[And He Walks With Me] Exodus 8
1-15 The mechanics and significance of frogs is debated by modern scholars. Some theories suggest that whatever caused the water to turn to blood drove the frogs from the river into the surrounding land, where they then died. Others speculate that the frogs were intended to further attack Egyptian idealogy. These cite the frog goddess Heket, who was the consort of Khnum, a creator god, and considered a giver of life and patron goddess of midwives. Still others suggest the purpose was to further disrupt the maat (see note on 7:14-24) and undermine Pharaoh’s power.[37]
Moses preemptively dispelled the notion that this plague was a natural thing which just happened to coincide with the Nile River’s red color by predicting it with specificity (3-4). The Nile always had a large population of frogs, but who would have predicted they would overwhelm the whole land in this way? It must have initially seemed ridiculous to Pharaoh, but then the frogs came. The supernatural nature of the plague was reinforced in vss 9-10 when Moses invited Pharaoh to choose when the appeal to remove the plague should be made.
Rather than returning to the river where they belonged, the frogs throughout the land died, compelling the Egyptians to [pile] them in countless heaps and causing a terrible odor in the land. It is difficult to imagine how terrible this must have been. It must have been orders of magnitude worse than the fishfly hatches which happen in many streams and inland waterways. When these insects mature, they leave the waterway where they were hatched in such great numbers, and die so quickly, that some communities use snowplows to pile them into heaps for disposal, and the whole area is covered with an odor similar to that of rotting fish.
7 This is the third and final time the court magicians were able to duplicate (or at least emulate) God’s work. See notes on 7:11-12, 22.
15 The severity of this plague compelled Pharaoh to promise to let the people go so they could sacrifice to the Lord, but as is often the case, once there was relief from the plague, Pharaoh changed his mind. This is not unlike many “foxhole conversions” in which a person acknowledges God long enough to rescue him/her but then returns immediately to his/her former way of life.
The notion of a hard heart is almost certainly rooted in Egyptian mythos, though the exact aspect is disputed. One view points to the Egyptian understanding of the afterlife, which included a judgment in which the deceased person’s heart is weighed against a feather representing what is just and right. If the heart is found heavier, then the decedent will be consumed by a creature known as Ammit. Proponents of this view hold that the Pharaoh’s hardened heart should be equated to a heart heavy with guilt, and the idea that God would harden Pharaoh’s heart is akin to saying God found Pharaoh guilty even though the Egyptian people believed Pharaoh was always right. Alternatively, some scholars suggest the notion is rooted in Egyptian expressions indicating a person who does not speak or act rashly or a person who demonstrates courage and determination. This viewpoint suggests that qualities which were highly prized by Egyptians were, in fact, condemned by God. In either case, it is important to remember that Pharaoh and the Egyptians were already under God’s judgment, and the further hardening of Pharaoh’s heart “is only a means of giving them what they have so richly earned.”[38]
16-19 The third plague was gnats. The King James Version translates the Hebrew word kēn (כֵּן – H3654) as “lice.” According to Strong’s, it could also be rendered “maggots,”[39] which may indicate a causal connection between this and the next plague. Whatever species it was, these were tiny insects or larvae that were on and in everything. Indeed, the scope of the infestation is graphically described in vs 17. The fact that gnats were on people and animals indicates they were so thick there was practical way to keep them away, a notion which was then reinforced by all the dust of the land became gnats. Given that, outside of the area immediately adjacent to the Nile, Egypt’s geography is dominated by desert, the amount of dust was utterly overwhelming. Moreover, even if they were not biting insects, they were at the very least a nuisance.
It is curious that there is here no record that Moses returned to Pharaoh. Perhaps he did, but because the exchange went just as before, there was no need to replay it again. Alternatively, God may have assumed Pharaoh would understand that this plague was the result of his hardened heart and refusal to listen (15).
18-19 Despite their best efforts, the magicians were unable to reproduce the infestation. Neither were they able to provide relief. Instead, they were compelled to acknowledge that this is the finger of God, suggesting there was a power which superseded their own panoply.
20-32 The fourth plague was swarms of flies. There is a compelling argument to be made that this also was connected to the first three plagues: either the gnats/maggots matured to become flies or the flies came for the same reason as the gnats. The same argument could be used to connect the plague of boils: the flies bit both animals and humans, spreading disease and causing the boils.[40]
Notice again how Moses preemptively addressed the argument that this plague was coincidence: Moses specifically predicted the nature and scope of the event (21-23) and announced the timing of its ending (29). See note on vss 1-15. Even so, the first time may have been a coincidence. The second time seemed unlikely. This is now the fourth plague, and while one could argue (as above) that this was the natural progression of what began with the bloody river, there is still the exact timing and the prediction that the flies would not affect the land of Goshen, where my people are living. It was virtually impossible to deny that the Israelites’ God was responsible for these plagues.
As if the cause of these plagues was not already clear, for the first time, the Israelites were spared from the swarms of flies. With the exception of the locusts, the same distinction will be made in each of the remaining plagues, culminating in the tenth plague, in which the destroyer will pass over homes where the doorframes have been marked by the Passover lamb’s blood.[41]
Once again, the Pharaoh attempts to negotiate his way out of this judgment. His first proposal, Go sacrifice to your God within the country, was rejected because Israelite sacrifices would be considered detestable by the Egyptians and thereby result in the Egyptians stoning the Israelites (24-27). Therefore, Pharaoh offered a little more: Go and sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but don’t go very far. The idea seems to be that they would not leave Pharaoh’s direct control so that he could compel them to return. Indeed, despite these concessions, the one thing Pharaoh was apparently unwilling to concede was control. Notice the way he frames this latter offer: I will let you go and Make an appeal for me. He wanted to be in charge, and he was hoping to sway this God who could unleash plagues blood, frogs, gnats, and flies to be on his side. This was the ultimate nature of Pharaoh’s hardened heart: he would surrender many things, but he would never yield control.
[37] Wells 2016, Exodus 8:3
[38] Keener and Zondervan 2016, Exodus 8:15
[39] “H3654 – kēn – Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (KJV)”, n.d.
[40] Keener and Zondervan 2016, Exodus 7:14-11:10
[41] Beetham et al. 2024, Exodus 8:20-32