emand for release, and say, "Hitherto thou
hast not hearkened: behold, in this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah."
What follows, when attentively read, makes it plain that the blow falls
upon "the waters that are in the river," and those that have been drawn
from it into canals for artificial irrigation, into reservoirs like the
lakes Moeris and Mareotis, and even into vessels for immediate use.

But we are expressly told that it was possible to obtain water by
digging wells. Therefore there is no point whatever in the cavil that
if Moses turned all the water into blood, none was left for the
operations of the magicians. But no comparison whatever existed between
their petty performances and the immense and direful work of vengeance
which rolled down a putrid mass of corrupt waters through the land,
spoiling the great stores of water by which later drought should be
relieved, destroying the fish, that important part of the food of the
nation, for which Israel afterwards lusted, and sowing the seeds of
other plagues, by the pollution of that balmy air in which so many of
our own suffering countrymen still find relief, but which was now
infected and loathsome. Even Pharaoh must have felt that his gods might
do better for him than this, and that it would be much more to the point
just then to undo his plague than to increase it--to turn back the blood
to water than contribute a few drops more. If this was their best
effort, he was already helpless in the hand of his assailant, who, by
the uplifting of his rod, and the bold avowal in advance of
responsibility for so great a calamity, had formally defied him. But
Pharaoh dared not accept the challenge: it was effort enough for him to
"set his heart" against surrender to the portent, and he sullenly turned
back into the palace from the spot where Moses met him.

Two details remain to be observed. The seven days which were fulfilled
do not measure the interval between this plague and the next, but the
period of its infliction. And this information is not given us
concerning any other, until we come to the three days of darkness.[13]
It is important here, because the natural discoloration lasts for three
weeks, and mythical tendencies would rather exaggerate than shorten the
term.

Again, it is contended that only with the fourth plague did Israel begin
to enjoy exemption, because then only is their immunity recorded.[14]
But it is strange indeed to suppose that they were inv