Exodus 7

נתתיך אלהים לפרעה This signifies I have made thee a judge and castigator — to castigate him with plagues and pains.

יהיה נביאך [AARON] SHALL BE THY PROPHET — This must be understood as the Targum takes it: thy interpreter. Similarly, wherever this term of נבואה is mentioned it refers to a man who publicly proclaims and utters to the people words of reproof. It is of the same derivation as, (Isaiah 57:19) “utterance (ניב) of the lips”; (Proverbs 10:31) “it utters (ינוב) wisdom”; (I Samuel 10:13) “he made an end of proclaiming (התנבות)”, which is in the book of Samuel. In old French we call him predicar; English preacher.

אתה תדבר THOU SHALT SPEAK once, every separate message just as you have heard it from My mouth, and your brother Aaron shall express it in eloquent language and explain it in Pharaoh’s hearing.

ואני אקשה AND I WILL ALLOW [PHARAOH’S HEART] TO HARDEN — Since he has wickedly resisted Me, and it is manifest to Me that the heathen nations find no spiritual satisfaction in setting their whole heart to return to Me penitently, it is better that his heart should be hardened in order that My signs may be multiplied against him so that ye may recognise My divine power. Such, indeed, is the method of the Holy One, blessed be He: He brings punishment upon the nations so that Israel may hear of it and fear Him, as it is said, (Zephaniah 3:6, 3:7) “I have cut off nations, their corners are desolate etc. … I said: Surely thou wilt fear Me, thou wilt receive correction” (cf. Yevamot 63a). Nevertheless, in the case of the first five plagues it is not stated, “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” but “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened” (Midrash Tanchuma, Vaera 3).

את ידי this must be translated literally, “hand”, (not “power”) I will lay My hand upon Egypt to smite them.

מופת A WONDER — a sign to prove that there is power in Him who is sending you.

לתנין means A SERPENT.

בלהטיהם The Targum renders this by בלחשיהון — with their secret spells. There is no other example of this word in the Bible. One may compare it to the first word in (Genesis 3:24) “the להט of the sword that turned round” — it appeared to turn round through some magic spell.

ויבלע מטה אהרן BUT AARON’S STAFF SWALLOWED (It states that the staff swallowed) — after it had again become a staff it swallowed all of them (Shabbat 97 a; Exodus Rabbah 9:7).

כבד — This word should be translated in the Targum by יקיר (his heart is hard — an adjective) and not by אתיקר (his heart has become Hard — a verb, as is given in some editions of Onkelos) because it is an adjective, just as (Exodus 18:18) “the thing is too heavy (כָּבֵד) for thee”.

הנה יצא המימה LO, HE GOETH OUT UNTO THE WATER to ease himself. For he claimed to be a god and asserted that because of his divine power he did not need to ease himself; and therefore he used to rise early and go to the Nile and there eased himself in secret (Midrash Tanchuma, Vaera 14; Exodus Rabbah 9:8).

עד כה means UNTIL NOW — A Midrashic explanation (taking this sentence to mean, “thou wilt not hearken until (עד) thou hearest the word “כה”) is: until thou hearest from me the announcement of the slaughter of the first-born, which I will begin with the words, (Exodus 11:4) “Thus (כה) saith the Lord, About midnight etc.”

ונהפכו לדם AND THEY SHALL BE TURNED INTO BLOOD — Because rain does not fall in Egypt but the Nile rises and irrigates the land and the Egyptians on this account worshipped the Nile, therefore God first smote their deity and afterwards smote them (Exodus Rabbah 9:9).

ונלאו מצרים THE EGYPTIANS SHALL WEARY THEMSELVES in seeking a cure for the waters of the river that they may become fitted for drinking.

אמר אל אהרן SAY UNTO AARON — Because the river had protected Moses when he was cast into it, therefore it was not smitten by him neither at the plague of blood nor at that of frogs, but it was smitten by Aaron (Exodus Rabbah 9:10).

נהרתם THEIR STREAMS — These are the flowing rivers, just like our rivers in France.

יאריהם — These are canals which convey water being made by human agency and extending from the river bank into the fields. The waters of the Nile increase in volume and rise by way of these canals and so irrigate the fields.

אגמיהם — A collection of waters that neither spring up from beneath the ground nor flow along, but which remain in one spot. In old French they call it étang.

בכל ארץ מצרים [THERE WILL BE BLOOD] THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND OF EGYPT— also in their bathing establishments and in the baths in their houses.

ובעצים ובאבנים — the water which happened to be BOTH IN vessels of WOOD AND in vessels of STONE.

בלטיהם SECRET ARTS — magic formulas which they utter secretly and in a whisper. Our Rabbis stated that בלטיהם refers to the work of demons, בלהטיהם to witchcraft (Sanhedrin 67b; Exodus Rabbah 9:11).

ויחזק לב פרעה AND PHARAOH’S HEART WAS HARDENED so that he said — You are doing this by witchcraft: “You are bringing straw to Afarayim”— a city that is full of straw; thus you bring sorcery to Egypt, a land that is full of sorcery (Menachot 85a; Exodus Rabbah 9:6-7).

גם לזאת [NEITHER DID HE SET HIS HEART] TO THIS ALSO — to the wonder of the staff which was changed into a serpent and also not to that of the blood.

וימלא AND THERE WAS COMPLETED (the verb is singular) שבעת ימים the number of SEVEN DAYS during which the river did not return to its original condition. For each plague functioned a quarter of a month and for three quarters He warned and cautioned them (Midrash Tanchuma, Vaera 13; Exodus Rabbah 9:12).

ואם מאן אתה — AND IF THOU BE A REFUSER. מאן — The word has the same meaning as ממאן, refusing, (the Piel participle) only the difference is that it is a description of a person having reference to the action he always does (i. e. it is an adjective and the full phrase would be איש מאן) similar to שָׁלֵו “a man at ease” (Job 16:12); שָׁקֵט “a man at ease” (Jeremiah 48:11); וְזָעֵף [‎סר] “a man displeased” (1 Kings 20:43), whilst מְמאֵן merely describes the person as refusing at some particular moment.

נגף את כל גבולך I WILL PLAGUE ALL THY BOUNDARIES — נוגף means smiting. So, too, wherever a form from the root נגף occurs, it does not necessarily denote killing but it may mean merely smiting. Similarly, (Exodus 21:22) “and if they hurt (ונגפו) a woman with child”, does not mean they kill (as the context shows); so, too, (Jeremiah 13:16) “and before your feet stumble (יתנגפו)” (i. e. hit against something); (Psalms 91:12) “lest thou dash (תגף) thy foot against a stone”; (Isaiah 8:14) ”and for a stone of stumbling (נגף)‎”.

ועלו AND THEY SHALL GO UP from the river

בביתך — first into thine house and afterwards, בבית עבדיך — into the house of thy servants; he took the first step in counselling evil against Israel, as it is stated (1:9) “He spake to his people, “[Behold, the children of Israel are more numerous and powerful than we]”, and with him, therefore, did punishment begin (cf. Sotah 11a and Exodus Rabbah 10:3).

ובכה ובעמך AND UPON (or in) THEE AND THY PEOPLE [SHALL THE FROGS COME] — they made their way right into their bodies and crowed (Exodus Rabbah 10:3).

And he said — And then God said to Moshe, see, I have set you as a god to Par'oh (Shemot 7:1). That is what is written And God spoke to Moshe and to Aharon, and commanded them to the children of Yisrael and to Par'oh. (Shemot 6:13) - that God made Aharon a partner with Moshe. Earlier the text was concise and didn't mention the details of what God said, but here they are mentioned, for since God said to Moshe, see, I have set you as a god to Par'oh - meaning to say that Paroh will hold/strengthen you as though you were God who visits and commands. And just as God doesn't bring a matter to action except by way of Their prophets and emissaries, since God visits and Their emissaries bring the matter to action - so too, Aharon your brother will be your prophet (Shemot 7:1) - he will be your prophet, for by his hand you will decree and he will fulfil it for you. And it is explained.

And each man cast down his staff This relates to the sages and magicians, that they cast down their staffs. And they became serpents, this relates to the sorcerers of Mitzrayim, that they became serpents at the moment that the sages and magicians cast down their staffs. They were wrapped in serpentskin and it seemed that it was because of the staffs that they became serpents, and Aharon's staff swallowed up their staffs. Regarding this, the Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 9:7) relates that "the Holy Blessed One said: If the serpent swallows their serpents, that would be the ordinary way of their world, that serpent swallows serpent. Rather, it should return to its form and then swallow their serpents. What is and Aharon's staff swallowed their staffs? Rabbi Elazar says, a miracle within a miracle: it teaches that Aharon's staff returned to its form and swallowed them. When Par'oh saw this, he was surprised and said, what if the staff swallows Paroh and his throne? Now it will swallow him!" Here ends the Midrash quotation. And what is written, What is and Aharon's staff swallowed their serpents, has no explanation, for it has already explained that it returned to being a staff and then swallowed it - so what's the novelty of Rabbi Elazar? It seems that in the beginning it explains what is written, and Aharon's staff swallowed, that it returned to staffhood and after that swallowed. Regarding this it is asked, What is and Aharon's staff swallowed their serpents? Meaning to say that it should have said, and Aharon's staff swallowed their serpents, for their serpents didn't return to their original form! Regarding this Rabbi Elazar says it's a miracle within a miracle, for after Aharon's staff returned to be a staff as its original form was, it swallowed them, meaning to say, it swallowed the sorcerers themselves! For since the sorcerers were serpents wrapped in serpentskin, and they with the staffs were concealed below the skin, the staff of Aharon swallowed the "serpents" with the sorcerers and staffs concealed beneath them. And if it had said, and Aharon's staff swallowed their serpents, I would have thought that only the serpents' bodies were swallowed and not the sorcerers. But since it said that it swallowed their staffs, that they were concealed below the serpents, from this we know that they were swallowed with the sorcerers. And regarding this it's said that Paroh said that it was capable of swallowing him and his throne just as it swallowed the sorcerers. And Paroh's heart was hardened, that he was also visibly scared to be swallowed alive as the sorcerers had been swallowed - and with all this, he [still] hardened his heart!