The Quran specifies that God gave Moses nine miracles to present to Pharoah and his people.
[27:12] “Put your hand in your pocket; it will come out white, without a blemish. These are among nine miracles to Pharaoh and his people, for they are wicked people.”
وَأَدْخِلْ يَدَكَ فِى جَيْبِكَ تَخْرُجْ بَيْضَآءَ مِنْ غَيْرِ سُوٓءٍ فِى تِسْعِ ءَايَـٰتٍ إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ وَقَوْمِهِۦٓ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ قَوْمًا فَـٰسِقِينَ
[17:101] We supported Moses with nine profound miracles—ask the Children of Israel. When he went to them, Pharaoh said to him, “I think that you, Moses, are bewitched.”
وَلَقَدْ ءَاتَيْنَا مُوسَىٰ تِسْعَ ءَايَـٰتٍۭ بَيِّنَـٰتٍ فَسْـَٔلْ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ إِذْ جَآءَهُمْ فَقَالَ لَهُۥ فِرْعَوْنُ إِنِّى لَأَظُنُّكَ يَـٰمُوسَىٰ مَسْحُورًا
- Staff turned into a serpent (7:107)
- Hand turned white (7:108)
- Drought, and shortage of crops (7:130)
- Flood (7:133)
- Locusts (7:133)
- Lice (7:133)
- Frogs (7:133)
- Blood (7:133)
- Parting the sea (2:50, 20:77, 26:63)
While the Biblical account does not provide an explicit count of the miracles given to Moses specifically for Pharaoh, it does detail several miraculous signs and plagues that Moses performed. These are primarily listed in the Book of Exodus, chapters 7 to 12, and include:
- Staff turning into a snake (Exodus 7:10-12)
- Hand turning leprous (Exodus 4:6-7)
- Water turning to blood (Exodus 7:20)
- Frogs (Exodus 8:6)
- Gnats (Exodus 8:17)
- Flies (Exodus 8:24)
- Livestock disease (Exodus 9:6)
- Boils (Exodus 9:10)
- Hail (Exodus 9:23)
- Locusts (Exodus 10:13-14)
- Darkness (Exodus 10:22)
- Death of the firstborn (Exodus 12:29)
- Parting of the sea (Exodus 14:21-31)
Among the miracles or plagues described in the Bible, Jews today often regard the final plague, the death of the firstborn, as the most significant and memorable. This is because they equate this miracle to the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The observance of Passover (Pesach) commemorates this event, specifically the night when God “passed over” the houses of the Israelites, sparing their firstborn while striking down the firstborn of the Egyptians (Exodus 12:29-32). This miracle is central to Jewish religious and cultural identity, symbolizing freedom and God’s deliverance.
Interestingly, this most notable miracle by the Jews is absent in the Quran, and this concept of killing a child for the wickedness of their parent goes against other teachings in the Bible.
Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin. – Deuteronomy 24:16
The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them. – Ezekiel 18:20
In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge. – Jeremiah 31:29-30
Yet he did not put the children of the assassins to death, in accordance with what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses where the Lord commanded: ‘Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.’ – 2 Kings 14:6
Book of Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees is an alternate account of the Book of Genesis in the Bible. It retells much of the narrative found in the first books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis and Exodus) but provides additional details and interpretations. Jubilees covers the time from the creation of the world to the Exodus from Egypt, emphasizing a strict observance of Jewish law, particularly concerning the Sabbath and festivals.
Despite not being included in the canonical Jewish Bible, it was known to early Christian writers. The most significant manuscripts of Jubilees were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran in the mid-20th century (1947–1956). These fragments, written in Hebrew, show that the book was considered important by the Jewish community at Qumran (often linked with the Essenes).
The full text of Jubilees had only been available in Ethiopian (Ge’ez), and it remains part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s biblical canon. Copies in Greek, Latin, and Syriac also exist, but the complete text survives primarily in the Ethiopian tradition.
Jubilees offers some interpretations that better align with the Quran than the traditional Biblical narrative.
In comparing the story of Passover between Genesis and Jubilees, a significant theological distinction emerges, particularly concerning the role of Satan. In the Genesis account (Exodus 12), the death of the firstborn in Egypt, as we saw above, is attributed directly to God. However, in the Book of Jubilees, the responsibility for the death of the firstborn is shifted from God to Satan. Specifically, Jubilees 49:2-4 recounts that it was Satan (referred to as Mastemâ) who killed the firstborn of Egypt. The text states: “For on this night—the beginning of the festival and the beginning of the joy—you were eating the Passover in Egypt, when all the forces of Mastemâ had been let loose to slay all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.” This version portrays Satan as the executor of the plague, with God allowing him to carry out the destruction. The Israelites’ marking of their doorposts with blood, therefore, protects them from Satan’s agents, not directly from God’s wrath.
And the Lord executed a great vengeance on them for Israel’s sake, and smote them through (the plagues of) blood and frogs, lice and dog-flies, and malignant boils breaking forth in blains; and their cattle by death; and by hail-stones, thereby He destroyed everything that grew for them; and by locusts which devoured the residue which had been left by the hail, and by darkness; and of the first-born of men and animals, and on all their idols the Lord took vengeance and burned them with fire. And everything was sent through thy hand, that thou shouldst declare (these things) before they were done, and thou didst speak with the king of Egypt before all his servants and before his people. And everything took place according to thy words; ten great and terrible judgments came on the land of Egypt that thou mightest execute vengeance on it for Israel. And the Lord did everything for Israel’s sake, and according to His covenant, which he had ordained with Abraham that He would take vengeance on them as they had brought them by force into bondage. And the prince Mastêmâ stood up against thee, and sought to cast thee into the hands of Pharaoh, and he helped the Egyptian sorcerers, and they stood up and wrought before thee the evils indeed we permitted them to work, but the remedies we did not allow to be wrought by their hands. And the Lord smote them with malignant ulcers, and they were not able to stand, for we destroyed them so that they could not perform a single sign. And notwithstanding all (these) signs and wonders the prince Mastêmâ was not put to shame because he took courage and cried to the Egyptians to pursue after thee with all the powers of the Egyptians, with their chariots, and with their horses, and with all the hosts of the peoples of Egypt. And I stood between the Egyptians and Israel, and we delivered Israel out of his hand, and out of the hand of his people, and the Lord brought them through the midst of the sea as if it were dry land. And all the peoples whom he brought to pursue after Israel, the Lord our God cast them into the midst of the sea, into the depths of the abyss beneath the children of Israel, even as the people of Egypt had cast their children into the river He took vengeance on 1,000,000 of them, and one thousand strong and energetic men were destroyed on account of one suckling of the children of thy people which they had thrown into the river. And on the fourteenth day and on the fifteenth and on the sixteenth and on the seventeenth and on the eighteenth the prince Mastêmâ was bound and imprisoned behind the children of Israel that he might not accuse them. And on the nineteenth we let them loose that they might help the Egyptians and pursue the children of Israel. And he hardened their hearts and made them stubborn, and the device was devised by the Lord our God that He might smite the Egyptians and cast them into the sea. And on the fourteenth we bound him that he might not accuse the children of Israel on the day when they asked the Egyptians for vessels and garments, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of bronze, in order to despoil the Egyptians in return for the bondage in which they had forced them to serve. And we did not lead forth the children of Israel from Egypt empty handed. – Jubilees 48:5-18
Remember the commandment which the Lord commanded thee concerning the passover, that thou shouldst celebrate it in its season on the fourteenth of the first month, that thou shouldst kill it before it is evening, and that they should eat it by night on the evening of the fifteenth from the time of the setting of the sun. For on this night -the beginning of the festival and the beginning of the joy- ye were eating the passover in Egypt, when all the powers of Mastêmâ had been let loose to slay all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh to the first-born of the captive maid-servant in the mill, and to the cattle. And this is the sign which the Lord gave them: Into every house on the lintels of which they saw the blood of a lamb of the first year, into (that) house they should not enter to slay, but should pass by (it), that all those should be saved that were in the house because the sign of the blood was on its lintels. And the powers of the Lord did everything according as the Lord commanded them, and they passed by all the children of Israel, and the plague came not upon them to destroy from amongst them any soul either of cattle, or man, or dog. – Jubilees 49:1-5
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