From the perspective of the biblical narrative and the haggadah, each plague upon Egypt is more severe than the previous one, and Pharoah is worn down until after the final plague, Israel is set free. The perspective of this weeks haftarah from the book of Ezekiel is different. There is only one plague. That is the first plague:

“Thus said the Lord God: I am going to deal with you, O Pharoah king of Egypt,
Mighty monster, sprawling in your channels,
Who said,
My Nile is my own;
I made it for myself.

I will put hooks in your jaws,
And make the fish of your channels
Cling to your scales;
I will haul you up from your channels,
Clinging to your scales.

And I will fling you into the desert,
With all the fish of your channels.

You shall be left lying in the open,
Ungathered and unburied . . .

. . . And they shall know that I am the Lord—because he boasted, “The Nile is mine, and I made it.”

What is the first plague? The plague of blood or the plague of fish? In a brilliant analysis of the first plague by Prof. Rabbi David Frankel, (Associate Professor of Bible at The Shechter Institute), entitled “The Plague of Dead Fish,” on TheTorah.com, Professor Frankel argues that the plague of blood developed as a mythological amplification of an older account in which Moses strikes the Nile to kill the fish and make the water stink. Why make the water stink? Pharoah claimed to be the god that created the Nile. Ruin the nile, ruin Pharoah. If the nile stinks, then Pharoah stinks. Both figuratively and literally. This is the Pharaoh who went to the nile to bath each morning. Professor Frankel shows in detail how the narrative strands developed to create the first plague. A less miraculous plague of dead stinky fish was turned into a more miraculous plague by adding the element of blood.

In the Torah reading, it is important to note that God let’s Moses play His role when encountering Pharoah: “See I place you in the role of God to Pharoah ...” (7:1)  This was done to counter Pharoah’s claim of self-creation. The rabbinic tradition emphasized that Moses’ power was temporary and limited, so that it would not lead to false pride.