'THE FINGER OF GOD' — the confession wrung out of Pharaoh's own magicians when they cannot duplicate the gnats (8:15). The idiom means God acting DIRECTLY, without instrument or effort: a finger, not even a hand or an arm. It returns for the tablets of the covenant, 'written with the finger of God' (31:18; Deuteronomy 9:10), and Jesus takes it up for his exorcisms — 'if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you' (Luke 11:20), where Matthew's parallel reads 'the Spirit of God.' → first discussed at Exod 8:15