Texts in Conversation
Exodus shows frogs overrunning Egypt and filling every space. The Wisdom of Solomon recalls this scene when contrasting Egypt’s suffering with Israel’s later blessings, using the frogs as one part of a larger pattern that contrasts punishment with gifts.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 8:3
Hebrew Bible
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord has said: “Release my people in order that they may serve me! 2 But if you refuse to release them, then I am going to plague all your territory with frogs. 3 The Nile will swarm with frogs, and they will come up and go into your house, in your bedroom, and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading troughs. 4 Frogs will come up against you, your people, and all your servants.”’” 5 The Lord spoke to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Extend your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals, and over the ponds, and bring the frog* up over the land of Egypt.’”
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Wisdom of Solomon 16:3
Deuterocanon
1 For this reason, they were deservedly punished through creatures like those which they worship, and tormented through a multitude of vermin. 2 Instead of this punishment, you, giving benefits to your people, prepared quails for food, a delicacy to satisfy the desire of their appetite, 3 so that your enemies, desiring food, might for the hideousness of the creatures sent among them, loathe even the necessary appetite; but these, your people, having for a short time suffered lack, might even partake of delicacies. 4 For it was necessary that inescapable lack should come upon those oppressors, but that to these it should only be shown how their enemies were tormented. 5 For even when terrible raging of wild beasts came upon your people, and they were perishing by the bites of crooked serpents, your wrath didn’t continue to the end;
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Presumably the flooding of the Nile in the summer leaves standing pools of water. In the autumn, the result is the overbreeding of mosquitoes and massive numbers of insects that carry diseases. The book of Wisdom contrasts the insects that afflict the Egyptians with the quail that the Israelites are later given as food in the desert (Exodus 16:13; Wisdom of Solomon 15:18-16:2). At this point in the story, the magicians attempt to bring forth gnats (Exodus 8:18), adding a peculiar twist to the logic of the story. Why add further insects if insects are the problem? If the story possesses a certain logic, then one must presume that the magicians are meant to be depicted as perverse. They are not seeking to remedy the afflictions of their people but are worried about maintaining their religious power. In this situation, however, they are unable to compete. No matter how much technological prowess and human ingenuity advance, there are forces that transcend the human being. Recourse to God is always more rational, for God possesses incomprehensible power over creation in an infinitely higher and mysterious way, willing our true good ..."
Thomas Joseph White, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible: Exodus (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2016), 118–119.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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After helping people out and failing to help yourself throughout , what is next?
After helping people out and failing to help yourself throughout , what is next?