Exodus 8:3

Exo 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:

Ver. 3. And the river shall bring forth frogs.] Instead of fishes. Thus the first and this second plague are about the water; the third and fourth about the earth; the five next about the air; and the last about man.

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.

Or, upon thy dough, or into thine ambries.

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

bedchamber . . . bed--mats strewed on the floor as well as more sumptuous divans of the rich.

ovens--holes made in the ground and the sides of which are plastered with mortar.

kneading-troughs--Those used in Egypt were bowls of wicker or rush work. What must have been the state of the people when they could find no means of escape from the cold, damp touch and unsightly presence of the frogs, as they alighted on every article and vessel of food!

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 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 in the vicinity of the Nile after its annual inundations.

Into thine ovens] In various parts of the east, instead of what we call ovens they dig a hole in the ground, in which they insert a kind of earthen pot, which having sufficiently heated, they stick their cakes to the inside, and when baked remove them and supply their places with others, and so on. To find such places full of frogs when they came to heat them, in order to make their bread, must be both disgusting and distressing in the extreme.

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

3. The frogs will not only swarm in the river, but fill every part of the houses in Egypt, and even climb up upon the person (v. 4).

frogs] except in the present context, mentioned in the OT. only Psa_78:45; Psa_105:30, with reference to this plague.

the house] read probably, with LXX. Sam., the houses.

upon thy people] read, with LXX., of thy people: ‘upon’ follows in v. 4.

ovens] The ‘oven’ (tannûr) was a portable earthenware stove, about 3 ft. high, of the shape of a truncated cone, heated by the burning embers being placed in it at the bottom. Ovens of this kind are still in use in the East. See DB. i. 318a; and, for an illustration, Whitehouse, Primer of Heb. Antiquities, p. 73. So Gen_15:17 (‘furnace’), Lev_2:4 al.

kneading-bowls] not ‘troughs,’ but shallow wooden bowls, such as are still used for the purpose by the Arabs. So Exo_12:34, Deu_28:5; Deu_28:17†.

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.

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 upon him, and croaking in his ears, disturb his rest:

and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people both nobles and common people, and not only get into their houses, but upon their persons, on their hands when about their business, on their laps, and into their bosoms, as they sat; which must be very offensive and troublesome to them, what with their ugly shape, croaking noise and filthy smell, and the disagreeable touch of them, leaping on them, and even upon their food, and all vessels used for the same, which must make it very nauseous and distasteful to them:

and into thy ovens; where they baked their bread, and would be now hindered from the use of them:

and into thy kneadingtroughs; where they kneaded their dough, and made it into loaves, and prepared it for the oven; or the "dough" (r) itself, which they leaped upon and licked, and made it loathsome for use.

(r) "in tuas pastas", Pagninus; "in farinam tuam aquis conspersam", Tigurine version; "in reliquiis ciborum tuorum", V. L.

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

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 Exo 12:34.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Frogs, not by a new creation; but the spawn was miraculously brought to maturity. (Calmet) --- Angels, or a divine instinct, brought them to infest all places; and thus they became a more grievous plague than that of blood. (Menochius)

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).

The river; under which are comprehended all other rivers, streams, and ponds, as appears from Exo 8:5. But the river Nilus is mentioned, because God would make that an instrument of their misery in which they most gloried, Eze 29:3, and to which they gave divine honours, and which was the instrument of their cruelty against the Israelites, Exo 1:22.

Into thy bed-chamber; either because God made the doors and windows to fly open, which it is easy to believe concerning God, seeing that this hath been many times done by evil angels; or because whensoever men entered into any house, or any room of their house, which their occasions would oft force them to do, the frogs, being always at their heels in great numbers, would go in with them. This plague was worse than the former, because it was more constant and more general; for the former was only in the waters, and did only molest them when they went to drink or use the water; but this infected all liquors, and all places, and at all times, and annoyed all their senses with their filthy substance, and shape, and noise, and stink, and mingled themselves with their meats, and sauces, and drinks, and crawling into their beds made them restless. And many of them probably were of a more ugly shape and infectious nature than ordinary.

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

3. Into thine house, and into thy bedchamber — The Egyptian house was built around a rectangular court, which was paved, and open to the sky, often containing trees, and generally a tank or fountain. See notes on Matthew, pp. 121 and 326. The poorer houses had only a basement story, or ground floor, but those of a better class had store rooms, offices, etc., in the basement, and above these were the parlours and sleeping chambers. There was often an additional story in one part on which was a terrace covered with an awning, or a light roof supported on columns, where the ladies of the family sat at work during the day, and where the master of the house took his, afternoon nap. See annexed cut. The reed-like columns with lotus capitals, and the disregard of perspective in showing the end of the house, are especially noticeable as illustrating Egyptian architecture and drawing.

Into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs — The Egyptian oven was a jar of clay, or a jar-like structure built up from the ground, about three feet high, and widening toward the bottom, there being a hole in the side for the extraction of the ashes. It was heated by making a fire within it, and the dough was spread on the inside and on the outside. The accompanying cuts, from a representation in a Theban tomb, illustrate the mode of kneading the dough, which was done both with hands and feet, and of carrying the cakes to the oven, which is now lighted.

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

The river shall bring forth frogs. The frogs do not often come directly out of the river. They are bred in the pools and marshes which the Nile leaves as it is retiring. These, however, may be viewed as detached fragments of the river. Thine house thy bed-chamber thy bed. The extreme cleanliness of the Egyptians (Heb 2:37) rendered this visitation peculiarly disagreeable to them. The frogs under ordinary circumstances do not think of entering houses. Ovens in Egypt were probably baking-pans. These were heated from within by a fire of wood, which was withdrawn after a time and the dough attached by pressure to the interior of the vessels. Kneading-troughs were vessels in which the dough was prepared. Both these and ovens are represented in the Egyptian tombs. (See Rosellini," Mon. Civ." pl: 84, 85.)

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

The River - Nile. Under which are comprehended all other rivers and waters.

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