Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The second plague of Egypt is described, which was that of frogs; and at verse 16, the third, which was that of gnats; and at verse 21, the fourth, which was that of every kind of fly, and that after each one Pharaoh was hardened.
Vulgate Text: Exodus 8:1-32
1. The Lord also said to Moses: Go in to Pharaoh, and you shall say to him: Thus says the Lord: Let My people go, that they may sacrifice to Me; 2. but if you refuse to let them go, behold I will strike all your borders with frogs. 3. And the river shall bring forth frogs in abundance, which shall come up and enter into your house, and your bedchamber, and upon your bed, and into the houses of your servants, and upon your people, and into your ovens, and into the remains of your food. 4. And the frogs shall come upon you, and upon your people, and upon all your servants. 5. And the Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron: Stretch forth your hand over the rivers, and over the streams and pools, and bring forth frogs upon the land of Egypt. 6. And Aaron stretched forth his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. 7. And the magicians also did in like manner by their enchantments, and they brought forth frogs upon the land of Egypt. 8. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: Pray to the Lord that He take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. 9. And Moses said to Pharaoh: Set me a time when I shall pray for you, and for your servants, and for your people, that the frogs may be driven away from you, and from your house, and from your servants, and from your people, and may remain only in the river. 10. And he answered: Tomorrow. And Moses said: According to your word I will do, that you may know that there is none like the Lord our God. 11. And the frogs shall depart from you, and from your house, and from your servants, and from your people; and they shall remain only in the river. 12. And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord concerning the promise about the frogs which he had made to Pharaoh. 13. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, and out of the villages, and out of the fields. 14. And they gathered them together into immense heaps, and the land was corrupted. 15. And Pharaoh seeing that rest was given, hardened his heart, and did not hear them, as the Lord had commanded. 16. And the Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron: Stretch forth your rod, and strike the dust of the earth, and let there be gnats in all the land of Egypt. 17. And they did so. And Aaron stretched forth his hand, holding the rod: and he struck the dust of the earth, and there came gnats on men and on beasts: all the dust of the earth was turned into gnats through all the land of Egypt. 18. And the magicians also did in like manner with their enchantments, to bring forth gnats, and they could not: and there were gnats as well on men as on beasts. 19. And the magicians said to Pharaoh: This is the finger of God; and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not hear them, as the Lord had commanded. 20. The Lord also said to Moses: Arise early, and stand before Pharaoh: for he will go forth to the waters, and you shall say to him: Thus says the Lord: Let My people go to sacrifice to Me. 21. But if you will not let them go, behold I will send upon you, and upon your servants, and upon your people, and into your houses, every kind of fly: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with flies of divers kinds, and the whole land wherein they shall be. 22. And I will make the land of Goshen wonderful on that day, in which My people is, so that flies shall not be there, and you shall know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. 23. And I will put a division between My people and your people: tomorrow shall this sign be. 24. And the Lord did so. And a most grievous swarm of flies came into the houses of Pharaoh, and of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt; and the land was corrupted by this kind of flies. 25. And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: Go and sacrifice to your God in this land. 26. And Moses said: It cannot be so done; for we shall sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. If we slaughter those things which the Egyptians worship before them, they will stone us. 27. We will go three days' journey into the wilderness: and we will sacrifice to the Lord our God, as He has commanded us. 28. And Pharaoh said: I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the desert: but go no further, pray for me. 29. And Moses said: Going out from you, I will pray to the Lord; and the flies shall depart from Pharaoh, and from his servants, and from his people tomorrow: but do not deceive any more, in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. 30. And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and prayed to the Lord. 31. And He did according to his word, and He took away the flies from Pharaoh, and from his servants, and from his people: there was not left so much as one. 32. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, so that neither this time would he let the people go.
Verse 2: I Will Strike All Your Borders with Frogs
2. I WILL STRIKE ALL YOUR BORDERS WITH FROGS. — "Borders," that is, your regions up to their furthest limits and boundaries: it is metonymy. After the first plague of blood, which lasted 7 days, immediately on the following day, namely the 8th day, this second plague of very numerous and most troublesome frogs followed, which God in His merciful justice so armed for the punishment of the guilty, that by the same means He also admonished them to repentance. They are justly punished with aquatic frogs and their croaking, who had drowned the infants of the Hebrews in the waters, and had despised their wailing. For infants resemble frogs both in movement and in crying; for they crawl on hands and feet like frogs. So Theodoret.
Verse 3: And the River Shall Bring Forth Frogs
3. AND THE RIVER SHALL BRING FORTH FROGS IN ABUNDANCE. — The Hebrew sharats signifies to swarm and multiply offspring like fish and frogs; which our translator aptly rendered "shall bubble forth," as if to say: Very many frogs, like bubbles, shall be born from the Nile and come forth.
Verse 3 continued: Which Shall Come Up and Enter into Your House
WHICH SHALL COME UP AND ENTER INTO YOUR HOUSE. — Behold, at God the Avenger's command, the habitat of aquatic creatures, namely frogs, is changed, so that by an instinct contrary to their nature, divinely implanted in them, they are carried to a colony in a different element, namely of air and land, so that no place in the land of Egypt was closed or impervious to frogs, the angels driving the frogs in every direction, or even transporting them. This plague of frogs was more severe than the preceding one of blood. For the former had only taken away the waters from the Egyptians, with the use of wine and milk untouched: but the frogs, spread everywhere, not only assailed their ears with their vocal and discordant music, but also occupied and defiled all foods, vessels, pots, plates, seats, tables, houses, storerooms, pantries, bedrooms, beds, roads, and everything; and many of them dying, infected with their putrefaction and stench both the waters and the roads and houses, says Josephus. Hear Scripture: "They shall enter, it says, into your house, and into the chamber of your bed, upon your bed, and into the houses of your servants, and upon your people, and into your ovens, and into the remains of your food, and upon you, and upon your people, and upon all your servants, shall the frogs come." Hear also Philo: "The frogs, he says, filled the marketplaces and all buildings, both sacred and profane, both private and public; and so, since men could neither go out, the roads being blocked, nor remain inside, even the innermost chambers being packed, and the frogs creeping up to the highest stories as well, they were reduced to the utmost desperation." Moreover, Scripture indicates that their multitude was immense, when, after Moses prayed and the frogs died, it adds in verse 14: "And they gathered them together into immense heaps, and the land was corrupted." These frogs therefore tormented all the senses: first, the sight by their size and deformity; second, the hearing by their constant and annoying croaking; third, the taste, because settling upon all foods and drinks they defiled them, and leaped with the food into the mouths of those eating; fourth, the smell by their most foul stench, which they exhaled, especially when dead; fifth, the touch: for they climbed upon tables, seats, beds, and there invaded and occupied the bodies, feet, hands, and faces of those sitting or lying down. Pererius adds that many of the frogs were harmful and venomous. The Hebrews add, or rather fable, that these frogs entered the bodies and bowels of the Egyptians, through the open mouths of those sleeping, and through other passages. Thus frogs have often devastated entire regions and driven peoples from them, as Orosius teaches, book III, last chapter, that the Abderites were driven from their homeland by frogs.
Verse 3: And into the Remains of Your Food
AND INTO THE REMAINS OF YOUR FOOD. — Our translator correctly rendered the Hebrew bemisarotecha, which, however, secondly signifies kneaded flour. Whence the Septuagint translates, "in your kneaded dough," that is, in your lumps or pastes; the Chaldean renders it, in your bread-baskets, that is, in the bakery and the places where bread is made.
Verse 5: Stretch Forth Your Hand
5. STRETCH FORTH YOUR HAND — with the rod which you hold; for the Hebrew text expresses the rod: for it was the effective and moral cause of all these things; for by this sign of the extending of the rod, as by a command, from the waters and their obediential power, the frogs were called forth by Moses and God.
Allegorically, the rod is the cross, or the wood of the cross. For the cross intervenes in all the wonderful works of our redemption.
Verse 6: And Aaron Stretched Forth His Hand over the Waters
6. AND AARON STRETCHED FORTH HIS HAND OVER THE WATERS. — "Over," that is, toward, or against the waters: for he did not touch them, being far removed from them, and being in the court of Pharaoh. He therefore stretched forth the rod from afar, by this extension signifying that he was striking the Egyptians, and that by his command the plague of frogs was being inflicted.
Tropologically, frogs are the garrulous and clamorous; for these are troublesome to lovers of quiet, like frogs, and they disturb the peace of a household or community. Whence Pythagoras said, "a swallow should not be received in the house," that is, garrulous and wordy people should not be admitted into a family, as St. Jerome explains in his Apology against Rufinus. But most especially, frogs are the talkative philosophers and heretics, who, says St. Augustine, book I of the Correspondence of the Ten Precepts with the Ten Plagues, "can have pride and empty contentions, like the noise of voices, but cannot instill the doctrine of true wisdom: for those who contradict Christian truth, and being deceived in their vanity deceive others, are frogs, bringing indeed weariness to the ears, but providing no food to the minds;" and as Tertullian says, in his book Against Hermogenes, chapter 1, such men "consider talkativeness to be eloquence, reckon impudence as constancy, and judge reviling individuals to be the duty of a good conscience." Again, just as frogs fall silent when a torch is lit at night, so also do sophists and heretics when they see the light of truth. Whence the Poet:
Stricken by the light, the frogs cease their cursing, And the sophist, conquered by the light of truth, falls silent.
The same St. Augustine, sermon 87 On the Seasons; Origen, Rabanus, and Rupert understand by frogs the inflated, melodious, fabulous, and impure songs of poets, which were the ruin of many. Second, Gregory of Nyssa: Frogs, he says, are a type of the voluptuous and luxurious life; for first, the frog is an animal of ambiguous life, living in waters and on land, dwelling in mud and mire: so the voluptuous man is ambiguous between man and beast: for he bears the figure of a man, but leads the life of a beast. Second, the frog is ugly in appearance and of foul stench, which is not cleansed by waters but rather further polluted: so those addicted to the belly and to lust are foul and stinking, for gluttony and lust stain all their thoughts, words, and deeds, and defile both mind and body. Third, frogs are talkative: so the lustful exhale shameful things. Fourth, these frogs penetrated and defiled everything: so gluttony and lust penetrate and defile all things; it abounds at the tables of gluttons, sits in their beds and inner chambers, covers their walls and halls with obscene images, their vessels with foul sculptures, their bodies with rottenness, and stains and pollutes their minds with corruption. So Gregory of Nyssa.
Verse 7: And the Magicians Also Did in Like Manner
7. AND THE MAGICIANS ALSO DID IN LIKE MANNER BY THEIR ENCHANTMENTS. — Not indeed as many as Aaron, which would cover all the cities and villages; but they brought forth from the waters a few frogs, which the demons had previously secretly transferred there from elsewhere, or which they had even produced naturally from the waters, by applying active agents to passive matter: for thus we see frogs naturally generated from waters.
Verse 8: Pray to the Lord That He Take Away the Frogs
8. PRAY TO THE LORD THAT HE TAKE AWAY THE FROGS. — From this it is evident that this plague of frogs was more grievous than the preceding one of blood. For this one compelled Pharaoh to entreat Moses for deliverance, which the former had not done.
Verse 9: Set Me a Time When I Shall Pray for You
9. SET ME A TIME WHEN I SHALL PRAY FOR YOU. — In Hebrew it reads: Glory over me when I pray for you, as if to say: I defer this honor to you, that you may appoint and determine the time at which I should pray, that you and your Egyptians may be freed from the frogs. Note the word "when," as if to say: Do not suppose that I am hunting and searching for a certain and natural time for the cessation of the frogs from a horoscope, that is, from an inspection of the hour, or of a new rising star, as if I were an astrologer or magician — you yourself determine the time. Moses knew that he had been made God to Pharaoh, and the liberator of Israel: and therefore, certain of the signs necessary for this liberation from God's trust and promise, he boldly promises Pharaoh that he will remove the frogs at whatever time; especially because he relied on his great familiarity with God, and was driven by hidden impulses from God to dare this, as though God were at hand and would surely come to his aid, so that at whatever time he could remove this plague of frogs: there was therefore no testing of God here, yet it was a work of great courage and virtue. Whence the Chaldean translates: Ask for yourself a mighty thing, that is, a great matter, for the accomplishing of which great force and power is needed.
Verse 10: And He Answered, Tomorrow
10. AND HE ANSWERED, TOMORROW — not immediately this very day and moment, both so that I may give you time to pray for the removal of the frogs, and so that I may test whether the frogs will naturally cease of themselves, as though brought here by chance, or whether rather, having been brought by divine power, they cannot be removed without that same power being implored through your prayers.
Verse 12: He Cried Out
12. HE CRIED OUT — not with his voice, but with desire, and with a great elevation and straining of his soul toward God: thus in chapter 14, verse 15, God says to Moses as he is silent: "Why do you cry out to Me?"
Verse 14: And They Gathered Them into Immense Heaps
14. AND THEY GATHERED THEM (the frogs) INTO IMMENSE HEAPS. — The frogs did not vanish immediately when Moses prayed, lest they be thought to have been illusions, and lest Pharaoh forget this scourge. Whence Philo and Josephus relate that the dead frogs exhaled an intolerable stench.
Verse 17: And He Struck the Dust of the Earth
17. AND HE STRUCK THE DUST OF THE EARTH, AND THERE CAME GNATS ON MEN AND ON BEASTS. — This is the third plague, of gnats, through which the Egyptians were punished in earth and dust, who had oppressed the Hebrews in mortar and bricks.
Note: This plague was in all the land of Egypt, not absolutely, but wherever the Egyptians or their cattle were: for the gnats were sent only to torment these. Whence when it is said: "All the dust of the earth was turned into gnats," understand by hyperbole "all" to mean very much, as if all, that was near men and cattle. And that this is so is clear from verse 21.
Note second: These new creatures are called sciniphes, and in Greek by the Septuagint and Philo sknipes (which in the singular is called sknips, or knips), from the Hebrew word kinnim, somewhat changed, or rather from the Greek knizein, that is, to sting, to cause itching: for this is what gnats, who are also called sciniphes, do.
One may ask, what kind of creatures were these gnats? Josephus, the Hebrews, Cajetan, and Oleaster translate the Hebrew kinnim as lice, but they err, both because lice are not generated from dust but from the body; and because the Septuagint, our translator, and Philo render it "gnats," not lice.
Second, Torniellus wants the sciniphes to have been fleas, because if they had been gnats, they would have been produced not in this but in the following plague, which was of every kind of fly. But fleas do not fly into the eyes, and they are called fleas, not sciniphes. Add that gnats are not properly flies, although otherwise there are various kinds of flies: for there is the dog-fly, the horse-fly, the ox-fly, the common fly, the Spanish fly, the black fly, the golden fly, the yellow fly, etc.
I say therefore that the sciniphes were gnats (sknips, says the Greek Etymologicum, is something resembling a gnat) and their infinite swarms (so that, like a stretched-out cloud, they darkened all Egypt, says Philo), which both bored into bodies with stinging barbs, and, as Philo says, invaded even the nostrils and ears, and flew into the eyes. Therefore although this animal is the tiniest, it is nevertheless the most troublesome. Whence St. James of Nisibis against Sapor king of the Persians, who was besieging Nisibis — hurled the curse of gnats and immediately by them routed his horses and elephants, as Theodoret testifies in the Philotheus.
Hence Albert the Great, book XVI On Animals, says that gnats are worms in body, but flies in head and wings, having a sting in their mouth with which they pierce and suck, that they are born in marshy places, and pursue the breath of living creatures, but especially of humans. But these Mosaic gnats were more fierce, and as it were miraculous: they did not fly about circling in the air, as gnats do, but attacked men and cattle.
Tropologically, gnats are the dialectical sophisms of heretics, which bore into souls with the minute and subtle stings of words and arguments, and ensnare them with such cunning that the one deceived neither sees nor understands. So Origen, and from him St. Augustine, sermon 87 On the Seasons.
Rightly did Diogenes rebuff a sophist: for when the sophist by his clever argumentation concluded that Diogenes had horns, Diogenes, touching his forehead and temples with his hand, said: But I do not see them. To another arguing thus: What I am, you are not; I am a man, therefore you are not a man, he replied: Begin with me, and you will have reasoned correctly: What Diogenes is, a sophist is not; Diogenes is a man; therefore a sophist is not a man. Wherefore Ariston rightly used to say that the subtleties of dialecticians are like spiders' webs, because they have a great deal of artifice but very little utility.
St. Augustine, in the Correspondence of the Ten Precepts with the Ten Plagues, teaches that this plague is opposed to the third precept, by which we are commanded to keep the sabbath holy, that is, to have rest of mind: for gnats signify restless, contentious, and quarrelsome men, who disturb both their own peace and that of others.
Verse 18: And the Magicians Also Did in Like Manner
18. AND THE MAGICIANS ALSO DID IN LIKE MANNER. — "Did," that is, attempted to do by their enchantments. So St. Augustine.
AND THEY COULD NOT. — Why could the magicians, who had produced frogs and greater things, not produce small gnats? The Hebrews, as cited by Lyranus, answer that the reason is that demons cannot produce an animal smaller than a grain of barley, and that gnats are smaller. But these are trifles: for although by art sometimes the greatest things can be done but not the smallest, yet by nature and by natural causes (through which demons operate) smaller and baser animals are more easily produced than larger ones: for the latter require more things, as experience shows. Second, Rupert thinks the magicians did produce gnats, but not true ones, that is, ones that would sting and have barbs. But where did Rupert learn this? Indeed it contradicts Scripture, which simply says they could not produce gnats. Third, Cajetan gives this reason, that those enchantments were not appropriate for such an effect, namely for producing gnats: for it is certain that demons can produce gnats. But there is no doubt that the demon, who here exerted all his power against Moses was exerting, would have suggested to his magicians their own proper and fitting enchantments.
I say therefore that the demons were impeded by God, so that they could not produce gnats; for the magicians themselves confess this, saying: "This is the finger of God;" and this so that the power of God, and the weakness of the demons, might more clearly appear, and so that it is not the demon but God who is to be feared by us, who restrains the forces of the demon, so that even in small matters it cannot do harm unless God permits it. Finally, here the lying magicians and demons are convicted of impotence; and it became clear to all that the wonders they had previously performed were not true miracles, and that they had been conquered and overthrown by Moses; and consequently that Moses was the true Prophet and servant of the true God, but that they were magicians and servants of the demon.
St. Augustine gives an allegorical reason in Question 25 on Exodus. In the third plague, he says, that of gnats, the magicians failed, to signify that the Philosophers of the Gentiles did not recognize the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. For although Plato and others did not keep silent about the Father and the Son, yet they did not recognize the Holy Spirit, who is the finger of God.
Morally, learn from this that if you resist the demon strongly and constantly with Moses, you will render him most feeble, so that he cannot even produce a gnat.
Verse 19: This Is the Finger of God
19. THIS IS THE FINGER OF GOD — who assists Moses and helps him, but attacks and restrains us, and compels us to yield to Him. Here God and Moses extort from their enemies, even against their will, a true confession of the true signs of Moses, emanating from God.
One may ask, what this finger signifies. Some answer that the finger signifies a plague which God inflicted with a light motion, and as it were with His finger: and just as a man has ten fingers, so there were ten plagues of Egypt; whence the Chaldean translates, from the face of God this plague is.
Second and more aptly, the finger of God is the power, strength, and operation of God: for by the arm and fingers, which are instruments of action, the Hebrews signify power and action. For although in God there is one operative power, yet it is manifold and multiform by reason of its many effects, whence it is called finger or fingers. Hence in Isaiah 40, it is said that God suspends the mass of the earth with three fingers, and Psalm 8: "I shall see Your heavens, the works of Your fingers;" so Rupert, Cajetan, Lyranus, Lipomanus. Again, "of God" signifies immense power, as if to say: The power by which Moses operates is extraordinary and insuperable; for thus they speak of mountains of God, cedars of God, that is, the greatest.
Mystically, according to the mind not of the magicians but of God, the finger of God is the Holy Spirit: for first, just as the finger proceeds from the arm and hand, so the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Second, just as there are many fingers, so there are many gifts of the Holy Spirit. Third, there are as many fingers on the right hand as on the left, because we need equal strength and grace of the Holy Spirit for enduring prosperity and adversity. So Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory of Nyssa. Hence, since in Luke chapter 11, verse 20, Christ is said to cast out demons by the finger of God, Matthew chapter 12, verse 28 explains this by saying that He does it by the Spirit of God.
Erroneously, Lyranus understands by "God" here a superior demon who through magic was impeding the operation of the magicians and the inferior demons. For if, he says, the magicians had known the true God to be present with Moses, they would not have dared to resist him any further; but they did resist him after this, in chapter 9, verse 11. But this is against all the Interpreters, and against the plain words of Scripture themselves. Nor is it surprising that the magicians later returned to their old ways and resisted Moses. For thus Pharaoh, repeatedly repenting, soon returned to his old ways. Moreover, just as demons resist God even though they know Him, so too do the magicians and other great sinners resist.
THE HEART OF PHARAOH WAS HARDENED. — Both because the magicians were saying that they could do and knew similar things as Moses, and that they would do similar things if they were not prevented by God; and also because he had seen them do greater things already.
Verse 21: I Will Send upon You Every Kind of Fly
Verse 21. I WILL SEND UPON YOU, ETC., EVERY KIND OF FLY. — In Hebrew it is arob, which, if you consider the root, signifies "mixed" or "miscellaneous," which some restrict to wild beasts, as though God sent a mixture of various kinds of beasts upon the Egyptians in this fourth plague. So Josephus. Hence the Chaldean translates it as "a mixture of noxious beasts"; Pagninus, "every kind of wild beast"; R. Solomon, "a swarm of serpents and scorpions"; Aben Ezra, "an invasion of lions, leopards, and wolves." Better, St. Jerome, the Septuagint, and Aquila interpret arob as a medley of flies, or a swarm of various flies: for Aquila translates it as pammuian, that is, a fly of every kind; the Septuagint likewise translate it as koinomuian, that is, a common fly, namely every kind of fly. Hence the Latin Interpreter, retaining the Greek name coenomyia (for so it should be read with the Romans, not cynomyia), translates it in Psalm 77:45 and Psalm 104:31. Hence St. Jerome, in his epistle to Sunias and Fretella, thinks that the reading in the Septuagint kunomuian with upsilon, that is, "dog-fly," is corrupt, instead of koinomuian with omicron-iota, that is, "common fly"; yet Origen, Augustine, and Theodoret read koinomuian, as does Philo, who says it is called kunomuia from two most shameless animals, namely the dog and the fly, as if to say: This fly, like dogs, was most shameless, most bold, most biting. Thus the Egyptians, when depicting shamelessness, would paint a fly, which, though frequently driven away, nevertheless shamelessly returns again and again. So Horus Apollo, book 1, Hieroglyphics 48.
Mystically, St. Augustine opposes this fourth plague to the fourth commandment, which concerns honoring one's parents; for those who do not honor their parents are punished by the dog-fly, that is, by the wickedness of the devil: for it is dog-like not to acknowledge one's parents. Hence puppies are born blind.
Second, St. Augustine in Sermon 87, and Origen, by the cynomyia understand the sect of the Cynics, because of their public and shameless practice of lust. Others understand heretics, who at first are piously flattering, but then snarl and bite like dogs. For most truly did Blessed Thomas More say: "Our heretics have removed hypocrisy, but have substituted shamelessness, so that those who formerly pretended religion now glory in impiety."
Third, Pererius compares the cynomyia to lawyers and other litigious people, who like dogs bite and tear one another. Again, the cynomyiae represent slanderers; for, as Plutarch says in his Moralia, just as friends detest a dog that rushes in and separates them, so they ought to execrate dog-like people who by their slander destroy the goodwill of friends. Hence Alcibiades sent a large dog with its tail cut off through the city: when this seemed foolish and absurd to many, and friends warned him and recounted the talk that was circulating about him, Alcibiades laughed and said: "Things have turned out just as I intended. For I wanted to give the Athenians something to talk about, so that I might divert them from the worse things they were saying abusively about me and others." Plutarch is the witness, in his Life of Alcibiades.
Fourth, St. Gregory, by every kind of fly, understands the restless and insolent anxieties of carnal desires, by which the followers of the world and of pleasures are driven and struck. See his book 18 of the Moralia, chapter 28.
Verse 22: And I Will Make Wondrous the Land of Goshen
Verse 22. AND I WILL MAKE WONDROUS ON THAT DAY THE LAND OF GOSHEN. — The Hebrew hiphleti can be translated with the Chaldean as "I will divide the land of Goshen," so that it alone in Egypt would be immune from this plague of flies. Hence thirdly, hiphleti can be translated as "I will act miraculously with the land of Goshen." For the root pala signifies "he separated" or "he made wondrous," as if to say: I will make the land of Goshen pele, that is, wondrous and a wonder of the world. Thus the Angel appearing to Manoah, father of Samson, when asked by what name He was called, said: "Why do you ask My name, which is pele, that is, wonderful?" Judges 13:14. Thus Christ in Isaiah 9:6 is called pele, that is, wonderful. In a similar manner, fittingly, in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, when the Christians, warned by God, went out and escaped to the city of Pella, as Eusebius testifies in book 3, chapter 5, that city was fittingly called, whether earlier or later, namely from this wondrous escape, Pela or Pella by the Christians, that is, "a wondrous separation": because just as God of old made the land of Goshen pele, that is, wondrous, and separated it from the plagues of Egypt, so likewise He separated the Christians in Pella from the plagues of the Jews who were cut down in Jerusalem by Titus. So Alcazar, Apocalypse 7, near the beginning, page 468.
AND THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD IN THE MIDST OF THE EARTH — that is, ruling in a wide and broad land. Thus the Hebrews call the "middle" or "heart" of the sea the sea itself, wide and deep. Moreover, just as a king residing in the middle of his kingdom surveys and administers the whole kingdom in every direction, so God is said anthropopathically to reside in the midst of the earth, as a king, and to rule most broadly in every direction.
Verse 23: And I Will Set a Division
Verse 23. AND I WILL SET A DIVISION. — The Hebrew is "I will set pedut," that is, redemption, as if to say: I will redeem, deliver, and free My Hebrews from the common plague which will afflict all of Egypt.
Verse 24: And a Very Grievous Fly Came
Verse 24. AND A VERY GRIEVOUS FLY CAME. — God inflicted this fourth plague of flies without any visible sign, without the extension of a rod, by Himself alone, lest anyone should suspect that some divine power resided in the rod, or that it was not God who was doing these things.
A Very Grievous Fly. — "Gravissima" (very grievous), that is, very numerous. For by metalepsis and by the interchange of continuous quantity for discrete quantity, the Hebrews take "heavy" for "many, abundant." Thus in Psalm 34:18 it is said: "In a heavy people," that is, a numerous people, "I will praise You." 1 Maccabees 1:18: "Antiochus entered Egypt with a heavy multitude," that is, an abundant one. Nahum 3:3: "A heavy voice of ruin," that is, a voice of much slaughter; for there precedes "the voice of a slain multitude." So also the Latins use "heavy" in this way, as Varro in Nonius Marcellus, when he says: "Where heavy flocks of peacocks are fed and nourished" — heavy, that is, numerous; and Sallust: "A heavy price for grain began to prevail throughout the whole province" — heavy, that is, great and much.
Second, "gravissima" (very grievous), that is, most troublesome and most harmful, both to men and to animals. Hence it follows: "And the land was corrupted by flies of this kind." Hence Abulensis thinks these flies were venomous in their bite. Thus Pliny, book 10, chapter 28, reports that flies once destroyed entire nations and regions, and therefore, he says, the Eleans worshiped the god Myiodes, or Myiagrus, as if "Jupiter of the Flies," to drive away the plague of flies; just as the Accaronites worshiped Beelzebub, that is, the fly-god, whom many think to be the same as Myiodes or Myiagrus, that is, Jupiter of the Flies.
Verse 26: Shall We Sacrifice the Abominations of the Egyptians?
Verse 26. Shall we sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God? — Our Interpreter translates this interrogatively for emphasis, as do also the Chaldean and Pagninus, as if to say: In no way is it expedient for us to slaughter and sacrifice sheep and cattle in Egypt before the Egyptians; for they worship these things. Hence, if we slaughter them, they will stone us; this is clear from what follows.
One asks, what are the abominations of the Egyptians? Note that "abomination" is used for an abominable or abominated thing. See Canon 21. Now, first, some understand it thus, that "abominations" are what the Egyptians sacrificed to their gods, which were abominable to the Hebrews; for among the ancients, a pig was sacrificed to Ceres, a goose to Venus, a donkey to Priapus, a dog to Diana, a horse to Phoebus. But to sacrifice these animals was unlawful for the Hebrews.
Second and genuinely, as is clear from the Hebrew and from what follows, "abominations" here are called the sacred cattle, whose slaughter the Egyptians abominated as quasi-sacrilegious, inasmuch as they worshiped them as deities, or as having something divine. Hence what are here called "abominations" are shortly after called "the things which the Egyptians worship." For thus they worshiped Jupiter Ammon in the ram, Apis in the calf and ox. So Philo. For this same reason the Egyptians detested shepherds, because they customarily slaughter sheep, which the Egyptians worshiped, as was said in Genesis 46. For although the law of Leviticus concerning victims had not yet been given, Moses knew, partly from the tradition and example of his ancestors, partly from God's prompting, that God wished sheep and cattle to be sacrificed to Him, not pigs and other unclean animals. Note this against Rupertus, who here attempts to exclude the literal sense and substitute the tropological for it.
Tropologically, the abominations of the Egyptians are faith, justice, piety, penance, mortification of the flesh and of desires, and other virtues whose sacrifice is most pleasing to God, which the impious abhor and turn away from.
Hear St. Gregory, book 10 of the Moralia, chapter 23: "What does the sinner hope for with all his thoughts, except to surpass others in power, to exceed everyone in the multiplication of possessions, to subjugate opponents by dominating them, to become known as admirable to those who obey him, to satisfy his wrath to his heart's content, to show himself benign when praised, to offer whatever gluttony desires? Rightly therefore their hope is called an abomination: because the things which carnal people seek, spiritual people turn away from by the judgment of righteousness; and what the former esteem as pleasure, the latter consider punishment; because as the flesh is nourished by soft things, so the soul is nourished by hard things, and as hard things wound the flesh, so soft things kill the spirit. The hope of carnal people is therefore called an abomination of the soul, because the spirit perishes forever from that by which the flesh lives sweetly for a time;" and chapter 27: "What the Egyptians abominate, the Israelites offer to God: because the simplicity of conscience, which the unjust despise, the just turn into a sacrifice of virtue, and cultivating the purity and meekness of righteousness, they sacrifice to God what the reprobate, abominating it, consider foolishness."
Verse 32: And Pharaoh's Heart Was Hardened
Verse 32. And it was made heavy. — In Hebrew, "and Pharaoh made heavy his heart." So also the Septuagint.