What a scene did Egypt present the next morning! The land was covered with dead frogs; and it took all the people of Egypt that day and night to gather them into heaps and cast them into the river: for they threatened a pestilence.
When Pharaoh saw that his wish was granted at the time he named, and that there was a respite, he said—"This was by my voice and my power, and not by their God, that the frogs died on the morrow I named! The glory over Moses shall indeed be mine, as he hath said!" Ceasing to speak, he sent orders to the taskmasters to increase the burdens of the Hebrews, refusing to keep his promise to Moses and Aaron.
Then the Lord again sent them before Pharaoh, and in his presence Aaron stretched forth his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, when all the dust of the earth became alive, and rested upon man and beast in the form of lice!
Then, in a rage, Pharaoh called his enchanters, but they could not perform this miracle, and said plainly to the king—
"This is beyond our power. This is the finger of their God."
Upon hearing this, Pharaoh drove both his magicians, and Moses and Aaron forth from his palace. The next day no sacrifice was offered, no temple open in all Egypt; for on the priests were lice, and no one could perform an official act with any insect upon his person, being thereby made unclean. The Egyptians were enraged, both with the Hebrews and with their king—but, shut up in his palace, he refused to consent to the demands of Moses.
Three days afterwards, by the command of God, given at the well of Jacob,—where, in a bright cloud like a pillar of fire, He descended to speak with Moses, and seemed to be now every day present in Egypt, in communion with his holy servant,—the two brothers again sought the presence of the king, as he was entering his galley. Reiterating their usual demand, Moses continued—
"The Lord hath said unto me, 'Stand before Pharaoh when he comes forth to the water, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, 'Let my people go; else, if thou wilt not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies upon thee and thy servants, and upon thy people, and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with them, and also the ground; and I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end that thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people and thy people; and to-morrow shall this sign be!'"
Pharaoh, in fear and anger, commanded his galley to leave the shore, heeding none of the words spoken by Moses. The next day when I awoke, lo! the air was darkened with flies. They covered the city like a cloud, and their noise was like the roar of the sea after a storm. When the sun was well risen, they descended and alighted upon the dwellings, and soon filled the houses, and rooms, and every place they could penetrate. It was impossible to hear for their hum, or to see for their number, as they would alight upon the face, seek the corners of the eyes and the edges of the eyelids, and inflict their bite. In a few hours the Egyptians became frantic under the plague, as it was impossible to keep them off; and if driven away, they would pertinaciously return to the attack. All employment in Egypt ceased. Eating and sleeping were impracticable. I fled in my chariot towards Goshen! My horses, stung to madness, flew like the wind. Hundreds of women, and children, and men were pressing in the same direction, for safety and relief. I crossed the great canal which divides the province, and not a fly followed me nor my horses across the aerial and invisible barrier God had set as their bounds. All Goshen was free from the plague, and the Hebrews were extending favors to the Egyptians who sought shelter among them.
The next day, Pharaoh, unable to endure the plague, and finding his magicians could neither remove nor cause it, sent for Moses and Aaron, who immediately answered his summons.