Was It Really Frogs and Insects?

A frog, tucking itself into the gap between toilet seat and toilet in my 'hotel room' - wood hut - on the banks of the Amazon. (Frogs could get into the kneading bowels, but, according to some, crocodiles are too large to so do)

U. Cassuto - A Commentary on the Book of Exodus

The episode of the frogs corresponds to normal Egyptian phenomena. Every year after the inundation of the Nile, the number of frogs in the receding waters is enormous. In this case, therefore, the Bible has in mind an endemic affliction of the country, which occured that year on an exceptional scale and at the right conjecture. The explanation current in the Middle Ages that by these frogs crocodiles are meant is certainly incorrect, for crocodiles would not make their home in human beds, ovens and kneading-bowels and cannot easily be gathered in heaps.

Rabbeinu Bachya Exodus 10:7

Moses' words in his prayer remained true for that time and for all generations. In accordance with his words, they shall remain only in the Nile, to this very day the creeping water creature known as the al-timsah remains there. There it lives, and it is said that sometimes it comes out of the Nile where it lives, rising onto the river's edge and swallowing whatever it finds, even two or three humans at a time. Neither spear nor arrow can overcome its body, unless aimed for its belly. Physicians say it is venomous and that touching its body, even after its death, is harmful to man. It is of the tzefarde'a type, and from the power of Moses' words this creature remains there.... This is also how Rabbenu Hananel explained it, and regarding this it states, 'Speak of all His wonders' (Ps. 105:2).

Abarbanel Ex 7

What are these animals that the verse calls Tzefadaim? Most of the commentators say they are small water-creatures who constantly cry out in lakes and rivers [frogs]. But Rabbi Chananel explains that they are the big animals in the Nile who are called, in Arabic Al Tamsach [the crocodile], but the Bible commentators don’t agree with him. But in truth I prefer his words to theirs. We have the verse ‘I will Nogef you in all your borders with Tzefardaim, and the word Nogef is only used to describe a striking where there is death, and I can’t justify the words of Rashi who writes that this is not the language of lethal striking, his evidence doesn’t persuade me …And these little water creatures (frogs) don’t kill people, they don’t Nogef them, so it has to be that the Tzefardea which the Torah describes are ones whose way is to strike and kill as is explained in Psalms 78… And another proof, that they go back to Nile and remain only there, and the little water creatures go everywhere in the rivers of Egypt and also in all the rivers and ponds of the world. And all this proves that these Tzefardeim are not the small creatures which cry, but the great marine creature [Tanin] which is called Al Tamsach which looks like the Tanin and lifts up its upper jaw and eats mightily; a cart or a child right up and these Tzefardaim [crocodiles] come out from the Nile wanting to eat for their existence because they can’t live off the birds of the Nile. So they go onto dry land to eat, and to this day they go from the Nile to the Wilderness to devour people and beasts. And this is the meaning of ‘behold I will Nogef you in all your borders with Tzefardaim’ and they will come from afar – the rivers – until they come into your houses and private rooms to Bikesh children, and they wont be able to run away from them or chase them. This is alluded to in Shemot Rabba where it says there were Egyptian eunuchs – Misrasim Mitzrayim – that is to say that since they ate their children they were left without children, it was as if they were eunuchs. Or maybe they even ate their own limbs of procreation – this also proves that these are not little croacking creatures, but rather the mighty sea creatures who went up and went also into the ovens and the kneading bowels to eat their bread but also the people who were in the midst of the city when they were able.

Maxwell House Haggadah, followed by 'Amsetrdam Haggadah' 1712 Illus. Avraham ben Yaakov Hagar