Exodus 8:5-6

8:5 The Lord spoke to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Extend your hand with your staff ¹  over the rivers, over the canals, and over the ponds, and bring the frogs up over the land of Egypt.’” 8:6 So Aaron extended his hand over the waters of Egypt, and frogs ²  came up and covered the land of Egypt.

Exodus 8:16

The Third Blow: Gnats

8:16 ³ The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Extend your staff and strike the dust of the ground, and it will become ⁴  gnats ⁵  throughout all the land of Egypt.’”

Exodus 9:22-23

9:22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward the sky ⁶  that there may be ⁷  hail in all the land of Egypt, on people and on animals, ⁸  and on everything that grows ⁹  in the field in the land of Egypt.” 9:23 When Moses extended ¹⁰  his staff toward the sky, the Lord ¹¹  sent thunder ¹²  and hail, and fire fell to the earth; ¹³  so the Lord caused hail to rain down on the land of Egypt.

Exodus 9:33

9:33 So Moses left Pharaoh, went out of the city, and spread out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain stopped pouring on the earth.

Exodus 10:12

10:12 The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand over the land of Egypt for ¹⁴  the locusts, that they may come up over the land of Egypt and eat everything that grows ¹⁵  in the ground, everything that the hail has left.”

Exodus 10:21

The Ninth Blow: Darkness

10:21 ¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward heaven ¹⁷  so that there may be ¹⁸  darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness so thick it can be felt.” ¹⁹ 

Exodus 14:21

14:21 Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the Lord drove the sea apart ²⁰  by a strong east wind all that night, and he made the sea into dry land, and the water was divided.

Exodus 14:26

14:26 The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward the sea, so that the waters may flow ²¹  back on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen!”

[8:5]  ¹ sn After the instructions for Pharaoh (7:25-8:4), the plague now is brought on by the staff in Aaron’s hand (8:5-7). This will lead to the confrontation (vv. 8-11) and the hardening (vv. 12-15).

[8:6]  ² tn The noun is singular, a collective. B. Jacob notes that this would be the more natural way to refer to the frogs (Exodus, 260).

[8:16]  ³ sn The third plague is brief and unannounced. Moses and Aaron were simply to strike the dust so that it would become gnats. Not only was this plague unannounced, but also it was not duplicated by the Egyptians.

[8:16]  ⁴ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, meaning “and it will be.” When הָיָה (hayah) is followed by the lamed (ל) proposition, it means “become.”

[8:16]  ⁵ tn The noun is כִּנִּים (kinnim). The insect has been variously identified as lice, gnats, ticks, flies, fleas, or mosquitoes. “Lice” follows the reading in the Peshitta and Targum (and so Josephus, Ant. 2.14.3 [2.300]). Greek and Latin had “gnats.” By “gnats” many commentators mean “mosquitoes,” which in and around the water of Egypt were abundant (and the translators of the Greek text were familiar with Egypt). Whatever they were they came from the dust and were troublesome to people and animals.

[9:22]  ⁶ tn Or “the heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[9:22]  ⁷ tn The jussive with the conjunction (וִיהִי, vihi) coming after the imperative provides the purpose or result.

[9:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “on man and on beast.”

[9:22]  ⁹ tn The noun refers primarily to cultivated grains. But here it seems to be the general heading for anything that grows from the ground, all vegetation and plant life, as opposed to what grows on trees.

[9:23]  ¹⁰ tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the next clause in view of the emphasis put on the subject, Yahweh, by the disjunctive word order of that clause.

[9:23]  ¹¹ tn By starting the clause with the subject (an example of disjunctive word order) the text is certainly stressing that Yahweh alone did this.

[9:23]  ¹² tn The expression נָתַן קֹלֹת (natan qolot) literally means “gave voices” (also “voice”). This is a poetic expression for sending the thunder. Ps 29:3 talks about the “voice of Yahweh” – the God of glory thunders!

[9:23]  ¹³ sn This clause has been variously interpreted. Lightning would ordinarily accompany thunder; in this case the mention of fire could indicate that the lightning was beyond normal and that it was striking in such a way as to start fires on the ground. It could also mean that fire went along the ground from the pounding hail.

[10:12]  ¹⁴ tn The preposition בְּ (bet) is unexpected here. BDB 91 s.v. (the note at the end of the entry) says that in this case it can only be read as “with the locusts,” meaning that the locusts were thought to be implicit in Moses’ lifting up of his hand. However, BDB prefers to change the preposition to לְ (lamed).

[10:12]  ¹⁵ tn The noun עֵשֶּׂב (’esev) normally would indicate cultivated grains, but in this context seems to indicate plants in general.

[10:21]  ¹⁶ sn The ninth plague is that darkness fell on all the land – except on Israel. This plague is comparable to the silence in heaven, just prior to the last and terrible plague (Rev 8:1). Here Yahweh is attacking a core Egyptian religious belief as well as portraying what lay before the Egyptians. Throughout the Bible darkness is the symbol of evil, chaos, and judgment. Blindness is one of its manifestations (see Deut 28:27-29). But the plague here is not blindness, or even spiritual blindness, but an awesome darkness from outside (see Joel 2:2; Zeph 1:15). It is particularly significant in that Egypt’s high god was the Sun God. Lord Sun was now being shut down by Lord Yahweh. If Egypt would not let Israel go to worship their God, then Egypt’s god would be darkness. The structure is familiar: the plague, now unannounced (21-23), and then the confrontation with Pharaoh (24-27).

[10:21]  ¹⁷ tn Or “the sky” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[10:21]  ¹⁸ sn The verb form is the jussive with the sequential vav – וִיהִי חֹשֶׁךְ (vihi khoshekh). B. Jacob (Exodus, 286) notes this as the only instance where Scripture says, “Let there be darkness” (although it is subordinated as a purpose clause; cf. Gen 1:3). Isa 45:7 alluded to this by saying, “who created light and darkness.”

[10:21]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew term מוּשׁ (mush) means “to feel.” The literal rendering would be “so that one may feel darkness.” The image portrays an oppressive darkness; it was sufficiently thick to possess the appearance of substance, although it was just air (B. Jacob, Exodus, 286).

[14:21]  ²⁰ tn Or “drove the sea back” (NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV). The verb is simply the Hiphil of הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk, go”). The context requires that it be interpreted along the lines of “go back, go apart.”

[14:26]  ²¹ tn The verb, “and they will return,” is here subordinated to the imperative preceding it, showing the purpose of that act.