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Pharaoh Heard Every Plague Coming Before It Arrived

Moses warned Pharaoh before each plague. Ten warnings, ten refusals. Jubilees says the plagues were not punishment alone but a debt paid to Abraham.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Warning Before the Plague
  2. The Plagues as a Debt Owed to Abraham
  3. Ten Judgments on the Land
  4. Moses Among His Own People

The Warning Before the Plague

Moses came to Pharaoh's house before each of the ten plagues and told him what was coming. Not once, not twice: ten times. The frog plague was announced before the frogs arrived. The darkness was declared before the darkness fell. The death of the firstborn was spoken aloud to Pharaoh in his own palace before it happened. Every time, Pharaoh heard the words. Every time, the plague arrived exactly as described. Every time, Pharaoh refused.

This is not the story of a man who did not know. This is the story of a man who knew and would not move.

The Plagues as a Debt Owed to Abraham

The Book of Jubilees frames what happened in Egypt not as a series of escalating punishments but as the fulfillment of a specific promise. Centuries before Moses was born, before any Israelite had set foot in Egypt, God had spoken to Abraham in a dream and told him plainly: your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and afflicted for four hundred years. And I will judge that nation which they serve. That word judgment sits in the Jubilees account like a weight placed on a scale before the famine begins.

When Moses stood before Pharaoh and declared what the Lord was about to do, he was not issuing fresh warnings from a God improvising in the moment. He was executing a sentence that had been written into the covenant with Abraham before any of the participants were born. The angel who dictated Jubilees to Moses on Sinai speaks to him in the second person: everything was sent through your hand, that you should declare these things before they were done. The plagues were the covenant keeping its word.

Ten Judgments on the Land

Ten great and terrible judgments came on the land of Egypt, the Jubilees text says, that you might execute vengeance on it for Israel. Vengeance. The word is precise and it points backward to a specific debt. Abraham had been promised descendants and land and blessing, and he had also been promised this: that the nation which enslaved his children would be judged. Egypt collected the debt by enslaving Israel. The plagues were the repayment schedule, delivered in ten installments, each one announced in advance so that Pharaoh could not say he had not been warned.

But Pharaoh could also not move. Jubilees does not explain this as irrationality. It explains it as the completion of a pattern that had been running since before Egypt and Israel existed as entities. The hardening of Pharaoh's heart, which troubles readers of Exodus who want to preserve the king's free will, is handled in Jubilees as part of the same covenant logic: the judgment was coming. The mechanism of the judgment was Pharaoh's refusal. Both were necessary for the debt to be fully paid.

Moses Among His Own People

And Moses, who stood in the middle of all of this and delivered the warnings ten times to a king who heard them ten times and refused ten times: he was not a passive instrument. The Jubilees account addresses him directly because it was dictated to him on Sinai, and it says: you spoke with the king of Egypt before all his servants and before his people. It names the setting. The servants heard. The people heard. Moses stood in the most powerful court in the world and declared what was coming.

The plagues came anyway, not because Moses failed, but because the covenant required them. After the last plague, after the night of the firstborn, Pharaoh sent Israel out. The four hundred years were over. The debt was paid.

PharaohMosesEgyptPlaguesCovenant
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From the tradition

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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Book of Jubilees 48:12Book of Jubilees

A reader can think of him as simply a messenger, a conduit for God's will. But the Book of Jubilees, a fascinating text from around the 2nd century BCE, paints a picture of Moses that's a bit… bolder.

Jubilees 48 gives us a striking perspective. It says, "And everything was sent through thy hand, that thou shouldst declare (these things) before they were done, and thou didst speak with the king of Egypt before all his servants and before his people." It wasn't just that Moses delivered God's messages, but that everything – everything – passed through his hand. He was the one declaring what would happen before it happened. He stood before Pharaoh, not as a supplicant, but as a figure of immense authority.

It worked!

The text continues: "And everything took place according to thy words; ten great and terrible judgments came on the land of Egypt that thou mightest execute vengeance on it for Israel."

According to Jubilees, the ten plagues, those "ten great and terrible judgments," weren't just random acts of divine anger. They were directly linked to Moses's words, a consequence of his declarations. He wasn't just witnessing events; he was, in a way, arranging them. He was actively bringing vengeance upon Egypt.

Now, this might sound a little…intense. Vengeance isn't always a comfortable concept. But the passage doesn't shy away from it. It states plainly that these plagues were inflicted as retribution for the enslavement of the Israelites.

The final verse reinforces this idea: "And the Lord did everything for Israel's sake, and according to His covenant, which He had ordained with Abraham that He would take vengeance on them as they had brought them by force into bondage."

This connects the Exodus directly back to the covenant with Abraham, the foundational promise of protection and prosperity for his descendants. The Exodus, according to Jubilees, wasn't just about liberation; it was about fulfilling a promise, righting a wrong, and enacting divine justice.

So, what does this all mean? Does it mean Moses was some kind of super-powered prophet? Maybe. Or perhaps it highlights the immense responsibility placed upon him. He was the one chosen to speak truth to power, to demand freedom, and to bear the weight of God's covenant with Israel.

The Book of Jubilees challenges us to reconsider the traditional narrative of the Exodus. It invites us to see Moses not just as a messenger, but as an active participant, a powerful figure through whom divine will was manifested. It makes you wonder, doesn't it, about the power of our own words and actions in shaping the world around us.

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Jasher 80Book of Jasher

The familiar version gives us the highlights – the Nile turning to blood, the frogs, the darkness. But some sources really dial up the intensity, giving us a truly nightmarish vision of divine retribution. to one of those sources: a retelling of the Ten Plagues from the Book of Jasher.

The Book of Jasher isn't part of the standard biblical canon, but it's an ancient Hebrew text referenced in the Bible itself (Joshua 10:13; (2 Samuel 1:1)8). It paints a vivid, sometimes shocking, picture.

So, where does Jasher take us? After two years of Moses’ initial failure, God sends Moses back to Pharaoh. Naturally, Pharaoh refuses to listen. And then, the plagues begin.

We start with the familiar – water turning to blood. But Jasher adds a gruesome detail: it wasn't just the Nile. Every cup, every pitcher, even the water used for kneading dough turned to blood. Imagine the sheer horror and revulsion.

Then come the frogs. And these weren't just hopping around. According to Jasher, "when the Egyptians drank, their bellies were filled with frogs and they danced in their bellies as they dance when in the river." Seriously, can you imagine?

But it doesn’t stop there. Next up: lice. Not just a few, but "to the height of two cubits upon the earth." A cubit, roughly the length from your elbow to your fingertips, means these lice were piled high – everywhere. And they afflicted everyone, even the king and queen.

Then comes a plague of wild animals. Not just any animals, but "fiery serpents, scorpions, mice, weasels, toads, together with others creeping in dust. Flies, hornets, fleas, bugs and gnats." A veritable Noah's Ark of unpleasantness unleashed upon Egypt.

But here’s where it gets truly wild. According to Jasher, when the Egyptians locked themselves in their homes to escape the animals, God commanded the Sulanuth, a creature from the sea, to break in. This Sulanuth had arms ten cubits long – that's like fifteen feet! It would reach onto the roofs, tear them apart, and unlock the doors, letting the swarm of animals inside.

After that, the livestock die from pestilence, then the Egyptians themselves are covered in burning boils that make their flesh rot. Hail destroys their crops, followed by locusts that devour what's left.

The Egyptians, perhaps understandably, rejoice at the locusts because they think they can at least eat them. However, God sends a mighty wind that sweeps every last locust into the Red Sea, even the ones they had salted for food. Seriously, the cruelty of this plague is mind-boggling.

Then comes the darkness, so thick that people couldn't see their own hands. Jasher adds a chilling detail: during these three days of darkness, many Israelites who had doubted God died, and their deaths were hidden from the Egyptians.

Finally, the plague of the firstborn. The despair is palpable. Pharaoh's daughter, Bathia, confronts Moses, asking if this is the reward for her kindness in raising him. Moses assures her she will be spared, but she laments the suffering of her family and people. Jasher even says that the likenesses of the firstborn carved into the walls of Egyptian houses crumbled and fell.

Pharaoh, desperate, begs Moses to leave with his people, offering them riches and pleading for them to pray for him. The Israelites, no longer slaves, "stripped the Egyptians" of their wealth. And Moses, in a powerful act, retrieves the coffin of Joseph from the Nile, fulfilling a long-ago promise.

What are we to make of all this? The Book of Jasher offers a truly extreme version of the Exodus story. It's a reminder of the power of storytelling to amplify and intensify sacred narratives. It also raises questions about the nature of divine justice and the suffering of innocents. Was this literal? Symbolic? Perhaps the point isn’t the historicity, but the sheer, overwhelming power of the story to convey a message about freedom, justice, and the consequences of oppression.

However you interpret it, the Book of Jasher’s version of the Ten Plagues is a powerful, unforgettable, and frankly terrifying glimpse into the heart of a foundational story. It makes you wonder: what other stories are out there, waiting to be rediscovered and retold?

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Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bo 17:4Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bo

Resh Lakish said: This teaches that before the plague there was another blow. How so? Every time the Holy One, blessed be He, sought to bring a plague upon the Egyptians, He would send Moses and say to him: Go, say to them that I am bringing such-and-such a plague upon them. And at the time when the plague of the firstborn came, Moses said to them (Exodus 11:4): "About midnight."

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