Exodus 8:21

Context
8:21 If you do not release¹ my people, then I am going to send² swarms of flies³ 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.⁴

Exodus 8:24

Context
8:24 The Lord did so; a⁵ thick⁶ swarm of flies came into⁷ Pharaoh’s house and into the houses⁸ of his servants, and throughout the whole land of Egypt the land was ruined⁹ because of the swarms of flies.

[8:21] ¹tn 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] ²tn 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] ³tn 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] ⁴tn Or perhaps “the land where they are” (cf. NRSV “the land where they live”).

[8:24] ⁵tn Heb “and there came a….”

[8:24] ⁶tn Heb “heavy,” or “severe.”

[8:24] ⁷tn Here, and in the next phrase, the word “house” has to be taken as an adverbial accusative of termination.

[8:24] ⁸tn The Hebrew text has the singular here.

[8:24] ⁹tc Concerning the connection of “the land was ruined” with the preceding, S. R. Driver (Exodus, 68) suggests reading with the LXX, Smr, and Peshitta; this would call for adding a conjunction before the last clause to make it read, “into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt; and the land was…”