Exodus 8:21-24
swarms of flies ......................... flies <06157> [swarms. or, a mixture of noisome beasts, etc.]
The word {arov} is rendered [kunomwea,] kunomuia,] the dog-fly, by the LXX. (who are followed by the learned Bochart,) which must have been particularly hateful to the Egyptians, because they held dogs in the highest veneration, under which form they worshipped Anubis.
mark <06395> [sever.]
know <03045> [know.]
midst <07130> [midst.]
division <06304> [a division. Heb. a redemption.]
tomorrow <04279> [to-morrow. or, by to-morrow.]
came <0935> [there.]
land ..... land <0776> [the land.]
How intolerable a plague of flies can prove, is evident from the fact that whole districts have been laid waste by them. The inhabitants have been forced to quit their cities, not being able to stand against the flies and gnats with which they were pestered. Hence different people had deities whose office it was to defend them against flies. Among these may be reckoned Baalzebub, the fly-god of Ekron; Hercules, {muscarum abactor,} Hercules the expeller of flies; and hence Jupiter had the titles of [apomuios, muiagros, muiochoros,] because he was supposed to expel flies, and especially clear his temples of these insects. See Bryant.
ruined <07843> [corrupted. or destroyed.]
