Exodus - The Old Testament

¹ Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh and say to him, "Yahweh, God of the Hebrews, says this: Let my people go and worship me.

² If you refuse to let them go and detain them any longer,

³ look, the hand of Yahweh will strike your livestock in the fields, horses, donkeys, camels, oxen and flocks with a deadly plague.

⁴ Yahweh will discriminate between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt: nothing of what belongs to the Israelites will die.

⁵ Yahweh has fixed the time. Tomorrow, he has said, Yahweh will do this in the country." '

⁶ Next day Yahweh did this: all the Egyptians' livestock died, but nothing of the livestock owned by the Israelites died.

⁷ Pharaoh had enquiries made, and found that of the livestock owned by the Israelites not a single beast had died. But Pharaoh was obstinate and did not let the people go.

⁸ Yahweh then said to Moses and Aaron, 'Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and before Pharaoh's eyes let Moses throw it in the air.

⁹ It will turn into fine dust over the whole of Egypt and produce boils breaking into sores on man and beast throughout the whole of Egypt.'

¹⁰ So they took soot from the kiln and stood in front of Pharaoh, and Moses threw it in the air, and on man and beast it brought out boils breaking into sores.

¹¹ And the magicians could not compete with Moses in the matter of the boils, for the magicians were covered with boils like all the other Egyptians.

¹² But Yahweh made Pharaoh stubborn and, as Yahweh had foretold to Moses, he did not listen to them.

¹³ Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh. Say to him, "Yahweh, God of the Hebrews, says this: Let my people go and worship me.

¹⁴ For this time I am going to inflict all my plagues on you, on your officials and on your subjects, so that you will know that there is no one like me in the whole world.

¹⁵ Had I stretched out my hand to strike you and your subjects with pestilence, you would have been swept from the earth.

¹⁶ But I have let you survive for this reason: to display my power to you and to have my name talked of throughout the world.

¹⁷ Since you take a high hand with my people, refusing to let them go,

¹⁸ very well, at about this time tomorrow, I shall cause so severe a hail to fall as was never known in Egypt from the day of its foundation until now.

¹⁹ So now send word to have your livestock and everything else you own in the fields put under cover. On man or beast, all that happen to be in the fields and are not brought indoors, the hail will fall and they will die." '

²⁰ Those of Pharaoh's officials who respected what Yahweh said, brought their slaves and livestock indoors,

²¹ but those who did not take to heart what Yahweh said left their slaves and livestock in the fields.

²² Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand towards heaven so that it hails throughout the whole of Egypt, on man and beast and on everything growing anywhere in Egypt.'

²³ Moses stretched out his staff towards heaven, and Yahweh thundered and rained down hail. Lightning struck the earth and Yahweh rained down hail on Egypt.

²⁴ And so there was hail, and lightning accompanied the hail, very severe, such as had never been known anywhere in Egypt since it first became a nation.

²⁵ All over Egypt the hail struck down everything in the fields, man and beast, and the hail beat down everything growing in the fields and shattered all the trees in the fields.

²⁶ The only place where there was no hail was in the Goshen region, where the Israelites lived.

²⁷ Pharaoh then sent for Moses and Aaron and said, 'This time, I have sinned. Yahweh is in the right; I and my subjects are in the wrong.

²⁸ Pray to Yahweh, for we cannot bear any more of this thunder and hail. I promise to let you go. You need stay no longer.'

²⁹ Moses said to him, 'The moment I leave the city I shall stretch out my hands to Yahweh. The thunder will stop, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to Yahweh.

³⁰ But as for you and your officials, I know very well that you still have no respect for Yahweh God.'

³¹ The flax and the barley were ruined, since the barley was in the ear and the flax in bud,

³² but the wheat and spelt were not destroyed, being late crops.

³³ Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He stretched out his hands to Yahweh and the thunder and hail ceased and the rain stopped pouring down on the earth.

³⁴ When Pharaoh saw that rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he relapsed into sin,

³⁵ and he and his officials became obstinate again. Pharaoh was stubborn and, as Yahweh had foretold through Moses, refused to let the Israelites go.