The Sixth Plague (Exodus 9:8-12)

8 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. [Whereas Pharaoh does not hear Moses speak, he witnesses the symbolic action.] 9 It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become boils [one substance is transformed into another; a small amount becomes a large amount] breaking out in sores on man and beast [some livestock is still alive] throughout all the land of Egypt.” 10 So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. 11 And the magicians [their last appearance as Pharaoh’s advisors who are impotent in the face of God and his finger] could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. 12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh [lest we forget God’s plan and doing], and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses.

[This is the shortest of the accounts yet one of the most devastating in that the magicians could not even stand because of the intense pain caused by the boils. Yet Pharaoh remains unmoved. Earlier I had notes that anthrax might have been the cause of plagues 5 and 6. The theory is that anthrax grew in the bodies of the dead fish from plague 1. The frogs, driven from the Nile by its pollution, carried the anthrax with them into Egyptian inhabited areas. Anthrax killed the frogs where they were. As the frogs rotted in the sun, anthrax was released in large quantities into the soil, where it could remain dormant; however, anthrax spread quickly from the soil to the grasses, killing the livestock that ate the grasses. Meanwhile, the rotting fish caused pools of stagnant water in the Nile where flies and mosquitos bred, and they carried the anthrax to humans. Humans die when anthrax spores are inhaled; however, skin anthrax, caused by the biting insects, which causes festering, painful and debilitating sores, does not kill, and people eventually recover from it. This theory, however, reduces the supernatural to what the natural can comprehend.]