Philologos
Bible Prophecy Research
Title: "...hail and fire mixed with blood..."
Submitted by: research-bpr@philologos.org
Date: February 28, 1999
Update: April 06, 2001
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr/files/h001.htm

'...hail and fire mixed with blood...'

And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. -- Exodus 9:23,24

At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. -- Psalms 18:13,14

Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word. -- Psalms 148:8

The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. --  Revelation 8:7

"The phenomenon of 'blood' raining from the sky has also been observed in limited areas and on a small scale...One of these occasions, according to Pliny, was during the consulship of Manius Acilius and Gaius Porcius. Babylonians, too, recorded red dust and rain falling from the sky; instances of 'bloody rain' have been recorded in divers countries. The red dust, soluble in water, falling from the sky in water drops, does not originate in clouds, but must come for volcanic eruptions or from cosmic spaces. The fall of meteorite dust is a phenomenon generally know to take place mainly after the passage of meteorites; this dust is found on the snow of mountains and in polar regions."

Linking the events in Exodus to the earth passing through the tail of a comet, the author continues "Following the red dust, a 'small dust,' like 'ashes of the furnace,' fell 'in all the land of Egypt' (Exo 9:8), and then a shower of meteorites flew toward the earth. Our planet entered deeper into the tail of the comet. the dust was a forerunner of the gravel. There fell 'a very grievous hail, such as has not been in Egypt since its foundations' (Exo 9:18). Stones of 'barad,' here translated 'hail,' is, as in most places where mentioned in the Scriptures, the term for meteorites. We are also informed by Midrashic and Talmudic sources that the stones which fell on Egypt were hot; this fits only meteorites, not a hail of ice. In the Scriptures it is said that these stones fell 'mingled with fire' (Exo 9:24)... and that their fall was accompanied by 'loud noises' (kolot), rendered as 'thunderings'..."

"The Mexican Annals of Cuauhtitlan describe how a cosmic catastrophe was accompanied by a hail of stones; in the oral tradition of the Indians, too, the motif is repeated time and again: In some ancient epoch the sky 'rained, not water, but fire and red-hot stones,' which is not different from the Hebrew tradition.

"Crude petroleum is composed of two elements, carbon and hydrogen...The tails of comets are composed mainly of carbon and hydrogen gases. Lacking oxygen, they do not burn in flight, but the inflammable gases, passing through an atmosphere containing oxygen, will be set on fire. If carbon and hydrogen gases, or vapor of a composition of these two elements, enter the atmosphere in huge masses, a part of them will burn, binding all the oxygen available at the moment; the rest will escape combusion, but in swift transition will become liquid. Falling on the ground, the substance, if liquid, would sink into the pores of the sand and into clefts between the rocks; falling on water, it would remain floating if the fire in the air is extinguished before new supplies of oxygen arrive from other regions." Could a comet have passed very close to the earth and deposited all that crude oil in the middle east during the time of the Exodus?

The following are oral and written traditions from all over the world that lend credence to the above hypothesis:

1. Popul-Vuh, the sacred book of the Mayas, narrates: "It was ruin and destruction...the sea was piled up...it was a great inundation...people were drowned in a sticky substance raining from the sky...The face of the earth grew dark and the gloomy rain endured days and nights...And then there was a great din of fire above their heads."
2. The Manuscript Quiche from the people of Mexico: "There descended from the sky a rain of bitumen and of a sticky substance...The earth was obscured and it rained day and night. And men ran hither and thither and were as if seized by madness; they tried to climb to the roofs, and the houses crashed down; they tried to climb the trees, and the trees cast them far away; and when they tried to escape in caves and caverns, these were suddenly closed."
3. The Annals of Cuauhtitlan speaks of an "age which ended in the rain of fire."
4. In Siberia, the Voguls record: "God sent a sea of fire upon the earth...The cause of the fire they call 'the fire-water.'"
5. In the East Indies, the aboriginal tribes state that "water of fire" rained from the sky; "with very few exceptions, all men died."
6. The Papyrus Ipuwer: "Gates, columns, and walls are consumed by fire. The sky is in confusion." The fire almost "exterminated mankind."
7. Midrash Tanhuma, Midrash Psikta Raboti, Midrash Wa-Yosha "state that naphtha, together with hot stones, poured down upon Egypt. 'The Egyptians refused to let the Israelites go, and He poured out naphtha over them, burning blains [blisters].' It was a 'stream of hot naphtha.' Naphtha is petroleum in Aramaic and Hebrew.

(Worlds in Collision, Immanuel Velikovsky)

We are aware that a majority of interpreters maintain that the results of this first Trumpet are not literal. They seem as anxious to get rid of the miraculous and the supernatural from Interpretation, as the Rationalists are to eliminate it from Inspiration. But why, unless the plagues of Egypt also were not literal plagues, we cannot understand. Again we ask, Why should not these be literal judgments which are to come on the earth? What is the difficulty? God has said concerning the events of the day of the Lord, "I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire" (Joel ii. 30). How He will do this we are here told.

To explain this away is to manifest a want of faith in the power of God, and in the Word of God. Such things have taken place on earth. Why should they not take place again?

Cicero [De Div., ii. 27] tells us that word was brought to the Roman Senate, on one occasion, that it had rained blood, and that the river Atratus had flowed with blood.

On August 17, 1819, Dr. Seiss [The Apocalypse: A Series of Special Lectures on the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Lecture 18, c1881] tells us that "Captain Ross saw the mountains at Baffin's Bay covered for eight miles with blood-red snow many feet in depth." Also that Saussare found it on Mount St. Bernard, in 1778; that Ramond found it on the Pyrenees; and Summerfield in Norway.

Why may it not be seen again?

(Bullinger, E.W., The Apocalypse, c1909)

(Regarding the 10 plagues of Egypt) "...Behold, tomorrow when the sun passes this point,"--whereat Moses made a stroke upon the wall--"I will cause a very grievous hail to pour down, such as will be only once more, when I annihilate Gog with hail, fire, and brimstone."

____________________

Moses went a short distance out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the Lord, for he did not desire to pray to God within, where there were many idols and images. At once the hail remained suspended in the air. Part of it dropped down while Joshua was engaged in battle with the Amorites, and the rest God will send down in his fury against Gog.

(Legends of the Jews, Louis Ginzberg, Book 2)

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