Are there frogs in egypt

Now by the way, one quick observation about the plague cycles in general. Throughout the plague stories, notice a pattern. First, the plague is threatened, then it is implemented, then it is imitated, and then it is removed. Now let me qualify that. Generally, it is threatened and inflicted. In the first two plagues it is imitated.

And from that time on, there is no mention of imitation. Each of the plagues is spoken of as removed, except for the tenth which involves the death, the visitation of the angel of death on the first born.

There is no remedy for that plague. Now this plague, like so many of the others begins with God approaching Moses. It highlights the fact that God is in control every step of the way. God is in control. Notice again in verse 1, the phrase is repeated. The first time you saw it was back in Exodus, chapter 4, verse You saw it again in Exodus, chapter 5, verse 1, in Exodus , in Exodus But the broader context of worship of God, also entails serving Him as the only Lord and master.

Notice also that in Exodus 5, 1 through 3 when Moses and Aaron first go to Pharaoh, they say, you need to let us go to worship the Lord, or He will visit plagues against you. And so the tables are turned against Pharaoh and Egypt. Now in verse 2 we find that the Lord has decided to dismantle the rule of Egypt by means of frogs. Yes, frogs. The word is croaker. You know, things that croak. Frogs are an Egypt thing. God explained, He will conquer Egypt with croakers. Now why, you may ask?

Well, let me make three suggestions. A challenge against the polytheism and idolatry of the Egyptians. As you may know, frogs were associated with the Egyptian gods, Hapi and Heqt. Heqt was actually considered the goddess of fertility, and she was often pictured as a squatting frog. She was supposed to be a good luck charm to increase the fertility of the people. And so the use of the frogs may well indicate a direct assault against Egyptian idolatry.

Secondly, the plague of the frogs may well be a kind, providential, judgment warning against Egypt. I am the one who is sovereign. God takes something weak and small and wretched, and He uses it to foil the wise and strong of this world. We are told in verses 3 and 4 that the waters will swarm or teem with frogs.

And that is the very first instance that scared Pharaoh about them. And so he determined to try and reduce their population.

Well the frogs are said here to swarm or teem in the land, the waters swarmed, with frogs. Notice also, verse 4 and verse 5 we are told that this plague will affect every cast of society.

Three categories are used. You, Pharaoh, you and your court, your people, the higher ups in the culture, and your servants. The very lowest members of your cast. You, your people and your servants, all three of those Egyptian cast. In other words everybody in society, Pharaoh, is going to impacted by this particular judgment.

In verses 5 and 6, when Aaron stretches out his staff, he stretches out his hand, and we are told that all the natural water sources in Egypt are impacted and frogs cover the land.

And then when you move forward to Exodus 14, verse 28, and Exodus 15, verses 5 and 10, we are told that the Egyptian army will be covered by water.

This word is also used graciously in the book of Exodus when Israel has escaped from Egypt, and is in the wilderness and is in need of food, we are told in Exodus, chapter 16, verse 13 that God will cover the camp with quail for them to eat.

Once again, verse 7, the Egyptian magicians spring into action, and they imitate the plague by their occult practices. Here are three of the major theories to know. This theory argues that the plagues were really the fallout of volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini in the south of Greece around BCE.

Winds would have carried the volcanic ash to Egypt at some point over the summer, and the toxic acids in the volcanic ash would have included the mineral cinnabar, which could have been capable of turning a river a blood-like red color, Trevisanato holds.

The accumulated acidity in the water would have caused frogs to leap out and search for clean water. Insects would have burrowed eggs in the bodies of dead animals and human survivors, which generated larvae and then adult insects. The grass would have been contaminated, poisoning the animals that ate it. The humidity from the rain and the subsequent hail would have created optimal conditions for locusts to thrive.

Volcanic eruptions could also explain the several days of darkness — which means nine plagues are accounted for. Trevisanato also found an ancient Egyptian account of the children of aristocrats lying dead in public and archaeological data matching the account. He believes that, amid all this destruction, firstborn children could have been sacrificed out of desperation, in the hopes that such a meaningful sacrifice would lead their gods to stop punishing them. This toad is small in size with females growing to 1.

They appear to be a greenish grey color with spots between their eyes, dark red blotches near their hind legs, and a white underside.

It is a nocturnal species that has successfully adapted to several habitats, including agricultural land and urban areas. Its population is considered stable and not threatened.

True to its name, the African common toad can be found throughout much of Africa in large numbers. Males grow between 2.

Their olive green skin is covered in bumps and and darker patches. Males have a black throat. This toad species breeds in the shallow edges of rivers and can inhabit a wide range of environments, including montane grasslands, forests, moist and dry savannas, and agricultural lands. The African common toad is also very popular in the pet industry with some being exported as far as Canada. This activity is not yet considered a threat as it does not appear to have negatively affected the population.

And in May in Greece, thousands of frogs emerged from a lake in the northern part of the country, likely in search of food, and disrupted traffic for days, CBS News reported. The third plague, lice, could mean either lice, fleas or gnats based on the Hebrew word Keenim. If a toxic algal bloom led to the first plague, and a pile of dead frogs followed, it's not surprising that a swarm of insects of some sort would have followed.

That's because frogs typically eat insects; without them, the fly population could have exploded, Stephan Pflugmacher, a climatologist Leibniz Institute for Water Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, said in a television special about the plagues that aired on the National Geographic Channel in Interestingly, both body lice and fleas can theoretically transmit the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which causes bubonic plague, according to a study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

If so, then an infestation with lice could have set the stage for the later plagues, such as boils, a review of plague science found. Scientists have also argued that the sickness that killed the beasts of the field for Egyptians in later plagues might have been Bluetongue or African horse sickness, both of which can be spread by insects from this plague, according to a Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. Once again, the Hebrew word for the fourth plague, arov, is ambiguous.

It roughly translates to a "mixture," and over the years, rabbis had interpreted that word to mean either wild animals, hornets or mosquitoes, or even wolf-like beasts that prowl in the night, according to biblical commentary found in the Exodus Rabbah ; Tanchuma, Va'eira Most commonly, people interpret the text to mean wild animals such as venomous snakes or scorpions, or even lions or bears. However, according to a study published in the journal Caduceus , which attempts to explain the plagues as epidemiological problems caused by an initial climate disturbance, J.

Marr and C. Malloy argue that the fourth plague represents a swarm of flies such as the stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans.

Bites from these flies could have led to the boils that occurred later on in the story, according to that study. The fifth plague called down on Egypt was a mysterious and highly contagious disease that swiftly killed off the Egyptians' livestock.