The Targum Jonathan on Exodus 8 contains one of the most remarkable theological additions in all of ancient Aramaic literature: the reason Moses personally refused to bring the plagues of blood, frogs, and lice.
When God commands Moses to strike the Nile to bring the plague of frogs, the Targum explains that Moses did not strike the waters himself—not for the blood plague and not for the frogs—"because through them he had found safety the time that his mother laid him in the river." The Nile had protected the infant Moses when Jochebed placed him in a basket among the reeds (Exodus 2:3). Moses could not repay that kindness with violence. He delegated to Aaron instead.
The same principle applies to the plague of lice. God tells Moses to have Aaron strike the dust of the earth. Why not Moses? The Targum supplies the answer: "It shall not be by thee that the ground shall be smitten, because therein for thee was safety when thou hadst slain the Mizraite and it received him." When Moses killed the Egyptian taskmaster and buried the body in the sand (Exodus 2:12), the earth concealed his crime. The ground had protected Moses, so Moses could not strike it.
This is an extraordinary moral principle embedded in a plague narrative: gratitude extends even to inanimate elements. Water and earth are owed loyalty for past acts of protection. The Aramaic translators transformed the plagues from a display of raw power into a lesson about obligation and memory.
The chapter also reveals that when the magicians failed to replicate the plague of lice, they made a specific theological admission the Hebrew text does not contain: "This is not by the power or strength of Moses and Aaron; but this is a plague sent from before the Lord." The magicians distinguished between human magic and divine action—and conceded that what was happening had crossed beyond their domain entirely. Pharaoh's own sorcerers recognized God before Pharaoh did.