Exodus 8:2-14

2 If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country.

3 The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs.

4 The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.’ ”

5 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’ ”

6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land.

7 But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

8 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD.”

9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”

10 “Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said. Moses replied, “It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the LORD our God.

11 The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile.”

12 After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the LORD about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh.

13 And the LORD did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields.

14 They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them.

Exodus 8:2-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 8

In this chapter Pharaoh is threatened with the plague of frogs, in case he refused to let Israel go, which accordingly was brought upon him, Ex 8:1-6 and though the magicians did something similar to it, yet these were so troublesome to Pharaoh, that he promised to let the people go, and sacrifice to God, if they removed; and a time being fixed for the removal of them, it was accordingly done at the entreaty of Moses and Aaron, Ex 8:7-14 but there being a respite, Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and the plague of lice is ordered, and which was executed; and though this the magicians essayed to do, and could not, but owned it to be the finger of God, yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened, Ex 8:15-19 wherefore he is threatened with a swarm of flies, which should not infest Goshen, only the places where the Egyptians dwelt, and it was so, Ex 8:20-24 upon which Pharaoh called for Moses, and declared himself willing the people would sacrifice in the land; but this not being satisfactory, he agreed they should go into the wilderness, but not so far; and on the account of the entreaty of Moses, the plague was removed; but still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not let the people go, Ex 8:25-32.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 78:45; Psalms 105:30; Revelation 16:13
• 2. Exodus 10:6
• 3. Exodus 12:34
• 4. S Exodus 4:2; Exodus 7:9-20; Exodus 9:23; Exodus 10:13,21-22; Exodus 14:27; Exodus 7:19
• 5. S Exodus 4:17
• 6. Psalms 78:45; Psalms 105:30
• 7. S Exodus 7:11; S Matthew 24:24
• 8. ver 28; Exodus 9:28; Exodus 10:17; Numbers 21:7; 1 Samuel 12:19; 1 Kings 13:6; Jeremiah 42:2; Acts 8:24
• 9. ver 25; Exodus 10:8,24; Exodus 12:31
• 10. Exodus 9:5
• 11. Exodus 9:14; Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 3:24; Deuteronomy 4:35; Deuteronomy 33:26; 2 Samuel 7:22; 1 Kings 8:23; 1 Chronicles 17:20; 2 Chronicles 6:14; Psalms 71:19; Psalms 86:8; Psalms 89:6; Psalms 113:5; Isaiah 40:18; Isaiah 42:8; Isaiah 46:9; Jeremiah 10:6; Jeremiah 49:19; Micah 7:18
• 12. James 5:16-18