Chapter Eight

1–14. The second plague — the sending forth of frogs and its severity. 15–19. The third plague — the appearance of gnats. 20–32. The fourth plague — the dog flies.

Exodus 8:1. And the Lord said to Moses: “Go to Pharaoh and say to him: Thus says the Lord: ‘Release my people so that they may serve me.’ Exodus 8:2. But if you refuse to release them, behold, I am striking your entire region with frogs. Exodus 8:3. And the river will swarm with frogs, and they will come up and enter your house, and your bedroom, and upon your bed, and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens, and into your kneading troughs. Exodus 8:4. And upon you, and upon your people, and upon all your servants the frogs will come up. Exodus 8:5. And the Lord said to Moses: “Tell Aaron [your brother]: Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the streams and over the lakes and bring up frogs upon the land of Egypt. Exodus 8:6. Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt [and brought up frogs]; and frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. The second plague consisted of the appearance, by God’s will, of a vast quantity of frogs (Hebrew zephardea) from the rivers, streams and lakes. The Hebrew “zephardea” is derived either from the Hebrew verb “zaphar,” meaning “to jump,” and the Arabic word meaning “swamp,” so that according to this etymology “zephardea” means “jumping in the swamp,” or from the Arabic word — “dofda” with the meaning of “swollen mass.” Furthermore, in the ancient Egyptian language, they point to a word “tsefet” corresponding in meaning and form to the Hebrew “zephardea,” which was used to denote a serpent and at the same time was a generic name for reptiles. The appearance of frogs, ordinarily observed in Egypt during the period after the subsiding of waters, as well as in other localities, for example Gaul, bore in the present case the character of a miraculous supernatural phenomenon: — a vast quantity of frogs appeared in a time completely unusual for Egypt, and suddenly, at a single wave of Moses’ staff; — contrary to their habits and natural way of life, the frogs rushed into houses, upon people, upon household utensils, penetrated beds, ovens, and even kneading troughs; harmless in themselves, they became, by God’s will, an instrument of punishment for His enemies; — and thus suddenly they died, vanished, as suddenly as they appeared.

Exodus 8:7. And the [Egyptian] magicians did the same by their sorceries and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt. The magicians’ imitation of Moses, which had the consequence of multiplying the frogs, increased the severity of the plague.

Exodus 8:8. And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said: “Pray [for me] to the Lord, that He might remove the frogs from me and from my people, and I will release the people of Israel to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. The magicians’ inability to deliver the country from the frogs, which aroused in the clean-minded Egyptians a feeling of abhorrence, led Pharaoh to the thought that this plague was accomplished by God and by virtue of this could be ended only by Him. Hence his request to Moses and Aaron: “Pray [for me] to the Lord.”

Exodus 8:9. Moses said to Pharaoh: “Set the time for me when I should pray for you, for your servants and for your people, that the frogs may be removed from you [and from your people and] from your houses, and remain only in the river. Exodus 8:10. He said: “Tomorrow.” Moses replied: “It will be according to your word, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. Exodus 8:11. And the frogs will withdraw from you, from your houses [and from the fields], and from your servants and from your people; only in the river will they remain. By allowing Pharaoh to set the time himself for the ending of the plague, Moses seeks to reinforce the thought that has arisen in his soul — that the affliction that has come upon him is the work of God, whose beginning and ending depends exclusively on God’s will. God can, by His almightiness, drive out the frogs at any moment appointed by Pharaoh.

Exodus 8:12. And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried out to the Lord regarding the frogs, which He had sent upon Pharaoh. Exodus 8:13. And the Lord did according to Moses’ word: the frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields [of theirs]. Exodus 8:14. And they gathered them in heaps, and the land reeked. The ending of the plague and the exact fulfillment of Pharaoh’s desire should have convinced him of the truth of Moses’ words: “there is no one like the Lord our God” (verse 10).

Exodus 8:15. And when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the Lord had said. The thought of the Author of the affliction, before whose will one should bow down, was awakened in Pharaoh by the severity of the plague. With its ending, it disappeared. “In accordance with people’s hearts,” says the blessed Augustine, “God’s mercy leads some to repentance, while others it arms against Him and strengthens in evil.”

Exodus 8:16. And the Lord said to Moses: “Tell Aaron: Stretch [your hand with] your staff and strike the dust of the earth, and [there will be gnats on men and on beasts and on Pharaoh and in his house and on his servants, all the dust of the earth] will become gnats throughout all the land of Egypt. Exodus 8:17. And they did so: Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and gnats appeared on men and on beasts. All the dust of the earth became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt. The third plague consisted of the appearance from the earth, at the stroke of the staff, of a multitude of “kinnim,” according to the LXX translation “gnatoi.” According to the opinion of Philo and Origen, shared by many commentators, these were gnats, mosquitoes, a common affliction of Egypt during the period of flooding. But according to Josephus, and the testimony of the Samaritan, Syriac and Arabic Pentateuch, the Targum Onkelos, and the view of some scholars — Buxtorf, Buddeus — by “kinnim” are meant lice. The greatest probability of this latter understanding is confirmed by the following facts. “Kinnim,” according to the biblical narrative, are brought forth from the dust of the earth, while mosquitoes appear “from the water”; regarding mosquitoes it cannot be said that they “appeared on men and on beasts” (verse 17); finally, in the Talmud the word “kinna” has the meaning of “louse.” The reading of the LXX — “σκνῖφες” — does not contradict such understanding. The use of this expression by ancient Greek authors — Theophrastus, Aëtius, Aristophanes — shows that the term denotes both grass lice and worms and fleas.

Exodus 8:18. And the magicians also tried to produce gnats by their sorceries, but could not. And there were gnats on men and on beasts. Exodus 8:19. And the magicians said to Pharaoh: “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said. The magicians’ powerlessness, the universal human powerlessness to call into being a new creature, showed itself most clearly in the words: “This is the finger of God” — the work of supreme divine power (Ps 8:4). The supernatural character of the third plague, recognized by the magicians themselves, is evident from its origin, the cause of which was the blow of Aaron’s staff, as well as from its scope: all the dust was turned to lice, not one part of the country was free from them (verse 17, Ps 104:31).

Exodus 8:20. And the Lord said to Moses: “Rise up early tomorrow and stand before Pharaoh. See, he will go out to the water, and you shall say to him: Thus says the Lord: ‘Release my people, so that they may serve me [in the wilderness].’ Exodus 8:21. But if you do not release my people, behold, I will send upon you and upon your servants, and upon your people, and into your houses the dog flies, and they will fill the houses of the Egyptians and the very earth on which they live. Pharaoh’s refusal to release the Hebrews brought upon Egypt a new affliction, expressed in the appearance of special living creatures, called in the Hebrew text the word “arov,” and by the LXX “κυνόμυια” (dog flies). Deriving the expression “arov” from the Hebrew verb “arav” — “to mix,” Josephus, and after him ancient Hebrew commentators and later rabbis, understand it in the sense of a mixture of various animals and insects. Aquila, whom the blessed Jerome follows, understands by “arov” only flies of various kinds. But if, like Fürst, one derives “arov” from the Arabic “arab” — “to seize,” “to sting,” whereby “arov” will mean “stinging,” then such derivation, fully in accordance with the words of verse 45 of Psalm 78: “God sent upon them (the Egyptians) insects, to sting them” (Ps 77:45, Wis 16:9), will point to “arov” not as flies in general, but as flies that produce a strong bite. This is how the LXX translators looked at it, transmitting the Hebrew “arov” by the expression “κυνόμυια” — “dog flies” and thereby making it clear that they understood by “arov” a specific kind of fly. The understanding of the LXX is recognized by modern exegetes — Buddeus, Keil, Dillmann. According to Philo, the insect that served as the instrument of the fourth plague combined the properties of flies and dogs, was distinguished by ferocity and persistence. From a distance, like an arrow, it rushed at a person or animal and, rushing fiercely, fastened its sting into the body and as if stuck to it. Testified to by both ancient and modern travelers, the abundance of flies in Egypt, to which the prophet Isaiah hints (Isa 7:18), makes it possible to suppose that the instrument of the fourth plague was a natural phenomenon that, by God’s will, took on a supernatural character. The latter manifests itself both in the coming and ending of the affliction according to Moses’ word (verses 20–21, 31) and in the liberation from it of the habitation of the Hebrews — the land of Goshen.

Exodus 8:22. And I will set apart on that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, and there will be no dog flies there, so that you may know that I am the Lord [God] in the midst of [all] the earth. Exodus 8:23. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign [upon the earth] will be. The liberation of the land of Goshen from the plague should have pointed out to Pharaoh the absolute, unacknowledged by him, power of the God of Israel. He destroys Egypt; His dominion over this country is irremovable by human efforts (verse 25), and at the same time He spares His people, appears as a powerful national God, which was indicated to the king before. If at the striking of the new plague, both Egypt and Goshen were affected, Pharaoh could think that there was nothing special in it, but on the contrary, at the division between the Egyptians and the Israelites (verse 23), Jehovah appeared precisely as the God of “all the earth” (verse 22).

Exodus 8:24. So the Lord did: a multitude of dog flies descended upon the house of Pharaoh, and into the houses of his servants, and upon all the land of Egypt; the land was destroyed by the dog flies. Exodus 8:25. And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said: “Go, offer a sacrifice [to the Lord] to your God in this land. Exodus 8:26. But Moses said: “It cannot be done, for we would offer to the Lord our God that which is an abomination to the Egyptians: if we offer to the Egyptians that which is an abomination in their sight, will they not stone us? Exodus 8:27. We will go a three days’ journey into the wilderness and offer a sacrifice to the Lord our God, as He will command us. The impossibility for the Hebrews to fulfill Pharaoh’s proposal: “Go, offer a sacrifice to your God in this land” is explained by the fact that the sacrifice, being abominable to the Egyptians, would arouse their religious fanaticism, and they would stone the Hebrews. According to the indication of the Syrian translation Peshitta, the Targum Onkelos, as well as of some exegetes, the fanaticism of the Egyptians could be provoked by the offering of such animals in sacrifice as were considered sacred in Egypt, and the slaughter of which, as a sacrilegious act, demanded in the Egyptian understanding requital. In the opinion of others (Lange), the abhorrence could be caused not only by the choice of animals, but by the entire Hebrew worship, as a foreign cult. The indication of this is given in the words: “To Jehovah, our God.” The sacrifice is abominable because it is offered to a god unknown, not worshiped in Egypt.

Exodus 8:28. And Pharaoh said: “I will release you to offer a sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, only do not go far; pray for me [to the Lord]. Pharaoh’s agreement to the departure of the Hebrews proves to be not voluntary but forced. In giving it, he fears losing his free laborers: “only do not go far.”