The Second Plague (Exodus 8:1-15)

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh [in Pharaoh’s court] and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. [These people had served Pharaoh; soon they will serve God.] 2 But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. 3 The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. 4 The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.”’” [The frogs will go everywhere and be a great inconvenience, especially after they die and start stinking! In a natural occurrence the frogs who not stray too far from the Nile.] 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’” 6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. 7 But the magicians did the same by their secret arts [on some small scale, bringing comfort to those who did not want to believe] and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. [Again the magicians are able to replicate the plague in some respect but are not able to stop it. This is the last plague they will replicate.]

8 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” 9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” 10 And he said, “Tomorrow.” [Why does Pharaoh say “tomorrow”?] Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God [prayer evangelism]. 11 The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile.” 12 So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs [he prayed earnestly at some length], as he had agreed with Pharaoh.13 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. 14 And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart [as God predicted] and would not listen to them [Moses and Aaron], as the Lord had said. [There is more to come.]