Exodus 8:2-7

PLAGUE II

"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: and the river shall swarm with frogs, which shall go up and come into thy house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs: and the frogs shall come up both upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thy hand with thy rod over the rivers, over the streams, and over the pools, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did in like manner with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt."

"Frogs shall go up ... shall come up ... cause frogs to come up ... and brought up frogs ..." These expressions indicate that it was not the mere existence of frogs which constituted the wonder here, but it was what the frogs did. Their numbers also exceeded anything that might have been referred to natural causes. Also, this judgment followed immediately upon its being threatened and the stretching out of the rod of God.

"Let my people go ...!" This is the second occurrence in a sequence of these dramatic demands. See under Exodus 7:16.

"Frogs ..." Why frogs? As many of the older commentators discerned, "How easy is it, both to the justice and mercy of God, to destroy or to save by the most despicable and insignificant of instruments."[2] God did not call forth lions, tigers, deadly serpents, or any of the creatures that men fear. He did not even need a quaternion of soldiers! He did it with frogs, common, harmless, despicable frogs! Furthermore, the frog was the symbol of the goddess of fertility in Egypt; "She was called Hekt,"[3] represented in statues as "a female deity with a frog's head,"[4] and supposed to symbolize, "the renewal of life."[5] That such a respected element of Egyptian paganism should suddenly become a curse instead of a blessing was evidently incorporated into the basic design of this miracle. We must agree with Fields that, "The popularity of the goddess Hekt must have dropped to near zero after this plague!"[6] Not only was the frog a symbol of the goddess, but, "The frog itself was often worshipped as a symbol of Hekt, a form of the goddess Hathor."[7]

"And the Egyptians did in like manner ..." Of what earthly help was this action of Pharaoh's servants? The last thing they needed was more frogs! It shows that even the efforts of God's enemies aid God's purpose. If those magicians had been able to remove the frogs, that would have helped. Their enchantments to produce more frogs was a self-defeating act. It also raises a question of how they did it. One cannot resist the conclusion that their act was nothing but a pretense, for it certainly would have been no miracle to produce a few frogs anywhere from the abundance of frogs everywhere! "The king would never have applied to Moses and Aaron for help if his charmers could have charmed the plague away."[8]