o be a final exodus; and thence came the murderous pursuit of Pharaoh
(cf. xv. 9), which in itself would have cancelled any compact which had
existed until then.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] The Revised Version has "swarms of flies," which is clearly an
attempt to meet the case. But it is worth notice that in the Psalms the
expression was twice rendered "divers kinds of flies" (lxxviii. 45, cv.
31, A.V.) The word occurs only of this plague.

CHAPTER IX.

_THE FIFTH PLAGUE._

ix. 1-7.

Our Lord when on earth came not to destroy men's lives. And yet it was
necessary, for our highest instruction, that we should not think of Him
as revealing a Divinity wholly devoid of sternness. Twice, therefore, a
gleam of the fires of justice fell on the eyes which followed
Him--through the destruction once of a barren tree, and once of a herd
of swine, which property no Jew should have possessed. So now, when half
the gloomy round of the plagues was being completed, it was necessary to
prove that life itself was staked on this desperate hazard; and this was
done first by the very same expedient--the destruction of life which was
not human. There is something pathetic, if one thinks of it, in the
extent to which domestic animals share our fortunes, and suffer through
the brutality or the recklessness of their proprietors. If all men were
humane, self-controlled, and (as a natural result) prosperous, what a
weight would be uplifted from the lower levels also of created life, all
of which groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now! The dumb
animal world is partner with humanity, and shares its fate, as each
animal is dependent on its individual owner.

We have already seen the whole life of Egypt stricken, but now the lower
creatures are to perish, unless Pharaoh will repent. He is once more
summoned in the name of "Jehovah, God of the Hebrews," and warned that
the hand of Jehovah, even a very grievous murrain (for so the verse
appears to say), is "upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the
horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the herds and upon the
flocks." Here some particulars need observation. Herds and flocks were
everywhere; but horses were a comparatively late introduction into
Egypt, where they were as yet chiefly employed for war. Asses, still so
familiar to the traveller, were the usual beasts of burden, and were
owned in great numbers by the rich, although rash controversialists have
pretended that,