Exodus 8:21

8:21 If you do not release ¹  my people, then I am going to send ²  swarms of flies ³  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 

Psalms 78:45

78:45 He sent swarms of biting insects against them, ⁵ 

as well as frogs that overran their land. ⁶ 

Psalms 105:31

105:31 He ordered flies to come; ⁷ 

gnats invaded their whole territory.

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

[78:45]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he sent an insect swarm against them and it devoured them.”

[78:45]  ⁶ tn Heb “and a swarm of frogs and it destroyed them.”

[105:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “he spoke and flies came.”