The second plague is of frogs: Pharao promiseth to let the Israelites
go, but breaketh his promise. The third plague is of sciniphs. The
fourth is of flies. Pharao again promiseth to dismiss the people, but
doth it not.
8:1. And the Lord said to Moses: Go in to Pharao, and thou shalt say to
him: Thus saith the Lord: Let my people go to sacrifice to me.
8:2. But if thou wilt not let them go, behold I will strike all thy
coasts with frogs.
8:3. And the river shall bring forth an abundance of frogs; which shall
come up and enter into thy house, and thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed,
and into the houses of thy servants, and to thy people, and into thy
ovens, and into the remains of thy meats:
8:4. And the frogs shall come in to thee, and to thy people, and to all
thy servants.
8:5. And the Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron: Stretch forth thy hand
upon the streams, and upon the rivers and the pools, and bring forth
frogs upon the land of Egypt.
8:6. And Aaron stretched forth his hand upon the waters of Egypt, and
the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.
8:7. And the magicians also, by their enchantments, did in like manner,
and they brought forth frogs upon the land of Egypt.
8:8. But Pharao called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: Pray ye to the
Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let
the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.
Pray ye to the Lord, etc... By this it appears, that though the
magicians, by the help of the devil, could bring frogs, yet they could
not take them away: God being pleased to abridge in this the power of
Satan. So we see they could not afterwards produce the lesser insects;
and in this restraint of the power of the devil, were forced to
acknowledge the finger of God.
8:9. And Moses said to Pharao: Set me a time when I shall pray for thee,
and for thy servants, and for thy people, that the frogs may be driven
away from thee and from thy house, and from thy servants, and from thy
people; and may remain only in the river.
8:10. And he answered: To morrow. But he said: I will do according to
thy word; that thou mayest know that there is none like to the Lord our
God.
8:11. And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy house, and from
thy servants, and from thy people; and shall remain only in the river.
8:12. And Moses and Aaron went forth from Pharao: and Moses cried to the
Lord for the promise, which he had made to Pharao concerning the frogs.
8:13. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses: and the frogs
died out of the houses, and out of the villages, and out of the fields:
8:14. And they gathered them together into immense heaps, and the land
was corrupted.
8:15. And Pharao seeing that rest was given, hardened his own heart, and
did not hear them, as the Lord had commanded.
Pharao hardened his own heart... By this we see that Pharao was himself
the efficient cause of his heart being hardened, and not God.-See the
same repeated in ver. 32. Pharao hardened his heart at this time also:
likewise chap. 9.7, 35, and chap. 13.15.
8:16. And the Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron: Stretch forth thy rod,
and strike the dust of the earth; and may there be sciniphs in all the
land of Egypt.
Sciniphs... Or Cinifs, Hebrew Chinnim, small flying insects, very
troublesome both to men and beast.
8:17. And they did so. And Aaron stretched forth his hand, holding the
rod; and he struck the dust of the earth, and there came sciniphs on men
and on beasts: all the dust of the earth was turned into sciniphs
through all the land of Egypt.
8:18: And the magicians with their enchantments practised in like
manner, to bring forth sciniphs, and they could not: and there were
sciniphs as well on men as on beasts.
8:19. And the magicians said to Pharao: This is the finger of God. And
Pharao's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord
had commanded.
8:20. The Lord also said to Moses: Arise early, and stand before Pharao;
for he will go forth to the waters: and thou shalt say to him: Thus
saith the Lord: Let my people go to sacrifice to me.
8:21. But if thou wilt not let them go, behold I will send in upon thee,
and upon thy servants, and upon thy houses, all kind of flies: and the
houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with flies of divers kinds, and
the whole land wherein they shall be.
8:22. And I will make the land of Gessen wonderful in that day, so that
flies shall not be there: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord in the
midst of the earth.
8:23. And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to
morrow shall this sign be.
8:24. And the Lord did so. And there came a very grievous swarm of flies
into the houses of Pharao and of his servants, and into all the land of
Egypt: and the land was corrupted by this kind of flies.
8:25. And Pharao called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: Go and
sacrifice to your God in this land.
8:26. And Moses said: It cannot be so: for we shall sacrifice the
abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: now if we kill those
things which the Egyptians worship, in their presence, they will stone
us.
The abominations, etc... That is, the things they worship for Gods:
oxen, rams, etc. It is the usual style of the scriptures to call all
idols and false gods, abominations, to signify how much the people of
God ought to detest and abhor them.
8:27. We will go three days' journey into the wilderness; and we will
sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.
8:28. And Pharao said: I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your
God in the wilderness, but go no farther: pray for me.
8:29. And Moses said: I will go out from thee, and will pray to the
Lord: and the flies shall depart from Pharao, and from his servants, and
from his people to morrow: but do not deceive any more, in not letting
the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.
8:30. So Moses went out from Pharao, and prayed to the Lord.
8:31. And he did according to his word: and he took away the flies from
Pharao, and from his servants, and from his people: there was not left
so much as one.
8:32. And Pharao's heart was hardened, so that neither this time would
he let the people go.