Ipuwer Paper 3 1. “There’s blood everywhere, no shortage of death.” This can have a bearing on two things. First, as mentioned above all the water was turned to blood, but it can also refer to the hailstorm which kills everything living that is outside. The latter is perhaps the more likely since it also say in the text that there are large numbers of dead. (Exodus 9:23-25) 2. “Many dead are buried in the river.” The comment that many were buried in the Nile, may imply that so many people died in the plagues that it was impossible to bury them all, so they were thrown into the Nile. If this was the case, it indicates that it was an exceptional situation with a large number of dead. The Bible relates that in just one plague at least one of each family dies. (Exodus 11:4-10) 3. “Exhausted are materials for every kind of craft. Lacking are grain, charcoal, irtyw, m3w-wood, nwt-wood, brushwood, trees are felled, branches stripped.” After the plagues, there is a shortage of almost everything, it shows that crops were scarce and raw materials for craftsmen, especially wood. Trees have fallen down or been knocked over and the trees that remain are stripped of their branches. (Exodus 9:25) 4. “Food is lacking, great hunger and suffering, ladies say, we want to eat, women are barren, none conceive, their bodies suffer in rags, the storehouse is bare.” These quotes show that there was famine. Food is lacking, people suffer and starve, the stocks are exhausted, so the situation is difficult. The women may be childless because the children have died, or the starvation has made the women infertile and unable to have children. (Exodus chapts. 7-12) 5. “See he who slept wifeless found a noblewomen, see noblewomen go hungry.” The comment that upper class women are hungry and seek the company of the lower classes indicates two things. That which provided their income is no more, and the upper class men are no more. The upper class in Egypt mainly consisted of soldiers, officers and high ranking civil servants seconded to Pharaoh. The entire Egyptian army is killed. (Exodus 14: 26-29) This would be approximately 250,000 men in addition to those who have already died during the plagues. 6. “Scribes are slain, their writings are stolen, their books are destroyed.” The chaos that went on in Egypt implies a hard blow to the whole culture. Scribe are killed and their works are scattered to the winds. This explains why there is not very much written about the disaster. The art of writing was a privilege of a few high ranking positions. 7. “One says woe to the place of secrets, what shall we do about it? All is ruin, Gone is what yesterday was seen, see now, the land is deprived of kingship, see all the ranks, they are not in their place, like a heard that roams without a herdsman.” The secret places which were despised refer to the gods worshiped, the wisemen of that time, the secret rituals, the embalming of the dead and the god like characters that the pharaohs represented. That which controlled the whole of Egyptian life, now shows itself incapable of standing firm during the crisis the country is suffering. The population shows contempt which leads to disorder and chaos. It seems that the whole leadership of the country has disappeared or is not functioning. 8. “If I knew where god is I would serve him.” The Egyptians knew very well where their gods were, which areas of responsibility they had and how to make sacrifice to them. The Egyptians knew that the Hebrews worshiped only one God, and they were obviously no longer in doubt concerning whether it was the gods of Egypt who had the power or whether it was the one God. Finally the entire army of the super power perishes when they try to take back a people of slaves led by a man, Moses, who is only equipped with a Shepard’s staff. It is completely understandable that at last the Egyptians realized they have challenged the One God, and their gods were of no help. I hope that this helps when someone tells you that the Exodus didnt happen. God Bless
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 13:40:07 +0000
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