Exodus 8:16

16 The LORD said to Moshe, "Tell Aharon, 'Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the eretz, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Mitzrayim.'"

Exodus 8:16 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 8:16

And the Lord said unto Moses
On the twenty seventh day of the month, according to Bishop Usher, the same day the flogs were removed; no warning is given him of the next plague, at least there is no account of any:

say unto Aaron, stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land;
in some one part of the land, that place nearest to him where there was a quantity of dust; for it cannot be imagined that he should smite all the dust of the land in every part of it, but smiting one part served for the whole:

that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt:
not gnats, as some, nor flies, as others, but lice, though perhaps not of the common and ordinary sort, but new and extraordinary, and it may be of different sorts, suitable to different creatures.

Exodus 8:16 In-Context

14 They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank.

15 But when Par`oh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn't listen to them, as the LORD had spoken.

16 The LORD said to Moshe, "Tell Aharon, 'Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the eretz, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Mitzrayim.'"

17 They did so; and Aharon stretched out his hand with his rod, and struck the dust of the eretz, and there were lice on man, and on animal; all the dust of the eretz became lice throughout all the land of Mitzrayim.

18 The magicians tried with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they couldn't. There were lice on man, and on animal.