Exodus 8 Study Notes

8:1-7 The second plague of frogs is described here. The magicians are again able to produce a few frogs but unable to remove the hordes of them. So again, the magicians only made matters worse.

8:8 Pharaoh’s request put Moses in a situation similar to that of Abraham in Gn 20:7,17; both were called prophets, both prayed for a foreign ruler, and the Lord answered both with relief (Ex 7:1; 8:13-14). The wording of Pharaoh’s request shows that he understood what had happened and what he ought to do.

8:9-14 The opportunity for Pharaoh to choose the time would show that the end of the plague was under the Lord’s control. Unless Pharaoh’s answer, Tomorrow, was idiomatic for “immediately,” or “as soon as possible,” his choosing postponed the end of the plague until the next day. The response to Moses’s prayer pointed to the Lord’s incomparability; he could start and stop this plague at will.

8:15 This is the first instance of Pharaoh making his heart “heavy” himself (cp. 7:14), but it is matched by the notice in 7:23 that he failed to “take . . . to heart” the first plague. References to Pharaoh’s hardening his own heart, in the sense of making it “heavy” and so inoperative, also include 8:32; 9:34.

8:16-19 Researchers have debated about exactly what kind of troublesome insects these were: gnats, fleas, mosquitoes, or ticks. Pharaoh’s magicians could not duplicate a miracle that involved creating animate life from inanimate dust. Only God can do that (Gn 2:7). So they declared, This is the finger of God (cp. 31:18; Dt 9:10; Ps 8:3). Yet, by their description, this disaster required the action of just a finger of the God who had said he would put his hand into Egypt. After the magicians’ admission, Goshen began to be excluded from the plagues beginning with the fourth, making it irrefutable that the God of the Hebrews was responsible since he spared his own people.

8:20-21 The use of two somewhat rhyming forms of a Hebrew word for send marks the cause-and-effect connection that Pharaoh needed to recognize. An idea of the tone may be indicated by a rendering such as, “If you won’t send out, I will send in.”

8:22-23 During the fourth plague and others to follow, the Lord would distinguish his people from Pharaoh’s people in order to give knowledge of his sovereign presence. This new element and the use of two forms of the word for “send” in v. 21 help to highlight the conflict and contrast between the Lord and Pharaoh. It would be clear that Pharaoh was unable to protect his people. Goshen was in northeastern Egypt, possibly near Wadi Tumilat, and had excellent pasture for sheep and goats (Gn 45:10; 46:34; 47:4,6).

8:24-28 The rare word translated swarms of flies does not specify a particular insect and may indicate a mixture. Pharaoh’s stipulations in vv. 25 and 28 show that he still thought he was in charge and could assert his authority. His don’t go very far uses an emphatic construction and the kind of negative command that only someone of superior status could issue. The word Moses used for detest is the same one that Gn 43:32 and 46:34 use to talk about the Egyptians’ refusal to eat with Joseph’s Hebrew brothers, that is, the Egyptian scorn for shepherds. Apparently Pharaoh could admit that Moses was right about the clash of cultures. Pharaoh would let the Israelites go and sacrifice in the wilderness, but his quick command—make an appeal for me—just two words in Hebrew, shows what he was primarily interested in.

8:29 Jacob used the word translated here act deceptively to describe how Laban had cheated him when he kept changing Jacob’s pay (Gn 31:7). The Lord did not owe Pharaoh warnings or rebukes. Each rebuke and each warning of an impending plague gave Pharaoh an opportunity to change course.