{"id":15808,"date":"2023-02-07T17:53:41","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T22:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/?p=15808"},"modified":"2023-02-07T17:53:41","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T22:53:41","slug":"exodus-91-7-did-all-of-egypts-livestock-die-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/exodus-91-7-did-all-of-egypts-livestock-die-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Exodus 9:1-7 – Did all of Egypt\u2019s livestock die or not?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Problem:<\/strong> Some critics of the Bible point to Exodus 9:1-7 and Exodus 9:18-21 as a contradiction in Scripture. The first passage seems to say that all of Egypt\u2019s livestock were killed by the pestilence, but the second seems to indicate that there is still livestock in Egypt after the pestilence:
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\nSolution:<\/strong> All the livestock died:\u00a0 Exodus 9:1-7, \u201cThen the Lord said to Moses, \u2018Go to Pharaoh and speak to him, \u201cThus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, \u2018Let My people go, that they may serve Me.\u2019 2 For if you refuse to let them go, and continue to hold them, 3 behold, the hand of the Lord will come with a very severe pestilence on your livestock which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks. 4 But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel.\u201d\u2018 5 And the Lord set a definite time, saying, \u2018Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.\u2019 6 So the Lord did this thing on the morrow, and all the livestock of Egypt died; but of the livestock of the sons of Israel, not one died. 7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold, there was not even one of the livestock of Israel dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the livestock did not die:\u00a0 Exodus 9:18-21, \u201cBehold, about this time tomorrow, I will send a very heavy hail, such as has not been seen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 19 \u201cNow therefore send, bring your livestock and whatever you have in the field to safety. Every man and beast that is found in the field and is not brought home, when the hail comes down on them, will die.\u201d\u2019\u201d 20 The one among the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord made his servants and his livestock flee into the houses; 21 but he who paid no regard to the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are three possible explanations. First, it is possible that the \u201call\u201d in verse 6 above is meant generically as in \u201cEgypt ruled all the world,\u201d and that it did not mean every single animal. Second, it is possible that in the few days between Exodus 9:1-7 and 18-21, the Egyptians acquired cattle from other sources. After all, the Israelites were \u201cowned\u201d by the Egyptians as slaves. Since none of the Israelite livestock died, the Egyptians could quickly have taken some of it for their own. Third, notice that in Exodus 9:3 the prediction covers the livestock \u201cin the field.\u201d Therefore, it is possible that the prediction was restricted to cattle in the field, and any livestock in barns or caves would have been spared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Problem: Some critics of the Bible point to Exodus 9:1-7 and Exodus 9:18-21 as a contradiction in Scripture. The first passage seems to say that all of Egypt\u2019s livestock were killed by the pestilence, but the second seems to indicate that there is still livestock in Egypt after the pestilence:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-errors","category-bible-teaching","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}