Exodus 8:18

Exo 8:18 And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.

Ver. 18. But they could not.] Though they endeavoured it, as did the magician of Antwerp, who, being required by the English merchants there to play his feats and show his cunning, after much sweating and toil, when he saw that nothing could go forward, but that all his enchantments were void, was compelled openly to confess that there was some man there at supper which disturbed and hindered all his doings. This was Mr Tyndale the martyr, who, hearing of this magician, had desired certain of the merchants that he might be present to see him play, {a} &c.

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 985.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exo 8:18. The magicians did so — They also smote the dust of the earth to bring forth lice with their enchantments, but they could not — Some have said that this verse is not accurately translated, and that the true sense of it is, that the magicians endeavoured not to bring forth, but to draw off, or take away, the lice. But surely they have affirmed this without having examined the original. The words להוציא את הכנים, Lehoatsi eth hachinnim, signify to bring forth the lice, and not to take them away. Nor is the word εξαγαγειν, used by the LXX., at all inimical to this construction, signifying properly to bring out, or bring forth. So that the thing asserted, as commentators have generally understood, is, that the magicians could not produce lice, as they had frogs, much less could they take away those that God, by Moses, had produced. Now, as it surely was as easy to produce lice as frogs, from this it appeared by what power they had done the other two miracles; not by any virtue that was in their enchantments, but by a supernatural power which God had permitted Satan to give them, but the further operation of which he now thought proper to prevent, to show them that all their power, to whatever cause they might attribute it, was limited, and not to be compared with that of the God of Israel.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

God confounded their wisdom and authority in a thing most vile.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 18. The magicians did so] That is, They tried the utmost of their skill, either to produce these insects or to remove this plague; but they could not, no juggling could avail here, because insects must be produced which would stick to and infix themselves in man and beast, which no kind of trick could possibly imitate; and to remove them, as some would translate the passage, was to their power equally impossible. If the magicians even acted by spiritual agents, we find from this case that these agents had assigned limits, beyond which they could not go; for every agent in the universe is acting under the direction or control of the Almighty.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) The magicians did so—i.e., tried to do so—took moist earth, and dried it, and pulverised it, and tried the effect of their magic charms upon it, but. failed to produce mosquitoes, as Aaron had done. Mosquitoes were things too delicate to be caught, and manipulated, and produced at a given moment by sleight-of-hand. The magicians tried to produce a counterfeit of the miracle, but could not. Then they excused themselves to their master with the words, “This is the finger of a god.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. This wonder the magicians (v. 7) were unable to imitate.

to bring forth] viz. from the earth.

19 This is the finger of God] i.e. the finger, or hand, of God is discernible here. The expression (though not in the same application), also, Exo_31:18, Deu_9:10, Luk_11:20, and in the plural, Psa_8:3.

The mosquito is so well known as a plague in Egypt, that it will not be necessary to add anything to what has been said about it on v. 16. The ‘gnats’ described here, however, differ from the mosquito in being produced, not from water, but from the dust; and also in their appearing miraculously, like the frogs, at a signal given by Aaron.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, this is the finger of God,.... This is to be ascribed to a power superior to human, to a divine power; so long as they could do something similar, or impose upon the senses of men, and make them believe they did the like, they would not acknowledge divine omnipotence; but when they no longer could deceive the sight of Pharaoh and the Egyptian, then they own the effects of a superior power: and this they did partly to detract from the power of Moses and Aaron, because they would not have them pass for more skilful persons in the magic art than themselves; and therefore suggest, that this was done not by virtue of any human skill and art, but by the power of the Supreme Being; and partly to detract from the honour of the God of Israel; for they do not say this is the finger of Jehovah, whom they accounted, as Dr. Lightfoot (g) observes, as a petty trivial god, but this is the finger of Elohim, the Supreme Deity. It is conjectured by some (h), that in memory of this plague the Egyptian priests scrape their whole bodies, lest there should be a louse or any unclean thing on them when they worship their gods, as Herodotus (i) relates:

and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; either not unto the magicians owning the hand of God, and his divine power in the plague inflicted; or to Moses and Aaron demanding the dismission of the people of Israel, which latter seems to be confirmed by the usual phrase, as follows:

as the Lord had said; see Exo 7:4.

(g) Ut supra. (Works, vol. 1. p. 705, 706.) (h) Vid. Scheuchzer. Physica Sacra, vol. 1. p. 132. (i) Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 37.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Practiced, fecerunt; the same expression as ver. 7: whence some argue, that the former were delusions, not real changes. (Haydock) --- God was pleased to shew here the vanity of their attempts, and the imbecility of the devil, who could not even bring a single animalcule or insect, though he had before appeared to work great wonders. (Tirinus)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Did so, i.e. endeavoured to do so. Thus to enter, Mat 7:13, is put for striving to enter, Luk 13:24. Thus men are said to deliver, Gen 37:21; to fight, Jos 24:9; to return, Jos 10:15; when they only attempted or endeavoured to do so. And therefore when it is said in any of the plagues that the magicians did so, it is not to be understood that they really did the same thing, but that they endeavoured to do so, and that they did something which looked like it.

It was as easy for them to produce lice as frogs, but God hindered them, partly to confound them and their devilish arts, and to show that what they did before was only by his permission; and partly to convince Pharaoh and the Egyptians of their vanity in trusting to such impotent magicians, and in opposing that God who could control and confound them when he pleased.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. But they could not — Here the magicians are baffled, and they can imitate these signs no further. In this the gradual advance is to be noted, and also in the fact that the stroke is much more severe. The Egyptians could keep away from the bloody river; the frogs came upon their tables and beds; but the loathsome lice feasted on their bodies.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The magicians did so with their enchantments. The magicians stretched out their rods over certain collections of dust, but no gnats were produced; which would be the natural result, if they had made no secret arrangements. No reason can be assigned why they should not have seemed to produce gnats, as easily as frogs, if they had employed all the arts of which they were masters in so doing. But events had convinced them that they could not cope with Moses and Aaron; and it would seem that they therefore declined further contest,

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the magicians did so - That is, endeavoured to do so.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

"The magicians did so with their enchantments (i.e., smote the dust with rods), to bring forth gnats, but could not." The cause of this inability is hardly to be sought for, as Knobel supposes, in the fact that "the thing to be done in this instance, was to call creatures into existence, and not merely to call forth and change creatures and things in existence already, as in the case of the staff, the water, and the frogs." For after this, they could neither call out the dog-flies, nor protect their own bodies from the boils; to say nothing of the fact, that as gnats proceed from the eggs laid in the dust or earth by the previous generation, their production is not to be regarded as a direct act of creation any more than that of the frogs. The miracle in both plagues was just the same, and consisted not in a direct creation, but simply in a sudden creative generation and supernatural multiplication, not of the gnats only, but also of the frogs, in accordance with a previous prediction. The reason why the arts of the Egyptians magicians were put to shame in this case, we have to seek in the omnipotence of God, restraining the demoniacal powers which the magicians had made subservient to their purposes before, in order that their inability to bring out these, the smallest of all creatures, which seemed to arise as it were from the dust itself, might display in the sight of every one the impotence of their secret arts by the side of the almighty creative power of the true God. This omnipotence the magicians were compelled to admit: they were compelled to acknowledge, "This is the finger of God." "But they did not make this acknowledgment for the purpose of giving glory to God Himself, but simply to protect their own honour, that Moses and Aaron might not be thought to be superior to them in virtue or knowledge. It was equivalent to saying, it is not by Moses and Aaron that we are restrained, but by a divine power, which is greater than either" (Bochart). The word Elohim is decisive in support of this view. If they had meant to refer to the God of Israel, they would have used the name Jehovah. The "finger of God" denotes creative omnipotence (Psa 8:3; Luk 11:20, cf. Exo 31:18). Consequently this miracle also made no impression upon Pharaoh.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

This is the finger of God

The words "finger of God" represent the power of God. AT: "This is the powerful work of God" (See: Metonymy)

Pharaoh's heart was hardened

Here "heart" refers to Pharaoh. See how you translated this in Exodus 7:13. AT: "Pharaoh became more defiant" (See: Synecdoche and Metaphor)

translationWords

magic

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

והפליתי means I WILL SEPARATE. Similar is, (Exodus 9:4) “And the Lord will make a separation (והפלה)”; so, also, (Deuteronomy 30:11) “It is not נפלאת from thee״ — that is, “it is not separated and set at a far distance from thee”.

למען תדע כי אני ה׳ בקרב הארץ IN ORDER THAT THOU MAYEST KNOW THAT I AM THE ETERNAL IN THE MIDST OF THE EARTH — although My Shechina is in the heavens My command is fulfilled amongst mankind (as we might say, “My writ runs on earth also”).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

AND I WILL SET APART IN THAT DAY THE LAND OF GOSHEN. Due to the fact that the first plagues were not migratory in nature, it was no wonder that they were confined to the land of Egypt and were not to be in the land of Goshen, [Israel’s habitation]. But this [plague of swarms] was a migratory plague. Thus when the wild beasts came up from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards, and brought ruin upon the whole land of Egypt, it was natural that they also come into the land of Goshen, which contained some of the best of the land of Egypt. of Egypt. Therefore it was necessary for Him to say, And I will set apart in that day the land of Goshen, so that it would be completely saved [from the wild beasts] because My people dwell in it, as the majority of its inhabitants were Israelites.And I will put ‘p’duth’ (a division) between My people and thy people. The intent thereof is that even in the land of Egypt, if the beasts will find a certain Jew, they will not harm him. Instead they will devour the Egyptians, as it is written: He sent among them swarms of beasts, which devoured them. This is the sense of the word ‘p’duth’ between My people and thy people, which is similar to the verse, I have given Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.

I AM THE ETERNAL IN THE MIDST OF THE EARTH. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained it as being a figure of speech, emblematic of the nature of kings to establish their seat of government in the center of the kingdom in order to be near to the remote comers thereof. This explanation makes no sense. Rather, its intent is to state that He rules and supervises in the midst of the earth, and not, as some think, that thick clouds are a covering to Him, that He seeth not; and He walketh in the circuit of heaven. It is possible that the sense of the expression is similar to the verse, For My name is in him, and the secret thereof is sublime and recondite.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.