And seven days were fulfilled— It seems to follow from these words, compared with the beginning of the next chapter, that, after this plague had continued one whole week, God removed it, in order to introduce another display of his power.
REFLECTIONS.—God gives warning before he strikes. Vengeance is his strange work; but when admonition is vain, then he draws the glittering sword. The judgment is heavy: all the water turned into blood, their fish destroyed, their land thus threatened with dearth, and themselves to die with thirst. The waters of the Nile were the cause of Egypt's fruitfulness, but now they are its plague; so easily can God turn our comforts into curses. They had stained its streams with the blood of Hebrew children, and now they shall in return have blood to drink. Thus God will repay in kind; and this done openly for their greater conviction. Truth never needs or seeks the covert. Learn hence, (1.) How ill we can do without the most common blessings: the want of water only would destroy us. (2.) That we must blame our sins as the cause of all our sufferings.