Ex. 8 God sends Moses to Pharaoh that he might let the people go, Ex. 8:1. He threatens his denial with a judgment of frogs, Ex. 8:2–4. Aaron stretching forth his rod, Egypt is covered with frogs, Ex. 8:6. The magicians do so, Ex. 8:7.

All thy land which is within thy borders; a synecdoche; so that word is used also Ex. 10:4, Ex. 10:19, 1 Kings 1:3, Ps. 147:14, Jer. 15:13. So the gate and the wall are put for the city to which they belong, Gen. 22:17, Amos 1:7, Amos 1:10, Amos 1:14.

The river; under which are comprehended all other rivers, streams, and ponds, as appears from Ex. 8:5. But the river Nilus is mentioned, because God would make that an instrument of their misery in which they most gloried, Ezek.

Not upon the Israelites, whom he hereby exempts from the number of Pharaoh’s people and subjects, and owns them for his peculiar people. The frogs did not only invade their houses, but assault their persons, which is not strange, considering that they were armed with a Divine commission and power.

The Lord spake unto Moses, by inward instinct or suggestion to his mind; for He was now in the king’s presence.

Nor was it hard for the devil to produce them out of their own spawn, and the slime of the river.

Glory over me: as I have gloried over thee in laying first my commands, and then my plagues upon thee, so now lay thy commands upon me for the time of my praying; and if I do not what thou requirest, I am content thou shouldst insult over me, punish me.

Why not presently? Answ. 1. Because he hoped ere that time they might be removed, either by natural causes or by chance, and so he should not need the favour of Moses or his God. 2.

Or, as the place is fitly rendered by others, because of the word, or matter of, or about the frogs which he had given or propounded to Pharaoh. Because he had given his word both for the thing and the time of it, he prayed more earnestly lest God should be dishonoured, and Pharaoh have occasion of…

A short speech for they died and were removed out of, &c, as appears from the next verse; it being frequent in the Hebrew tongue under one verb expressed to understand another agreeable to it. See examples in the Hebrew, Gen. 43:33–34, Ex. 18:12, Ex. 25:2, Prov. 25:22.

Doubtless they cast them into their rivers, or pits, &c., though that be not here mentioned. God would not instantly and wholly take them away, both to convince them of the truth of the miracle, and to make them more sensible of this judgment, and more fearful of bringing another upon themselves.

God, it seems, gave him no warning, because he showed himself in the very last plague to be both perfidious and incorrigible. Others think he was forewarned, though that be not here expressed. Lice, so the Hebrew word is rendered by all the Jewish and most other interpreters.

The dust was not fit matter to produce lice, and therefore shows this work to be Divine and miraculous. All the dust of the land, i.e. a great part of it, the word all being commonly so understood in Scripture.

Did so, i.e. endeavoured to do so. Thus to enter, Matt. 7:13, is put for striving to enter, Luke 13:24. Thus men are said to deliver, Gen. 37:21; to fight, Josh. 24:9; to return, Josh. 10:15; when they only attempted or endeavoured to do so.

The finger is put either synecdochically for the hand, as it is Ex. 31:18, Ps. 8:3, Ps. 144:1; or metaphorically for the power or virtue, as Luke 11:20, compared with Matt. 12:28.

Swarms of flies; Heb. a mixture of insects or flies, as appears from Ps. 78:45, which were of various kinds, as bees, wasps, gnats, hornets, &c, infinite in their numbers, and doubtless larger and more venomous and pernicious than the common ones were.

Either, 1. Of the whole earth, and consequently of Egypt, that I am not only the Lord of Israel, but of thee and thy dominions too. God is here spoken of after the manner of earthly princes, who use to reside in the midst of their kingdoms, that they may more conveniently rule and influence them.

A division; Heb. a redemption or deliverance, i.e. a token or mean of deliverance, by a metonomy; a wall of partition, by which I will preserve the Israelites, whilst I destroy the Egyptians. Tomorrow shall this sign be.

The Lord did so, immediately by his own word, and not by Moses’s rod, lest the Egyptians should think it was a magician’s wand, and. that all Moses’s works were done by the power of the devil. A grievous swarm of flies; Heb. a heavy mixture of flies. Heavy, i.e.

It is not meet, Heb. not right, neither in God’s eyes, who hath appointed us the place as well as the thing; nor in the Egyptians’ eyes, as it follows.

For we know not what kind or number of sacrifices to offer to him till we come thither.