Seven days have passed since the Nile was turned to blood. So, was the Nile blood this entire time? The next plague will require it to be water, so it probably is back to normal.
My theory - the NIle was turned to blood and gradually returned to normal over the next seven days. If you think about it, blood oxidizes and clots when exposed to air. So, we can guess that's what happened to the Nile. The top layer was gross and nasty while the lower layers were less thick than the top, but more viscous than water. The Nile delta is a tidal estuary, so over time, this nasty mess was broken up and taken out to sea. Meanwhile, fresh water from upriver came and helped push it out.
I picture this as the Chernobyl meltdown of the ancient world, a huge environmental disaster in a densely populated area.
Pharaoh was not impressed with all that blood. But there is something far worse than a river of blood. It is an unspeakable horror that can keep him awake at night. Frogs!
God tells Moses and Aaron to warn Pharaoh about frogs, but in the next verse, God tells them to just bring the frogs. If they warned Pharaoh or God decided it would not help, we don't know.
Aquaman's brother raises the staff and swarms of frogs come up from the Nile. Bullfrogs, small frogs, the poison dart frogs - we don't know which kind, but we do know that Pharaoh hates them. They get into his palace, his bed, and even into the ovens and the kneading dough.
Pharaoh begs Aquaman to take away the frogs. "Go, do your festival in the desert. Just stop these frogs."
Aquaman agrees and prays for the frogs to stop. They die - everywhere. Their little corpses litter the land and we can probably surmise, they died in his bed, in he ovens, and in the kneading dough. That's probably more gross, but at least there are not new ones replacing them.
We are also told that Pharaoh's magicians can summon frogs. However, they obviously cannot stop a plague of frogs sent from God.
Pharaoh changes his mind. Then the third plague comes - gnats. In some translations, they are lice. It impresses the magicians, but not Pharaoh. "gnats? After a river of blood and......those evil, little green devils. Gnats aren't worse than frogs, this is a step down."
I would agree if they were indeed gnats. A swarm of gnats? Annoying, but probably less annoying than a river of blood or an invasion of frogs. But they were a swarm of lice? That would be more annoying.
Then the next plague comes - flies. Flies are larger and more annoying than gnats or lice. Pharaoh hates flies. Maybe the gnats were a warning that bigger insects - flies - would be next. A swarm of regular flies would be more annoying than a swarm of gnats, but less annoying than a swarm of lice. However, if they are biting flies, that would be far more annoying than either. The English translations do not seem to specify if they were biting flies or not, but the French translation suggests that they were as it calls them "pricking". A further indication that they might be biting flies is that they do sufficiently annoy Pharaoh that he relents. Throughout all the plagues, he seems indifferent to the suffering of others, but it is only when he personally is hurt or annoyed that it matters. I think biting flies would more of a personal impact on Pharaoh than non-biting flies.
This time around, God makes a point of sparring the land of Goshen from the plague. Did the land of Goshen experience blood, frogs, and gnats? Maybe or maybe not. Later on, in the plague of hail, there is no explicit statement beforehand about sparing Goshen, but we find out it happened. That said, why be specific when Goshen was spared unless it was not spared by the early plagues?
Pharaoh first tells Moses to do the festival in the land. He is afraid they'll leave and not come back. This is unacceptable to Moses. If the Egyptians see us sacrificing to another God or gods, they will stone us. After all, this is the land of Osiris and Ra, the Pharaoh is "god".
Pharaoh agrees. "Go into the wilderness, but not far. Now, pray for me."
Aquaman does so and Pharaoh changes his mind.
The next plague comes - a mysterious disease sweeps through all the livestock of the land, but spares those of the Israelite. I did not slaves could own livestock. Nevertheless, Pharaoh is not impressed.
The next plague comes - a plague of boils so strong that they physically incapacitate Pharaoh's sorcerers. We also see for the first time that "God hardened" Pharaoh's heart. We see encouragement by God. What?! My sense is that God is only encouraging Pharaoh to do something that Pharaoh already wants to do - keep his heart hard. This is the sixth plague and Pharaoh's pattern of hardening his own heart is clearly established.
Pharaoh's advisers are sprawled out on the floor as they cannot stand from all the boils. We can pretty much guess what their advice to Pharaoh would be. The text itself is silent as to whether Pharaoh himself had boils. This might suggest that Pharaoh was not personally hit by a boil, as he would probably be begging Moses to go. My guess is that Pharaoh sees his advisors in pain and they beg for him to release the Israelites. Since he's not personally affected by the boils, it's only his pride that stands in the way. Nevertheless, it says that God encouraged the hardening of Pharaohs heart.
The next plague - hail and lightning. The hailstorm appears to do more damage than the lightning. Aquaman prayed and meteorites of ice fall from the sky, killing people, animals, and vegetation. Trees are stripped of branches and crops are destroyed.
Pharaoh is impressed. Frogs, flies, and hail are too much. "stop the hail. Go if you must.". Moses agrees, but does not initially pray for it to cease. The text seems to suggest that he prays once he left the city.
The hailstorm stops and Pharaoh and his ministers harden their hearts. See, he never needed God's heart-hardening encouragement after all.
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