The passage contained in Ex. vii 14 ff describing the plagues in Egypt leading up to the killing of the first born is an important piece of evidence for the currently controversial documentary hypothesis.
The literary-critical presentation before us confirms this; but it shows that, in addition to the Yahwist and Priestly Documents, the Jehovist - who constructed the plague on the cattle and the hail storm - played a significant part and that the editor of the final text expanded upon his source. The thematic and formal lines of connection between the individual layers and the literary dependance of the latter upon the earlier are worked out, and a case is made for the location of the Jehovist in the time of the exile. An examination of the list of plagues in Ps. lxxviii and cv leads to the conclusion that the authors took over the final version of the tale of the plagues from Ex., but that for them the Jehovist number of seven plagues has won through.
This study confirms the correctness of the more recent documentary-hypothesis and draws attention to necessary modifications.