did not perish in the Flood, because Ham had learned it before the Flood and promulgated it after the Flood.
"They did likewise." — You may ask: In how many ways can magicians and demons accomplish their wonders?
I presuppose that neither demons nor magicians can perform true miracles. For a miracle is that which surpasses every power of nature, and every capacity of natural causes, of men, and of angels. Yet they can do certain things that surpass the power of men and of other natural things, which are therefore wondrous to men, but not miracles.
I say first: most of the wonders that the demon performs are not true and real things, but only illusions. For the demon can so deceive and delude the imagination or the eyes that people think they see what in fact does not exist. He does this, first, by moving the imagination of men so powerfully that they believe they see what does not exist — just as in dreams we think we see wondrous things that are not real. Galen and others report remarkable examples of this, such as the man who through a disordered imagination believed he had a nose as large as a cubit; and another who refused to be touched because he said he had a body of glass; and a third who refused to eat because he said he was dead. Second, by disturbing the organ of sight, in the way that those with eye diseases think they see marvels that are not really there and are not seen. Third, by altering the external medium, as a straight stick in water appears broken or bent. In this way — namely, through illusions — Apollonius of Tyana raised a dead man; for with the help of the demon he deceived the eyes of men so that they thought a dead man was alive. In this way also the sorceress Circe transformed the companions of Ulysses into various beasts. Likewise those Italian witches whom Augustine mentions, Book 18 of the City of God, chapter 18, transformed travelers into pack animals to carry their loads. So too today lycanthropes through illusions transform themselves into wolves, and attack and tear apart sheep and even men. So too the demon gives witches gold, silver, and food at times — not real, but phantasmal; whence when they come to their senses, they are hungry as if they had eaten nothing.
I say second: demons can perform wonders through local motion, for they are extremely swift and powerful. Thus, first, Satan consumed the sheep and servants of Job with fire sent from heaven, Job 1. Thus in recent years he has overturned houses and towers with violent winds. Second, he lifted Simon Magus into the air to fly; and so too our witches fly today. Albert the Great says that oxen once rained down, which demons or angels had previously lifted into the air from elsewhere. Third, the demon can suddenly snatch a person or other thing from the sight of men, and so render it invisible. Thus Apollonius vanished from the eyes of Domitian. Thus Gyges, by means of a ring, made himself invisible to those present. However, the demon cannot cause one body to be in two places, or two bodies in one place, or a body to pass from one extreme to the other without crossing the intervening space. Again: "Since the demon," says St. Thomas, I p., Question 114, article 4, reply 2, "can form a body from air, of whatever form and figure, so as to assume it and visibly appear in it, by the same reasoning he can clothe any corporeal thing with whatever corporeal form, so that it appears under that guise." Fourth, the demon can make statues move, walk, and speak, because he himself moves them and forms speech resembling human speech in the air near them. In a similar way he caused Claudia, a Roman Vestal Virgin, to drag with her belt a ship stuck in the Tiber as a testimony of her chastity, and lead it wherever she wished; and Tuccia, for the same reason, to carry water drawn from the Tiber in a sieve to the Capitol. Fifth, the demon can assume the corpses or masks of men, lions, and animals, and through them — as if they were alive — mock and terrify men, as he attempted to do to St. Anthony. Sixth, he stirs up remarkable affections of love, hatred, anger, and sadness, and also remarkable phantasms in a person, by agitating the humors in the body, especially the black and yellow bile.
I say third: the demon can work wonders by applying active agents to passive subjects and combining them through natural causes; for he knows most intimately the marvelous powers of natural things. For if physicians make theriac and medicines whose remarkable virtues we experience, the demon can do much more, since he knows far better the powers of herbs, gems, animals, and other things, and can bring them with extreme speed from India or any other part of the world and mix them with other things. However, the demon cannot immediately produce any substantial or accidental form; indeed, he cannot produce a perfect animal without seed, or instantly form one of perfect and proper size from seed. In short, he cannot transform anything into anything else, nor suspend the action of natural causes.
That demons can work wonders by this third method is clear, both from the fact that we see certain things work wonders in this way — as Pliny, Book 31, chapter 1, relates about the remora fish, that if it attaches to great ships, even if driven by the strongest winds, it holds them back and stops them; and also from the fact that men work wonders in this way — as Plutarch relates about Archimedes in his Life of Marcellus, that he alone, by means of mathematical machines, drew a huge cargo ship to himself and produced great havoc in the Roman fleet. In this way also Severinus Boethius, in a certain letter written to him either by Cassiodorus or by Theodoric, is said to have performed certain quasi-miracles, namely, that metals bellowed, a bronze serpent hissed, artificial birds sang most sweetly, and airy figures sounded trumpets in the air. See more in Delrio, On Magic.
Verse 12: They Each Cast Down Their Rods
12. "And they each cast down their rods, which were turned into serpents." — Some think that these magicians did not produce real serpents, but by their sorceries deceived the eyes of the spectators, or merely set before them phantoms and certain likenesses of serpents — just as our performers and mountebank illusionists display to the people, from behind a curtain, wondrous likenesses of things that do not exist. So Gregory of Nyssa; Prosper, Part 1, On the Promises, chapter 15; Justin, in the Orthodox Questions, Question 26; Rupertus; and Tertullian, in the book On the Soul, where he says: "Demons are accustomed to produce phantasms and fashion bodies by which they deceive the outward eyes; but the truth of Moses devoured their falsehood."
But the truer view is that held by St. Augustine, Theodoret, Lyranus, Abulensis, Burgensis, Cajetan, and others, namely that these serpents of the magicians were real serpents.
This is proved, first, because Sacred Scripture calls these serpents of the magicians by the same name as those of Aaron and Moses. Second, because Aaron's serpent devoured the serpents of the magicians — and this devouring was certainly real. For in these divine wonders of Moses there was no illusion; otherwise Moses would have been toying with the Egyptians through empty phantoms. Therefore they were real serpents, which, produced by the magicians, were devoured by Aaron's serpent. Third, because in the third sign, that of the gnats, the magicians failed, because they could not produce them; therefore they truly performed the first two signs — otherwise they would have failed in those as well. Fourth, if they had not been real serpents, Moses would have exposed this trickery and so confounded them. Finally, the demon here exerted all his power and skill; therefore he produced real serpents here, for he feared that if he produced fake ones, Moses would uncover the fraud, to his own and the magicians' great shame and ridicule.
You ask: How did the magicians produce these serpents? Cajetan thinks the demons had already gradually prepared the rods of the magicians through certain natural agents unknown to us but extremely effective, disposing them toward the form of serpents; so that when the magicians threw their rods on the ground, those rods already had the final disposition toward the form of serpents, which was therefore immediately induced and real serpents were produced.
But this is scarcely probable, both because serpents, being perfect animals, cannot be generated except from the seed of a parent (which was not present here), and because no natural cause can immediately convert a rod into a serpent — for a rod and a serpent are enormously distant from each other; rather, the rods must first be corrupted and pass through various other forms before finally being converted into serpents. But here, when the magicians threw the rods, they were real rods, and immediately serpents appeared in place of the rods. Therefore they could not have been produced so quickly and immediately from the conversion of the rods; for there is a certain natural order among forms which neither a demon nor an angel, but God alone, can alter. Third, because these serpents were not tender and small, but large, fully formed, and long like the rods — for they were equal in size to the rods; otherwise the rods would not have appeared to change into serpents.
Second, Calvin thinks God changed the rods of the magicians into serpents, that is, by creating them, which the magicians then substituted for their rods; and that God did this as a just punishment, namely to ensnare and harden Pharaoh and the Egyptians, the impious and unbelieving, with falsehood. But away with this monstrous blasphemy! For Scripture in verse 11 expressly says that these things were accomplished not through God, but through the enchantments of the magicians, at whose invocations the demon was certainly present. And if God were the maker of the serpents in both cases — both with Moses and with the magicians — then He fought against Himself, and was a witness both to the falsehood of the magicians and to the truth with Moses; and He would have sealed and confirmed both the one and the other through a supernatural work and through His own proper seal, namely a miracle.
I say therefore that the demons brought these serpents from elsewhere, and having suddenly and imperceptibly removed the rods, substituted the serpents in their place — so that anyone watching this, ignorant of magic and fraud, would think the magicians had converted their rods into serpents just as Aaron had. And for this reason Scripture, which speaks in the manner of common people, says the magicians did likewise as Aaron had done. For in a similar way it says in chapter 3, verse 2, that the bush burned, because to those looking at it, it appeared to burn, though in reality it did not burn. Similarly it says that the angels ate, because they appeared to eat, though in reality they did not eat.
I say the same of the second and third signs, namely the water turned to blood and the frogs produced by the magicians: that is, both the blood and the frogs were not produced by the demon, but brought from elsewhere. For naturally, real blood can be generated nowhere except in an animal, and in no other way than by the power of the soul and through the natural heat that is in the animal. Moses, however, supernaturally turned the water into blood by the power of God, and suddenly produced frogs from the waters. Hence these Hebrew magicians are called mecassephim, that is, illusionists — not as regards the thing produced, or rather brought, but as regards the manner of operation. For they appeared to convert a rod into a serpent, when in reality they did not convert it, but brought a serpent from elsewhere and secretly substituted it for the rod.
You ask: Why did God permit the magicians to perform these wonders? I answer, first, to show how much the magical art can do and how it imposes on the senses of men. Second, so that in these very wonders the magicians would be surpassed by Moses, and Moses would not be thought to be a magician, but rather would appear as the antagonist, conqueror, and master of the magicians, and consequently the true and great servant and Prophet of the great God. So St. Chrysostom, Homily 46 on the Acts of the Apostles. Third, to show that the wicked always oppose and struggle against the pious, and false prophets against prophets: thus Lucifer resisted Michael, Cain opposed Abel, Ishmael opposed Isaac, Esau opposed Jacob, the brothers opposed Joseph, Dathan and Abiram opposed Moses, Simon Magus opposed St. Peter, the Jews opposed Paul, philosophers, magicians, and heretics opposed the Apostles. Fourth, to show that the demon is, as it were, the ape of God; for just as God, so too the demon, God's rival, wants to have his own prophets, his own temples, his own sacrifices, his own miracles, his own Religious. Fifth, to test the faith and constancy of Moses and the Hebrews, whether through these signs of the magicians they would waver and doubt in the worship of the true God and in the promises He had made to them.
Sixth, for the greater blinding and punishment of Pharaoh.
Finally, the demon was permitted to produce a serpent because he himself is the ancient serpent who deceived Eve and still deceives many. Hear St. Cyprian in his treatise On the Simplicity of the Clergy: "The devil is a serpent, because he secretly creeps in, because deceiving under the image of peace, he slithers by hidden approaches (whence he received the name of serpent) — such is his cunning, such is his blind and lurking trickery for ensnaring man, that he seems to assert night for day, poison for salvation, despair under the guise of hope, treachery under the pretext of faith, Antichrist under the name of Christ — so that while he counterfeits things resembling the truth, he may by subtlety frustrate the truth. For he transforms himself into an angel of light." So far Cyprian, or rather Origen. For Pamelius shows in the preface to that book, both from the style and Graecisms and from the authority of several Doctors, that this treatise belongs to Origen and was translated from Greek into Latin by Cyprian or by another of that era.
And St. Gregory, Book 32 of the Morals, chapter 20: "The devil," he says, "is called a beast of burden, a dragon, and a bird; for he tempts men with three vices: lust, malice, and pride. In those therefore whom he incites to lust, he is a beast of burden; to the malice of harming, he is a dragon; to pride, he is a bird." And St. Leo, Sermon 8 on the Nativity: The devil is a cunning serpent, because "he knows to whom to apply the heat of desire, to whom to present the allurements of gluttony, to whom to apply the incentives of lust, into whom to pour the poison of envy. He knows whom to trouble with sorrow, whom to deceive with joy, whom to oppress with fear, whom to seduce with wonder; he examines the habits of all, sifts their cares, scrutinizes their affections; and he seeks causes for harming where he sees each person most eagerly occupied."
"But Aaron's rod devoured their rods." — "Rod," that is, the serpent into which the rod had been converted, "devoured the rods," that is, the serpents or dragons into which their rods had been converted. For it was no longer a rod but a serpent; and not rods but serpents have a mouth with which to devour other things. This is a metonymy: for things are often called by what they formerly were, or by the name of the thing from which they were changed. So Philo, St. Augustine, Prosper cited above, Ambrose, Book 3 of the Offices, chapter 14, Cajetan, and others. By a similar but stronger reasoning (whatever Calvin may object here), the flesh of Christ in the Venerable Sacrament is called bread in 1 Corinthians 11:26 and John 6:31. For the Hebrews call any food, even meat, bread; especially since in the Eucharist the accidents of bread remain and are seen, so that men judging by their eyes and senses rightly call it bread, because they see and touch the appearance of bread. Hence it is clear that God permitted the magicians to work such wonders to this end: that His victory — that is, the victory of the true God against the gods, or rather the demons, of the Egyptians — might be all the more illustrious; for He crushed their falsehood by a true miracle.
Note here: God is accustomed to uncover, or give sufficient indications of, the fraud and imposture when magicians, heretics, or unbelievers perform wonders which they sell as miracles. For this pertains to the providence and care that God exercises over men, especially the faithful and good, lest they be unwillingly and unknowingly led into error. Therefore Pharaoh was here without excuse.
You ask: By what means is God accustomed to distinguish true miracles from false ones? Theodoret assigns three signs and distinctions in these magicians. First: "They did indeed change rods into serpents," he says, "but the rod of Moses devoured their rods. They changed water into blood, but they could not restore the blood to its former nature. They produced frogs, but they could not remove from the Egyptians the trouble and inconvenience of the frogs, as Moses did. And so God granted the magicians to do such things, so that even through them He might chastise the Egyptians; yet He did not grant them the power to remove the plague that had been inflicted. God was therefore not content with the plagues inflicted by Moses, but through the magicians increased them, as if saying to the king: Since being punished delights you, I will chastise you also through the work of your own servants, and punish you more severely."
Second: "When He saw the king being hardened all the more by this, He restrained the power of the magicians, so that those who had produced larger animals, namely frogs, could not produce the tiny gnats, and He compelled them to confess their weakness and say: 'This is the finger of God,'" chapter 8, verse 19.
Third: "He afflicted the bodies of the magicians with boils, chapter 9, verse 11, so that both they and their foolish king might clearly recognize that they not only could not remove the plagues sent by God, but that they themselves were punished along with the rest." So far Theodoret.
Fourth, to these St. Augustine adds, Question 79 among the 83, that true miracles are distinguished from false ones by right, that is, by the authority and power by which they are done: "Magicians," he says, "perform wonders through private dealings with the demon, but saints do them by public administration and at the command of Him to whom all creation is subject. Magicians therefore operate through private contracts, but saints through public justice."
Add, fifth, that those who perform true miracles are for the most part faithful, upright, and holy; but those who perform false ones are wicked, shameful, and often sorcerers.
Sixth, what magicians do is often only phantasmal and feigned, and therefore not long-lasting, but their falsity and vanity are soon exposed; or they are utterly useless and even harmful. But true miracles are true and solid works, useful to men, and performed only because of some great usefulness or necessity.
Seventh, magicians employ in their works many illusions, lies, deceptions of men, and various signs and figures — for example, letters and words signifying nothing or absurdities — and other superstitions. But such a character leads people into error, passing off these things as miracles.
Eighth, the magicians and demons work wonders for an evil end, namely for profit, vain display, glory, or honor, so that they may claim for themselves the divine name and worship; or so that they may pervert the true faith and persuade men of a false one; or for committing sorceries and crimes, such as thefts, adulteries, murders of men and animals. But the Saints do these things to honor and glorify God, and to build up and illuminate the holy Church, and to help men both in body and even more in soul and spirit. "The magicians," says St. Augustine above, "do what appear to be miracles, seeking their own glory; but the Saints work miracles, seeking the glory of God." These magicians therefore displayed their signs for the sake of vain display; but Aaron did so for the sake of just vengeance and rebuke. For Pharaoh knew that he was unjustly oppressing the Hebrews, and that he was therefore justly feeling the avenging hand of God. Therefore the magicians, by secret incantation and rite — which sufficiently showed that the prince of darkness was being invoked — produced their signs; but Aaron, by the command of God and with a public raising of his hands, as if commanding the waters and other things in the name of God; and it could easily be recognized that He was the true God, both because nature teaches that the first being, or the being of beings, from which all being flows — which is what the name Jehovah, always set forth by Moses before his signs, signifies — is God Himself; and because from the history of preceding ages they could easily have known that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, etc., had worshipped the true God and had always been wondrously aided by Him; and it was this same God whom Moses was here invoking as the God of their fathers.
Allegorically, Origen says: "The staff of Moses is the cross of Christ; after it was cast upon the ground, that is, after it came to the belief and faith of men, it was converted into wisdom, and such great wisdom as would devour all the wisdom of the Egyptians, that is, of this world." And St. Ambrose, book III of the Offices, chapter 14: "Moses cast down the staff, and when it became a serpent, it devoured the serpents of the Egyptians, signifying that the Word would become flesh, which would empty out the dire venoms of the serpent through the remission and forgiveness of sins. For the staff is the word — upright, royal, full of power, the ensign of authority. The staff became a serpent, because He who was the Son of God, born of God the Father, became the Son of Man, born of the Virgin, who like a serpent was raised up on the cross and poured medicine into human wounds. Whence the Lord Himself also says: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." Rupertus and Prosper in the Catena of Lipomanus say similar things. In the same place St. Jerome says: "As the staff of Moses devoured the staffs of the magicians, so the truth of Christ will devour the lie of the Antichrist." And Isidore says: "The staff of Moses, converted into a dragon, swallowed up the staffs of the magicians: and Christ, setting aside the dignity of His glory, became obedient even unto death, and through the very death of His flesh consumed the sting of death, as the Prophet attests: 'I will be your death, O death; I will be your bite, O hell.'"
Verse 13: The Heart of Pharaoh Was Hardened
13. AND THE HEART OF PHARAOH WAS HARDENED. — Because he saw that his magicians had performed signs similar to what Moses had performed, giving little thought to the devouring, namely that the serpent of Moses had devoured the dragons of the magicians.
Verse 15: You Shall Stand to Meet Him
15. YOU SHALL STAND TO MEET HIM. — You shall anticipate his coming to the bank of the river Nile, so that when he arrives he may encounter you.
Verse 17: I Will Strike with the Staff
17. I WILL STRIKE WITH THE STAFF. — Therefore God had already converted the serpent made from the staff back into a staff, so that through it He might perform other miracles thereafter. WHICH IS IN MY HAND. — These are the words of God, and yet Moses held the staff in his hand, not God; namely, because God had made Moses the God of Pharaoh and had given him His own power, so that he might command Aaron to strike the Nile and thus convert it into blood. Therefore these three — namely God, Moses, and Aaron — are reckoned as one, just as a principal cause and an instrumental cause are called one efficient cause. For God here was the first cause, Moses was the one commanding, and Aaron the one executing.
Verse 18: The Fish Shall Die
18. THE FISH SHALL DIE. — For fish cannot live outside of water, especially in blood, which being thick and warm is contrary to the constitution of fish. THE WATERS SHALL BE CORRUPTED — they shall be infected and corrupted by the carcasses of the fish. He calls them "waters" because they had been water; but now they were blood. The Septuagint translates it as "the river shall boil" or "shall effervesce": because instead of baas, that is, "it shall putrefy," they read with different vowel points bees, that is, "in fire" — namely, it shall be, that is, the river shall boil, so that it would seem to be placed in or upon fire.
Verse 19: The Egyptians Shall Be Afflicted
19. THE EGYPTIANS SHALL BE AFFLICTED. — In Hebrew nilu, that is, they shall labor, in order to drink, meaning: They shall shrink from drinking blood, and shall be tormented with thirst. AND ALL THE POOLS OF WATER. — In Hebrew, every gathering of waters; so also the Septuagint. Whence it is clear that absolutely all water — even of wells, springs, and cisterns — was turned into blood, and the following verses indicate this: for otherwise they would not have dug in the earth to draw out water, which nevertheless they are said to have done in verse 24. AND LET THERE BE BLOOD IN ALL THE LAND OF EGYPT. — Therefore even in the land of Goshen the waters were turned into blood, says Abulensis, but only for the Egyptians. For the waters were sweet and drinkable for the Hebrews, says Josephus. For the Egyptians in the land of Goshen were most deserving of this plague, inasmuch as they had most severely oppressed the Hebrews.
Why Were All the Waters Turned into Blood?
One may ask, why in this first plague of Egypt were all its waters turned into blood? I answer, because the Egyptians themselves had polluted their waters with the blood of Hebrew infants by drowning them (chapter 1, verse 22): therefore they are justly punished in the very waters in which they had sinned. Second, because it hardly ever rains in Egypt; hence they scarcely have any other water than the Nile, which by overflowing fertilizes all of Egypt. Therefore the Egyptians gloried greatly in the Nile and boasted of their good fortune. Hence they also bestowed many superstitions and nearly divine honors upon the Nile, as Solinus attests in chapter 35 and Pliny in book VIII, chapter 46. Theodoretus gives both these reasons: "That river," he says, "changed into blood, was as it were protesting against the slaughter of children committed by the Egyptians"; and as it is said in Apocalypse 16:6: "You are just, O Lord, because they have shed the blood of the Saints and Prophets, and You have given them blood to drink: for they are worthy."
How Great and How Bitter Was This Plague?
One may ask second, how great and how bitter this plague was. I answer first, absolutely all the water of the Egyptians was turned into blood, and the entire Nile, as long as it is from Ethiopia to the sea. Note here that there was not one miracle, but many — or rather one continuous miracle, through the continual conversion of the waters of the Nile flowing in into blood, and this for seven days. For the Nile in Ethiopia carried pure waters; but where it touched the borders of Egypt, it was immediately turned into blood, and this continuously and without ceasing for seven days. Second, with the waters taken away, men and beasts were tormented with thirst. Third, the fish died. Hence fourth, as the river and the fish putrefied, a pestilence arose, from which — and from thirst — so many lay dead in the streets that their household members did not suffice to bury them, says Philo. Fifth, the waters had not only the color but also the nature of blood, and were true blood. Hence if anyone, compelled by thirst, tasted them, he was immediately seized with sharp pain, says Josephus.
Verse 22: The Magicians Did in Like Manner
Verse 22. AND THE MAGICIANS DID IN LIKE MANNER. — One may ask, whence did the magicians obtain the water that they turned into blood? For all water had already been turned into blood by Moses. St. Justin replies (Question 26, To the Orthodox) that the Egyptians had dug wells around the river and drawn water from them. Second, Theodoretus answers that this water had been brought from the nearby sea: for it was not the sea waters, as Genebrardus supposed (on Psalm 114), but only the fresh and drinkable waters that, according to Scripture, were converted into blood, so that the Egyptians would be tormented with thirst. Third, others reply that by God's providence some water had been preserved for the magicians, so that "all waters," that is, nearly all, had been converted into blood — for a small amount seems to take nothing away from so great a mass. Fourth, the Hebrews think that only the waters of the Nile were turned into blood, and that therefore the magicians obtained water from springs; but they err, as I have said. Fifth, Cajetan thinks they had the waters that had been stored in earthen and metal vessels. For Scripture only says that the waters that were in wooden and stone vessels were turned into blood. Sixth, Tostatus and Lyranus think this water was most swiftly transported by the demon from elsewhere into Egypt. Seventh, St. Augustine thinks this water was brought from the land of Goshen. Eighth, it can most easily be said that the water was offered to the magicians by Moses; for Moses and the Hebrews had not blood but their usual water, sweet and drinkable, as I have said.
Note that this blood of the magicians was not illusory, as Justin would have it; nor again truly converted from water, as St. Augustine would have it; but brought from elsewhere by the demon and secretly substituted for the water, as I said on verse 12.
Morally, see here how the devil contends with God, magicians with prophets, heretics with the orthodox, by imitating their words and deeds. But in vain: for those things are turned back upon themselves. In our age, as the English Martyrology attests, Richard Vitus was disputing with an impious English Calvinist who was more powerful at drinking than at discoursing about the keys of the Church. And when the heretic stubbornly asserted that those keys had been given to him, Vitus replied wittily and cleverly: "I believe you, that they were given to you just as they were to Peter; but with this difference, that to him were given the keys of the heavenly kingdom, but to you those of the beer cellar — for this ruddy promontory of your nose indicates as much." Thus do heretics turn water into blood. This is their miracle.
Verse 23: Nor Did He Set His Heart Even This Time
23. NOR DID HE SET HIS HEART EVEN THIS TIME — he did not apply his mind to believe and obey Moses and God, who commanded him to release the people. Wondrous was this hardness of Pharaoh, whose mind and hands were nevertheless so bound by God that he devised nothing more severe against Moses and Aaron.
Verse 24: All the Egyptians Dug Around the River
24. AND ALL THE EGYPTIANS DUG AROUND THE RIVER FOR WATER TO DRINK — that is, so that the blood of the river, filtered through the earth, flowing into those ditches might become more liquid and drinkable, just as sailors strain and sweeten sea water through a wax vessel so they can drink it. Therefore they dug to find water to drink; but they found not water but blood — filtered, however, and almost watery — from which very many relieved their thirst and escaped death; for otherwise they would have been killed by seven days of thirst. For few had an abundance of wine or milk with which to quench their thirst. Philo adds that from the new veins opened by digging, blood gushed forth as if from a wound, and consequently very many were killed partly by thirst and partly by this drink. Note here another and opposite miracle: for when the Hebrews drew from the same river or well, they drew pure water, while the Egyptians from the same drew blood, as I said above from Josephus.
Verse 25: Seven Days Were Completed
25. AND SEVEN DAYS WERE COMPLETED. — Not as if this plague of blood lasted seven days, but that after this first plague, which lasted one day, up to the second plague of frogs there flowed seven days, says Eusebius in the Catena. But Philo and others commonly hold that this plague lasted seven days; for in a single day the Egyptians would not have dug new ditches and wells. It is therefore a Hebraism: "Seven days were fulfilled," that is, the blood lasted seven days in the river; but after the seventh day the blood returned to the nature of water, and this not at the request of Pharaoh and the intercession of Moses, as Philo would have it — for Scripture contains nothing of the sort — but by the will of God, who wished to punish the Egyptians with new and different plagues. Therefore the infliction of the second plague of frogs was the end of the first plague of blood.
Tropologically, St. Augustine wrote a treatise On the Correspondence of the Ten Plagues of Egypt with the Ten Precepts of the Decalogue, which is found in his volume IX. Therefore in this first plague, he says, water is turned into blood, that is, God is changed into an idol: for carnal and foolish men, thinking unworthily of the majesty of God, attributed His glory to animals and stones, as the Egyptians did. The Philosophers dig wells — they who by their own talent and study obtained a little water, that is, a little doctrine about God; but it was bloody, that is, polluted with an admixture of errors. Hence Orosius, in book VII of the Histories, chapter 27, teaches that these ten plagues allegorically foreshadowed the ten persecutions of the nascent Church, that is, the ten plagues sent upon the ten Emperors who persecuted the Church.
The Ten Plagues of Egypt
One may ask, how many and what were the plagues inflicted on Egypt by Moses and God? I answer that there were ten. The first was this one of blood. The second was of frogs, chapter 8, verse 3. The third, of gnats, chapter 8, verse 17. The fourth, of flies, chapter 8, verse 24. The fifth, the pestilence and death of animals, chapter 9, verse 3. The sixth, swelling blisters and ulcers, both in men and animals, chapter 9, verse 10. The seventh, thunder, hail, and lightning, chapter 9, verse 23. The eighth, locusts devouring everything, chapter 10, verse 13. The ninth, three days of darkness, chapter 10, verse 22. The tenth, the slaying of the firstborn, chapter 11, verse 5, after which Pharaoh permitted the Hebrews to depart; but repenting of his decision and pursuing them, he was drowned with all his men in the Red Sea — which was not so much a plague as the destruction of Pharaoh and Egypt.
But why were there ten? Philo answers, because the number ten is a symbol of perfection: therefore just as the measure of sins was full and perfect, so also was that of the punishments of Egypt. For there are ten primary sins, which oppose the same number, namely the ten precepts of the Decalogue. Whence God punished the impious Egyptians with as many plagues as He was about to give commandments to His people, whose authority He wished to establish by this preliminary punishment.
Note here first: the Egyptians were punished through nearly all creatures, namely through earth, water, air, and fire; through mixed things, hail and blood; through animals — frogs, flies, gnats, locusts; through the sun and stars, when by withdrawing they brought on darkness; through men — Moses and Aaron; through angels and God.
Second, they were punished in nearly all their goods, namely in the fruits of the field, in their animals, in their firstborn sons, in their gold and silver, and in their bodies through ulcers.
Third, they were punished in all their senses: in sight, through darkness and specters; in hearing, through thunder; in taste, through thirst and the drinking of blood; in smell, through the stench of frogs; in touch, through the pain of ulcers and the bite of gnats; and finally in imagination and mind, through continual sorrow and manifold terrors. These plagues of Egypt were a prelude and type of the punishments of hell. For all these ten plagues, either in themselves or in their likenesses, will torment Pharaoh and the other damned in hell, to which it is easy to apply each one. And if God thus punished the Egyptians in this life, how will He punish the damned in hell? Hence again, "the same plagues," says Irenaeus in book IV, chapter 50, "at the end of the world the nations will receive universally, which Egypt then received partially," and these St. John foresaw and foretold in Apocalypse chapters 8 and 9.
The Plagues as Types and Symbols
Symbolically, God punishes sinners with ten plagues. First, with blood, that is, with discord: for the drinkable waters turned to blood for the Egyptians signify discord creeping into the innermost bowels and veins of the commonwealth. Second, with frogs, that is, with quarrels and tumults that flow from discord. Third, with gnats, that is, with cares and anxieties that sting and torment sinners devoted to the world and the flesh. Fourth, with dog-flies, that is, with anger and hatreds, with which they burn and mutually bite and tear one another. Fifth, with the plague of animals, so that in earthly things they may not find the pleasures they had sought, but rather experience in them disgust, losses, pains, and torments. Sixth, with ulcerous blisters, that is, with the stings of conscience, which like ulcers bring pain and at the same time shame and horror. Seventh, with hail, that is, with obstinacy in their crimes. Eighth, with locusts, that is, with the tyranny and restlessness of concupiscence. Ninth, with darkness, that is, with blindness of mind. Tenth, with the death of the firstborn, that is, with the damnation of the soul. For just as the firstborn in his father's house is the chief, so the soul is chief in both aspects of man. So Alcazar on Apocalypse 11, note 8; but I shall treat each one individually below in its proper place.
When and Where the Plagues Occurred
One may ask, where and when were these plagues carried out? I answer first, they were carried out in the field of Tanis (Psalm 77:12). For Tanis was the royal city and capital of Egypt, where Pharaoh dwelt. Therefore each plague first struck Tanis, where there was a cesspool of crimes, and then spread throughout all Egypt, as the Hebrews report. Second, these plagues occurred in the 81st year of Moses, that is, in the year of the world 2454, 797 years after the flood, 350 years before the Trojan War (which fell in the times of Samson and Eli), before the founding of Rome by 745 years. Paul Orosius adds, in book I of the Histories, chapters 9 and 10, that these plagues occurred around the same time as the flood — not that of Ogyges, as Africanus holds, but of Deucalion — and the conflagration they call that of Phaethon.
One may ask, how long did these plagues last? Torniellus and Pererius answer that they were all accomplished in one month, namely in 27 days. For after the first plague until the second, seven days passed; on day 9 the second plague of frogs was removed; on day 11 the third plague of gnats was sent; on day 10 Moses threatened the flies, and on day 12 he sent them, and on day 13 he removed them; on day 15 he threatened and inflicted the fifth plague; on day 16 the sixth plague was inflicted; on day 17 he threatened the seventh plague, which was inflicted on day 18 and removed on day 19; on day 20 he threatened the eighth plague, and on day 21 he inflicted it, and on day 22 he removed it; during the following three days — namely 23, 24, 25 — the plague of darkness lasted; on day 26 Pharaoh drove Moses from his presence, and in the following midnight the tenth plague of the slaying of the firstborn was inflicted, at the beginning of day 27. Therefore about one lunar month elapsed from the first plague to the last. Now since the last plague occurred on the 15th day of the first month Nisan, which corresponds to our March, it follows that the first plague was carried out around the middle of the last month, which the Hebrews call Adar and which corresponds to our February. Therefore the Hebrews err, followed by Genebrardus on Psalm 104, who say that these plagues were carried out over a period of 12 months, at intervals.
One may ask, who was the author of these plagues? I answer, it was God, yet using in succession the ministry of angels, of whom it is said in Psalm 77: "He sent upon them His wrath and indignation, sending by evil angels." Where, although Genebrardus thinks these plagues were inflicted through demons, yet it is more true that this was done through good angels, both because Moses and God were here contending with the magicians and demons — therefore He would not have used their assistance — and because He similarly punished the Sodomites through good angels. Yet these angels are called "evil," that is, harmful and inflicting evils, or punishments. Hence in Hebrew it reads: through angels — workers of evils. The angels therefore rendered their ministry to God here and carried out the fifth plague of pestilence, the sixth of ulcers, the seventh of thunder, the ninth of darkness, and the tenth of the slaying of the firstborn, and perhaps also the third of gnats and the fourth of flies. The remaining plagues — being sudden and miraculous conversions and productions of solid and complete things, such as blood and frogs, and perhaps also locusts — God performed by Himself.
Moreover, the purpose of these plagues was that God might show through them both His care and providence toward the Hebrews and His terrible power and vengeance against Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and that He might compel them to release the Hebrews, and strike all nations with fear and reverence of Himself. The Canaanites confess that this indeed happened, in Joshua 2:9.
Hence it is clear that the Hebrews in Egypt were immune from these plagues, as is evident from chapter 8, verse 22, and chapter 9, verses 4 and 26, and chapter 10, verse 23. It is also probable that foreigners and sojourners were immune. For these plagues were inflicted solely upon the Egyptians. Hence Pererius plausibly judges that the foreigners, when they saw such terrible punishments being inflicted on Egypt, fearing the destruction of the entire region, left Egypt as soon as possible. Pererius adds that those Egyptians who had done nothing wrong against the Jews were also immune; but this is very uncertain, for God is accustomed to punish all on account of the public sins of kings and kingdoms, and to involve even the innocent with the guilty in a common calamity. Finally, St. Augustine (Question 44) thinks that from these plagues, except the last, those Egyptians who lived with the Hebrews in the land of Goshen were immune, for this land was free from plagues on account of the Hebrews dwelling in it. But Tostatus and others more probably judge that the Egyptians in Goshen were struck by these plagues just as much as those elsewhere, because all Egyptians pursued the Hebrews with an almost innate hatred, and especially those who oppressed them in Goshen — both because they thought they were thereby winning great favor with Pharaoh, and because they hoped that the destruction of the Hebrews would bring them a great advantage.