Cartun has some other interesting links up his sleeve: “‘God ( elohim ) occurs, as was previously pointed out, eighteen times in its various forms. The ‘Nile,’ a god to Egypt, is the only other single word repeated eighteen times total in the plagues narrative. These parallel repetitions suggest the battle between the Israelite God and the gods of Egypt, upon whom God promised to ‘execute judgments’ (Exod 12:12) Similarly, ‘Moses’ and ‘Pharaoh’ each recur 56 times. Just as God and the Nile are compared by repetitions, Moses is equated with Pharaoh, both as protagonists of the story and as leaders of their respective nations. Aaron is mentioned twenty times, as is the root ‘to serve/ worship’ ( abad ). These twenty times that Aaron and ‘to serve/worship’ foreshadow Aaron’s future role as High Priest in charge of the worship of the nation. That the ‘servants of Pharaoh’ are mentioned one more time than Aaron intimates Aaron’s inferiority to them, contrasting him subtly with his younger brother Moses who was the equal of his opposite number while Aaron was not. Perhaps this ramiftes why it was that Moses was chosen over his older brother as the leader of the nation . . . . All together, the number of times YHWH/God is mentioned (114+18= 132) is equal to the sum of the times Moses, Pharaoh, and Aaron, the other three named actors, are mentioned (56+56+20=132).”
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