Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 8:17

And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

17. with his rod ] See on v. 5.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The dust was not fit matter to produce lice, and therefore shows this work to be Divine and miraculous.

All the dust of the land, i.e. a great part of it, the word all being commonly so understood in Scripture.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And they did so,…. As follows:

for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod; as directed and ordered:

and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast; which shows it was a miraculous operation, since lice do not usually spring from dust, but thrive in the sweat of bodies, and the nastiness of them, through sloth and idleness; and moreover, this was like the creation of man at first, which was out of the dust of the earth, and alike the effect of almighty power:

all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt; that is, the greatest part of it, not that every atom of dust became lice, nor was the land of Goshen, in which the Israelites dwelt, infected with this plague, unless where any of the Egyptians were; though Dr. Lightfoot d thinks, that lice were in Goshen as in other parts of Egypt, there being no severing between Goshen and Egypt mentioned until the next plague; and since Israel had partook of many of the sins of Egypt, they must partake of some of her punishments; and he thinks this is the reason that the plague of lice is not reckoned among the plagues of Egypt in Ps 78:44 because it was common to Israel, and to the Egyptians, and which is the sense of Aben Ezra on Ex 7:24. The account that Artapanus e, the Heathen historian, gives of this plague, is this;

“Moses smote the earth with a rod, and produced a certain flying animal, which greatly distressed the Egyptians, and raised ulcers in their bodies, which no physicians could cure.”

And so Origen f describes this creature as

“having wings and flying in the air, but so subtile and minute as to escape the eye, unless very sharp sighted; but when it lights upon a body, it stings most bitterly, so that what a man cannot see flying, he feels stinging.”

Both seem to design the gnat, but this sort of vermin do not stick in and abide with men or beasts, as these here are said to do, but buzz about and bite, and then are gone.

d Works, vol. 1. p. 705, 706. e Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 435.) f In Exod. Homil. 4. fol. 35. col. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Exo 8:17. All the dust of the land became lice Owen observes, that the earth was another object of the Egyptians’ worship, to which they addressed their solemn devotion, and offered the first products of the year, as the donor of their corn, grain and fruit, and the author of their sustenance. To make them sensible, therefore, that the earth did not put forth those life-sustaining productions (for which they adored it with mistaken gratitude) by an independent virtue of its own, but only in consequence of the Divine establishment; to make them sensible of this, I say, God reversed the nature of its productions, causing it to bring forth lice throughout all the land. Before, they were nourished by what the earth produced; now, they are destroyed by it. “And because they had gone astray so very far in the ways of error, as to hold the cattle of the field, yea, noisome beasts, reptiles, and insects, for gods:” therefore the former were killed by a murrain; and a mixture of the latter was sent to torment them; “that they might know that wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished.” See Wis 11:15-16.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Rev 11:14

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Exo 8:17 And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

Ver. 17. All the dust of the land became lice. ] Or, gnats. Quid cniphe villus? saith Philo; what so base and vile a creature as a louse, a gnat? And yet by this poor vermin God so plagued all Egypt, that fainting under it, they were forced to cry out, “This is the very finger of God.” Ciniphes sunt muscae minutisslmae, aculeis permolestae, saith Rupert. Others say, that here are meant pediculi inguinales, crab lice; Honos set auribus.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)