Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 7:19
And the LORD spoke unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and [that] there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in [vessels of] wood, and in [vessels of] stone.
19 20a. Before describing how the Nile was smitten, the compiler introduces P’s account of the command given to Moses. According to this, not the water of the Nile only, but all the water in Egypt, is to become blood.
19. Say unto Aaron ] as regularly in P (p. 55).
thy rod ] as v. 9.
their rivers ] The Nile, and its arms, running through the Delta.
their streams ] lit. their Niles, i.e. their Nile-canals, such as were constructed for irrigation purposes, to convey the water of the Nile to the fields.
all their ponds of water ] Heb. every gathering (Gen 1:10, Lev 11:36) of their water. Probably reservoirs (tanks, cisterns, &c.) are in particular thought of: cf. the fem. in Isa 22:11 (‘reservoir’).
20b. and he lifted up ] At first sight, in view of v. 19a, the subject seems to be Aaron: Aaron, however, in v. 19, is to stretch out his hand over all the water in Egypt; here the Nile only is smitten, in exact accordance with v. 17. At least therefore in its original context, when the narrative of E was complete, the ‘he’ will have been Moses, who carries the rod in vv. 15b, 17.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The streams mean the natural branches of the Nile in Lower Egypt. The word rivers should rather be canals; they were of great extent, running parallel to the Nile, and communicating with it by sluices, which were opened at the rise, and closed at the subsidence of the inundation. The word rendered ponds refers either to natural fountains, or more probably to cisterns or tanks found in every town and village. The pools, literally gathering of waters, were the reservoirs, always large and some of enormous extent, containing sufficient water to irrigate the country in the dry season.
In vessels of wood – The Nile water is kept in vessels and is purified for use by filtering, and by certain ingredients such as the paste of almonds.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 19. That there may be blood – both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.] Not only the Nile itself was to be thus changed into blood in all its branches, and the canals issuing from it, but all the water of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, was to undergo a similar change. And this was to extend even to the water already brought into their houses for culinary and other domestic purposes. As the water of the Nile is known to be very thick and muddy, and the Egyptians are obliged to filter it through pots of a kind of white earth, and sometimes through a paste made of almonds, Mr. Harmer supposes that the vessels of wood and stone mentioned above may refer to the process of filtration, which no doubt has been practised among them from the remotest period. The meaning given above I think to be more natural.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Not that he was to go to every pool to use this ceremony there, but he stretched his hand and rod over some of them in the name of all the rest, which he might signify either by his words, or by the various motions of his rod several ways.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the Lord spake unto Moses,…. Pharaoh still being obstinate, and refusing to let the people go:
say unto Aaron, take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt; upon all of them in general, what were in the river Nile, or derived from it, as follows:
upon their streams; the seven streams of the river Nile,
[See comments on Isa 11:15].
upon their rivers; the canals that were cut out of the river Nile, for the watering of their fields and gardens, for they had no other river:
and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of waters; which were dug near the river, or to which pipes were laid to convey the water thither:
that they may become blood; and so not fit to drink:
and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt,
both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone; in which water were kept in private houses, fetched from the river for the use of families; all which were to be turned into blood everywhere, in all parts of the land, and in all places mentioned, immediately upon Aaron’s taking his rod, and smiting the waters with it in that part of the river that was before him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Verses 19-25:
Moses and Aaron followed Jehovah’s instructions. This plague was to affect the Nile, upon which the entire land of Egypt depended for life. The waters inundated the flat, low farmland of Egypt, providing water necessary for their crops The fish which swam in the river provided much of the diet of the Egyptians.
Four areas are mentioned:
1. The various branches of the Nile, which according to Herodotus were seven (Herod. 2:17).
2. The canals which ran from each of these branches into the various farming regions.
3. The ponds, marshes, and pools resulting from the overflowing of the Nile, or from seepage along its banks.
4. Artificial ponds and reservoirs, used to store water when the annual flooding was over.
In addition, the effects of this sign would be felt even in the private dwellings of the Egyptians, to include the water stored in wooden and stone vessels of any size.
Some skeptics argue that the waters merely turned a reddish color, due to a particularly heavy rainfall in the Abyssnian mountains in the headwaters of the Nile. Others suggest there was a heavy infestation of plants or organic life which discolored the waters. There is no valid reason to accept either of these theories. Neither mineral deposits nor organic matter could produce the devastation described in the text.
Egypt’s waters literally became blood, at the command of Moses and Aaron. But then the magicians of Egypt apparently duplicated this feat. They could not turn the Nile to blood: this had already been done. It is likely they produced a similar sign in a cup or other small container of water. At any rate, what they did was sufficient for Pharaoh to believe their power was equal to that represented by Moses and Aaron.
Once more, Pharaoh hardened his heart. He rejected again the Word of God, and His authority over his life.
Water was necessary for life, so the Egyptians dug wells near the Nile, to obtain enough to sustain life. The mineral content of Egypt’s soil makes shallow well water very unpleasant to the taste; but it was at least more palatable than the blood which flowed in the Nile.
“Seven days” is apparently the duration of this first plague. By this time, the natural process emptied the river of its foul, stinking flow.
The contest was not between Moses and Pharaoh, nor between Aaron and the magicians of Egypt. The contest was between Jehovah Elohe of Israel, and the false gods of the Egyptians. The Nile was one of Egypt’s foremost deities. God showed His superiority over this deity in a dramatic way.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
19. And the Lord spake unto Moses. This is the more extended narrative of which I spoke; for Moses mentions nothing different from what went before, but explains more distinctly his mode of action in the performance of the miracle, namely, that what God had commanded was completed by the instrumentality of Aaron. There was a reason for commencing with this miracle, that the Egyptians might know that there was no safeguard for them in the resources upon which they prided themselves the most. We know what great wealth, defense, and conveniences arose to them from the Nile; thence came their abundant fisheries, thence the fertility of their whole country, which it irrigated in its inundation, a thing that, in other lands is injurious; its navigation was most advantageous for their merchants, it was also a strong fortification to a good part of the kingdom. Therefore, in order to cast down the Egyptians from their principal dependence, He turns its waters into blood. Besides, because water is one of the two elements of which man’s life consists, in depriving the Egyptians of one part of their life, He used the best and shortest method of humiliating their haughtiness, had they not been altogether intractable. He might, indeed, by a single breath, have dried up all the sources of water, and overwhelmed the whole nation by drought; but this would have been commonly believed to have happened by chance, or naturally, and therefore would have been a less apparent prodigy, whilst it would have shut up the way for others. It would, then, have been sufficient, by the terror of death it awakened, to turn them to the fear of God, unless their madness had been desperate. Moses enumerates, besides the river, the streams, and ponds, and pools of water; because, in different parts of the country, as well artificially as naturally, the Nile was so diffused, that scarcely any other country is provided in all directions with such an abundance of water; as though God should say, “It shall avail you nothing to possess such an immense supply of water; because you shall thirst as much as if the Nile were dry.” He adds, “both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone;” meaning, that in whatever kind of vessel they came to draw, they would find nothing but blood.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(19) The waters of Egypt consist of the main stream of the Nile; its branches; canals derived from it; natural lakes, pools, or ponds, either left by the inundation or anticipative of it, being derived by percolation from the main stream; and artificial reservoirs of a larger or smaller size in gardens, courts, and houses. There is no other stream but the Nile in the whole country; and there are no natural springs, fountains, or brooks. Water may, however, at all times, and in all parts of the Nile Valley, be obtained by digging wells; but, as the soil is impregnated with nitre, the well water is highly unpalatable. It is generally allowed that the author of Exodus shows in the present verse, coupled with Exo. 7:24, a very exact knowledge of the Egyptian water system.
Vessels of wood, and vessels of stone.It was usual to store the Nile water in tanks or cisterns within the houses, in order that it might deposit its sediment. These tanks or cisterns, which existed in all the houses of the better class, were either of wood or stone.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. Stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt The language of this verse shows a minute acquaintance with the extensive and complicated water system which was peculiar to Egypt. The streams are the arms which branch out from the Nile, just north of modern Cairo, through the great plain of the delta, carrying the waters down to the Mediterranean. There are two principal and five or more lesser streams. The rivers are the canals running each side of the Nile, and receiving their waters through sluices at the time of the inundation. As the land sloped northward, the water was conveyed through main canals running along the southern or higher side of each field, and thence it spread through branches, straight or curved, down northward over the land. The ponds were the large standing lakes left by the inundation; and the pools literally, every collection of their waters were the smaller ponds and reservoirs which they used who lived at a distance from the river.
Wood stone This is also a peculiarly Egyptian touch, for the Nile water was kept in large stone tanks for public use, and was also filtered and purified for domestic use in smaller vessels.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 7:19. And the Lord spake, &c. Pharaoh despising the Divine threatening, the Lord orders Moses to put it into execution: and Aaron is accordingly commanded to stretch out his hand upon the waters of Egypt; that is, not to stretch out his hand over all the waters of Egypt; but to stretch it out in token of the Divine malediction which was immediately to operate upon the waters.
Upon the waters, &c. Travellers tell us, that it is common for the Nile-water to turn red and become disagreeable in one part of the year; whence, perhaps, some may imagine, that this corruption of the waters was only a natural occurrence: but, besides the event’s taking place before the usual time, immediately upon the smiting of the river by Moses and Aaron, and its being followed by other wonders; the universality of the corruption, and the effects it produced, evidently shew the finger of God. Let us consider the universality of it with a little distinctness: a variety of words are made use of to set it forth, nor is that variety made use of without a meaning. The Nile was the only river in Egypt; but it was divided into branches, and entered by several mouths into the sea. Numberless canals were formed by art for better watering the lands; several vast lakes, by the Nile’s inundations; and many reservoirs, for retaining the water, in order to the watering the gardens and plantations, or having sweet water when the river corrupts.
All these seem to be distinctly pointed out in the text: the words of which, however, in our versions are not so well chosen as might be wished, nor so happily selected as those of the translation of Pagninus and Arius Montanus, which runs thus: super fluminarivospaludesomnem congregationem aquarum: upon their rivers, (or branches of their river,) their canalstheir lakes, or large standing watersand all reservoirs of water of a smaller kind. Now, had it been a natural event, the lakes and reservoirs, which had then no communication with the river, on account of the lowness of the water at that time of the year, could not have been infected; which yet they were, according to the Mosaic history; and they were forced to dig wells, instead of resorting to their wonted reservoirs. The effects which the corruption produced, prove the same thing in the second place. Had it been a sort of corruption which happened not unfrequently, would the Egyptians have been surprised at it? or would their magicians have attempted to imitate it? would they not rather have shewn it to be a natural and common event? and is the common corruption such as kills the fish in the Nile? That in the time of Moses did; but nothing of that sort appears in modern travels. We see then, that a variety of evident circumstances concur to determine it a miracle.
Both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone “To what purpose,” says the Author of the Observations, “is this minuteness? this corrupting the waters which had been taken up into vessels before the stretching out the fatal rod? and, if vessels are mentioned at all, why are those of wood and stone distinguished from each other?But perhaps these words do not signify, that the water, which had been taken up into their vessels, was changed into blood. The water of the Nile is known to be very thick and muddy; and they purify it either by a paste made of almonds, or by filtrating it through certain pots made of white earth, which, it seems, is the preferable way; and therefore the possession of one of these pots is thought a great happiness; see Le Bruyn, tom. 2: p. 103 and Thevenot, part 1: p. 245 and 260. Now, may not the meaning of this passage be, that the water of the Nile should not only look red and nauseous like blood, in the river, but in their vessels too, when taken up in small quantities; and that no method whatever of purifying it should take place; but whether drank out of vessels of wood, or out of vessels of stone, (by means of which they were wont to purge the Nile-water) it should be the same, and should appear like blood? There is no doubt but they were accustomed, even in early days, to clarify the water of the Nile; and the merely letting it stand to settle, was hardly sufficient for the early elegance which obtained in Egypt. So simple a method then, as filtrating vessels, may easily be supposed to be as ancient as the times of Moses; and therefore it seems natural to suppose, that partly to them the threatening in the text refers.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Num 11:5 ; Psa 105:29 ; Rev 16:3-4 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 7:19 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and [that] there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in [vessels of] wood, and in [vessels of] stone.
Ver. 19. Upon their ponds. ] Fish ponds are in Hebrew called Berechoth, Blessings. But how soon can God “curse our blessings,” Mal 2:2 and destroy us, “after that he hath done us good!” Jos 24:20
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the LORD spake. See note on Exo 6:10, and compare note on Exo 3:7.
streams = canals.
rivers = the seven streams of the Delta.
ponds = lakes where reeds grew.
pools = reservoirs.
vessels of wood, &c. Genitive of material. Figure of speech Metony my (of Cause). App-6. Hebrew “woods and stones”, put for [channels] made of wood [and canals] made of stone.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
stretch: Exo 8:5, Exo 8:6, Exo 8:16, Exo 9:22, Exo 9:23, Exo 9:33, Exo 10:12, Exo 10:21, Exo 14:21, Exo 14:26
their pools: Heb. gathering of their waters, Gen 1:10
Reciprocal: Exo 1:16 – and see them Exo 1:22 – Every son Exo 4:9 – the water Exo 4:17 – General Exo 14:16 – lift Exo 17:5 – thy rod 2Ki 2:19 – the water 2Ki 4:29 – lay my staff Psa 110:2 – the rod Isa 11:15 – shall smite Isa 19:10 – make Joh 2:11 – beginning
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 7:19. Upon their streams, &c., both in vessels of wood and vessels of stone To what purpose this minuteness? says the last-mentioned author. May not the meaning be that the water of the Nile should not only look red and nauseous, like blood, in the river, but in their vessels too, and that no method of purifying it should take place, but, whether drunk out of vessels of wood or out of vessels of stone, by means of which they were wont to purge the Nile water, it should be the same, and should appear like blood. Harmer, vol. 2. p. 292.