Crocodiles vs. Frogs
So, discussion with my brother at the Seder:
There is an idea among some rabbis discussing the texts...
Those who read the text for the second plague and saw Tzfardeia ( צְפַרְדֵעַ), an amphibious creature. They interpreted this to mean a frog. So it was a plague of millions of frogs (or as some currently like to think, one giant frog).
Buuuut... others are now suggesting tzfardeia was for amphibious reptiles: crocodiles.
The crocodile headed god, Sobek, was closely tied to the Nile, so it would make sense as the plagues were intended to show that Hashem was more powerful than the Egyptian gods. Some discussions: Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
There are a lot of links talking about it, so this doesn't appear to be too new an idea...
There is a frog headed goddess and in Egypt, frogs are tied to fertility, so frogs still work as a plague...
And yeah, millions of frogs are terrible, but a plague of millions of crocodiles is terrifying.
