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the wilderness with like punishment: "May the Lord strike thee with a very sore ulcer in the knees and in the legs, and be thou incurable from the sole of the foot to the top of the head. [1] Herod Agrippa was similarly stricken when he allowed himself to be hailed as God. [2]

In a moral sense this plague refers to the shame and confusion of those who harden their hearts and close their ears to the voice of the Church. In this sense it refers especially to the Jews who rejected the true Messias and become leaders against His Church in the days of Anti-christ.

3. The second plague changes the waters of the sea into blood and destroys all living things therein. This may be taken literally as in the first Egyptian plague when Moses turned the waters of all Egypt into blood. In a figurative sense the sea represents the nations in revolt against the Church. They shall be chastized by war and revolution almost to extermination. But if the destruction of every living soul" be taken literally the sea must refer to particular nations or peoples.

4. The streams and their sources shall likewise be changed into blood. In a symbolic meaning this signifies that the teachers of error and blasphemy shall be slain.

5. 6. The Church teaches that nations as well as individuals have angels to guide and protect them. The

  1. Deuteronomy xxviii, 35.
  2. Acts of the Apostles xii, 23.