And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.

And the Lord did so. And there came a very grievous swarm of flies into he houses of Pharao and of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt: and the land was corrupted by this kind of flies.

And Jehovah did so; and there came dog-flies in a multitude into the house of Pharaoh, and into the houses of his bondmen; and throughout the land of Egypt, the land was corrupted by the dog-flies.

And Jehovah doth so, and the grievous beetle entereth the house of Pharaoh, and the house of his servants, and in all the land of Egypt the land is corrupted from the presence of the beetle.

And the Lord did so; and great clouds of flies came into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses, and all the land of Egypt was made waste because of the flies.

And the LORD did so; and there came grievous swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses; and in all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by reason of the swarms of flies.

And the Lord did so. And there came very grievous flies into the houses of Pharaoh and of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt. And the land was polluted, in this way, by the flies.

Et fecit Jehova sic: et venit examen insectorum grave in domum Pharaonis, et domum servorum ejus, et totam terram Aegypti: corrupta fuit terra propter examen insectorum.

The land was corrupted - Every thing was spoiled, and many of the inhabitants destroyed, being probably stung to death by these venomous insects. This seems to be intimated by the psalmist, "He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which Devoured them," Psalm 78:45.
In ancient times, when political, domestic, and personal cleanliness was but little attended to, and offal of different kinds permitted to corrupt in the streets and breed vermin, flies multiplied exceedingly, so that we read in ancient authors of whole districts being laid waste by them; hence different people had deities, whose office it was to defend them against flies. Among these we may reckon Baalzebub, the fly-god of Ekron; Hercules, muscarum abactor, Hercules, the expeller of flies, of the Romans; the Muagrus of the Eleans, whom they invoked against pestilential swarms of flies; and hence Jupiter, the supreme god of the heathens, had the epithets of Απομυιος and Μυωδης, because he was supposed to expel flies, and defend his worshippers against them. See Dodd.

And the Lord did so,.... And this he did immediately of himself without any means; not by the rod of Aaron, to let the Egyptians see that there was nothing in that rod, that it had no magic virtue in it, and what was done by it was from the Lord himself, who could as well inflict plagues without it as with it; see Psalm 105:31 and there came a grievous swarm of flies; or a "heavy" (q) one, which was both very numerous, and very troublesome and distressing:
into the house of Pharaoh, and into the houses of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt: into the palace of Pharaoh, and into the palaces of his nobles, ministers, and courtiers, and into the dwelling places of all his subjects, throughout the whole land, excepting the land of Goshen:
the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies; Josephus (r) says, the land lay neglected and uncultivated by the husbandmen; it may be, the air was infected by the flies, which produced a pestilence that took off many of the inhabitants; so among the Eleans, as Pliny (s) reports, a multitude of flies produced a pestilence; however, it is certain many of the inhabitants of Egypt perished by them; they might sting them to death, suck their blood, and poison them with their envenomed stings; see Psalm 78:45.
(q) "gravis", Montanus, "gravissime", V. L. (r) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 2. c. 14. sect. 3.) (s) Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 28.

There came a grievous swarm of flies - The prince of the power of the air has gloried in being Beel - zebub, the god of flies; but here it is proved that even in that he is a pretender, and an usurper; for even with swarms of flies God fights against his kingdom and prevails.