And the magicians could not stand before Moses, because of the boils,.... Which were on them as on others, and which with all their art and skill they could not keep off; and which were so sore upon them, and painful to them, that they were obliged to withdraw, and could not stand their ground, confronting Moses, contesting and litigating with him; for it seems, though they had not acted, nor attempted to act in imitation of Moses and Aaron, since the plague of the lice, yet they still continued about Pharaoh, lessening as much as in them lay the miracles wrought by them, and suggesting that they had done the most and the worst they could, and so contributing to harden the heart of Pharaoh against the people of Israel; wherefore they were righteously punished with boils for so doing, and for their contempt of the messengers and miracles of God, and for their imposition upon men, and their deception of them: for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians; but not upon Moses and Aaron, nor upon any of the Israelites, and was afterwards called peculiarly the botch of Egypt, Deu 28:27.