Exodus 8:16-19

Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron,¹ “Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats² throughout the whole land of Egypt.”’

And they did so;³ Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and gnats came on humans and animals alike; all the dust of the earth turned into gnats throughout the whole land of Egypt. The magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, but they could not.⁴ There were gnats on both humans and animals. And the magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the finger of God!’⁵ But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened,⁶ and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

1 Moses still acts through Aaron.

2 Gnats are a little more understandable as a plague than frogs, though still not on my “worst plagues imaginable” list.

3 No warning to Pharaoh this time.

4 Interesting – of the plagues, why is this the one the magicians can't reproduce?

5 The magicians are acknowledging God now, just like Pharaoh did with the last plague!

6 No clear source of Pharaoh's hardening of heart this time.

Take-home: As the plagues continue and the secret arts begin to fail, even the magicians are beginning to acknowledge God's power. But Pharaoh's heart continues to stay hardened.