By way of preliminary explanation it should be said――that the turning of water into blood should not be toned down to a mere discoloration of the waters of Egypt――a reddening of such sort as customarily attends the annual rise of the Nile, only carried in the present case somewhat beyond the ordinary degree. For, be it noticed, the record is that the waters were _turned to blood_; that fish could no longer live in it but died (were the fish deceived by the mere appearance, the color?); that the river became offensive to the smell; its waters could not be drank; “there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.” If this language does not mean far more than a mere _discoloration_――something totally different from a visual deception; in short, if it does not mean “_turned to blood_,” then no language can be found to express it. In the third plague, the Hebrew word for “lice”[29] were better rendered _gnats_, yet an insect unknown to our country. Herodotus (B. C. 400) speaks of the great trouble which they cause and of the precautions used against them. Hartmann testifies: “All travelers speak of these gnats as an ordinary plague of the country.”[30] “So small as to be scarcely visible to the eye, their sting notwithstanding causes a most painful irritation. They even creep into the eyes and nose, and after harvest rise in great swarms from the inundated rice fields.” (Keil.) In the fourth plague, the word translated “swarms of flies”[31] does not mean a mixed mass or swarm of various insects as our translators assumed, but “a stinging, scorpion-like insect” [Fuerst], “so called from its sucking the blood” [Gesenius]. Sonnini (in Hengstenberg’s Moses, p. 117) says――“Men and animals are grievously tormented by them. It is impossible to form an adequate conception of their fury when they wish to fix themselves upon any part of the body. If they are driven away they light again the same instant, and their pertinacity wearies the most patient. They especially love to light in the corners of the eyes or on the edge of the eyelids, sensitive parts to which they are attracted by a slight moisture.” “They are much more numerous and annoying than the gnats; and when enraged, they fasten themselves upon the human body, especially upon the edge of the eyelids and become a dreadful plague” [Keil].――――Obviously the American house-fly gives us no adequate idea of this fourth plague on Egypt. Of the sixth plague, “boils with blains,” it need only be said that they were inflamed ulcers breaking forth into pustules, intensely painful. The word for “boils” is the same which describes the plague brought by Satan upon Job. The seventh plague, _hail with lightning_, was not unknown in Egypt, yet was by no means common, and was specially rare in Upper Egypt――more frequent in Lower.――――The other plagues will be readily understood. * * * * *