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The Ten Plagues and the Passover

Also called: Plagues of Egypt, Passover

A story told in religious scripture.

A story told in the Book of Exodus: when Pharaoh refused again and again to let the Israelites go, ten plagues fell on Egypt, and in the last only the houses marked with a lamb’s blood were passed over (Passover).

The plagues of Egypt — the Golden Haggadah, 14th-century Catalonia
The plagues of Egypt — the Golden Haggadah, 14th-century Catalonia

Unknown author · Public domain · Source

This is the story told in the Book of Exodus. Moses and Aaron brought Pharaoh God’s word — “Let my people go” — but Pharaoh only made their labour harder. Then plagues fell on Egypt one after another: the Nile turned to blood; frogs, gnats and flies covered the land; livestock died of pestilence; boils broke out on people and beasts; hail and locusts swept the fields; and darkness covered the land for three days.

The tenth plague was the death of every firstborn in Egypt. The Israelites killed a lamb, smeared its blood on their doorposts and lintels, and ate it in haste with unleavened bread. The plague passed over the marked houses, and so the night is called Passover. Having lost his own firstborn, Pharaoh at last told the Israelites to go.

Judaism still remembers this night every year at Passover. Some have tried to explain the plagues by natural events such as algal blooms in the Nile or a volcanic eruption, but they appear in no Egyptian record.

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States at the time
New Kingdom of Egypt
Places
Pi-Ramesses (Rameses)

People

  • Moses

    key figure · Leader and prophet of Israel in the Hebrew Bible, who is said to have led the Israelites out of Egypt and received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai; he does not appear in records outside the Bible

  • Aaron

    participant · Elder brother of Moses in the Hebrew Bible, who spoke for him before Pharaoh and became the first high priest of Israel; he is said to have died on Mount Hor

Before and after

Earlier
1250 BC The Ten Commandments at Sinai
Later
1249 BC The Twelve Spies at Kadesh Barnea

Themes that include this event

  • The Exodus1279 BC – 1208 BC

    From slavery and the burning bush, the ten plagues and the parted sea, to the Ten Commandments at Sinai, forty years in the wilderness and Moses on Mount Nebo — the Exodus as the Hebrew Bible tells it, followed on the map alongside Ramesses II’s capital and the Merneptah Stele, the first record to name “Israel”