Caption:
"Behold the hand of the lord is upon thy cattle." Woodcut depicting God sending disease to kill the livestock of Egypt, from the Ninth German Bible (Cologne Bible), 1483. The Plagues of Egypt were ten calamities that, according to the biblical Book of Exodus, Israel's God, Yahweh, inflicted upon Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery. The fifth plague of Egypt was an epidemic disease which exterminated the Egyptian livestock; that is, horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep and goats.