Go to Related Reading
About this book

LXX Exodus

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 7

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Look, I have made you a god to Pharaoh,⁠ and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. 2 And you shall say to him all things that I charge you, and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he should send forth the children of Israel out of his land. 3 And I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, and I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. 4 And Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will lay my hand upon Egypt; and will bring out my people the children of Israel with my power out of the land of Egypt with great vengeance. 5 And all the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, stretching out my hand upon Egypt, and I will bring out the children of Israel out of the midst of them. 6 And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so they did. 7 And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron his brother was eighty-three years old, when he spoke to Pharaoh. 8 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 9 Now if Pharaoh should speak to you, saying, Give us a sign or a wonder, then you will say to your brother Aaron, Take your rod and cast it upon the ground before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it shall become a serpent. 10 And Moses and Aaron went in before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and they did so, as the Lord commanded them; and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 But Pharaoh called together the wise men of Egypt, and the sorcerers, and the charmers also of the Egyptians did likewise with their sorceries. 12 And they cast down each his rod, and they became serpents, but the rod of Aaron swallowed up their rods. 13 and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord charged them. 14 and the Lord said to Moses, The heart of Pharaoh is made hard, so that he should not let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh early in the morning: look, he goes forth to the water; and you shall meet him on the bank of the river, and you shall take in your hand the rod that was turned into a serpent. 16 And you shall say to him, The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, Send my people away, that they may serve me in the wilderness, and, look, until now you have not listened. 17 These things says the Lord: Hereby you will know that I am the Lord: look, I strike with the rod that is in my hand on the water which is in the river, and it shall change it into blood. 18 And the fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall stink, and the Egyptians shall not be able to drink water from the river. 19 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to your brother Aaron, Take your rod in your hand, and stretch forth your hand over the waters of Egypt, and over their rivers, and over their canals, and over their ponds, and over all their standing water, and it shall become blood: and there was blood in all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and of stone. 20 and Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded them; and Aaron having lifted up his hand with his rod, struck the water in the river before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and changed all the water in the river into blood. 21 And the fish in the river died, and the river stank; and the Egyptians could not drink water from the river, and the blood was in all the land of Egypt. 22 And the charmers also of the Egyptians did so with their sorceries; and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not listen to them, even as the Lord said. 23 And Pharaoh turned and entered into his house, nor did he fix his attention even on this thing. 24 And all the Egyptians dug all around the river, so as to drink water, for they could not drink water from the river. 25 and seven days were fulfilled after the Lord had struck the river. 26 And the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh, and you shall say to him, These things says the Lord: send forth my people, that they may serve me. 27 And if you will not send them forth, look, I afflict all your borders with frogs: 28 and the river shall teem with frogs, and they shall go up and enter into your houses, and into your bed-chambers, and upon your beds, and upon the houses of your servants, and of your people and on your dough, and on your ovens. 29 And the frogs will come up upon you, and upon your servants, and upon your people.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Exodus 7:1 and Philo, On the Birth of Abel 1:9

Septuagint · Classical

Share:

Summary

Philo quotes Exodus 7 to explain how Moses could be called “a god” without adding a second god. For Philo, God is complete and cannot be added to, so Moses is only “a sort of god” because he is master of his own body and mind.

Passages

LXX Exodus 7:1

Septuagint
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Look, I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. 2 And you shall say to him all things that I charge you, and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he should send forth the children of Israel out of his land. 3 And I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, and I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Exodus

Philo, On the Birth of Abel 1:9

Classical · De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini
8 There is also another proof that the mind is immortal, and it is this: there are some people whom God, advancing them to higher degrees of improvement, has enabled to soar above all species and genera, placing them near himself, as he says to Moses, 'But stand here with Me.' He departs to another abode, so that you may understand from this that God counts a wise man as worthy of equal honour with the world itself, since by the same word he both created the universe and raised the perfect man from the things of earth up to himself. 9 Yet when he gave him the use of all earthly things and allowed him to live among them, he did not assign him a power such as he might share with an earthly governor or monarch, by which he would forcibly rule over the passions of the soul; instead he appointed him to be a sort of god, making the whole body, and the mind that rules the body, his subjects and slaves; 'For I give you,' he says, 'as a god to Pharaoh.' But God admits no subtraction or addition, since he is complete and entirely equal to himself. 10 This is why it is said of Moses, 'That no one is said to know of his tomb;' for who could be competent to perceive the migration of a perfect soul to the living God? I do not even believe that the soul itself, while awaiting this event, was aware of its own improvement, since it was then gradually becoming divine; for when God is about to benefit people, he does not take the one who is to receive the benefit into his counsels, but rather tends to pour his benefits ungrudgingly on him before he has any anticipation of them. This is roughly what it means that God adds the creation of what is good to the perfect mind. And the good is holiness, whose name is Abel.
20–50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Philo, On the Birth of Abel

References

“... The persistence of the unwelcome opinion is particularly clear in the case of Exodus 7:1, whence the giving of the name ‘god’ to Moses was taken up in Sirach (45:2, where ‘god’ is indicated by the fragmentary Genizah Hebrew), and again in the Herodian age by Philo (Vita Mosis 1.158, ‘he was named god and king of the whole people’). It was also probably taken up in 4Q374, a Hebrew fragment on the exodus and conquest (line 6, ‘he set him for a god over mighty ones, and a cause of reeling to Pharaoh’). In the ancient versions, the sense ‘a god for Pharaoh’ or ‘a god of Pharaoh’ remains not only in the Septuagint and the Peshitta but also in later Jewish or Jewish-influenced versions and interpretations, including Aquila, Symmachus, and the Vulgate ...”
William Horbury, “Jewish and Christian Monotheism in the Herodian Age,” in Early Jewish and Christian Monotheism, ed. Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Wendy E. S. North (London: T&T Clark International, 2004), 37.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Tags

Your feedback

Comments

  • Thanks

    Paul, October 8, 2026

LXX Exodus 7:1 and Philo, On the Birth of Abel 1:9

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library