Vtus

Testamentum
Vtus Testamentum 60 (2010) 662-663 brill.nl/vt
Short Note
Crying Out About Frogs
Abstract
Moses had to "cry out" to God during the plague of frogs in order to hear himself over their loud
croaking.
Keywords
Ex 8:8, frogs, plagues, noise, prayer, humor
There are four instances in the course of the story of the Exodus in which
Moses prays on Pharaohs behalf, asking God to end a plague. These are: the
plague of frogs (Ex 8:8); the plague of *rb (flies, or in the Jewish tradition, a
mixed multitude of beasts, Ex 8:26); the plague of hail (Ex 9:33); and the
plague of locusts (Ex 10:18). However, it is only in the case of the frogs that
we are told that Moses "cried out {wyscj) to the Lord."
This choice of verb is quite odd. Elsewhere in scripture, wysq is used to
describe the pleading of people in immediate personal distress, such as Esau s
cry upon discovering that Jacob had taken his birthright (Gen 27:34) and
Moses' cry for help when the Israelites were about to stone him at Rephidim
(Ex 17:4). Why would Moses be so emotional in.his bid to protect the Egyp-
tians? The question only becomes more vexing when we consider the nature of
the plague in question. As Childs wrote, "In the long list of plagues which
Moses evoked on the Egyptians, frogs would certainly be accounted among
the least fearful".
1
We might imagine Moses crying out to stop the devastating
hail or locusts; why does he actually only cry out to be rid of the seemingly
harmless frogs?
l)
B. S. Childs, The Book of Exodus: A CHtical, Theohgical Commentary (Louisville, 1974),
p. 155.
Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI: 10.1163/156853310X530488
BRILL
Short Note / Vtus Testamentum 60 (2010) 662-663 663
The solution to this question can be found in the character of the plague
itself. The most striking and annoying characteristic of frogs is their noisiness;
it is often claimed that the frogs' loud croaking is what made their presence
loathsome to the Egyptians.
2
One might say that the plague of frogs was a
sonic plague. I would suggest that scripture s use of wysq is not intended to
relay the emotional intensity of Moses' request that the frogs be exterminated,
but rather to describe (in a perhaps somewhat comic way) his efforts to pray
under extreme acoustic conditions. In the midst of such a noisy plague, it is
no wonder that Moses would instinctively "cry out" in order to hear himself
praying, as it were, over the din of the frogs.
Western Galilee College, Israel Berel Dov Lerner
2)
Ibid.
^ s
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