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 

Exodus 8:24

8:24 The Lord did so; a ⁵  thick ⁶  swarm of flies came into ⁷  Pharaoh’s house and into the houses ⁸  of his servants, and throughout the whole land of Egypt the land was ruined ⁹  because of the swarms of flies.

Exodus 8:31

8:31 and the Lord did as Moses asked ¹⁰  – he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one remained!

Exodus 18:13

18:13 On the next day ¹¹  Moses sat to judge ¹²  the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning until evening.

[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”).

[8:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “and there came a….”

[8:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “heavy,” or “severe.”

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

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

[8:24]  ⁹ tc 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…”

[8:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “according to the word of Moses” (so KJV, ASV).

[18:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “and it was/happened on the morrow.”

[18:13]  ¹⁴ sn This is a simple summary of the function of Moses on this particular day. He did not necessarily do this every day, but it was time now to do it. The people would come to solve their difficulties or to hear instruction from Moses on decisions to be made. The tradition of “sitting in Moses’ seat” is drawn from this passage.