Exodus 8

Chap. VIII. Ver. 1-32. The plagues of frogs, and lice, and flies.—The plague of frogs is both threatened and inflicted; and though beforehand it might be despised, yet in the infliction it proved a very serious plague indeed, insomuch that Pharaoh now sends for Moses and Aaron, and entreats their removal. It does not appear that in this case the magicians were called in before Pharaoh; but thinking they should be expected to do something, instead of banishing these noisy and noisome animals, they contrived to bring up more! “Miserable comforters are ye, and physicians of no value.” ((Job 16:2). xiii. 4.) At the prayer of Moses the frogs now die, and the Egyptians were employed in gathering them into heaps, where they putrified and stank.

“But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto” Moses and Aaron, “as the Lord had said.” Another and more grievous judgment therefore follows, namely, lice, or other vermin; but whether with or without wings, is not certain. They were creatures that fixed themselves upon the skin of both men and cattle, and occasioned extreme and perpetual torment. The magicians again tried their skill, but it was now in vain; and they were obliged to give up the contest, and confess “the finger of God”—probably meaning, though not daring to say, the God of Israel—“in it:” still, “however, such was the stupid obstinacy and stubbornness of Pharaoh’s heart, that he would not submit.

Another plague therefore quickly follows, which, whether it consisted of a particular species of flies, as some think, or a swarm of various kinds, appears to have more affected the king than any of the preceding; particularly as they swarmed in the palace, and annoyed his own servants. Pharaoh now therefore professes himself willing to come to terms. Moses could never expect to alarm Pharaoh by predicting a natural and the land of Egypt; but Moses rejects this offer. “It is not meet: if we sacrifice the abomination (that is, the idols) of the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?” The next proposal is, that they shall go into the wilderness, “but not very far away.” He consents, at last, to give them a few days holiday, so that he can have hopes of their returning; but there was no sincerity in Pharaoh, except in his obstinacy; for no sooner are the flies removed, than Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and would not let Israel go.

But here, as above promised, we must offer a few brief remarks on this extraordinary contest between the magicians and Moses; between Pharaoh and Jehovah. 1. Moses and Aaron, though characters well known, both to the court of Pharaoh and to his magicians, were utterly unsupported by the former, and closely watched by the latter: they had therefore no opportunities of deception, as their opponents had; for, 2. What the magicians did was by enchantments; which, as the original implies, were accompanied with fire and smoke, and no doubt attended with ceremonies and incantations, which, if of no farther use, were certainly adapted to promote deception, as is well known to be the case among persons professing such arts.

3. It may be asked, What did the magicians do? They changed their rods (or wands) into serpents, (or water monsters,) like that of Aaron. But how did they accomplish this? Doubtless as other magicians do, by substituting one for the other; which could not be difficult, while the spectators were blinded by the smoke of their enchantments. Here, however, by their dragons being devoured by that of Aaron, the superior authority under which he acted was demonstrated. Again, if they turned water into blood, it must have been upon a small scale, and, as above observed, this is very doubtful. In the next instance, indeed, they brought up some frogs, which might be done without enchantment, when the land was filled with.

It has been generally supposed, that these magicians had dealings with evil spirits, and were assisted by them; but of this we have as yet no proof. We have seen them hitherto do nothing half so wonderful as the tricks of Indian, or even English, jugglers of the present day. 5. When they came to the miracle of the lice, (or perhaps gnats,) again “the magicians did so with their enchantments.” But what did they do? They made a vapouring with their incantations, but could produce nothing. They even confessed to Pharaoh himself, that they were nonplussed, and could do no more. This, said they, “is the finger of God;” implying, that hitherto they had trusted to the principles of their art, in the vain hope of rivalling Moses; but now they give up all opposition, and Pharaoh applies to them no more.

Still, eh So his heart was hardened, and he hearkened no more to them than to Moses and Aaron.—He would not believe. 6. What rendered these miracles more impressive to the Egyptians was, that most of them were wrought on creatures idolized by the Egyptians, as the learned Bryant has particularly remarked. The Nile was a sacred river, like the Ganges, venerated by the Egyptians, as is the latter by the Hindoos. Frogs were sacred animals, as were indeed cattle. They worshipped fire and water, darkness and the sun, and indeed almost every object visible around them. Thus they worshipped the creatures instead of the Creator. 7. The plagues inflicted, for the most part, were of creatures apparently insignificant, as crawling or flying insects: not crocodiles, nor river-horses, nor any of the larger monsters of the land or water; and this might be designed to show, that God can make the smallest of his creatures equally terrible as the larger, when armed with his commission.

It should be remarked also, that of the ten plagues inflicted, two only appear to have been fatal to the lives of men and cattle; namely, the seventh, (thunder and hail,) and the last, the slaying of the firstborn. The object of the Almighty was, not to destroy the Egyptians, but to display his glory. In this we may also observe an instance of righteous retribution. Pharaoh had plagued the Israelites in a variety of ways, by increasing their burdens, and the severity of their slavery; so the Lord plagued the Egyptians by a variety of judgments, till the wailing in Egypt over their firstborn, was equal to what had been in the land of Goshen: ‘Rachel weeping for her children.” (See (Exodus 1)) 8. Lastly, the striking distinction between the Egyptians in and about the metropolis, (Memphis,) who seem to have also been the chief sufferers by these awful judgments, and the Israelites in the land of Goshen, is particularly remarked in several instances, and perhaps extended through the whole.

They had no swarms of flies, no murrain, no tempest, no darkness, &c. ‘I will sever (separate) in that day the land of Goshen: I will put a division between my people and thy people; to the end thou mayest know that I am Jehovah.” (Ver. 22, 23.) This exemption of Israel from the plagues is, in the original called ‘a redemption.” Yes; God’s people are his redeemed ones, and they are redeemed from all evil. “The Angel which redeemed me from all evil (said the patriarch Israel) bless the lads!” ((Genesis 48:16).)

Notes on the verses

Chap. VIII. Ver. 2. Frogs.—Tzephardeim, is evidently the same with the Arabic, zafda, Chaldaic, oordeanaya, and Syriac, oordeai, all of which denote frogs, as almost all interpreters, both ancient and modern, agree to render it; probably so called, as Bochart conceives, from tzifa, a bank, and rada, mud, because of delighting in muddy and marshy places. From this circumstance the frog has many of its epithets in the Batrachomyomachia of Homer. —Bagster. Ver. 3. Into thine ovens.—Not when heated, to be sure, but when not in use. Some of the ovens of the ancients were pots of earth or stone, inserted in holes of the earth.—Dr. Clarke.—And kneading troughs.—Margin, “Troughs of dough.” The Greek expounds it, “lumps of dough;” which the word seems properly to mean in (Exodus 12:34).—Ainsworth. Ver. 6. Frogs came up.—(Whether the frog among the Egyptians was an object of reverence or abhorrence is uncertain. It might have been both at the same time as are known to have been among particular nations; for proof of which see the very learned Jacob Bryant on the Plagues of Egypt. In some ancient writers we have examples of a similar plague. The Abderites, according to Orosius, and the inhabitants of Pewonia and Dardania, according to Athenæus, were obliged to abandon their country, on account of vast number of frogs by which their land was infested. See Bochart.—Bagster. Ver. 9. Glory over me.—Le Clere and Houbigant, by changing one letter only of the original, (P for B,) read, ‘Declare unto me,” as they suppose was read = the LXX. and Vulgate, who translate it, “Appoint unto me a time,” &c. which is followed by Boothroyd and others; but Geddes objects that it is not supported by MSS. Might not this be a Hebrew phrase equal to “Command me;” i.e. fix your own time? Similar is the reading on our margin; “Have this honour over me: against when shall I entreat?” &c. “And he said, Against to morrow.” Ver. 15. When he saw that there was respite—Hebrew, “a breathing;” Greek, “a refreshing.” —He hardened his heart.—Margin, “Made his heart heavy;” i.e. stupid, insensible. See (Exodus 7:14). Note. Ver. 16, 17. Lice.—Hebrew, kinnim. Is rendered by the LXX. and by the Vulgate, gnats; and Harmer supposes he has found out the true meaning in the word tarrentes, a species of worm.

Bochart, however, seems to have proved that lice, and not gnats, are meant; because, 1. they sprang from the dust, and not from the waters; 2. they were on both man and beast, which cannot be said of gnats; 3. their name is derived from koon, to make firm, fix, establish, which cannot agree with gnats, flies, &c. which are ever changing lice, and almost constantly on the wing; 4. the term kinnah, is used by the almudists to express the louse. If this animal be intended, it must have been a very dreadful and afflicting plague to the Egyptians, and especially to the priests, who were obliged to shave the hair off every part of their bodies, and to wear a single linen tunic, to prevent vermin harbouring about them.

See Herodotus and Bryant.—Bagster. Ver. 21, 22, 24. Swarms (of flies;) the word flies being supplied.—The Hebrew arob (or oreb) means, 1. A mixture, and is so translated, (Exodus 12:38). it may therefore mean a swarm of noisome insects, (not beasts, as in the margin, which is founded on a Rabbinical fiction.)—Dr. Clarke; also Charles Tayler who suggests that these insects might have been bred in the heaps of putrid frogs, ver. 14. 2. The raven, from its dark colour, as the word often means. 3. The black beetle, which is at first white, but in a short time turns black, like the evening, from which it receives its name, So Dr. Ge. Dr. Boothroyd explains it (on the authority of Forskal) of the blatta Egyptica which are found at Alexandria, 4.

The LXX. render it, Kvenomuia, the dog-fly; which seems to be the same as our gad-fly (or goad-fly, as Skinner explains it, because it goads the cattle almost to madness.) Bruce, who found this fly in Abyssinia, (called by the Arabs zimb,) describes it as a most formidable creature, (bigger than a bee,) which drives not only cattle, but even camels into the desert, whither it does not follow them. 5. Bochart (who particularly studied the natural history of the Bible) inclines either to the dog-fly, or the alchurkous of the Arabs, a small but very destructive insect. The first sense, as the most comprehensive, seems also the most probable. Ver. 22, I will sever in that day.—Ainsworth renders it, “I will marvelously sever;” the Vulgate to the same effect; and the LXX. “I will render illustrious the land of Goshen.” See ch. x. 23. Ver. 24. The land was corrupted.—Margin, “destroyed,” by reason of the swarm of flies. [How intolerable a plague of flies can prove, is evident from the fact, that whole districts have been laid waste by them. Such was the case of Myuns in Ionia, and of Alarne.—The inhabitants were forced to leave those cities, not being able to stand against the flies and gnats with which they were pestered. Trajan was obliged to raise the siege of a city in Arabia, before which he had sat down, being driven away by the swarms of these insects. Hence different people had deities whose office it was to defend them against flies.

Among these may be reckoned Baalzebub, the fly-god of Ekron; Hercules, the expeller of flies; and hence Jupiter had titles, because he was supposed to expel flies, and especially clear his temples of these insects. See Bryant.]