Chapter Overview
Summary
Exodus 8 continues the plague narrative with the second (frogs), third (gnats), and fourth (flies) plagues. The chapter's most theologically consequential LXX rendering is the magicians' confession at 8:15 (English 8:19): 'This is the finger of God' (daktylos theou estin) — a phrase Jesus deploys at Luke 11:20 to identify his exorcisms as the kingdom's arrival. The distinction God sets between Israel in Goshen and Egypt (8:18) establishes the 'distinction' motif that recurs at the Passover.
Notable Variants
The finger-of-God confession at 8:15 that Luke 11:20 quotes for Jesus' self-identification as kingdom-inaugurator; the 'distinction' between Goshen and Egypt at 8:18 (diastolē in LXX) that supplies the NT vocabulary of God's election and preservation of his people; the LXX's rendering of Pharaoh's negotiation tactics as an Egyptian political register.
Structural Notes
Hebrew/English chapter division differs: Hebrew 7:26–8:28 = English 8:1–32. TCR and LXX both follow Hebrew versification. Chapter 8 in TCR/LXX has 28 verses.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron: Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, the canals, and the pools, and bring up frogs over the land of Egypt."
The command to Aaron to extend his staff over the Egyptian waters and bring up frogs tracks MT. English editions label this 8:5.
Aaron extended his hand over the waters of Egypt, and frogs swarmed up and blanketed the land.
The frogs swarming and covering the land is rendered directly.
But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.
The magicians' duplication of the frog-plague tracks MT. That the LXX's pharmakoi can produce more frogs rather than remove them is part of the narrative's dark irony: their power adds to the plague, never alleviates it.
Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, "Plead with the LORD to remove the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the LORD."
Pharaoh's first concession ('plead with the LORD … I will let the people go') tracks MT. The 'plead' verb proseuxasthe is the standard LXX word for prayer that dominates NT prayer-vocabulary.
Moses said to Pharaoh, "You may have the honor over me: set the time when I should pray for you and your servants and your people, to cut off the frogs from you and your houses, so that they remain only in the Nile."
Moses' 'you may have the honor over me' tracks MT's deferential formula.
He said, "Tomorrow." Moses said, "It shall be as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.
Pharaoh's 'tomorrow' and Moses' 'there is no one like the LORD our God' (hōs ouk estin allos plēn kyriou tou theou hēmōn) is a monotheistic formula foundational to both LXX and NT theology.
The frogs will depart from you and your houses and from your servants and your people. They will remain only in the Nile."
The promise of frog-removal tracks MT.
Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried out to the LORD concerning the frogs He had brought upon Pharaoh.
Moses' crying out to the LORD (eboēsen pros kyrion) uses the same verb that the NT applies to desperate prayer (Mark 15:34, Luke 18:7).
The LORD did as Moses asked, and the frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards, and in the fields.
The frogs dying in houses, courtyards, and fields tracks MT.
They gathered them into piles, and the land stank.
The piling of dead frogs and the land's stench is rendered directly.
But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
Pharaoh's hardening upon seeing relief tracks MT. The Hebrew kaved ('weighty') is rendered ebarynen in LXX — the kaved-branch of the hardening-verb family.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron: Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground, and it shall become gnats throughout all the land of Egypt."
The command to Aaron for the gnat-plague tracks MT. The dust-to-gnats transformation is the first plague that Moses did not announce in advance.
They did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the ground, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the ground became gnats throughout the land of Egypt.
The execution of the gnat-plague is rendered directly.
The magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, but they could not. The gnats were on man and beast.
The magicians' failure to produce gnats tracks MT. Their first failure marks the turning point of the plague cycle.
Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
Masoretic (WLC)
אֶצְבַּע אֱלֹהִים הִוא
This is the finger of God
Septuagint (LXX)
δάκτυλος θεοῦ ἐστιν
This is the finger of God
The magicians' confession — daktylos theou estin — is the LXX phrase that Luke 11:20 cites in Jesus' statement: 'If I cast out demons by the finger of God (en daktylō theou), then the kingdom of God has come upon you.' The parallel at Matthew 12:28 reads 'by the Spirit of God' — but Luke preserves the Exodus-Egyptian-magician echo.
Jesus' rhetorical move in Luke 11:20 is striking: his exorcisms are not simply signs of divine power but are the 'finger of God' that the Egyptian magicians once confessed against Moses. He casts Israel's opponents in the role of Pharaoh's defeated magicians — the kingdom-coming is the plague-cycle's eschatological escalation.
Exodus 31:18 ('written by the finger of God') and Deuteronomy 9:10 (the same) are the other LXX 'finger of God' texts. Luke 11:20 draws on all three.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he goes out to the water, and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD: Let My people go, so that they may serve Me.
The command to rise early and confront Pharaoh tracks MT.
For if you do not let My people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms, and even the ground on which they stand.
The threat of flies (kynomuia, 'dog-fly,' a specific LXX term for a biting fly variety) tracks MT semantically.
But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where My people dwell, so that no swarms shall be there, in order that you may know that I, the LORD, am in the midst of the land.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְהִפְלֵיתִי בַיּוֹם הַהוּא אֶת־אֶרֶץ גֹּשֶׁן
I will set apart the land of Goshen
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ παραδοξάσω ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ τὴν γῆν Γεσεμ
I will make the land of Gesem marvelously distinct
The LXX's paradoxasō ('I will set apart marvelously, make wonderfully distinct') is an unusual Greek verb — a close cognate of paradoxos ('unexpected, marvelous'). The Hebrew palah ('to set apart, distinguish') is rendered with a verb that emphasizes the miraculous visibility of the distinction.
The theme of God distinguishing his people from the world becomes the core of election theology across the OT and NT. The LXX's vocabulary here (paradoxasō) is echoed at Romans 9:23 ('that he might make known the riches of his glory'), 1 Peter 2:9 ('that you may proclaim the excellencies'), and related texts.
I will put a distinction between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall come about.'"
Masoretic (WLC)
וְשַׂמְתִּי פְדֻת בֵּין עַמִּי וּבֵין עַמֶּךָ
I will put a distinction between My people and your people
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ δώσω διαστολὴν ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ ἐμοῦ λαοῦ καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ σοῦ λαοῦ
I will give a distinction between my people and your people
LXX's diastolē ('distinction, separation') is the same word Paul uses at Romans 3:22 ('no distinction between Jew and Greek') and 10:12 ('no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all'). The Pauline argument for unified Jew-Gentile salvation depends on the LXX-Exodus 'distinction' vocabulary — a distinction that Paul now declares abolished in Christ.
The LORD did so. A grievous swarm of flies came into the house of Pharaoh and into the houses of his servants. Throughout all the land of Egypt the ground was ruined by the swarms.
The fly-plague's execution and the ruining of Egyptian ground tracks MT.
Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land."
Pharaoh's proposal that Israel sacrifice 'within the land' (without leaving Egypt) tracks MT — a partial concession designed to keep Israel under Egyptian control.
But Moses said, "It would not be right to do so, for we would be sacrificing to the LORD our God what is detestable to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what is detestable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?
Moses' refusal ('it would not be right') and the reference to Egyptian taboos against Israelite sacrifices is rendered closely. The vocabulary bdelygma ('detestable thing') recurs throughout LXX Torah for foreign-worship and tabooed objects.
We must go a three-day journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as He commands us."
The three-day wilderness journey requirement tracks MT.
Pharaoh said, "I will let you go to sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness, but you must not go very far away. Pray for me."
Pharaoh's conditional release ('not very far away') and his request for prayer tracks MT. His pragmatic political concession is progressively weakened across the plague cycle.
Moses said, "I am going out from you, and I will pray to the LORD that the swarms depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow. But Pharaoh must not deal deceitfully again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD."
Moses' agreement to pray and his warning against further deceit tracks MT.
So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD.
Moses' departure and prayer tracks MT.
The LORD did as Moses asked and removed the swarms from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one remained.
The complete removal of the flies ('not one remained') tracks MT — an emphasis on the totality of divine response that contrasts with the incomplete removal of the frogs (whose corpses piled up).
But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also and did not let the people go.
Pharaoh's renewed hardening ('this time also') tracks MT. The chapter closes with the pattern that will repeat through Ex 9–11: plague → concession → relief → renewed hardening.