Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 8:2

And if thou refuse to let [them] go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:

2. And if thou refuse, &c.] The announcement to Pharaoh of what will follow, in case he refuses, as elsewhere in J (Exo 8:21, Exo 9:2, Exo 10:4; cf. Exo 9:17, Exo 4:23).

borders ] i.e. territory, as often: in J, here, Exo 10:4; Exo 10:14; Exo 10:19, Exo 13:7.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

With frogs – Some months appear to have elapsed between this and the former plague, if the frogs made their appearance at the usual time, that is in September. The special species mentioned here is of Egyptian origin. This plague was, like the preceding, in general accordance with natural phenomena, but marvelous both for its extent and intensity, and for its direct connection with the words and acts of Gods messengers. It had also apparently, like the other plagues, a direct bearing upon Egyptian superstitions. There was a female deity with a frogs head, and the frog was connected with the most ancient forms of nature-worship in Egypt.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 2. If thou refuse] Nothing can be plainer than that Pharaoh had it still in his power to have dismissed the people, and that his refusal was the mere effect of his own wilful obstinacy.

With frogs] tsepardeim. This word is of doubtful etymology: almost all interpreters, both ancient and modern, agree to render it as we do, though some mentioned by Aben Ezra think the crocodile is meant; but these can never weigh against the conjoint testimony of the ancient versions. Parkhurst derives the word from tsaphar, denoting the brisk action, or motion of the light, and yada, to feel, as they seem to feel or rejoice in the light, croaking all the summer months, yet hiding themselves in the winter. The Arabic name for this animal is very nearly the same with the Hebrew [Arabic] zafda, where the letters are the same, the resch being omitted. It is used as a quadriliteral root in the Arabic language, to signify froggy, or containing frogs: see Golius. But the true etymology seems to be given by Bochart, who says the word is compounded of [Arabic] zifa, a bank, and [Arabic] rada, mud, because the frog delights in muddy or marshy places; and that from these two words the noun [Arabic] zafda is formed, the [Arabic] re being dropped. In the Batrocho myomachia of Homer, the frog has many of its epithets from this very circumstance. Hence , delighting in the lake; , lying or engendering in the mud; , and , belonging to the mud, walking in the mud, c., c.

A frog is in itself a very harmless animal but to most people who use it not as an article of food, exceedingly loathsome. God, with equal ease, could have brought crocodiles, bears, lions, or tigers to have punished these people and their impious king, instead of frogs, lice, flies, c. But had he used any of those formidable animals, the effect would have appeared so commensurate to the cause, that the hand of God might have been forgotten in the punishment and the people would have been exasperated without being humbled. In the present instance he shows the greatness of his power by making an animal, devoid of every evil quality, the means of a terrible affliction to his enemies. How easy is it, both to the justice and mercy of God, to destroy or save by means of the most despicable and insignificant of instruments! Though he is the Lord of hosts he has no need of powerful armies, the ministry of angels, or the thunderbolts of justice, to punish a sinner or a sinful nation the frog or the fly in his hands is a sufficient instrument of vengeance.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

All thy land which is within thy borders; a synecdoche; so that word is used also Exo 10:4,19; 1Ki 1:3 Psa 147:14; Jer 15:13. So the gate and the wall are put for the city to which they belong, Gen 22:17; Amo 1:7,10,14.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

2. I will smite all thy borders withfrogsThose animals, though the natural spawn of the river, andtherefore objects familiar to the people, were on this occasionmiraculously multiplied to an amazing extent, and it is probable thatthe ova of the frogs, which had been previously deposited in the mireand marshes, were miraculously brought to perfection at once.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And if thou refuse to let them go,…. Will not obey the orders:

I will smite all thy borders with frogs; he gives him warning of the blow before he strikes, which shows his clemency and goodness, his patience and longsuffering; and this he did, not only that he might have time and space for repentance, and thereby avoid the blow; but that when it came, he might be sensible it was not by chance, or owing to second causes, but was from the Lord himself.

I will smite all thy borders with frogs: fill the whole land of Egypt with them, to the utmost borders thereof on every side. Some q say the word signifies a large Egyptian fish, which in the Arabic tongue is called Altamsach, that is, a crocodile, with which the Nile abounded; but such a creature could not invade and attack them in the manner as is after related.

q R. Chananeel apud Abendana, and some in Aben Ezra in Ioc.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

2. I will smite all thy borders with frogs Several species of frogs are found in Egypt, and they are specially abundant in September, filling the lakes and ponds left by the retiring inundation . In the spawning season the waters are so filled with them that a bowl of water taken up almost anywhere will be found to contain tadpoles, yet there is no other instance of their becoming a plague to the inhabitants, although there are traditions of similar plagues in other countries . But a superhuman influence is here most evident . The frog is an amphibious animal, living in the water or in moist, marshy lands . For these animals, then, to leave the river and river banks, and swarm up into the cities, which were situated in the edge of the dry desert, into the very houses, and into the driest places in the houses, as the beds, kneading-troughs, and ovens, was a miraculous manifestation most striking and alarming. The atmosphere of Egypt is always remarkably dry, rain being very rare except on the seacoast, sothat usually a frog could live but a very short time in an Egyptian street or house. If, now, heavy clouds and rains accompanied this visitation, in order to enable the reptiles to live in the cities, as seems likely, the supernatural character of the infliction would be still more marked.

This was also in several ways a blow at the Egyptian idolatry. The judgment comes, as before, from the deified Nile, and comes in one of their sacred animals. The frog was an emblem of the great god Pthah, the tutelar god of Memphis, and the principal divinity of Lower Egypt, so that their protecting deity now became to the Memphites a loathsome abomination. Lepsius traces this form of idolatry to the most ancient nature worship of the land. Mariette has published a curious vignette from the monuments, representing king Seti offering two vases of wine to a frog enshrined in a small chapel. Brugsch also shows that in the district of Sah the Egyptians worshipped a goddess with a frog’s head, whom they called Heka.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments