Exodus 8:24

24 And Jehovah doth so, and the grievous beetle entereth the house of Pharaoh, and the house of his servants, and in all the land of Egypt the land is corrupted from the presence of the beetle.

Exodus 8:24 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 8:24

And the Lord did so
And this he did immediately of himself without any means; not by the rod of Aaron, to let the Egyptians see that there was nothing in that rod, that it had no magic virtue in it, and what was done by it was from the Lord himself, who could as well inflict plagues without it as with it; see ( Psalms 105:31 ) and there came a grievous swarm of flies; or a "heavy" F17 one, which was both very numerous, and very troublesome and distressing:

into the house of Pharaoh, and into the houses of his servants, and
into all the land of Egypt:
into the palace of Pharaoh, and into the palaces of his nobles, ministers, and courtiers, and into the dwelling places of all his subjects, throughout the whole land, excepting the land of Goshen:

the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies;
Josephus


FOOTNOTES:

F18 says, the land lay neglected and uncultivated by the husbandmen; it may be, the air was infected by the flies, which produced a pestilence that took off many of the inhabitants; so among the Eleans, as Pliny F19 reports, a multitude of flies produced a pestilence; however, it is certain many of the inhabitants of Egypt perished by them; they might sting them to death, suck their blood, and poison them with their envenomed stings; see ( Psalms 78:45 ) .


F17 (dbk) "gravis", Montanus, "gravissime", V. L.
F18 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 2. c. 14. sect. 3.)
F19 Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 28.

Exodus 8:24 In-Context

22 `And I have separated in that day the land of Goshen, in which My people are staying, that the beetle is not there, so that thou knowest that I [am] Jehovah in the midst of the land,
23 and I have put a division between My people and thy people: to-morrow is this sign.'
24 And Jehovah doth so, and the grievous beetle entereth the house of Pharaoh, and the house of his servants, and in all the land of Egypt the land is corrupted from the presence of the beetle.
25 And Pharaoh calleth unto Moses and to Aaron, and saith, `Go, sacrifice to your God in the land;'
26 and Moses saith, `Not right to do so, for the abomination of the Egyptians we do sacrifice to Jehovah our God; lo, we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes -- and they do not stone us!
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.