Isidore of Seville

In his own words on Exodus

• Exodus 7:20

  Then the plagues are visited upon Egypt. They were carried out corporally among the Egyptians; they are now carried out spiritually in us, for Egypt is the figure of this world. The first plague is the one in which the waters are turned into blood. The waters of Egypt are erratic, just as the dogmas of the philosophers are inconstant. These waters are deservedly turned into blood, because when the philosophers ponder the causes of things they think carnally. But when the cross of Christ shows the light of truth to this world, it will reproach the world with censures of this sort, so that from the kind of punishment it suffers, the world might recognize its errors.

  QUESTIONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, EX 14:1-2

• Exodus 8:2

  In the second plague frogs are brought forth. They are thought to stand figuratively for the songs of the poets. The poets have brought deceptive fables into this world, with their empty and conceited songs that are like the croaking of frogs. For the frog stands for empty loquacity. That animal is good for nothing else but to give out the sounds of its voice in offensive and annoying noises.

  QUESTIONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, EX 14:3

• Exodus 8:18

  After these plagues, gnats are brought forth. This animal flies through the air suspended on wings. But it is so subtle and minute that it escapes being seen by the eye unless one looks closely. But when it lands on the body it drills in with a sharp sting. If anyone cannot see it flying, he still feels its sting immediately.This sort of animal can be compared with the subtlety of heretics, who drill into souls with the subtle stings of their words. They attack with such cunning that one who is deceived neither sees nor understands the source of his deception. At the third sign the magicians yielded and said, "The finger of God is here." Those magicians stand for heretics and their animosity. The apostle states this when he says, "Just as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so too these men resisted the truth. They are corrupt in mind and reprobate in matters of faith. But they will not advance any further. Their madness will be manifested to everyone, just as Jannes' and Jambres' was." The minds of the Egyptian magicians were disquieted by their own corruption, and their power failed at the third sign. They confessed that the Holy Spirit was against them, for the Spirit was in Moses. The Holy Spirit is put in the third place, and he is the finger of God. Thus the magicians failed at the third sign and said, "The finger of God is here." The Holy Spirit, well disposed and favorable, gives rest to the meek and humble of heart but, when he is opposed, stirs up disquiet against the merciless and the proud. Those tiny gnats signified this disquiet, at which Pharaoh's magicians failed and said, "The finger of God is here."

  QUESTIONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, EX 14:4-7

• Exodus 8:21

  In the fourth place, Egypt is struck with flies. The fly is an insolent and restless animal. What does it stand for except the arrogant concerns of carnal desires? Egypt is struck with flies because the hearts of those who love this world are battered by the disquiet of their desires.The translators of the Septuagint put cynomyia here, which means "dog fly." This word meant the habits of a dog, in which the pleasures of the mind and the indulgence of the flesh are constantly expressed. By dog fly this passage can also mean the eloquence of lawyers, which they use to tear at one another like dogs.

  QUESTIONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, EX 14:8-9

• Exodus 9:3

  In the fifth place, Egypt is struck with the slaughter of animals or cattle. Frenzy is demonstrated here, and the stupidity of men who, like irrational animals, gave worship and the name of god to figures carved in wood or stone—figures not only of men but of animals, too. They worshiped Jupiter Ammon in a ram, Anubis in a dog, and Apis in a bull, and others, too, which Egypt admired as symbols of its gods. They believed that the divine splendor was present in these forms and offered pathetic acts of worship to them.

  QUESTIONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, EX 14:10

• Exodus 9:9

  After these plagues came rotten and swollen cysts, along with fever, as the sixth plague. In the ulcers the troubled and purulent evil of this age is signified; in the cysts swollen and inflated pride; in the fevers anger and the madness of rage. Up to this point such punishments as were inflicted on the world were tempered, insofar as its errors were represented by signs. Questions on the Old Testament, Exodus

• Exodus 9:18

  After these plagues come blows from on high: voices, thunder and hail, and flashing fire. Thunder means reproaches and divine rebukes, because it does not strike in silence. It makes sounds and sends its teaching down from heaven. By its teaching the world is castigated and can acknowledge its guilt.And he sends hail, which destroys the young vices that are still tender. He sends fire, too, knowing that there are thorns and spiny plants which that fire might feed on. The Lord says of them, "I came to cast fire on the earth." This fire consumes the incentives to pleasure and lust.

  QUESTIONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, EX 14:12-13

• Exodus 10:4

  In the eighth place locusts are mentioned. Some interpreters think that this sort of plague confutes the inconstancy of the human race, filled with dissent and discord. In another sense, the locusts can be interpreted as representing flittering mobility, like the pleasures of this world in a restless and skittish soul.

  QUESTIONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, EX 14:14

• Exodus 10:22

  In the ninth plague, darkness fell. Either it means the blindness of their minds or that they should realize that the workings of the divine economy and of providence are most obscure. For God made darkness his hiding place. But they desired boldly and rashly to investigate it and, drawing one conclusion after another, fell into the dense and palpable darkness of ignorance.

  QUESTIONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, EX 14:15

• Exodus 11:5

  Finally the firstborn of the Egyptians are destroyed. They are the principalities and powers and the rulers of this world of darkness. Or they are the originators and inventors of the false religions that existed in this world. The truth of Christ put an end to these religions and wiped them out, along with their inventors.

  QUESTIONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, EX 14:16

• Exodus 12:12

  In what follows, "on their gods I shall pass judgment," the Hebrews affirm that on the night on which the people departed, all the temples in Egypt were destroyed, either by an earthquake or by a bolt of lightning. But we say, spiritually, that when we depart from Egypt, the idols of error take flight and the whole culture of perverse dogmas is crushed.

  QUESTIONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, EX 14:17