Question:  Dear Greg,

            In Exodus, the fifth plague (pestilence) kills all the Egyptians’ animals.  My question is: what animals were afflicted by the boils of the sixth plague and even more puzzling is: where did the Egyptians get the horses to pull the chariots when they pursued the Israelites to the Red Sea?

            George

Answer:  Dear George,

            Exodus 9:3 says of this fifth plague, “…The Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field…” Egyptian history tells us that Egyptian practice was to stable cattle from May to December, during floods, when pastures were waterlogged.  It may well be that this plague happened in early January, as some cattle were released to pastures in the south, and were, among other things, affected by the dead frogs left over from the second plague, and died from something similar to what we know as hoof and mouth disease.

            There is nothing in this text therefore to suggest that every single animal in Egypt was killed by this plague—only those “in the field.”

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht