Exodus 8:24

24 And Yahweh did so, and a {severe} [swarm of] flies came to the house of Pharaoh and the house of his servants and in all the land of Egypt; the land was ruined because of the flies.

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

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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 But on that day I will distinguish the land of Goshen, where my people are staying, by there not being flies there, so that you will know that I [am] Yahweh in the midst of the land.

23 And I will put a distinction between my people and your people; this sign will be tomorrow.'"

24 And Yahweh did so, and a {severe} [swarm of] flies came to the house of Pharaoh and the house of his servants and in all the land of Egypt; the land was ruined because of the flies.

25 And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and he said, "Go, sacrifice to your God in the land."

26 And Moses said, "To do so [is] not right, because we will sacrifice to Yahweh our God a thing detestable to the Egyptians. Look, [if] we sacrifice before their eyes the thing detestable to the Egyptians, will they not stone us?

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "heavy"