נטה את ידך, “extend your hand!” G-d wanted Pharaoh and the Egyptians to see that the cause of the plague wasMoses, although it was Aaron who actually extended his arm with Moses’ staff over the river.8.2. ותעל הצפרדע, “the frogs emerged from the river.” Even though the Torah uses the singular mode here, the meaning is that swarms of frogs came forth. We find something similar in Numbers 21,7 when the Torah describes the plague of snakes besetting the people as if it had been only a single snake, i.e. ויסר מעלינו את הנחש, “may He remove the snake(s) from us.”

ותעל הצפרדע, “the frogs emerged from the river.” Even though the Torah uses the singular mode here, the meaning is that swarms of frogs came forth. We find something similar in Numbers 21,7 when the Torah describes the plague of snakes besetting the people as if it had been only a single snake, i.e. ויסר מעלינו את הנחש, “may He remove the snake(s) from us.”

בלטיהם, “with their spells.” According to Rashi, these “spells” are called such as the word means “silently,” they employed whispers to produce such illusions. Rashi had given this interpretation already on 7,11 where the spelling of the word had been slightly different.

!התפאר עלי למתי, אעתיר, “have this boast over me about when you will release the Children of Israel, and I will pray for the frogs to disappear immediately!”

לעמך, “and for your people;” the letter מ in this word has the semi vowel sheva. Logic tells us that this plague did not last one quarter of a month. If you were to say that the conversation between Moses and Pharaoh took place on the sixth day of this plague, it does not make much sense, as the plague would have come to an end on the following day anyways without Moses praying for its removal.

ויאמר: למחר, he said: “for tomorrow!” He meant to say: “I will send your people on their way tomorrow!” A different interpretation that was brought by Rashi: the word למחר refers to the disappearance of the frogs on the day following. Pharaoh thought that the reason that Moses had asked him to determine when the frogs should disappear was that he thought that Pharaoh would, of course, wish to get rid of them immediately, and Moses was aware that they would leave without his doing anything to hasten their disappearance. This is why he thought he could show up Moses as a sorcerer by asking him to delay their departure. In the event he was disappointed.

מן הבתים מן החצרות, “from the houses and subsequently from the courtyards,” but not the frogs that had ventured into the ovens and kneading bowls. Seeing that these frogs had risked their lives by performing such a dangerous mission on behalf of G-d, they were allowed to remain alive. Compare Talmud Pessachim folio 53.

והיו לכנים, “they will become vermin.” These are the kind of vermin that are products of the dust, but only rarely attack human beings. They emanated from their customary habitat, like the frogs and other plagues.

ולא יכלו, “but they were unable.” Seeing that all the dust had turned into vermin from where would they produce similar kinds of vermin?A different explanation: seeing that the sorcerers could not duplicate the plague, they tried to get rid of it. But they failed. There would not have been any point in adding to the disaster, anyways. If they had succeeded in getting rid of the vermin, their fellow Egyptians would have been grateful to them and they would have risen in their esteem. Still another exegesis of the words: ולא יכלו; the sorcerers were unable to remain in the proximity of Pharaoh as they had been smitten with vermin also, and they were ashamed of their impotence and withdrew. The same thing happened again when they were struck by the 6th plague, infectious boils on the skin. [It is interesting that both the third and the sixth plague occurred without Moses having forewarned Pharaoh, so that the Egyptians could have denied that it was a plague sent by the G-d of the Israelites. Ed.] According to some opinions, when the sorcerers’ feet were not planted directly on the earth, their power disappeared. If so, this would explain why the Torah wrote “they were powerless,” as the entire surface of the earth was covered with vermin preventing them from standing on the ground. When the sorcerers perceived their inability to get rid of the vermin, they admitted that this must indeed be plague orchestrated by heavenly forces and they said: אצבע אלוהים היא that “this was a finger of G-d.” The reason of their inability could not have been that that their power was limited to creatures larger than a grain of barley as claimed by some, for if it were so, why were they not able to get rid of the fourth plague, the wild beasts roaming and destroying in urban areas at will?

אצבע אלו־הים היא, “It is a natural phenomenon. If this plague had been caused by Moses and Aaron, we could also have done the same. [i.e. this plague is orchestrated by the G-d of Joseph, who had been known to them as elohim, as opposed to Hashem whom Moses and Aaron had claimed to represent. Ed.]

אצבע אלו־הים היא, “it is a (finger) feminine phenomenon”. [היא means “she”. Ed.] The sorcerers excused their inability to deal with this plague to the fact that it was something natural, and therefore not within their domain.

ויחזק לב פרעה, “Pharaoh’s heart remained stubborn, strong.” The reason why Pharaoh did not ask Moses to pray for the removal of this plague was that this would have been an admission that it was a heavenly phenomenon. [Besides thus far none of the plagues had caused deaths, only inconvenience. He felt that if this is all that Hashem can do, he could live with it. Ed.] There was a good reason to feel that a plague which was common among the poor people all the time, had spread for some reason beyond its normal boundaries. Pharaoh did not realise that the absence of a warning meant that this was not of Moses’ doing; in fact the reason why he had not been warned was that he had ignored the warnings issued before the first two plagues, so that this was the punishment for having ignored those two plagues to influence his attitude toward the Israelite slaves. Moreover, every group of three plagues, as pointed out by Rabbi Yehudah who characterised (summarised) them as acronyms, i.e. דצ׳ך, עד׳ש, באח׳ב, was also introduced by Moses as having a specific objective.(Compare Exodus 8,6: למען תדע כי אין כה׳ אלוקינו “so that you will realise that there is no G-d like our G-d.” Exodus 8,18: למען תדע כי אני ה׳ בקרב הארץ, “so that you will realise that I am the Lord right here on earth also.” Exodus 9,29: למען תדע כי לה׳ הארץ, “so that you will realise that the earth belongs to the Lord.”) Some commentators explain that the reason Rabbi Yehudah summarised the plagues as he did, was to remind us that this was the correct order, as compared to Psalms 78,44-51 where they are listed in a different sequence. Also in Psalms 105, 28-36 they are listed in a different order.

למחר יהיה, “it will occur tomorrow.” Moses does not want to give Pharaoh the excuse that the disappearance of the frogs, i.e. their deaths will be accidental, unplanned. The same happened with the plague of pestilence (#7) when G-d predicted precisely when it would occur. (Compare 9,5)

זבחו לאלוקיכם בארץ, “offer meat offerings to your G-d inside the land of Egypt!” When Pharaoh saw that G-d made clear distinctions between where the plagues that occurred where the Israelites lived and where not, he made the first concession allowing them to offer sacrifices inside Egypt so that their G-d would not punish them.

ולא יסקלונו, “are they not going to stone us to death?” The expression סקל means throwing stones; we know this from Samuel II 16,6: where David and his men were stoned by Shimi, a family member of King Shaul, who had been dead for while already.

דרך שלשת ימים נלך במדבר, we will go a distance of three days’ march into the desert;” in fact this is what they did at the Exodus when they made camp on the second day at the edge of the desert, as is described in detail in Exodus 13,20.

ויכבד פרעה את לבו גם בפעם הזאת, “and Pharaoh hardened his heart again on this occasion.” The word גם, “also,” is justified, as Pharaoh had done the same during the plague of the frogs. (verse 11).