Exodus 8:21

Complete Jewish Bible

Pharaoh summoned Moshe and Aharon and said, "Go, and sacrifice to your God here in the land."

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you, and on your servants, and on your people, and into your houses: and the houses of the Mitzrim shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

King James Version
Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

Lexham English Bible
But if you are not about to release my people, look, I am about to send out flies among you and among your servants and among your people and in your houses; and the houses of Egypt will fill up with the flies and also the ground that they are on.

New Century Version
If you don't let them go, I will send swarms of flies into your houses. The flies will be on you, your officers, and your people. The houses of Egypt will be full of flies, and they will be all over the ground, too.

New English Translation
If you do not release my people, then I am going to send swarms of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and in your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground they stand on.

Amplified Bible
"For if you do not let My people go, hear this: I will send swarms of [bloodsucking] insects on you and on your servants and on your people and into your houses; and the houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of insects, as well as the ground on which they stand.

New American Standard Bible
"For if you are not going to let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and on your servants and on your people, and into your houses; and the houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they live.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Els, if thou wilt not let my people goe, behold, I will send swarmes of flies both vpon thee, and vpon thy seruants, and vpon thy people, and into thine houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shalbe full of swarmes of flies, and the ground also whereon they are.

Legacy Standard Bible
For if you do not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and into your houses; and the houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.

Contemporary English Version
If you don't, he will send swarms of flies to attack you, your officials, and every citizen of your country. Houses will be full of flies, and the ground will crawl with them.

Darby Translation
For, if thou do not let my people go, behold, I will send dog-flies upon thee, and upon thy bondmen, and upon thy people, and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of dog-flies, and also the ground on which they are.

Easy-to-Read Version
If you don't let my people go, then flies will come into your houses. The flies will be on you and your officials. The houses of Egypt will be full of flies. They will be all over the ground too!

English Standard Version
Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.

George Lamsa Translation
Else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon you and upon your people and upon your house; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, like a field when it is covered with them.

Good News Translation
I warn you that if you refuse, I will punish you by sending flies on you, your officials, and your people. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and the ground will be covered with them.

Christian Standard Bible®
But if you will not let my people go, then I will send swarms of flies against you, your officials, your people, and your houses. The Egyptians’ houses will swarm with flies, and so will the land where they live.

Literal Translation
And if you do not send away My people, behold, I am about to send swarms of flies on you, and on your servants, and on your people, and on your house. And the houses of the Egyptianswill be full of swarms of flies ,and also the ground on which they are .

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
yf not, beholde, I wil cause cruell wormes (or flyes) to come vpon the, thy seruauntes, yi people, & thy house, so yt all the Egipcians houses, & the felde, and what theron is shall be full of cruell wormes:

American Standard Version
Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

Bible in Basic English
For if you do not let my people go, see, I will send clouds of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and into their houses; and the houses of the Egyptians and the land where they are will be full of flies.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Els if thou wylt not let my people go, behold, I will send all maner of flyes both vpon thee and thy seruauntes, and thy people, & into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shalbe full of flyes, and the ground wheron they are.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said: 'Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.'

King James Version (1611)
Els, if thou wilt not let my people goe, beholde, I will send swarmes of flies vpon thee, and vpon thy seruants, and vpon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall bee full of swarmes of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I send upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and upon your houses, the dog-fly; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with the dog-fly, even throughout the land upon which they are.

English Revised Version
Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

Berean Standard Bible
But if you will not let My people go, I will send swarms of flies upon you and your officials and your people and your houses. The houses of the Egyptians and even the ground where they stand will be full of flies.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
that if thou schalt not delyuere the puple, lo! Y schal sende in to thee, and in to thi seruauntis, and in to thi puple, and in to thin housis, al the kynde of flies; and the housis of Egipcians schulen be fillid with flies of dyuerse kyndis, and al the lond in which thei schulen be.

Young's Literal Translation
for, if thou art not sending My people away, lo, I am sending against thee, and against thy servants, and against thy people, and against thy houses, the beetle, and the houses of the Egyptians have been full of the beetle, and also the ground on which they are.

Update Bible Version
For if you will not let my people go, look, I will send swarms of flies on you, and on your slaves, and on your people, and into your houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

Webster's Bible Translation
Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms [of flies] upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms [of flies], and also the ground on which they [are].

World English Bible
Else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you, and on your servants, and on your people, and into your houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

New King James Version
Or else, if you will not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.

New Living Translation
If you refuse, then I will send swarms of flies on you, your officials, your people, and all the houses. The Egyptian homes will be filled with flies, and the ground will be covered with them.

New Life Bible
For if you will not let My people go, I will send many flies upon you and upon your servants and upon your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and also the ground will be covered with them.

New Revised Standard
For if you will not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you, your officials, and your people, and into your houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies; so also the land where they live.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But if thou art not letting my people go, behold me! sending forth - against thee, and against thy servants, and against thy people, and against thy houses the gad-fly, - and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of the gad-fly, moreover also the ground whereon, they are:

Douay-Rheims Bible
But if thou wilt not let them go, behold I will send in upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy houses, all kind of flies: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with flies of divers kinds, and the whole land wherein they shall be.

Revised Standard Version
Else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For if you do not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and into your houses; and the houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they dwell.

Contextual Overview

²⁰ Adonai did it: terrible swarms of insects went into Pharaoh's palace and into all his servants' houses — the insects ruined the entire land of Egypt. ²¹ Pharaoh summoned Moshe and Aharon and said, "Go, and sacrifice to your God here in the land." ²² But Moshe replied, "It would be inappropriate for us to do that, because the animal we sacrifice to Adonai our God is an abomination to the Egyptians. Won't the Egyptians stone us to death if before their very eyes we sacrifice what they consider an abomination? ²³ No, we will go three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to Adonai our God, as he has ordered us to do." ²⁴ Pharaoh said, "I will let you go, so that you can sacrifice to Adonai your God in the desert. Only you are not to go very far away. Intercede on my behalf." ²⁵ Moshe said, "All right, I am going away from you, and I will intercede with Adonai ; so that tomorrow, the swarms of insects will leave Pharaoh, his servants and his people. Just make sure that Pharaoh stops playing games with the people by preventing them from going and sacrificing to Adonai ." ²⁶ Moshe left Pharaoh and interceded with Adonai , ²⁷ and Adonai did what Moshe had asked: he removed the swarms of insects from Pharaoh, his servants and his people — not one remained. ²⁸ But this time, too, Pharaoh made himself stubborn and didn't let the people go. ²⁹ Adonai said to Moshe, "Say to Aharon, ‘Reach out your hand with your staff over the rivers, canals and ponds; and cause frogs to come up onto the land of Egypt.'" Aharon put out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same with their secret arts and brought up frogs onto the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh summoned Moshe and Aharon and said, "Intercede with Adonai to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let the people go and sacrifice to Adonai ." Moshe said to Pharaoh, "Not only that, but you can have the honor of naming the time when I will pray for you, your servants and your people to be rid of the frogs, both yourselves and your homes, and that they stay only in the river." He answered, "Tomorrow." Moshe said, "It will be as you have said, and from this you will learn that Adonai our God has no equal. (v) The frogs will leave you and your homes, also your servants and your people; they will stay in the river only." Moshe and Aharon left Pharaoh's presence, and Moshe cried to Adonai about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. Adonai did as Moshe had asked — the frogs died in the houses, courtyards and fields; they gathered them in heaps till the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that he had been given some relief, he made himself hardhearted and would not listen to them, just as Adonai had said would happen. Adonai said to Moshe, "Say to Aharon: ‘Reach out with your staff and strike the dust on the ground; it will become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.'" They did it — Aharon reached out his hand with his staff and struck the dust on the ground, and there were lice on people and animals; all the dust on the ground became lice throughout the whole land of Egypt. The magicians tried with their secret arts to produce lice, but they couldn't. There were lice on people and animals. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh was made hardhearted, so that he didn't listen to them, just as Adonai had said would happen. Adonai said to Moshe, "Get up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh when he goes out to the water and say to him, ‘Here is what Adonai says: "Let my people go, so that they can worship me. Otherwise, if you won't let my people go, I will send swarms of insects on you, your servants and your people, and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of insects, and likewise the ground they stand on. But I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people live — no swarms of insects will be there — so that you can realize that I am Adonai , right here in the land. (vi) Yes, I will distinguish between my people and your people, and this sign will happen by tomorrow."'" Adonai did it: terrible swarms of insects went into Pharaoh's palace and into all his servants' houses — the insects ruined the entire land of Egypt. Pharaoh summoned Moshe and Aharon and said, "Go, and sacrifice to your God here in the land." But Moshe replied, "It would be inappropriate for us to do that, because the animal we sacrifice to Adonai our God is an abomination to the Egyptians. Won't the Egyptians stone us to death if before their very eyes we sacrifice what they consider an abomination? No, we will go three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to Adonai our God, as he has ordered us to do." Pharaoh said, "I will let you go, so that you can sacrifice to Adonai your God in the desert. Only you are not to go very far away. Intercede on my behalf." Moshe said, "All right, I am going away from you, and I will intercede with Adonai ; so that tomorrow, the swarms of insects will leave Pharaoh, his servants and his people. Just make sure that Pharaoh stops playing games with the people by preventing them from going and sacrificing to Adonai ." Moshe left Pharaoh and interceded with Adonai , and Adonai did what Moshe had asked: he removed the swarms of insects from Pharaoh, his servants and his people — not one remained. But this time, too, Pharaoh made himself stubborn and didn't let the people go.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

swarms: or, a mixture of noisome beasts, etc. The word arov is rendered ךץםןלץיב, kunomuia, the dog-fly, by the LXX (who are followed by the learned Bochart), which must have been particularly hateful to the Egyptians, because they held dogs in the highest veneration, under which form they worshipped Anubis. Psalms 78:45, Psalms 105:31, Isaiah 7:18

Reciprocal: Exodus 8:24 - there Exodus 10:6 - fill

Cross-References

Genesis 3:17
To Adam he said, "Because you listened to what your wife said and ate from the tree about which I gave you the order, ‘You are not to eat from it,' the ground is cursed on your account; you will work hard to eat from it as long as you live.

Genesis 4:12
When you farm the ground it will no longer yield its strength to you. You will be a fugitive, wandering the earth."

Genesis 5:29
whom he called Noach [restful]; for he said, "This one will comfort us in our labor, in the hard work we do with our hands [to get what comes] from the ground that Adonai cursed."

Genesis 6:5
(Maftir) Adonai saw that the people on earth were very wicked, that all the imaginings of their hearts were always of evil only.

Genesis 6:17
"Then I myself will bring the flood of water over the earth to destroy from under heaven every living thing that breathes; everything on earth will be destroyed.

Genesis 8:1
God remembered Noach, every living thing and all the livestock with him in the ark; so God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to go down.

Genesis 8:2
Also the fountains of the deep and the windows of the sky were stopped, the rain from the sky was restrained,

Genesis 8:3
and the water came back from completely covering the earth. It was after 150 days that the water went down.

Genesis 8:6
After forty days Noach opened the window of the ark which he had built;

Genesis 8:7
and he sent out a raven, which flew back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Else, if thou wilt not let my people go,.... But remainest obstinate and inflexible:

behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee; the word used is generally thought to signify a "mixture", and is interpreted by many a mixture of various creatures; the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it a mixture of wild beasts, and so Josephus k understands it of all sorts of beasts, of many forms, and such as were never seen before; according to Jarchi, all sorts of evil beasts are meant, as serpents and scorpions, mixed together; and so Aben Ezra says it signifies evil beasts mixed together, as lions, wolves, bears, and leopards; but it is not likely the houses should be filled with these, or the ground covered with them, as after related: and besides, they would soon have destroyed, all the inhabitants of the land, since as it follows they are said to be upon them; rather a mixture of insects is intended; the Septuagint; version renders it the "dog fly", and so Philo the Jew l; which, as Pliny m says, is very troublesome, to dogs especially, about their ears, and this version Bochart n approves of:

and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses; they should be sent unto and settle first on his own person, and also on his ministers and courtiers, and upon all his subjects in general, and get into their houses, and be very troublesome guests there:

and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of the swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are; their number would be so very great.

k Antiqu. l. 2. c. 14. sect. 3. l De Vita Mosis, l. 1. p. 622. m Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 34. n Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 15. col. 555.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Swarms of flies - Generally, supposed to be the dog-fly, which at certain seasons is described as a plague far worse than mosquitos. Others, however, adopt the opinion that the insects were a species of beetle, which was reverenced by the Egyptians as a symbol of life, of reproductive or creative power. The sun-god, as creator, bore the name Chepera, and is represented in the form, or with the head, of a beetle.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

The FOURTH plague - FLIES

Verse Exodus 8:21. Swarms of flies upon thee — It is not easy to ascertain the precise meaning of the original word הערב hearob; as the word comes from ערב arab, he mingled, it may be supposed to express a multitude of various sorts of insects. And if the conjecture be admitted that the putrid frogs became the occasion of this plague, (different insects laying their eggs in the bodies of those dead animals, which would soon be hatched, see on Exodus 8:14), then the supposition that a multitude of different hinds of insects is meant, will seem the more probable. Though the plague of the locusts was miraculous, yet God both brought it and removed it by natural means; see Exodus 10:13-19.

Bochart, who has treated this subject with his usual learning and ability, follows the Septuagint, explaining the original by κυνομυια, the dog-fly; which must be particularly hateful to the Egyptians, because they held dogs in the highest veneration, and worshipped Anubis under the form of a dog. In a case of this kind the authority of the Septuagint is very high, as they translated the Pentateuch in the very place where these plagues happened. But as the Egyptians are well known to have paid religious veneration to all kinds of animals and monsters, whence the poet: -

Omnigenumque deum monstra, et latrator Anubis,

I am inclined to favour the literal construction of the word: for as ערב ereb, Exodus 12:38, expresses that mixed multitude of different kinds of people who accompanied the Israelites in their departure from Egypt; so here the same term being used, it may have been designed to express a multitude of different kinds of insects, such as flies, wasps, hornets, c., &c. The ancient Jewish interpreters suppose that all kinds of beasts and reptiles are intended, such as wolves, lions, bears, serpents, &c. Mr. Bate thinks the raven is meant, because the original is so understood in other places and thus he translates it in his literal version of the Pentateuch: but the meaning already given is the most likely. As to the objection against this opinion drawn from Exodus 8:31, there remained not one, it can have very little weight, when it is considered that this may as well be spoken of one of any of the different kinds, as of an individual of one species.