Keluaran 8:5

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.’”

Keluaran 8:17

8:17 They did so; Aaron extended his hand with his staff, he struck the dust of the ground, and it became gnats on people ²  and on animals. All the dust of the ground became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.

Keluaran 8:24

8:24 The Lord did so; a ³  thick ⁴  swarm of flies came into ⁵  Pharaoh’s house and into the houses ⁶  of his servants, and throughout the whole land of Egypt the land was ruined ⁷  because of the swarms of flies.

Keluaran 10:14-15

10:14 The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and settled down in all the territory ⁸  of Egypt. It was very severe; ⁹  there had been no locusts like them before, nor will there be such ever again. ¹⁰  10:15 They covered ¹¹  the surface ¹²  of all the ground, so that the ground became dark with them, ¹³  and they ate all the vegetation of the ground and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green remained on the trees or on anything that grew in the fields throughout the whole land of Egypt.

[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).

[8:17]  ² tn Heb “man,” but in the generic sense of “humans” or “people” (also in v. 18).

[8:24]  ³ tn Heb “and there came a….”

[8:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “heavy,” or “severe.”

[8:24]  ⁵ tn Here, and in the next phrase, the word “house” has to be taken as an adverbial accusative of termination.

[8:24]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text has the singular here.

[8:24]  ⁷ tc Concerning the connection of “the land was ruined” with the preceding, S. R. Driver (Exodus, 68) suggests reading with the LXX, Smr, and Peshitta; this would call for adding a conjunction before the last clause to make it read, “into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt; and the land was…”

[8:24]  tn The Hebrew word תִּשָּׁחֵת (tishakhet) is a strong word; it is the Niphal imperfect of שָׁחַת (shakhat) and is translated “ruined.” If the classification as imperfect stands, then it would have to be something like a progressive imperfect (the land was being ruined); otherwise, it may simply be a preterite without the vav (ו) consecutive. The verb describes utter devastation. This is the verb that is used in Gen 13:10 to describe how Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Swarms of flies would disrupt life, contaminate everything, and bring disease.

[10:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “border.”

[10:14]  ⁹ tn This is an interpretive translation. The clause simply has כָּבֵד מְאֹד (kaved mÿ’od), the stative verb with the adverb – “it was very heavy.” The description prepares for the following statement about the uniqueness of this locust infestation.

[10:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “after them.”

[10:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they covered.”

[10:15]  ¹² tn Heb “eye,” an unusual expression (see v. 5; Num 22:5, 11).

[10:15]  ¹³ tn The verb is וַתֶּחְשַׁךְ (vattekhshakh, “and it became dark”). The idea is that the ground had the color of the swarms of locusts that covered it.