The plague of flies brings out yet another element of human nature which not unfrequently comes into play in the hardening of men’s hearts against God――viz. the habit of bantering――shall we say dickering, driving a bargain and quibbling over the terms and conditions of God’s requirements. The flies are terribly annoying: Pharaoh sees that something must be done; in fact he concludes he must make some concessions: so he calls for Moses and Aaron and says――“Go ye, sacrifice to your God _in the land_.” The last words were emphatic――in _this_ land: stay here, and you shall have time to offer your sacrifices. I can not let you go three days journey into the wilderness lest ye never come back.――――Moses insists on the original terms; and then Pharaoh concedes yet a little more: “I will let you go that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, only ye shall not go very far away. Entreat for me”――_i. e._ entreat the Lord to take away these flies――the same word being used here as in v. 8. Moses entreated: the Lord removed the plague, and according to the record “Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.” Allowing himself to make terms with God and to banter him upon the conditions, coupled with the respite――the temporary relief found in the removal of the plague――are manifestly the causes and modes in this case of his hardening his own heart. Next is the plague of murrain――a terrible loss of their cattle. In the antecedent threatening of this plague, Moses said to Pharaoh, “The Lord will _sever_ between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: there shall nothing die of all that belongs to Israel.” So it was; for we read――“Pharaoh sent [_i. e._ to inquire] and lo! not one of the cattle of the Israelites was dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go” (9: 1–7). This discrimination gave a keener edge to the plague; it cut the deeper; but in the result it only maddened him the more. It showed most clearly that God’s hand was in these plagues and that he was on the side of Israel; but Pharaoh was committed to the contest and seemed to have but the one ruling purpose――to fight it out to the bitter end.