Keluaran 8:20

The Fourth Blow: Flies

8:20 ¹ The Lord ²  said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and position yourself before Pharaoh as he goes out to the water, and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Release my people that they may serve me!

Keluaran 22:9-10

22:9 In all cases of illegal possessions, ³  whether for an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any kind of lost item, about which someone says ‘This belongs to me,’ ⁴  the matter of the two of them will come before the judges, ⁵  and the one whom ⁶  the judges declare guilty ⁷  must repay double to his neighbor. 22:10 If a man gives his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep, and it dies or is hurt ⁸  or is carried away ⁹  without anyone seeing it, ¹⁰ 

[8:20]  ¹ sn The announcement of the fourth plague parallels that of the first plague. Now there will be flies, likely dogflies. Egypt has always suffered from flies, more so in the summer than in the winter. But the flies the plague describes involve something greater than any normal season for flies. The main point that can be stressed in this plague comes by tracing the development of the plagues in their sequence. Now, with the flies, it becomes clear that God can inflict suffering on some people and preserve others – a preview of the coming judgment that will punish Egypt but set Israel free. God is fully able to keep the dog-fly in the land of the Egyptians and save his people from these judgments.

[8:20]  ² tn Heb “And Yahweh said.”

[22:9]  ³ tn Heb “concerning every kind [thing] of trespass.”

[22:9]  ⁴ tn The text simply has “this is it” (הוּא זֶה, hu’ zeh).

[22:9]  ⁵ tn Again, or “God.”

[22:9]  ⁶ tn This kind of clause Gesenius calls an independent relative clause – it does not depend on a governing substantive but itself expresses a substantival idea (GKC 445-46 §138.e).

[22:9]  ⁷ tn The verb means “to be guilty” in Qal; in Hiphil it would have a declarative sense, because a causative sense would not possibly fit.

[22:10]  ⁸ tn The form is a Niphal participle from the verb “to break” – “is broken,” which means harmed, maimed, or hurt in any way.

[22:10]  ⁹ tn This verb is frequently used with the meaning “to take captive.” The idea here then is that raiders or robbers have carried off the animal.

[22:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “there is no one seeing.”