Keluaran 8:17

8:17 They did so; Aaron extended his hand with his staff, he struck the dust of the ground, and it became gnats on people ¹  and on animals. All the dust of the ground became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.

Keluaran 8:24

8:24 The Lord did so; a ²  thick ³  swarm of flies came into ⁴  Pharaoh’s house and into the houses ⁵  of his servants, and throughout the whole land of Egypt the land was ruined ⁶  because of the swarms of flies.

[8:17]  ¹ tn Heb “man,” but in the generic sense of “humans” or “people” (also in v. 18).

[8:24]  ² tn Heb “and there came a….”

[8:24]  ³ tn Heb “heavy,” or “severe.”

[8:24]  ⁴ tn Here, and in the next phrase, the word “house” has to be taken as an adverbial accusative of termination.

[8:24]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text has the singular here.

[8:24]  ⁶ tc Concerning the connection of “the land was ruined” with the preceding, S. R. Driver (Exodus, 68) suggests reading with the LXX, Smr, and Peshitta; this would call for adding a conjunction before the last clause to make it read, “into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt; and the land was…”

[8:24]  tn The Hebrew word תִּשָּׁחֵת (tishakhet) is a strong word; it is the Niphal imperfect of שָׁחַת (shakhat) and is translated “ruined.” If the classification as imperfect stands, then it would have to be something like a progressive imperfect (the land was being ruined); otherwise, it may simply be a preterite without the vav (ו) consecutive. The verb describes utter devastation. This is the verb that is used in Gen 13:10 to describe how Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Swarms of flies would disrupt life, contaminate everything, and bring disease.