Exodus 7:14-25 And the LORD said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuses to let the people go.… One of its names was Hapi, or Apis, which is the same as the sacred bull. There is extant a hymn to the Nile, written about the time of the Exodus, beginning thus — "Hail, O Nile, thou comest forth over this ]and, thou comest in peace, giving life to Egypt, O hidden God!" Plutarch, following the jargon of the priests, calls the Nile "the Father and Saviour of Egypt" (Symp. 8, 8); and affirms, "There is nothing so much honoured among the Egyptians as the river Nile." Even the fish and reptiles which it nourished, and the very reeds and flowers which grew in it, were held sacred. About midsummer every year a great festival was celebrated throughout the country in honour of the Nile. Men and women assembled from all parts of the country in the towns of their respective Nomes; grand festivities were proclaimed, and the religious solemnities which then took place were accompanied with feasting, dancing, and a general rejoicing. A wooden image of the river god was carried by the priests through the villages in solemn procession, appropriate hymns were sung, and the blessings of the anticipated inundation were invoked. By the miraculous change of the waters into blood, a practical rebuke was given to these superstitions. This sacred and beautiful river, the benefactor and preserver of their country, this birthplace of their chief gods, this abode of their lesser deities, this source of all their prosperity, this centre of all their devotion, is turned to blood: the waters stink; the canals and pools, the vessels of wood and vessels of stone, which were replenished from the river, all are alike polluted. (T. S. Millington.). Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.WEB: Yahweh said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is stubborn. He refuses to let the people go. |
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