They never do.

@Triphid Yes of course. I am mixing up the plagues of Egypt, with that of David. But it is still given as seventy thousand.

@Fernapple "The Plagues of Egypt," yet another point of contention given that the ONLY real recorded 'plague-like disasters to have struck Ancient Egypt did NOT occur during the Reign of Rameses the Great, son of Seti the First, but during the reigns of Hatshepsut, Thuthmoses Ii and Queen Cleopatra, the last Ruler of Egypt.
It is recorded that Rameses the Great had at least 130 children related to him by blood from his 60+ wives and Concubines of which there were 57 sons as the first born PLUS a First born son by his ACTUAL FIRST Wife and that is NOT including 'the Children of the Great House, i.e. those in whom, from COMMON families, the King saw great potential and made his wards, estimated to number in the hundreds btw.
The Holey Babble states that Yahweh sent the final plague to kill ALL first born children of EVERY household, sons and daughters alike no matter the age btw and given that estimated population of Egypt at that time was probably in the vicinity of 2.5 - 4.8 MILLION, logically speaking, the Death Toll would have been more likely in the hundred or hundreds of thousands given that the Egyptian lands encompassed an area from the Nile Delta to Nubia in the south and from the Qatar Depression in the west to the Sinai Peninsular in the East plus through to Kadesh as well.

@Triphid I have heard a theory that the last plague, the killing of the first born, could have been Ergotism. Since the Egyptians of the time had a tradition that in times of famine, only the eldest child was fed with grain or bread. The others had to scavenge. And therefore if the grain was infected with the Ergot fungal poison, the eldest children would be the ones who died.

@Fernapple Yes but had that been the case then would not the children of every household, Hebrews included, suffered the same fate?

@Triphid Perhaps not, that is actually, in part, the point, because the Jews did not have the same cultural tradition of only feeding the eldest that the native Egyptians did. It may even have been that tradition, and event, that more than anything started them off seeing themselves as a distinct people.

It is only a theory I relate second hand, but it does work rather neatly.

@Fernapple Unfortunately, your hypothesis or whom-so-ever it may have been who first formulated it was, it does not take into account that Ancient Egyptian life, Family Life included, was governed by the Law of Maat, aka the Rule of Universal Harmony, where, in accordance with it, ALL members of any family were to be treated equally and be given equal, shares of the available bounties, i.e. foodstuffs, etc, etc, that the family had at ALL times.

@Triphid I think that the Maat rules were more ethical guidelines for intellectuals, than actual laws that would have impacted much on a peasant tradition, maybe the hypothesis is still good. I will try to find my source again, you have to be very careful when dealing with biblical related history, you can easily get apologists posing as real historians, even when dealing with generally good sources like the BBC.

@Fernapple The Universal Rule/Law of Maat applied to one and all in Ancient Egypt it was not an Ethical Guideline as such but considered as being similar to what we call 'Common Decency and Morality even though, due to climate, etc, Ancient Egyptians, both male and females NORMALLY wore little more than loin cloths (as underwear) and a type of 'kilt.'
Both Genders usually went about bare-chested both in public and in private.
A couple would be considered as being 'married' once they had spent 3 consecutive nights and days living together in the same house, that did NOT include siblings, cousins, etc, etc, btw.
Maat also forbade Slavery completely in Egypt since it was Immoral and repugnant, Prisoners of War would be taken back to Egypt, cared for and housed then given the choice of either return to their own homeland or remaining in Egypt as free people and Egyptians AFTER they had recovered and had 'tasted' the Egyptian way of life.
I may be just what they call an 'Amateur Historian' when it comes to Ancient Egypt and the periods and eras, cultures of other lands, etc, but by NO means am I an 'apologist' and my studies and understandings of Egypt and it hieroglyphs ( hieratic and demotic) are quite respected.

Yea just think......If Satan punishes the bad, the evil then I would say he’s the good one!!

Uh-oh! Everyone is a sinner except Jesus - and God sent him to be killed. I guess no one is safe.