Keluaran 8:21

8:21 If you do not release ¹  my people, then I am going to send ²  swarms of flies ³  on you and on your servants and on your people and in your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground they stand on. ⁴ 

Keluaran 34:9

34:9 and said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord ⁵  go among us, for we ⁶  are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

Keluaran 34:20

34:20 Now the firstling ⁷  of a donkey you may redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then break its neck. ⁸  You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons.

“No one will appear before me empty-handed. ⁹ 

[8:21]  ¹ tn The construction uses the predicator of nonexistence – אֵין (’en, “there is not”) – with a pronominal suffix prior to the Piel participle. The suffix becomes the subject of the clause. Heb “but if there is not you releasing.”

[8:21]  ² tn Here again is the futur instans use of the participle, now Qal with the meaning “send”: הִנְנִי מַשְׁלִיחַ (hinni mashliakh, “here I am sending”).

[8:21]  ³ tn The word עָרֹב (’arov) means “a mix” or “swarm.” It seems that some irritating kind of flying insect is involved. Ps 78:45 says that the Egyptians were eaten or devoured by them. Various suggestions have been made over the years: (1) it could refer to beasts or reptiles; (2) the Greek took it as the dog-fly, a vicious blood-sucking gadfly, more common in the spring than in the fall; (3) the ordinary house fly, which is a symbol of Egypt in Isa 7:18 (Hebrew זְבוּב, zÿvuv); and (4) the beetle, which gnaws and bites plants, animals, and materials. The fly probably fits the details of this passage best; the plague would have greatly intensified a problem with flies that already existed.

[8:21]  ⁴ tn Or perhaps “the land where they are” (cf. NRSV “the land where they live”).

[34:9]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” two times here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[34:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “it is.” Hebrew uses the third person masculine singular pronoun here in agreement with the noun “people.”

[34:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the one that opens [the womb of] the donkey.”

[34:20]  ⁸ sn See G. Brin, “The Firstling of Unclean Animals,” JQR 68 (1971): 1-15.

[34:20]  ⁹ tn The form is the adverb “empty.”