Exodus 8:24

24 So the LORD did it. Huge numbers of flies poured into Pharaoh's palace. They came into the homes of his officials. All over Egypt the flies destroyed the land.

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 treat the area of Goshen differently from yours. That is where my people live. There will not be large numbers of flies in Goshen. Then you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land.

23 I will treat my people differently from yours. The miraculous sign will take place tomorrow." ' "

24 So the LORD did it. Huge numbers of flies poured into Pharaoh's palace. They came into the homes of his officials. All over Egypt the flies destroyed the land.

25 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. He said to them, "Go. Offer sacrifices to your God here in the land."

26 But Moses said, "That wouldn't be right. The sacrifices we offer to the LORD our God wouldn't be accepted by the Egyptians because of their beliefs. Suppose we offered sacrifices they couldn't accept. Then they would throw stones at us and try to kill us.