Exodus 8:20-32

D. The blood-sucking gad-fly

Exodus 8:16-28 [Exodus 8:20-32]

16 [20] And Jehovah said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh: lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus 17 [21]saith Jehovah, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else [For] if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies [send the flies] upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies [full of the flies], 18 [22]and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever [separate] in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies [no flies] shall be there: to the end thou mayest know that I 19 [23] am Jehovah in the midst of the earth [land]. And I will put a division between 20 [24]my people and thy people: tomorrow shall this sign be. And Jehovah did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies [came grievous flies] into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt; the land was corrupted [was like to be destroyed] by reason of the swarm of flies [the flies].

21 [25]And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to 22 [26]your God in the land. And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall [should] sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God; lo, shall we [if we should] sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their 23 [27]eyes, and will they [eyes, would they] not stone us? We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Jehovah our God, as he shall 24 [28]command us. And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to Jehovah your God in the wilderness: only ye shall not go very far away: 25 [29]entreat for me. And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will entreat Jehovah that the swarms of flies may [and the flies will] depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to-morrow; but [only] let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice 26 [30]to Jehovah. And Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated Jehovah. 27 [31]And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies [the flies] from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there 28 [32]remained not one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this [heart this] time also, neither would he [and he did not] let the people go.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[Exodus 8:20 [Exodus 8:24]. The Hebrew is תִּשָּׁחֵת. There is no propriety in rendering the future verb here, as is commonly done, by the Preterite. Besides, from the nature of the case, the Preterite is too strong; the land was not wholly destroyed; there was a danger that it would be, and therefore Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in order to avert the prospective ruin of the land. The future tense expresses an action as strictly future, or as future with reference to another past event, or as customary, or as going on either at a past or present time. Here we must understand that the devastation was going on, and total ruin was impending. Hence we may render: “was being destroyed,” or (as we have done) “was like to be destroyed.”—Tr.].

[Exodus 8:22 [Exodus 8:26]. The particle הֵן, commonly meaning, “behold,” seems to have here, as occasionally elsewhere, the force of a conditional particle. There is no mark of interrogation in the sentence, and apparently Moses says: “Lo, we shall sacrifice … and they will not stone us.” But the sense seems to require the last clause to be taken interrogatively. Tr.]

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Exodus 8:16 [Exodus 8:20] sqq. The gnats are followed by a worse plague, called עָרֹב. This definite phrase cannot signify “all kind of vermin” (Luther, πάμμυια, Sym.). The LXX. render κυνόμυια, “dog-fly,” by which is to be understood the larger species of flies, the blood-sucking gad-fly, as is especially to be seen in the plague of the cattle (vid. Hengstenberg, Egypt, etc., p. 116). Raphael Hirsch: “beast of the desert.” There is no reason why the adjective כָּבֵד, Exodus 8:20, should not be rendered literally, the heavy (grievous) dog-fly. If כָּבֵד is to convey the notion of multitude, this must also be indicated by the substantive. Moreover, the attributive “numerous” would rather weaken than strengthen the thought. Numerous flies!—In this plague two new factors enter: (1) It is expressly noticed that the laud of Goshen, i.e., Israel, shall be exempt from this plague. (2) This time, without the symbolic use of Moses’ rod, the visitation is announced only, and announced by Jehovah as His own act. Moses and Aaron are already sufficiently accredited as messengers of God; now their God will manifest Himself more definitely as the God of Israel, Jehovah, as He is also at the same time the God (Elohim) absolutely, and, therefore, also in the midst of Egypt.

Exodus 8:17-18 [Exodus 8:21-22]. Notice the sententious form of the antithesis, מְשַׁלֵחַ and מַשְׁלִיחַ. [Literally: “If thou will not send my people away, I will send the flies upon thee,” etc. Tr.]

Exodus 8:19 [Exodus 8:23]. “פְּדוּת,” says Keil, “does not signify διαστολή, divisio (LXX., Vulg.), but ransom, redemption.” At all events, however, it would be obscure to translate: “I will put a redemption between my people and thy people.” We understand: a quarantine.

Exodus 8:21 [Exodus 8:25]. Pharaoh’s first concession. He is willing to grant to the people a sacrificial festival, accompanied by cessation from labor, but not to let them go out of the land, because he forebodes the consequence of a conditional emancipation, whereas he is unwilling to relax his despotic power over them.

Exodus 8:22 [Exodus 8:26]. It is not meet [Lange: safe]. De Wette translates נָכון by “fitting,” Keil by “established.” The first expresses too little, the second too much.—The abomination of the Egyptians.—Knobel says: “The Egyptians sacrificed only bulls, calves and geese (Herod. II. 45), but no cows, as being sacred to Isis (Herod. II. 41; Porphyr. Abstin. 2, 11); also no turtle-doves (Porphyr. 4, 7). Also no sheep and goats, at least, not generally; in the worship of Isis at Thiborna in Phocis none could be offered (Pausan. 10, 32, 9), and in Egypt those who belonged to the temple and district of Mendes offered no she-goats or he-goats, though they did offer sheep; whereas the opposite was the case in Upper Egypt (Herod. II. 42, 46). The Egyptians were greatly scandalized when sacred animals were sacrificed or eaten (Josephus, Apion I. 26). The Hebrews, on the other hand, sacrificed sheep, goats and rams, and cows no less, e.g. for peace-offerings (Leviticus 3:1), burnt-offerings (1 Samuel 6:14), sin-offerings (Numbers 4:19), and others (Genesis 15:9).” It is singular that Keil can suppose the meaning to be only that the ceremonial rules and ordinances [of the Egyptians] were so painfully minute that the Jewish method of offering sacrifices might well scandalize the Egyptians. The sacrifice of cows would of itself be to them abominable enough. The more sacred the animal was, the more abominable did the sacrifice of it seem to be. But the chief point in the matter seems to be overlooked. It was the offering in Egypt of sacrifices to Jehovah, a god foreign to the Egyptians, which must have been an abomination. Even after the Reformation many Catholic princes thought that each land could have but one religion.

Exodus 8:24 [Exodus 8:28]. Pharaoh permits them to go out a little distance on condition that they will intercede for him. Moses assents, without repeating the demand for a three days’ journey, but requires that Pharaoh shall not deceive him, but keep his word.

Exodus 8:28 [Exodus 8:32]. The fourth hardening of the heart.

Footnotes:

[13][Exodus 8:20 [Exodus 8:24]. The Hebrew is תִּשָּׁחֵת. There is no propriety in rendering the future verb here, as is commonly done, by the Preterite. Besides, from the nature of the case, the Preterite is too strong; the land was not wholly destroyed; there was a danger that it would be, and therefore Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in order to avert the prospective ruin of the land. The future tense expresses an action as strictly future, or as future with reference to another past event, or as customary, or as going on either at a past or present time. Here we must understand that the devastation was going on, and total ruin was impending. Hence we may render: “was being destroyed,” or (as we have done) “was like to be destroyed.”—Tr.].

[14][Exodus 8:22 [Exodus 8:26]. The particle הֵן, commonly meaning, “behold,” seems to have here, as occasionally elsewhere, the force of a conditional particle. There is no mark of interrogation in the sentence, and apparently Moses says: “Lo, we shall sacrifice … and they will not stone us.” But the sense seems to require the last clause to be taken interrogatively. Tr.]

[15][Lange apparently has here in mind Keil’s interpretation, schwere Menge, “grievous multitude,” a meaning borne out by Exodus 10:14; Genesis 1:9, etc. Tr.]

[16][Lange s translation agrees with that of A. V. Knobel conjectures that instead of פְּדוּת, we should road פֶּלֶת, “separation,” from the verb פָּלָה, which is used in the preceding verse. But such a noun nowhere occurs, though it would be an allowable formation. Better assume, with Gesenius, Fürst, and the most, that the noun has here a rare, though perhaps its original, meaning, that of redemption being derived from it. Tr.]

[17][Lange’s rendering “ sicher” is without analogy, except as “sicher” may mean “certain,” “sure,” which can hardly be Lange’s intention here. Keil’s explanation is the usual one: “ festgestellt,” defined by statutum, rectum, “right.” The more common meaning is “fixed;” but this cannot be the force of the word here. Tr.]