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• The plague of locusts (arbeh) is connected by the Zohar to the Sefirah of Gevurah, and the locusts themselves represent the consuming fire of strict judgment that devours everything in its path (Zohar II:33a). The east wind (ruach kadim) that brings them is the wind of the "ancient" (kadmon) force of primordial judgment. The Zohar notes that the locusts consumed what the hail had left — the plagues are cumulative, each completing the work of the one before, because the rectification of the Sefirot follows an interconnected order.
• The plague of darkness (choshekh) is among the most mystically rich passages in the Zohar, which identifies three ascending levels of darkness: darkness that dimmed the light, thick darkness in which no one could see another, and a tangible darkness in which no one could move (Zohar II:34a). These correspond to the three veils before Keter — the unknowable levels of divine concealment that, when projected downward into the realm of impurity, become paralysis and terror. The Zohar teaches that this was the original primordial darkness from before creation, temporarily released into the world.
• During the three days of darkness, the Israelites had light in their dwellings, and the Zohar interprets this as the Or HaGanuz — the hidden light of creation — being temporarily revealed to Israel as a foretaste of the world to come (Zohar II:34b). This light allowed them to see the hidden treasures of the Egyptians, corresponding to the extraction of concealed sparks that had been absorbed into Egypt's material wealth. The duality of simultaneous light and darkness in the same world reveals the Zohar's teaching that every level of existence contains both its holy and impure aspects.
• The Zohar records that during the darkness, those Israelites who did not wish to leave Egypt perished, and their deaths were hidden from the Egyptians to avoid a desecration of God's name (Zohar II:35a). This sobering teaching reveals that redemption is not automatic — the soul must actively choose liberation, and those who become fully identified with their exile cannot be extracted. The Zohar counts these lost ones as the majority, teaching that the spiritual demand of redemption exceeds what most souls are prepared to accept.
• Pharaoh's final negotiating position — "Go, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and herds remain" — is decoded by the Zohar as the last stratagem of the sitra achra: releasing the intellect and soul but retaining control over the vital, animal energies (Zohar II:35b). Moses' insistence that "not a hoof shall remain" asserts the Kabbalistic principle that redemption must be total, encompassing body, soul, and all material resources. The Zohar teaches that any spark left behind in the domain of impurity becomes a foothold for future enslavement.
• The Talmud in Shabbat 77b discusses the locust plague and the principle that God creates every creature with purpose, including agents of destruction. The locusts consumed what the hail had left, ensuring total devastation of Egypt's agricultural base. The Sages read this as a coordinated campaign — each plague building on the previous one, the way a military operation advances through phases.
• Sanhedrin 91a records an aggadic exchange where the Egyptians later sued Israel before Alexander the Great, demanding the gold and silver taken at the Exodus. Gebiha ben Pesisa counter-sued for 430 years of unpaid slave wages, and Egypt withdrew the case. The Talmud preserves this as proof that the economic aspect of liberation was divine justice, not theft.
• The Talmud in Pesachim 53a discusses the three days of darkness, during which the Sages teach that the wicked among Israel — those who did not want to leave Egypt — died and were buried under cover of that darkness. This devastating tradition reveals that liberation requires willingness; the divine rescue does not compel. Those who preferred the Sitra Achra's familiar bondage over the unknown freedom of Sinai perished in the darkness itself.
• Berakhot 17a connects the palpable Egyptian darkness to the spiritual darkness that the Sages call the absence of Torah. In the world to come, the righteous bask in the light of the Shekhinah, while in Egypt the darkness was a foretaste of what existence without divine connection feels like. The plague of darkness was not merely physical — it was an experiential revelation of what the Sitra Achra's final victory would look like.
• The Talmud in Megillah 14a notes that during the darkness, the Israelites could see into Egyptian homes and locate the treasures they would later request. This intelligence-gathering under cover of divine darkness is a spiritual warfare tactic — God provides His army with reconnaissance before the final operation. The darkness that blinded Egypt illuminated Israel.
• **Locusts as a Plague** — Surah 7:133 explicitly mentions "locusts" among the signs sent to Pharaoh's people, confirming the Exodus 10:1-20 locust plague. Both accounts include locusts in the sequence of escalating divine judgments.
• Jubilees 48:9-12 frames the locust plague as agricultural annihilation following the hail's infrastructure destruction — two consecutive plagues against Egypt's food system mirror the two-stage judgment pattern found throughout Jubilees: first a warning stroke, then total execution.
• The three days of darkness that can be felt (Exodus 10:21-23) is in Jubilees' framework a second-heaven incursion into the first heaven: the Sitra Achra's natural domain — darkness, the realm between the visible world and God's throne — temporarily extends into physical space over Egypt. Israel has light in Goshen because the divine presence illuminates the covenant zone. Darkness and light are not atmospheric conditions here; they are jurisdictional markers.
• The darkness plague is Mastema's own domain made into a plague upon the land he has corrupted. Every Egyptian deity associated with the sun — Ra, Aten, Horus as sun-god — is publicly humiliated. The gods of Egypt are being systematically invalidated in sequence.
• Each plague Mastema could not counter further collapsed his authority over Pharaoh's court. By the tenth plague, Mastema's operational control over the king was broken — he could no longer prevent the release of Israel.