Nile turning to blood

A lesson for wronging God’s chosen people

THE BOOK OF EXODUS

After Egypt's pharaoh refuses to grant the Israelites freedom, God tells Moses and Aaron to use their staffs to turn the River Nile to blood: “And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt."

There is one Egyptian record that refers to a historical event that sounds a bit like this. The Ipuwer Papyrus, written in the name of a man named Ipuwer, discusses Egypt suffering from chaos and warfare and says that,

"the river is blood." The text dates back more than 3,000 years, although its precise date is a matter of debate among scholars. Another, more mundane, explanation for what happened to the Nile is that red algae bloom can cause the water to appear red.