Frogs and Lice
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, and tell him, ‘This is what Yahweh says, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 If you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your borders with frogs. 3 The river will swarm with frogs, which will go up and come into your house, and into your bedroom, and on your bed, and into the house of your servants, and on your people, and into your ovens, and into your kneading troughs. 4 The frogs shall come up both on you, and on your people, and on all your servants.”’” 5 Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your rod over the rivers, over the streams, and over the pools, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.’” 6 Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. 7 The magicians did the same thing with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt. 8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, “Entreat Yahweh, that he take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to Yahweh.” 9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “I give you the honor of setting the time that I should pray for you, and for your servants, and for your people, that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses, and remain in the river only.” 10 Pharaoh said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Let it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like Yahweh our God. 11 The frogs shall depart from you, and from your houses, and from your servants, and from your people. They shall remain in the river only.” 12 Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to Yahweh concerning the frogs which he had brought on Pharaoh. 13 Yahweh did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courts, and out of the fields. 14 They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken. 16 Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.’” 17 They did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were lice on man, and on animal; all the dust of the earth became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. 18 The magicians tried with their enchantments to produce lice, but they couldn’t. There were lice on man, and on animal. 19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is God’s finger;” but Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.
A king who can set the hour of his own relief goes back on his word as soon as he gets it, and his advisers reach the end of their imitation.
If you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your borders with frogs.
The frog was sacred in Egypt, an emblem of fertility and of the river's abundance. The plague does not destroy it. It multiplies it, which is worse, and follows it indoors — into your house, and into your bedroom, and on your bed... and into your ovens, and into your kneading troughs Exodus 8:3. The bed and the bread. A god given free rein turns out to be intolerable, and the country is smothered in the thing it revered.
The magicians match this one too Exodus 8:7, with the same result as before: more frogs.
Then the first crack. Entreat Yahweh, that he take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go Exodus 8:8. The man who asked who is Yahweh now asks for prayer to him by name. Moses answers with a courtesy that is also a trap: I give you the honor of setting the time Exodus 8:9. Pharaoh says tomorrow.
The choice is his own, and the reason for offering it is stated: that you may know that there is no one like Yahweh our God Exodus 8:10. A plague that lifts at a moment the king himself picked cannot be attributed to weather, and the answer arrives exactly on time. They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank Exodus 8:14 — deliverance with a smell to it, and no one in Egypt could pretend afterward that nothing had happened.
But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.
Respite is the word to notice. He does not harden under pressure but the moment the pressure comes off, and this is the pattern for the rest of the contest: every concession is made while the suffering lasts and withdrawn the hour it ends. Relief that produces no change of mind leaves a man worse than it found him, because he has now added a broken promise to his refusal. The verb here is his own, in the fifth plague as in the first.
They did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were lice on man, and on animal; all the dust of the earth became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
The third plague comes without warning, and it is the first taken from the ground rather than the water. The English translations divide over what the swarm is, since the Hebrew word occurs seldom, and nothing in the account turns on the identification.
The magicians tried with their enchantments to produce lice, but they couldn’t. There were lice on man, and on animal.
The limit arrives at the smallest thing yet attempted. Serpents and blood and frogs were within reach; dust was not, and the professionals stop trying and tell the king so. This is God's finger Exodus 8:19. It is a considerable admission from the men whose job was to say otherwise, and it is made by the only people in Egypt qualified to know the difference between their craft and what they were watching.
Pharaoh does not listen to them either. He has now lost the argument with his own experts and continues regardless, which marks the point where his refusal stops being a policy and becomes something closer to a condition.
held with reason What this mark means