THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT

 

KONTAR 

I'm finally beaten, I can't fight any more.

I've been the one with the bravado. A drop of bloody water and a few flies aren't going to beat me I said. OK, the dead fish and the dead frogs smelled awful but, as I said, a smell doesn't kill you does it? There's worse things could happen. 

Trouble is worse things did happen, and they have kept on happening. I've got nothing left, everything I had in the world has gone.

 

I'll never forget the pitiful cries of my animals, ravaged by disease. The ones the disease didn't finish off I killed myself to put them out of their misery.

 

The boils I coped with, I wasn't badly affected, and I was working hard in the fields, so it took my mind off them. But Sheera and the boys were covered in weeping sores that wouldn't respond to any treatment. Even before the boils Sheera was in a terrible state, her anxiety has been sky high since the swarm of flies.

 

Then the hail came; hailstones bigger than I'd ever seen in my lifetime. In a matter of minutes all the hours of hard work I'd put into growing my crops were rendered useless. The barley had headed and the flax was in bloom, they didn't stand a chance. They were battered to the ground and destroyed. I'd laboured for hours and hours in those fields. I admit that my bravado took a bit of a knock that day, it was as if I was cursed.

 

When the storm finally stopped I started to ask around. It seemed that not only me, but the whole of Egypt was cursed, with just one exception. And if you think that was Pharaoh and his household you'd be wrong, they were suffering along with the rest of us. The exception was Goshen, all the animals there were fit and healthy and the crops were undamaged. Apparently they didn't get the flies there either.

 

Those of you who know the area will know that that's the Israelite quarter. That can't be coincidence surely. It seems that they are blessed in the same measure that we are cursed. No matter how they are suppressed they not only survive but thrive. 

 

A great anger grew up in me; they still had, and no doubt took for granted, all the things that I'd lost. All I had left were my crops for the late harvest - that's all I had to show for my hard work.

 

Then the locusts came; that's what broke me. They devoured the little I had left and now I have nothing. I'm beaten. And I found out where my anger should be directed. Apparently the Israelites have a God more powerful than any Egyptian God and Pharaoh has chosen to oppose him. He's been pre-warned about every plague and has chosen to ignore the warnings. Pharaoh's stubbornness has cost me everything. 

 

I know what I'll do, while there's a glimmer of hope left I must keep fighting. When daybreak comes  -  it seems particularly dark at the moment  -  I will go to the Israelite camp and throw myself on the mercy of their God. It's a small hope; I can offer him nothing, but I will go first thing, before I change my mind.

 

I've waited for that daybreak for three days now; three days of darkness you could almost touch. And in the distance I could see the glow of light from Goshen. That's hardened my resolve, what do I have to lose? At last I can see a hint of brightness in the sky and daybreak has finally come. I will go at once.

 

I have received the worst of news. I thought I had already lost everything; until this. Another plague is threatened, one that renders all the others mere trifles. In little over a week my son, my heir, the crown of my life, is to die at the hand of the God of the Israelites. And don't think he's been singled out, it's not just my Heru, but the firstborn of every Egyptian family who is destined to die. We are soon to be a country in mourning.

 

There is little hope I know, but I must do something to try and protect my family. I'll say nothing of this to Sheera, (I couldn't bear her distress), but I will go back to Goshen with all the silver and gold we have and plead with them to shelter Heru when the terrible day arrives. Perhaps if he's under their protection God will be merciful.