The Frog That Filled Egypt and Soft Things That Split Stone

"And the frog came up" (Exodus 8:1-11, reading the singular). Rabbi Akiva says: there was a single frog, and it bred and swarmed and filled the whole land of Egypt. Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah said to him: Akiva, what business have you with aggadah? Cease your discourses and go to [the laws of] plagues and tents! Rather, there was a single frog; it whistled to them and they came. The marble houses and mosaic-floored houses of the Egyptians - what did the frogs do? They split through and rose up into them, as it is said, "And the frog came up," and the frogs were saying, "We are the messengers of Him who spoke and the world came to be," and the marble and the mosaic would split open before them. This is one of the things in which the Holy One, blessed be He, set the soft to master the hard. So too the mice of the Philistines: one would sit on a bronze bench, split the bench, rise up, and tear out his bowels. So too the hornets [against the Canaanites]: men hid in caves and set stones at the cave mouth, and the stone would split before the hornet. So too the stone that killed Goliath, as it is said, "and the stone sank into his forehead" (1 Samuel 17:49). And the arrow of Naaman that struck Ahab and entered into the armor. And the roots of the fig tree, which are soft and yet split the rock. And the shamir, which splits stone. "Take for yourselves your handfuls" (Exodus 9:8) - written at hint [chapter] 8.