Exodus 8:3

And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:1-15 Pharaoh is plagued with frogs; their vast numbers made them sore plagues to the Egyptians. God could have plagued Egypt with lions, or bears, or wolves, or with birds of prey, but he chose to do it by these despicable creatures. God, when he pleases, can arm the smallest parts of the creation against us. He thereby humbled Pharaoh. They should neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep in quiet; but wherever they were, they should be troubled by the frogs. God's curse upon a man will pursue him wherever he goes, and lie heavy upon him whatever he does. Pharaoh gave way under this plague. He promises that he will let the people go. Those who bid defiance to God and prayer, first or last, will be made to see their need of both. But when Pharaoh saw there was respite, he hardened his heart. Till the heart is renewed by the grace of God, the thoughts made by affliction do not abide; the convictions wear off, and the promises that were given are forgotten. Till the state of the air is changed, what thaws in the sun will freeze again in the shade.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Into thine house - This appears to have been special to the plague, as such. It was especially the visitation which would be felt by the scrupulously-clean Egyptians.

Kneadingtroughs - Not dough, as in the margin. See Exodus 12:34.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. bedchamber … bed—mats strewed on the floor as well as more sumptuous divans of the rich.

ovens—holes made in the ground and the sides of which are plastered with mortar.

kneading-troughs—Those used in Egypt were bowls of wicker or rush work. What must have been the state of the people when they could find no means of escape from the cold, damp touch and unsightly presence of the frogs, as they alighted on every article and vessel of food!

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The river; under which are comprehended all other rivers, streams, and ponds, as appears from Exodus 8:5. But the river Nilus is mentioned, because God would make that an instrument of their misery in which they most gloried, Ezekiel 29:3, and to which they gave divine honours, and which was the instrument of their cruelty against the Israelites, Exodus 1:22.

Into thy bed-chamber; either because God made the doors and windows to fly open, which it is easy to believe concerning God, seeing that this hath been many times done by evil angels; or because whensoever men entered into any house, or any room of their house, which their occasions would oft force them to do, the frogs, being always at their heels in great numbers, would go in with them. This plague was worse than the former, because it was more constant and more general; for the former was only in the waters, and did only molest them when they went to drink or use the water; but this infected all liquors, and all places, and at all times, and annoyed all their senses with their filthy substance, and shape, and noise, and stink, and mingled themselves with their meats, and sauces, and drinks, and crawling into their beds made them restless. And many of them probably were of a more ugly shape and infectious nature than ordinary.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly,.... The river Nile; and though water, and watery places, naturally produce these creatures, yet not in such vast quantities as to cover a whole country, and so large an one as Egypt, and this done at once, immediately; for they were all produced instantaneously, and in one day were spread all over the nation, and removed the next: and besides what follows is equally miraculous:

which shall go up and come into thine house; which though they may come up out of rivers, and be upon the banks and the meadows adjacent, yet are never known to come into houses, and especially into bedchambers and other places after mentioned, being not a bold but timorous creature, and shuns the sight and company of men; but these came even into the royal palace, nor could his guards keep them out:

and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed; and by their leaping upon him, and croaking in his ears, disturb his rest:

and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people both nobles and common people, and not only get into their houses, but upon their persons, on their hands when about their business, on their laps, and into their bosoms, as they sat; which must be very offensive and troublesome to them, what with their ugly shape, croaking noise and filthy smell, and the disagreeable touch of them, leaping on them, and even upon their food, and all vessels used for the same, which must make it very nauseous and distasteful to them:

and into thy ovens; where they baked their bread, and would be now hindered from the use of them:

and into thy kneadingtroughs; where they kneaded their dough, and made it into loaves, and prepared it for the oven; or the "dough" (r) itself, which they leaped upon and licked, and made it loathsome for use.

(r) "in tuas pastas", Pagninus; "in farinam tuam aquis conspersam", Tigurine version; "in reliquiis ciborum tuorum", V. L.

Geneva Study Bible

And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. The frogs will not only swarm in the river, but fill every part of the houses in Egypt, and even climb up upon the person (v. 4).

frogs] except in the present context, mentioned in the OT. only Psalm 78:45; Psalm 105:30, with reference to this plague.

the house] read probably, with LXX. Sam., the houses.

upon thy people] read, with LXX., of thy people: ‘upon’ follows in v. 4.

ovens] The ‘oven’ (tannûr) was a portable earthenware stove, about 3 ft. high, of the shape of a truncated cone, heated by the burning embers being placed in it at the bottom. Ovens of this kind are still in use in the East. See DB. i. 318a; and, for an illustration, Whitehouse, Primer of Heb. Antiquities, p. 73. So Genesis 15:17 (‘furnace’), Leviticus 2:4 al.

kneading-bowls] not ‘troughs,’ but shallow wooden bowls, such as are still used for the purpose by the Arabs. So Exodus 12:34, Deuteronomy 28:5; Deuteronomy 28:17†.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - The river shall bring forth frogs. The frogs do not often come directly out of the river. They are bred in the pools and marshes which the Nile leaves as it is retiring. These, however, may be viewed as detached fragments of the river. Thine house... thy bed-chamber... thy bed. The extreme cleanliness of the Egyptians (Herod. 2:37) rendered this visitation peculiarly disagreeable to them. The frogs under ordinary circumstances do not think of entering houses. Ovens in Egypt were probably baking-pans. These were heated from within by a fire of wood, which was withdrawn after a time and the dough attached by pressure to the interior of the vessels. Kneading-troughs were vessels in which the dough was prepared. Both these and ovens are represented in the Egyptian tombs. (See Rosellini,' Mon. Civ.' pl: 84, 85.) Exodus 8:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The plague of Frogs, or the second plague, also proceeded from the Nile, and had its natural origin in the putridity of the slimy Nile water, whereby the marsh waters especially became filled with thousands of frogs. צפרדּע is the small Nile frog, the Dofda of the Egyptians, called rana Mosaica or Nilotica by Seetzen, which appears in large numbers as soon as the waters recede. These frogs (הצּפרדּע in Exodus 8:6, used collectively) became a penal miracle from the fact that they came out of the water in unparalleled numbers, in consequence of the stretching out of Aaron's staff over the waters of the Nile, as had been foretold to the king, and that they not only penetrated into the houses and inner rooms ("bed-chamber"), and crept into the domestic utensils, the beds (מטּה), the ovens, and the kneading-troughs (not the "dough" as Luther renders it), but even got upon the men themselves.