The ten plagues of Egypt

The Plague of Boils

The sixth plague · Exodus 9:8-12 · The book of Exodus

The sixth plague covered man and beast throughout Egypt with painful boils breaking out in sores. Moses flung ashes from a furnace toward heaven, and the affliction fell on everyone, even the magicians, who could no longer stand before Moses. This is the first plague the text says the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart.

And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.Exodus 9:10 (KJV)

What happened

The LORD told Moses and Aaron to take handfuls of ashes from a furnace and let Moses sprinkle them toward heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. The ashes became fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and it broke out as a boil with blains, painful sores, upon man and upon beast throughout the land. Now the plague fell on the bodies of the people themselves, not just their river, land, and herds. The suffering had come home to the flesh.

There may be a grim irony in the ashes of a furnace. Some have noted that Egyptian slavery worked its captives at kilns and furnaces, and that the very soot of Egypt's industry now rose as a plague on Egyptian skin. Whether or not that connection is intended, the picture is vivid: a nation covered in sores it could not treat or escape.

For the first time the plague fell directly on the bodies of the Egyptians. The river had been struck, then the land, then the herds; now the affliction came to the skin of the people themselves. The circle was closing in. What had begun at the edges of Egyptian life, the water and the fields, had reached the flesh, and the plagues still to come would press nearer yet, toward the harvest, the light of day, and at last the firstborn.

The healers who could not heal

The sharpest detail is what became of the magicians. The boils were upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians, so that the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils. The men who had once matched the first wonders now could not even remain on their feet. Egypt was famous for its physicians and for gods of healing, and readers have connected this plague to deities like Sekhmet, associated with disease and its cure, or Imhotep, later honored for medicine. If so, the point is stark, that Egypt's healers were themselves too sick to stand. As always this is offered as a reasonable interpretation and not as a claim the text makes; Exodus simply shows the magicians brought low and silent, their craft finished.

The LORD hardened Pharaoh

Here for the first time the account says outright, the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them, as the LORD had spoken unto Moses. It is important to read this honestly and in its place. For five plagues the text has shown Pharaoh hardening himself, choosing defiance again and again with the evidence plain before him. Only now, after that long self-hardening, does Scripture say the LORD hardened him. The best sense of the whole is that God, in righteous judgment, gave a man who had persistently chosen rebellion over to that rebellion, confirming the direction Pharaoh himself had set. This is not God overriding a soft and willing heart; it is God ratifying a hard one. The mystery remains, and Scripture does not resolve it into a neat formula, but it never lets Pharaoh off the hook, and it never makes God the author of evil. It shows a real sovereignty over a real and responsible man.

What it revealed about the LORD

The boils revealed a God who can turn even the ashes of Egypt's furnaces into judgment, and who lays low the proudest experts of the land with a word. It revealed that no wealth, no learning, and no medicine can shield a people from the hand of the living God when he moves to free his own. And it revealed his patience is not endless; the plagues are climbing, drawing near to the body and to death itself, and Pharaoh has been given warning upon warning. The bodies of Egypt now bore what the water and the fields had borne before, and the message was unmistakable, that there was no part of Egyptian life the LORD could not reach.

The ashes flung toward heaven

The manner of this plague carries its own meaning. God did not send the boils out of the river or the dust, but from ashes of the furnace, caught up in Moses' hands and flung toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh. From the furnaces where Egypt's forced labor toiled, the very soot of the empire's industry rose and settled as sores on Egyptian skin. Whether or not that reversal was intended, the picture preaches its own sermon: the machinery of oppression became the means of judgment.

This is also the plague where the account first says, without qualification, that the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh. It must be read in its place and not torn out of it. For five plagues the reader has watched Pharaoh harden himself, choosing defiance with the evidence plain before him. Only after that long self-hardening does Scripture say God hardened him. The sense of the whole is that God, in righteous judgment, gave a persistently rebellious man over to the rebellion he kept choosing, confirming the direction Pharaoh had already set for himself.

This does not make God the author of Pharaoh's sin, and Scripture never lets the king off the hook for it. Both truths stand together through the whole account: the man is fully responsible, and God is fully sovereign, working even a tyrant's obstinacy toward the freedom of his people and the making known of his name. That the boils fell on the magicians too, so that they could not stand, seals the point. The men who had first matched the wonders and then confessed the finger of God now could not even keep their feet. Egypt's wisdom and Egypt's power had both been brought to the ground, and only a hard heart on the throne kept the nation from bowing with them.

The shadow of redemption

That the healers of Egypt were themselves covered in sores says something the gospel will make explicit: the world's saviors cannot save themselves, and the sickness that matters most is one no human physician can cure. The exodus is God stepping in where every other power has failed. It points to the one who came as the great physician, who was himself wounded for our transgressions and by whose stripes we are healed. Egypt's magicians could not stand; but there is a Savior who bore the sores and the stripes we deserved, and rose, and stands forever to bring his people out.

This is the hope hidden in the plague of sores. The world's healers, then as now, cannot finally heal themselves, and the deepest sickness of the human heart lies beyond every human cure. But there is a Physician who came down into our affliction, who was himself wounded for our transgressions, and who by his stripes brings a healing no ointment of Egypt could give. Egypt's magicians could not stand; the risen Christ stands for ever, wounded once and now alive, to bring his people whole out of the house of bondage. The plague that laid the healers low points, past all the physicians of the earth, to the only Healer who was willing to be laid low for us.

A note on reading the plagues: this account follows Exodus faithfully and does not add to it. The idea that each plague confronted a particular Egyptian god or power is a widely held and often persuasive reading, and it is presented here as an interpretation, not as a certainty. Except on the final night, where Exodus itself says the LORD executed judgment against all the gods of Egypt, the text names no specific deity. What Scripture states plainly is that the LORD alone is God, that he heard the cry of his people, and that he brought them out with a mighty hand.

Related: The death of the livestock · The plague of hail · The ten plagues