Commentaria in Exodum
AND INTO THE REMAINS OF THY MEATS.—Our Interpreter rightly renders the Hebrew bemisharotecha, which however, secondly, signifies sprinkled flour. Whence the Septuagint render, in thy doughs, or pastes; the Chaldee renders, in thy bread-baskets, that is, in the bakehouse, and places where bread is made.
5. STRETCH FORTH THY HAND,—with the rod which thou holdest; the Hebrew expresses the rod: for it was the effecting and moral cause of all these things; for by this sign of the stretching of the rod, as by command, the frogs were called forth by Moses and God from the waters and their obedient power.
Allegorically, the rod is the cross, or the wood of the cross. For the cross intervenes in all the wonderful works of our redemption.
6. AND AARON STRETCHED FORTH HIS HAND OVER THE WATERS.—“Over,” that is, towards, or against the waters: for he did not touch them, as being far from them, and being in Pharao’s court. He stretched out the rod therefore from afar, by this stretching signifying that he smote the Egyptians, and that by his command the plague of frogs was inflicted.
Tropologically, frogs are the garrulous and clamorous; for these are troublesome to lovers of quiet, like frogs, and disturb the peace of a house or college. Whence Pythagoras said, “a swallow is not to be admitted into the house,” that is, talkative men are not to be admitted into the family, as St. Jerome explains in his Apology against Rufinus. But frogs are most of all the loquacious philosophers and heretics, who, says St. Augustine, book 1 On the Agreement of the ten precepts with the ten plagues, have “pride and empty contentions; they can make as it were a din of voices, but cannot instil the doctrine of true wisdom: for they who contradict Christian truth, and, deceived in their own vanity, deceive, are frogs, bringing weariness to the ears, but giving no food to the minds”; and, as Tertullian says, book Against Hermogenes, chap. 1, such “count loquacity eloquence, reckon impudence constancy, and judge to curse each one the duty of a good conscience.” Again, as frogs fall silent when a torch is lit by night, so also sophists and heretics when the light of truth is seen. Whence the Poet:
Struck by the light, the frogs cease to rail, and the sophist, vanquished by the light of truth, is silent.
The same St. Augustine, serm. 87 On the Time; Origen, Rabanus and Rupert understand by frogs the inflated, measured, fabulous and impure poems of the poets, which have been the ruin of many. Secondly, Gregory of Nyssa: Frogs, he says, are a type of voluptuous and luxurious life; for first, the frog is an animal of doubtful life, living in water 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. Secondly, the frog is deformed in look and of foul stench, which is not cleansed by water but rather made fouler: so the foul and stinking are those given to belly and Venus, for gluttony and lust stain with all their thoughts, words and deeds mind and body. Thirdly, frogs are loquacious: so the lustful breathe forth base things. Fourthly, these frogs penetrated and defiled everything: so gluttony and lust penetrate and defile everything; in the tables of the gluttonous it abounds, in beds and inner rooms it sits, covers and fouls their walls and halls with obscene pictures, their vessels with foul carvings, their body with putrefaction, their mind with corruption. So Nyssen.
7. AND THE MAGICIANS ALSO BY THEIR ENCHANTMENTS DID IN LIKE MANNER.—Not so many, to be sure, as Aaron, which would cover all cities and villages; but they brought forth a few frogs from the waters, which demons had secretly carried thither from elsewhere, or even which they had produced naturally from the waters, by applying active things to passive: for so we see frogs naturally generated from waters.
8. PRAY YE TO THE LORD TO TAKE AWAY THE FROGS.—Hence it is plain that this plague of frogs was graver than the former of blood. For this compelled Pharao to ask Moses to pray for deliverance, which the former had not done.
9. APPOINT ME WHEN I SHALL PRAY FOR THEE.—The Hebrew is: Glory over me when I shall pray for thee, as if to say: I pay thee this honour, that thou mayest appoint and define the time when I am to pray; that thou, with thy Egyptians, mayest be freed from the frogs. Note “when,” as if to say: Lest thou suppose that I hunt and pry out, like an astrologer or magician, a fixed and natural time of the ceasing of the frogs from the horoscope, that is from the observation of the hour, or of the ascendant of a new star, do thou thyself define the time. Moses knew that he was given as God to Pharao, and deliverer of Israel: so, certain from trust in God and His promise of the signs necessary for this deliverance, he boldly promises Pharao that he will take away the frogs at any time; chiefly because he relied on so great familiarity with God, and was moved by hidden promptings from God to dare this, as though God stood by and would surely help, so that at any time he could take away this plague of frogs: there was therefore no tempting of God here, yet it was a work of great courage and virtue. Whence the Chaldee renders: Ask for thyself power, that is, a great thing, to accomplish which great force and power is needed.
10. WHO ANSWERED, TO-MORROW,—not at once on this day and moment, both that I may give thee space to pray for the removal of the frogs, and that I may try whether the frogs fail naturally of themselves, as if brought hither by chance, or rather, as brought in by divine power, cannot be removed save by thy prayers imploring the same.
12. CRIED,—not with voice, but with desire, and with great lifting up and strain of the mind towards God: so chap. 14, verse 15, God says to Moses who was silent:
14. AND THEY GATHERED THEM TOGETHER INTO IMMENSE HEAPS.—The frogs did not vanish at once at the prayer of Moses, lest they should be thought illusions, and lest Pharao should forget this scourge. Whence Philo and Josephus relate that from the dead frogs an intolerable stench arose.
17. AND STRUCK THE DUST OF THE EARTH, AND THERE CAME SCINIPHS ON MEN AND BEASTS.—This is the third plague, of sciniphs, by which in earth and dust were punished the Egyptians, who had oppressed the Hebrews in clay and bricks.
Note: This plague was in all the land of Egypt, not simply, but wherever the Egyptians were, or their beasts: for the sciniphs were sent to torment these only. Whence when it is said: “All the dust of the earth was turned into sciniphs,” understand, by hyperbole, “all,” that is, very much, as it were all that was among men and beasts. And that it is so is plain from verse 21.
Note secondly: These new animals are called sciniphs, and in Greek by the Septuagint and Philo skniphes (which in the singular is skniph, or knips), from the Hebrew word kinnim, somewhat changed, or rather from the Greek knizein, that is, to prick, to excite itching: for this the ciniphs do, which are also called sciniphs.
Thou wilt ask, what sort of creatures were these sciniphs? Josephus, the Hebrews, Cajetan and Oleaster render the Hebrew kinnim lice, but they err, both because lice are generated not from dust but from the body; and because the Septuagint, our Interpreter and Philo render “sciniphs,” not lice.
Secondly, Tornielli will have it that the sciniphs were fleas, because, if they had been gnats, they would have been produced not in this but in the next plague, which was of flies of every kind. But fleas do not fly into the eyes, and are called fleas, not sciniphs. Add that gnats are not properly flies, since otherwise there are various kinds of flies: for there is one fly that is the dog-fly, another the horse-fly, another the ox-fly, another the common, another the Spanish, another the black, another the golden, another the yellow, etc.