התפאר עלי, arrogate to yourself the right to ask what you want of me and I shall carry out your wish. The construction is similar to Judges 7,2 פן יתפאר עלי ישראל לאמר ידי הושיעה לי, “lest Israel be arrogant enough vis-à-vis Me to say: ‘my hand has been strong enough to provide my own salvation.’”

למתי אעשה לך?, for which day and at what hour would you like for all the frogs to depart, and I will pray forthwith that they will all die before that deadline. Seeing that they do not normally all die at once, you will realise that my prayer will have been answered. [Moses wanted to forestall Pharaoh asking for the frogs to all die immediately. Ed.]

למחר, pray now that they should all die by tomorrow!

חמרם, heaps.

HE MADE IT HARD [HACHBED]. Because this plague was great, his mind did not strengthen by itself, rather, he affirmatively acted wrongly to harden his mind.

לכנם, different kinds of insects that cause man discomfort.

הכנם. The final letter ם is similar to the final letter ם in the word ריקם in Genesis 31,42 where it is not really required, [the exegesis is needed as the author considered the same final latter in the word לכנם in the previous verse as a plural ending. Ed.]

אצבע אלוקים הוא, this is a natural disaster [the word אל-הים equaling 86 numerically, the same as הטבע=“nature” Ed.] They denied that this plague, which had not been advertised beforehand, was the work of Moses and Aaron whom they had considered superior sorcerers, but had been orchestrated by the god of nature. They argued that if this had been a work of sorcerers they too could have duplicated the phenomenon.

והערוב, I believe that the Torah describes different kinds of wolves that are known by the word ,ערוב seeing that it is their habit to hunt at night as we know from Jeremiah 5,6. as well as from Tzefaniah 3,3. The fact that the wolf sets out when it gets dark, in the evening, and does not return until morning, is why this animal is referred to as ערוב, describing its habits.

והפלאתי ביום ההוא, seeing that these wild beasts are fleet-footed and would invade any kingdom without regard to international borders once the plague has been released, the Torah had to stress that it would be observed that these animals would respect the unfenced areas in which the Jews were living as if they were physical obstacles. The same phenomenon would be observed when the “natural” disaster which struck the herds under the heading of דבר, the fifth plague, did not infect a single animal owned by the Israelites.

ושמתי פדות, a word describing “separation.” Words such as ישועה, הצלה, חלצה, פורקן are all expressions denoting different separations, isolation of one thing from another.

למחר יהיה. This will occur on the morrow. Moses announced the timing so that Pharaoh would not attribute the phenomenon to mere chance.

כי תועבת מצרים, sheep were something despicable in the eyes of the Egyptians.

ולא יסקלונו?, a question. Stoning was considered as something despicable, a demeaning treatment of people, as we know from Samuel II 16,13 where Shimi ben Gerah cursed David and threw stones at him.

והעתרתי, a similar construction to vehacharamti in Numbers 21,2 והחרמתי את עריהם, “I will destroy their cities.” Another similar construction occurs in Ezekiel 26,3 והעליתי, and in Jeremiah 17,2 we find והעבדתיך, in all these examples the letters אהחע determine which vowels are used in this type of future tense, introduced by the inverted letter vav, if it is in the future tense or in the past tense. If it were in the ordinary past tense however, it should have read: he-evarti, he-eliticha, instead of ha-avarti and ha-aliticha. [the author quotes a few more examples which we can dispense with. Ed.]

גם בפעם הזאת, just as G’d had stiffened Pharaoh’s heart after the relief experienced when the frogs had died, so that he had reneged on his promise.