Why does the Psalmist say the flies and frogs "devoured" and "destroyed" them in Psalms 78:45?

Question

Psalms 78:45 ESV

He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them

The above text says the flies devoured them and the frogs destroyed but in the original narrative we are only told of them causing discomfiture rather than death(devouring)

Exodus 8:6-15

Exodus 8:20-30

It was only the last plaque which caused the death of the first born which caused Pharaoh to capitulate

Exodus 12:29 ESV

29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock..

Why does the Psalmist say they were devoured and destroyed by flies and frogs respectively?

Answer 1

Exodus 8

2If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country. 3The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. 4The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.’ ”

Right, there is no mention of death but in some shallow sense, they did destroy people. In a deeper sense, it was an exaggeration.

24 And the Lord did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials; throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.

Again, there is no mention of death.

Note the order: frogs then flies.

Psalms 78:

45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them

The psalmist took poetic license to reverse the order and a bit of exaggeration for flies to devour people, meaning sucking their blood.

Why does the Psalmist say they were devoured and destroyed by flies and frogs respectively?

The psalmist used poetic license. He did not write as a historian.