Flood of plagues

Frogs come up from the Nile and “cover” the land of Egypt (Exodus 8:6), and later locusts do the same (10:5).

Earlier, the same verb ( kasah ) is used to describe the waters “covering” the mountains in the flood (Genesis 7:19-20).  The plagues covering Egypt are another flood raging over Egypt until it is reduced to chaos.

Intriguingly, the same verb is used again in the flood narrative: Noah’s sons “cover” him with a garment when he lies naked in his tent (9:23).  And a “covering” scene ends the book of Exodus as well: Yahweh’s cloud “covers” the tent (Exodus 40:34), as it had once “covered” the mountain (24:15-16).  Ezekiel later re-imagines this as a marital image, Yahweh spreading the wing of His glory-garment to cover His Bride (Ezekiel 16:8, 10).

Yahweh gets glory from Pharaoh by blanketing his land with a covering of frogs and locusts; He glorifies Israel by covering her with the shadow of His wings.