Exodus 8:16-19 -- The Third Plague

Exodus 8:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron: Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, and it will become gnats throughout the land of Egypt.”

Some versions translate gnats as lice.  We know gnats and lice are different creatures, but the concept of each is the same.  They drink your blood.  They bit you and cause you to itch.  They, whether or not they were gnats or lice, are very annoying!

17 And they did this. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and when he struck the dust of the earth, gnats were on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats throughout the land of Egypt. 18 The magicians tried to produce gnats using their occult practices, but they could not. The gnats remained on man and beast.

So, this is the first plague that the magicians could not duplicate.  They could not produce any gnats.

19 “This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Pharaoh still would not listen to the Lord and free the people of Israel.  The magicians even told Pharaoh this was God who made the gnats appear, but he still would not listen, again, as the Lord had said.

In the last passage I talked about how the plague of the frogs was to show God's rulership over the Egyptian gods that were often depicted as frogs, well this plague is also against a particular god of the Egyptians.  The Egyptian god, Set, was the god of the desert.  What is the desert made of?  Sand.  What is sand?  The dust of the earth.  "All the dust of the earth became gnats."  God showed them that even Set, could not stop the sand from becoming gnats.

I read a commentary about how the gnat/lice plague really affected the priest of Egypt.  The priest could not enter their temples unless they were very clean and they had multiple rituals they did daily to keep themselves pure and clean.  One of them was keeping their heads and bodies free from hair so that lice could not take hold.  Lice was seen as a sign of impurity and uncleanness, and the priest could not enter their temples and beseech their gods covered in lice.