Exodus 8:7

_AND THE MAGICIANS DID SO WITH THEIR ENCHANTMENTS, AND BROUGHT UP FROGS UPON THE LAND OF EGYPT._ The magicians did so with their enchantments. It required no great art to make the offensive reptiles appear on any small spot of ground. What the magicians undertook to do already existed in abundance all around. They would better have shown their power by removing the frogs....

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 8:7. _THE MAGICIANS DID SO_] A little juggling or dexterity of hand might have been quite sufficient for the imitation of this miracle, because frogs in abundance had already been produced; and some of these kept in readiness might have been brought forward by the magicians, as proofs of their pretended power and equality in influence to Moses and Aaron....

The magicians would seem to have been able to increase the plague, but not to remove it; hence, Pharaoh’s application to Moses, the first symptoms of yielding....

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 MAGICIANS DID SO WITH THEIR ENCHANTMENTS, c] By their secret wiles and juggling tricks: AND BROUGHT UP FROGS UPON THE LAND OF EGYPT, that is, some few, as a proof of their art and skill, and to show that Moses and Aaron did but what they could do but what they did either were only in appearance, deceiving the sight of Pharaoh and his people, or real frogs were brought to them by the help of devils, but not in such numbers: and besides, this was adding to the plague, and not diminishing it; had they done anything to the purpose, they should have removed it at once, or destroyed the frogs; but that they could not do, of which Pharaoh being sensible, he therefore entreated for the removal of them by Moses and Aaron. To this plague there seems to be some reference at the pouring out of the sixth vial, Revelation 16:13....

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

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

AND THE MAGICIANS DID SO— Here, as before, the grand test of their power would have been to have removed this plague of frogs from the land. But this was beyond the reach of their ability; see the following verses. See also Bochart's Hieroz. part 2: lib. 5 cap. 2 where there is an acute discussion of this miracle....