What is the meaning of Exodus 7:24?

So all the Egyptians

“ So all the Egyptians ” (Exodus 7:24) shows the plague’s reach. No household, from palace to hut, was exempt.

• God’s judgment touched “all the land of Egypt” earlier in the chapter (Exodus 7:21).

• Psalm 78:44 recalls that “He turned their rivers to blood, and the streams they could not drink.”

This universal impact underscored Pharaoh’s stubbornness (Exodus 7:13) and magnified the LORD’s supremacy over every Egyptian deity (Exodus 12:12).

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dug around the Nile

With the Nile itself undrinkable, the people “dug around” it—likely shallow pits that filtered seepage.

• Desperation drove them to hard labor, echoing Genesis 26:19 where Isaac’s servants “dug in the valley and found a well of fresh water.”

• Even pagans instinctively search for what only God freely provides (Jeremiah 29:13). Their shovels testified to human need and divine judgment.

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for water to drink

Water is life. Deprived of it, Egypt faced crisis.

• Exodus 17:3 records Israel later grumbling, “Why did You bring us up out of Egypt to kill us…with thirst?” Yet here, their former masters taste that very fear.

• The contrast between polluted Nile water and Christ’s invitation, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst” (John 4:14), reminds us where true satisfaction lies.

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because they could not drink the water from the river

Verse 21 already stated, “the Nile was turned to blood…so that the Egyptians could not drink its water.” God struck the heart of Egypt’s economy and religion; the Nile was worshiped as a god (Numbers 33:4).

• Each plague unmasked Egypt’s idols (Exodus 9:14).

• Revelation 16:4 mirrors this judgment when end-time rivers “became blood.”

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summary

Exodus 7:24 captures the futility of defying the LORD. Every Egyptian, high and low, bent to dig makeshift wells because their revered river lay ruined. Their frantic labor exposes how empty idols fail and how essential God’s pure provision is. Today, the passage urges us to forsake false sources and draw our life from the living water He alone supplies.