Exodus 8:3

_AND THE RIVER SHALL BRING FORTH FROGS ABUNDANTLY, WHICH SHALL GO UP AND COME INTO THINE HOUSE, AND INTO THY BEDCHAMBER, AND UPON THY BED, AND INTO THE HOUSE OF THY SERVANTS, AND UPON THY PEOPLE, AND INTO THINE OVENS, AND INTO THY KNEADINGTROUGHS:_ Bed-chamber - literally, the chamber of thy lying (2 Samuel 4:7). BED - mats strewed on the floor, as well as more sumptuous divans of the rich. OVENS, х_ UWBTANUWREYKAA_ (H8574)]. The Tannur is a clay jar, about three feet high, with a narrow orifice at the top, but widening toward the bottom, where there is a hole for taking out the ashes. Sometimes it consists of a rude hole in the ground, the sides of which are plastered with mortar. [Septugint, en tois freasi, in the pits.] KNEADING TROUGHS. Those used in Egypt were bowls of wood, wicke

1-15 Pharaoh is plagued with frogs; their vast numbers made them sore plagues to the Egyptians. God could have plagued Egypt with lions, or bears, or wolves, or with birds of prey, but he chose to do it by these despicable creatures. God, when he pleases, can arm the smallest parts of the creation against us. He thereby humbled Pharaoh. They should neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep in quiet; but wherever they were, they should be troubled by the frogs. God's curse upon a man will pursue him wherever he goes, and lie heavy upon him whatever he does. Pharaoh gave way under this plague. He promises that he will let the people go. Those who bid defiance to God and prayer, first or last, will be made to see their need of both. But when Pharaoh saw there was respite, he hardened his heart. Till the heart is renewed by the grace of God, the thoughts made by affliction do not abide; the convict...

Verse Exodus 8:3. _THE RIVER SHALL BRING FORTH FROGS ABUNDANTLY_] The river Nile, which was an object of their adoration, was here one of the instruments of their punishment. The expression, _bring_ _forth abundantly_, not only shows the _vast numbers_ of those animals, which should now infest the land, but it seems also to imply that all the _spawn_ or _ova_ of those animals which were already in the river and marshes, should be brought miraculously to a state of perfection. We may suppose that the animals were already in an embryo existence, but multitudes of them would not have come to a state of perfection had it not been for this miraculous interference. This supposition will appear the more natural when it is considered that the Nile was remarkable for breeding frogs, and such other animals as are principally engendered in such marshy places as must be left i...

INTO THINE HOUSE - This appears to have been special to the plague, as such. It was especially the visitation which would be felt by the scrupulously-clean Egyptians. KNEADINGTROUGHS - Not dough, as in the margin. See Exodus 12:34....

EXPOSITION THE SECOND PLAGUE. After an interval which there are no means of estimating, the second plague followed the first. Again, while the main purpose of the plague was to punish the nation by which Israel had been so long oppressed, the secondary object of throwing contempt upon their, religion was main-rained. Frogs were among the Egyptian sacred animals. One of their deities, Heka, was a frog-headed goddess; and they seem to have regarded the frog as a sacred emblem of creative power. The great multiplication of frogs, whereby they became an annoyance and a curse, was a trial and strain to the entire Egyptian religious system. The Egyptians might not kill them; yet they destroyed all their comfort, all their happiness. Their animal-worship was thus proved absurd and ridiculous. They were obliged to respect the creatures which they hated—to preserve the animals they would fain hav...

AND THE RIVER SHALL BRING FORTH FROGS ABUNDANTLY,.... The river Nile; and though water, and watery places, naturally produce these creatures, yet not in such vast quantities as to cover a whole country, and so large an one as Egypt, and this done at once, immediately; for they were all produced instantaneously, and in one day were spread all over the nation, and removed the next: and besides what follows is equally miraculous, WHICH SHALL GO UP AND COME INTO THINE HOUSE; which though they may come up out of rivers, and be upon the banks and the meadows adjacent, yet are never known to come into houses, and especially into bedchambers and other places after mentioned, being not a bold but timorous creature, and shuns the sight and company of men; but these came even into the royal palace, nor could his guards keep them out: AND INTO THY BEDCHAMBER, AND UPON THY BED; and by their leaping...

CHAPTER 8 THE SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH PLAGUES _ 1. The demand and the plague of frogs announced (Exodus 8:1)_ 2. The plague executed (Exodus 8:5) 3. The request of Pharaoh and the frogs removed (Exodus 8:8) 4. The divine command for the third plague (Exodus 8:16) 5. The plague executed (Exodus 8:17) 6. The confession of the magicians (Exodus 8:18) 7. The renewed demand and the plague of the flies announced ...

2°. FROGS SWARM FROM THE NILE (Exodus 8:1 J, Exodus 8:5 P, Exodus 8:8 a J, heart, Exodus 8:15 b P). Each year the inundation brings with it myriads of frogs (Sayce), amounting in certain years to a veritable plague, but they do not infest houses or die suddenly in heaps. In Exodus 8:3 they were to come upon the persons of the people, and into their earthenware stoves (ovens) and the shallow wooden bowls they used, as do the Arabs still, for kneading-troughs. When Pharaoh prays for relief, Moses concedes him the glory or ad vantage of naming the time when the pests should be remo

AND. Note the _Polysyndeton_ (App-6) in Exodus 8:3 and Exodus 8:4. bedchamber. In Palestine beds were mats or couches, and could be moved; but in Egypt there were special bedchambers. These were used later in Palestine (2 Samuel 4:7). KNEADINGTROUGHS. These are found in every home; none is complete without them....

Exodus 7:14 to Exodus 11:5 _The first nine Plagues_ The narrative of the Plagues, like that of the preceding Chapter s, is composite. The details of the analysis depend partly upon literary criteria, partly upon differences in the representation, which are not isolated, but recurrent, and which moreover _accompany_the literary differences and support the conclusions based upon them, the differences referred to often also agreeing remarkably with corresponding differences in the parts of the preceding narrative, especially in Exodus 3:1 to Exodus 7:13, which have already, upon independent grounds, been assigned to P, J, and E, respectively. N