¹⁷ They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats^(A) came on people and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. ¹⁸ But when the magicians^(B) tried to produce gnats by their secret arts,^(C) they could not.

Since the gnats were on people and animals everywhere, ¹⁹ the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger^(D) of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart^(E) was hard and he would not listen,^(F) just as the Lord had said.