Exodus 8:17. All the dust of the land became lice— Owen observes, that the earth was another object of the Egyptians' worship, to which they addressed their solemn devotion, and offered the first products of the year, as the donor of their corn, grain and fruit, and the author of their sustenance. To make them sensible, therefore, that the earth did not put forth those life-sustaining productions (for which they adored it with mistaken gratitude) by an independent virtue of its own, but only in consequence of the Divine establishment; to make them sensible of this, I say, God reversed the nature of its productions, causing it to bring forth lice throughout all the land. Before, they were nourished by what the earth produced; now, they are destroyed by it. "And because they had gone astray so very far in the ways of error, as to hold the cattle of the field, yea, noisome beasts, reptiles, and insects, for gods:" therefore the former were killed by a murrain; and a mixture of the latter was sent to torment them; "that they might know that wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished." See Wis 11:15-16.
Related Commentaries of Exodus 8:17
Exodus 8:17
17 And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.