In the Bible, God sometimes sends disasters (plagues) to punish evil-doers, to show his chosen people that he is angry because of their disobedience, or to show his power as the supreme God of nature. These plagues are so devastating that there can be no doubting that they come from God. In Genesis 12:10-20, Abraham’s wife, Sarah, goes to live with the king of Egypt, telling him that she was Abraham’s sister. God sent terrible diseases on the king and those in his palace, because Sarah was Abraham’s wife and no one else was to have sexual relations with her. See other examples of plagues sent as punishment at 1 Samuel 5,6 and 2 Kings 19:35.

The most famous plagues in the Bible are those described in Exodus which occurred before the people of Israel escaped from Egypt. These ten disasters are listed below:

DISASTER WHAT HAPPENED EXODUS PASSAGE

1. The water in the Nile River is turned into blood 7:14-24
2. Frogs swarm all over the land    8:1-15
3. Gnats cover all humans and animals   8:16-19
4. Flies swarm everywhere and fill the houses  8:20-24
5. Egyptian livestock are killed by a disease  9:1-7
6. Humans and animals are covered with sores  9:8-12
7. Hail, thunder, and rain knock down the crops  9:13-35
8. Locusts eat up all the plants    10:1-20
9. Darkness covers the whole land   10:21-29
10. Death of all first-born Egyptian males and animals 12:1-30

Although the Egyptian magicians also were able to make some of these disasters happen, only God could cause the most serious ones, and only God’s people were saved from them. The magicians admitted that Israel’s “God has done this” when they couldn’t undo or perform one of these miracles themselves (Exod 8:19). Jesus used a similar phrase when he was showing how he could drive demons out of people (Luke 11:20). Some psalms (Ps 78:43-51; 105:26-36; 135:8,9; 136:10) and the writings of the prophets of Israel (Amos 4:10; Hab 3:5) highlight the importance of the disasters in making possible Israel’s escape from Egypt. In addition, the people of Israel were reminded that God could send such disasters on them if they did not live by the laws God gave to Moses (Num 14:12; Deut 28:21-23; 28:60-62; 32:22-24).