Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment

Exodus 12: 12: For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

When Moses smote the land of Egypt whilst delivering God’s people, each of the plagues that struck the nation specifically targeted Egypt’s many gods, to show that they were non-existent, and therefore powerless to withstand the Almighty God of Israel. Below we shall see how these Egyptian deities were proven to be ineffectual in stopping God’s judgment.

The first plague was directed against the Nile itself, which the Egyptians worshipped as their source of life. This plague confronted the numerous river deities, including Khnum (guardian of the Nile), Hapi (spirit of the Nile and god of fertility), and Osiris (god of the underworld, whose blood the Nile was considered to be). By turning the Nile into blood and killing the fish (supposedly protected by Hathor and Neith), Moses was not only shaming all these Egyptian deities, but demonstrated that all life and sustenance comes only from God.

The second plague of an immense number of frogs, was an attack upon the Egyptian goddess Heqet. She was symbolized by good crops (from the Nile’s waters) and childbirth, and was depicted as a woman with a frog’s head. This plague also struck against Isis, a goddess of fertility. Frogs were sacred to the Egyptians, but these goddesses were unable to prevent these creatures that symbolized life from becoming rotting piles of death.

The third plague of lice (gnats) from the dust of the earth, confronted all the gods of the earth (such as Akhor). This, and the fourth plague of flies, was a challenge upon Khepri, the scarab (dung beetle) god. Khepri was to bury the dung in order to stop the flies from breeding in it, but here the deity failed in its task. Khepri was also associated with rolling the sun across the sky, like a dung beetle will roll balls of dung.

The fifth plague on the livestock, which provided food, milk, clothing, and transportation, was a direct attack on Apis, the sacred bull-god, and Mnevis, a bull-god deity of fertility, as well as Hathor, the cow-like mother goddess, and Isis, the queen of the gods, who wore a cow’s horns on her head. They were all shown to be imposters and unable to protect Egypt’s animals.

The sixth plague of boils showed the impotence of any of the gods of magic and healing, such as Hike and Thoth (Imhotep), to protect even the magicians from the boils, and thus from the power of God.

The seventh plague of hail, and the eighth plague of locusts that destroyed the crops was an attack upon the various sky deities (such as Shu, Tefnut, and Nut, deities of air, moisture, and sky), who supposedly controlled the weather. The loss of Egypt’s crops also showed-up the impotence of the gods of vegetation, agriculture, and harvest (such as Geb and Seth).

The ninth plague of darkness was an attack on Ra, the supreme deity of Egypt, who was believed to bring light and heat to the earth. Other sky gods also proven powerless against the darkness were Horus, Seker, Khepri, Mut, and Nut.

The tenth plague that killed Egypt’s firstborn was a direct attack on the divinity of Pharaoh, whom the Egyptians believed was an incarnation of the sun-god Ra, and of Osiris, the giver of life. It was the Pharaoh’s task to retain the favor of the gods and to uphold the laws of Ma’at, goddess of order. But Pharaoh was powerless to prevent the death of his own firstborn son or the firstborn of the Egyptians for that matter. This great and final plague was a witness to all of Egypt that it is God alone who has absolute control over life and death.