The BibleGospel Companion
Miracle · Egypt and the Exodus1491 BC

The ten plagues

Dated from the sources quoted below

True span4004 BC – AD 100
Beginnings · 4004 BC – 1996 BC · 12 eventsBeginnings4004 BC – 1996 BCThe Patriarchs · 1996 BC – 1635 BC · 34 eventsPatriarchs1996 BC – 1635 BCEgypt and the Exodus · 1635 BC – 1451 BC · 19 eventsExodus1635 BC – 1451 BCConquest and Settlement · 1451 BC – 1400 BC · 7 eventsConquest1451 BC – 1400 BCThe Judges · 1405 BC – 1095 BC · 13 eventsJudges1405 BC – 1095 BCThe United Kingdom · 1095 BC – 975 BC · 38 eventsUnited Kgdm1095 BC – 975 BCIsrael and Judah · 933 BC – 721 BC · 27 eventsIsrael & Judah933 BC – 721 BCJudah Alone · 721 BC – 586 BC · 22 eventsJudah alone721 BC – 586 BCThe Exile · 586 BC – 538 BC · 7 eventsExile586 BC – 538 BCReturn and Restoration · 538 BC – 400 BC · 13 eventsReturn538 BC – 400 BCBetween the Testaments · 400 BC – 4 BC · 8 eventsBetween400 BC – 4 BCThe Life of Jesus · 6 BC – AD 33 · 42 eventsJesus6 BC – AD 33The Apostles and the Early Church · AD 30 – AD 100 · 29 eventsThe ChurchAD 30 – AD 1001573 BC — Pharaoh orders the Hebrew boys killed1491 BC — God calls Moses at the burning bush1491 BC — The ten plagues1491 BC — The Passover and the departure from Egypt1491 BC — Israel crosses the Red Sea1491 BC — The Ten Commandments at Sinai1491 BC — The golden calf1491 BC — The tabernacle is set up1490 BC — The twelve spies; Israel refuses to enter the land1452 BC — Aaron dies on Mount Hor1452 BC — Balaam blesses Israel instead of cursing1451 BC — Moses dies on Mount NeboA new king enslaves Israel — placed by its order in the narrativeMoses is born and drawn from the Nile — placed by its order in the narrativeMoses flees to Midian — placed by its order in the narrativeManna and quail in the wilderness of Sin — placed by its order in the narrativeWater from the rock; Amalek defeated at Rephidim — placed by its order in the narrativeKorah's rebellion — placed by its order in the narrativeThe bronze serpent — placed by its order in the narrative
the events of this period, each at its year — this one outlinedplaced only by its order in the narrativethe whole thread →

Told in

Exodus 7:14–25Yahweh said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn. He refuses to let the people go.Exodus 8:1–32Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, and tell him, ‘This is what Yahweh says, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.Exodus 9:1–35Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, and tell him, ‘This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, that they may serve me.Exodus 10:1–29Yahweh said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these my signs among them;Exodus 11:1–10Yahweh said to Moses, “I will bring yet one more plague on Pharaoh, and on Egypt; afterwards he will let you go. When he lets you go, he will surely thrust you out altogether.Exodus 12:29–30At midnight, Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the…
Opening words from the World English Bible (public domain); the passage list is in-house

Who and where

MosesAaronPharaohEgypt ›
Names and references: STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0 · coordinates: OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding · CC BY 4.0

How we know the date

Ussher's Annals (1650) gives 1491 BC (its year of the world 2513 b).

Written in-house from the sources below · every year is a quotation

The sources, word for word

“2513. b. … Magis Pharaonis frustra sese opponentibus, Deus Mosis ministerio decem plagas A%gyptiis inflixit: quarum memoria in Psalmo septuagesimo octavo et centesimo quinto" celebratur.”

Ussher, Annales Veteris Testamenti (1650), Latin text in The Whole Works of James Ussher, vols. VIII–XI (Dublin, 1864) · vol. VIII, AM 2513 b · gives 1491 BC

Sources