Exodus 8

Exodus 8:1-15

Exodus 8:1-15. 2°. Frogs Swarm from the Nile (Exodus 8:1-4 J, Exodus 8:5-7 P, Exodus 8:8-15 a J, “heart,” Exodus 8:15 b P).—”Each year the inundation brings with it myriads of frogs” (Sayce), amounting in certain years to a veritable plague, but they do not infest houses or die suddenly in heaps. In Exodus 8:3 they were to come upon the persons of the people, and into their earthenware stoves (“ovens”) and the shallow wooden bowls they used, as do the Arabs still, for “kneading-troughs.” When Pharaoh prays for relief, Moses concedes him the “glory” or ad vantage of naming the time when the pests should be removed, that the Divine control of the visitation might be the more conspicuous. Exodus 8:12. brought upon: read “appointed for Pharaoh,” i.e. as a sign.Exodus 8:14, gathered: render “piled.”Exodus 8:15. that there was respite: better “that the respite had come.”

Exodus 8:16-19

Exodus 8:16-19 P. 3°. Lice or Gnats (i.e. mosquitoes) Swarm.—In autumn, when much water is standing in the rice fields, swarms of mosquitoes, like clouds of dust, arise from their breeding-grounds. Perhaps that is why they are here described as generated from dust. Both renderings can plead ancient authority, but both scholarship and experience favour the second.

Exodus 8:20-32

Exodus 8:20-32 J. 4°. Flies Infest the Land.—Driver argues that “some definite insect is evidently meant . . . some particularly irritating kind of fly,” and renders “dog-fly” after LXX. The S. wind constantly brings flies in swarms, and their germ-carrying habits make them a peril as well as an annoyance. The exemption of Goshen (Exodus 8:22, Genesis 45:10*) is illustrated by the definite boundaries containing such swarms. This plague calls forth Pharaoh’s first concession, that, as it would be indecent and impracticable to carry out sacrificial worship in Egypt (Exodus 8:26 f.), Israel may “sacrifice . . . in the wilderness, only . . . not . . . very far away.” The “three days’ journey” (Exodus 8:27) repeats Exodus 3:18; Exodus 3:5 :sd3.