If you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your territory with frogs (Exodus 8:2).
In the 1st century, the Romans were enamored with everything Egyptian. For the Egyptians, amulets representing animals were attributed to deities, and the frog represented the Egyptian fertility goddess Heqet (Heket). This image of a faience amulet in the form of a tree frog (circa 3rd–1st centuries BC) comes from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is in the public domain.
The Nile will swarm with frogs, which will come up and go . . . into your kneading bowls (Exodus 8:3).
These Egyptian model figures come from a larger wooden model that depicts a brewery and bakery together. These figures are engaged in baking. The two women at the left are grinding grain. The figure in the center is kneading dough in a kneading trough, and the man at the right is tending an oven. This image comes from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is in the public domain.
I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to Yahweh (Exodus 8:8).
This is the way Pharaoh would have pictured sacrifices. The offerings shown here include a variety of trussed animals, as well as a variety of foodstuffs on an altar. Egyptian sacrifices did not include sheep (cf. v. 26). This scene was photographed in a side room of the temple of Rameses II at Abydos.
I will send swarms of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and into your houses (Exodus 8:21).
The kind of insects that made up the “swarms” (Heb. arob) in this plague are not identified. They do not seem to have bothered vegetation or crops, and thus may have been biting flies, such as horse-flies. This image of a necklace of seven golden flies comes from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is in the public domain.
But I will set apart on that day the land of Goshen where My people are living (Exodus 8:22).
Goshen refers to the region of the eastern Nile Delta. The Israelites had first settled there under the guidance of Joseph (Gen 46:34). This photo shows fields of the Nile Delta near Tanis.
