Exodus 8:20-24

PLAGUE IV

"And Jehovah said unto Moses, Rise up, early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And I will set apart in that day the land of Goshen, in which roy people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end that thou mayest know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people and thy people: by tomorrow shall this sign be. And Jehovah did so; and there came grievous swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses: and in all the land of Egypt the land was corrupted by reason of the swarms of flies."

There is a discernible and reasonable progress in these wonders. Two significant developments distinguish this sign. (1) Moses in Plague III had been courteous to Pharaoh, even offering him the choice and honor of saying when the frogs would be destroyed, but in the announcement of this Plague, the formal obeisance which all men customarily made when appearing before a mighty ruler was forbidden by the Lord. It is not stated in the text that Moses had usually honored such a custom, but the tenor of these words would seem to indicate a change. God said, "Stand before Pharaoh!" Or Ha-Hayyim, a Jewish writer, has this to say:

"Being a man of great humility, Moses was accustomed to bow to all men in greeting. Therefore the Lord found it necessary to command him `to stand before Pharaoh.' `When thou goest before Pharaoh,' the Lord told Moses, `Stand erect before him and do not bow to him in greeting, for thou art not to show him even the slightest sign of respect.'"[21]

A second development (2) appears to have been in response to the statement of the magicians, "This is the finger of God (a god)." Very well, God would make it clear that it was not a god at all who did such wonders, but that it was Jehovah, the God of Israel (Exodus 8:22)!

Observe also that the mention of the "houses" of Pharaoh and the "houses" of the Egyptians (Exodus 8:21) confirms the view expressed above that more than one house of Pharaoh suffered the visitations.

"Lo, he cometh forth to the water (Exodus 8:20) ..." It seems unquestionable that these repeated visits of Pharaoh to the Nile were due to his worship of that river as a god, whose help he sought in the extremity that confronted him. It is especially important that all of these plagues were leveled squarely against the pagan deities of Egypt.

PLAGUE I was against the deified river Nile. "The river was personified and deified, Hapi being the name of the river as a god."[22] Several authors have published drawings of this deity, depicted on the monuments as a man with huge, elongated breasts, in a sitting position, holding a table, or altar, on which were vases for libations, lotus flowers, and fruits, symbolizing the productivity of the Nile.[23] The change of its waters into blood was a forceful attack upon this Egyptian deity.

PLAGUE II, as we have already noted, was a devastating blow delivered against Hekt, the frog-headed goddess of fertility!

PLAGUE III, caused by striking the dust of the earth, was of course a contradiction and discrediting of Osiris, an "agricultural god."[24]

PLAGUE IV, which brought swarms of insects upon the people, was an effective challenge and defeat of a whole host of sacred insects, especially the beetle, especially, "the large, black, dung beetle, held sacred in ancient Egypt, as a symbol of resurrection and fertility."[25]

"Swarms of flies ..." As in the case of the lice in Plague III, it is by no means certain what these swarms were. "The Hebrew word for swarms means a mixture and may signify the increase of all kinds of verminous scourges."[26] Since the Egyptian pantheon included literally dozens of animals, birds, and insects, any increase of living creatures of such dimensions as appeared in the plagues would have been a disgrace to some of their pagan deities. Cook pointed out that this plague was also connected with the atmosphere, in which the swarms appeared, "The atmosphere also being an object of worship."[27] In spite of the general opinion that beetles, especially, were meant here, we are inclined to accept the rendition of the Septuagint (LXX) which translated the swarms as dog-flies, a sharp-biting fly actually capable of killing animals when attacked by sufficient numbers, and which also inflicts very painful bites upon human beings. The ordinary stock-fly in Texas is a species of it. Our preference is based upon the fact that the Septuagint (LXX) was translated in the very part of the world where this plague occurred. That the true meaning of the passage is probably something like, "all kinds of flying insects," appears to be supported by Psalms 78:45, which says, "He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them."

"I will set apart ... the land of Goshen ..." The big thing in this passage, of course, is the distinction which in this plague, for the first time, marks the exemption of Israel from the general suffering. One should read the dissertations of the critics who attempt to tell how this happened. As Ellison said, "Various naturalistic explanations of how Goshen was spared have been offered, but since none carry conviction, they can be ignored."[28]