A reader, Daniel Hoffman, comments on my post about the dogs of Egypt:
“A while back I saw it pointed out somewhere (I am pretty sure it was John Currid in his book ‘Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament’, but I don’t have it on hand to check) that the Egyptian god of the dead was Anubis, who was usually pictured with the head of a dog or jackal. The statement that ‘against the children of Israel not even a dog will bark,’ while the Egyptians are threatened with death, could possibly be an allusion to Anubis. It would go along with what you suggested several days ago about Pharaoh telling Moses and Aaron, “Ra is before you” from Exodus 10:10.”
If this works, then it implies that Yahweh not only defeats the gods of Egypt, but turns them against Egypt. That is consistent with earlier plagues: The Nile becomes a source of death, frogs pile up all over the land, the son of god Pharaoh drives Egypt over a cliff.
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