Exodus 8:18-22

8:18 When ¹  the magicians attempted ²  to bring forth gnats by their secret arts, they could not. So there were gnats on people and on animals. 8:19 The magicians said ³  to Pharaoh, “It is the finger ⁴  of God!” But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ⁵  and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

The Fourth Blow: Flies

8:20 ⁶ The Lord ⁷  said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and position yourself before Pharaoh as he goes out to the water, and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Release my people that they may serve me! 8:21 If you do not release ⁸  my people, then I am going to send ⁹  swarms of flies ¹⁰  on you and on your servants and on your people and in your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground they stand on. ¹¹  8:22 But on that day I will mark off ¹²  the land of Goshen, where my people are staying, ¹³  so that no swarms of flies will be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of this land. ¹⁴ 

[8:18]  ¹ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the main clause as a temporal clause.

[8:18]  ² tn Heb “and the magicians did so.”

[8:19]  ³ tn Heb “and the magicians said.”

[8:19]  ⁴ tn The word “finger” is a bold anthropomorphism (a figure of speech in which God is described using human characteristics).

[8:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the heart of Pharaoh became hard.” This phrase translates the Hebrew word חָזַק (khazaq; see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 53). In context this represents the continuation of a prior condition.

[8:20]  ⁵ sn The announcement of the fourth plague parallels that of the first plague. Now there will be flies, likely dogflies. Egypt has always suffered from flies, more so in the summer than in the winter. But the flies the plague describes involve something greater than any normal season for flies. The main point that can be stressed in this plague comes by tracing the development of the plagues in their sequence. Now, with the flies, it becomes clear that God can inflict suffering on some people and preserve others – a preview of the coming judgment that will punish Egypt but set Israel free. God is fully able to keep the dog-fly in the land of the Egyptians and save his people from these judgments.

[8:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “And Yahweh said.”

[8:21]  ⁷ tn The construction uses the predicator of nonexistence – אֵין (’en, “there is not”) – with a pronominal suffix prior to the Piel participle. The suffix becomes the subject of the clause. Heb “but if there is not you releasing.”

[8:21]  ⁸ tn Here again is the futur instans use of the participle, now Qal with the meaning “send”: הִנְנִי מַשְׁלִיחַ (hinni mashliakh, “here I am sending”).

[8:21]  ⁹ tn The word עָרֹב (’arov) means “a mix” or “swarm.” It seems that some irritating kind of flying insect is involved. Ps 78:45 says that the Egyptians were eaten or devoured by them. Various suggestions have been made over the years: (1) it could refer to beasts or reptiles; (2) the Greek took it as the dog-fly, a vicious blood-sucking gadfly, more common in the spring than in the fall; (3) the ordinary house fly, which is a symbol of Egypt in Isa 7:18 (Hebrew זְבוּב, zÿvuv); and (4) the beetle, which gnaws and bites plants, animals, and materials. The fly probably fits the details of this passage best; the plague would have greatly intensified a problem with flies that already existed.

[8:21]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps “the land where they are” (cf. NRSV “the land where they live”).

[8:22]  ⁹ tn Or “distinguish.” וְהִפְלֵיתִי (vÿhifleti) is the Hiphil perfect of פָּלָה (palah). The verb in Hiphil means “to set apart, make separate, make distinct.” God was going to keep the flies away from Goshen – he was setting that apart. The Greek text assumed that the word was from פָּלֵא (pale’), and translated it something like “I will marvelously glorify.”

[8:22]  ¹⁰ tn The relative clause modifies the land of Goshen as the place “in which my people are dwelling.” But the normal word for “dwelling” is not used here. Instead, עֹמֵד (’omed) is used, which literally means “standing.” The land on which Israel stood was spared the flies and the hail.

[8:22]  ¹¹ tn Or “of the earth” (KJV, ASV, NAB).