Exodus
Chapter 8
The Lord spoke to Moses:
“Say to Aaron: Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, canals, and ponds of Egypt
and cause frogs to cover all the country of Egypt.”
The magicians of Egypt did the same, utilizing their secret formulas, and they brought frogs over the land of Egypt!
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said:
“Ask the Lord to remove the frogs from me and my people, and I will send your people to sacrifice to the Lord.”
But Moses replied:
“Let me know, please, when I am to make the petition for you, your officials, and your people that you may be rid of frogs except in the Nile.”
Pharaoh answered:
“Tomorrow.”
Moses said:
“Right, and that you may know that there is no one like the Lord, our God,
the frogs will disappear from you and your house, your servants and your people; only in the Nile will they remain.”
With this, Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh. Then Moses prayed to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh.
The Lord did as Moses had asked, and the frogs died in the houses, farms, and fields.
The people gathered them in heaps, and the land was filled with a foul smell.
Now that relief had come, Pharaoh became even more stubborn and refused to listen, just as the Lord had predicted.
The Third Plague: Gnats
The Lord said to Moses:
“Tell Aaron to strike the dust of the earth with his staff and turn it into mosquitoes throughout the land.”
Aaron did this; he struck the dust of the earth, which turned into mosquitoes that tormented people and animals. All the dust of the earth all over Egypt turned into mosquitoes.
But when the magicians tried, employing their secret formulas, to drive away the mosquitoes, they could not, and the mosquitoes kept tormenting people and animals.
The magicians said to Pharaoh:
“This is the finger of God.”
But Pharaoh was unmoved and did not listen, as the Lord had foretold.
The Fourth Plague: Flies
The Lord said to Moses:
“Rise early in the morning and go to Pharaoh when he is on his way to the river. Say to him: This is the Lord’s message: Let my people go and worship me.
If you refuse to let them go, I will send horseflies on you, your officials, your people, and your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be filled with horseflies, and even the ground on which they are built.
But on that day, I will spare the land of Goshen where my people are. No horseflies will be there; by this, you may know that I, the Lord, am in the land.
I will make a distinction between my people and your people. By tomorrow, this will have happened.”
The Lord did this, and dense swarms of horseflies invaded Pharaoh’s house and the houses of all his people and devastated the whole country.
Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, saying:
“Go and sacrifice to your God in this country.”
But Moses replied:
“That would not be right. We offer to our God animals, which are sacred to the Egyptians. If we were to offer in their presence a sacrifice that offends the Egyptians, wouldn’t they stone us?
We must make a three-day journey into the desert, and there we will sacrifice to the Lord, our God, as he commands.”
Pharaoh replied:
“I will let you go and sacrifice to your God in the desert, but on condition that you do not go far. And pray to God for me!”
Moses said:
“I am leaving you and I will pray to the Lord for you, and tomorrow the horseflies will leave you, your officials and your people, but do not continue to deceive us by refusing to let the people go to the desert.”
Moses left Pharaoh’s palace and prayed to the Lord,
who responded to Moses’s request and freed Pharaoh, his officials, and the people from the horseflies. Not a single horsefly remained.
But Pharaoh was stubborn and refused to let the people go.
Commentaries
The Second Plague: Frogs.
Pharaoh persisted in his stubbornness by denying the people permission to leave. If a mighty God assists the Hebrews, Egypt, understood here as a system, as a structure of domination, is also assisted by powerful divinities. That is the great mistake of those who come to power: they believe themselves to be lords and masters of the world. However, we also see a first “limitation” or weakness in the pharaoh, who does not turn to his magicians to free the country from the frogs. Only the God of Moses can do this, and he explicitly asks him to do so. Moses then intercedes before the Lord, and the country is effectively freed from the plague; nevertheless, the pharaoh persists in his obstinacy and does not obey the Lord’s command (8:11).
The Third Plague: Gnats.
In this third plague, critical new developments occur. The Egyptian magicians are unable to perform the same miracle. This leads them to realize that someone more powerful is behind these events, an idea expressed in the words, “This is the finger of God” (15). It is, indeed, the power of a God unlike any Egyptian gods and certainly not aligned with Egypt. Still, Pharaoh does not give in. Oppressors often have moments of clarity but refuse to choose the way of life and justice.
The Fourth Plague: Flies.
Similar to the plague of the frogs (essentially a repeat of it), Pharaoh gives in to Moses’ plea. Once again, Moses’ prayer of intercession saves the land from that disaster, but Pharaoh continues to “deal falsely by not letting the people go” (28). Pharaoh remains stubborn.