1Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I myself have made his heart heavy and the heart of his servants, so that I may set these signs of mine in his midst,
2and so that you may recount in the hearing of your son and your son’s son how I dealt harshly with Egypt, and my signs that I set among them—that you may know that I am Yahweh.”
3So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Send my people away, that they may serve me.
4For if you refuse to send my people away, look, tomorrow I am bringing locusts into your territory,
5and it will cover the eye of the land, so that one will not be able to see the land; and it will eat the remainder of what escaped, what remains to you from the hail, and it will eat every tree that is sprouting for you from the field.
6And your houses will be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians—something your fathers and your fathers’ fathers have not seen from the day they came upon the ground until this day.” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
7Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this one be a snare to us? Send the men away, that they may serve Yahweh their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is ruined?”
8So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve Yahweh your God. Who exactly are the ones going?”
9And Moses said, “With our young and with our old we will go; with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds we will go, for we have a festival of Yahweh.”
10But he said to them, “May Yahweh be with you in the same way that I would send you and your little ones away! Look—you have evil in front of your faces!
11Not so! Go now, you men, and serve Yahweh, since that is what you are seeking.” And he drove them out from Pharaoh’s presence.
12Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up over the land of Egypt and eat every plant of the land, everything that the hail left.”
13So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh drove an east wind into the land all that day and all the night. When morning came, the east wind had carried the locusts.
14And the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt, very heavy—before it there had never been such locusts, nor after it will there be such.
15They covered the eye of the whole land, and the land grew dark, and they ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left; nothing green remained on tree or plant of the field in all the land of Egypt.
16Then Pharaoh hurried to call for Moses and Aaron, and he said, “I have sinned against Yahweh your God and against you.
17Now then, please forgive my sin just this once, and pray to Yahweh your God that he may remove from me only this death.”
18So he went out from Pharaoh and prayed to Yahweh.
19And Yahweh turned a very strong sea wind, and it lifted the locusts and drove them into the Sea of Reeds; not one locust remained in all the territory of Egypt.
20But Yahweh strengthened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not send the sons of Israel away.
21Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the heavens, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt—a darkness that can be felt.”
22So Moses stretched out his hand toward the heavens, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.
23No one could see his brother, and no one rose from his place for three days; but for all the sons of Israel there was light in their dwellings.
24Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, “Go, serve Yahweh; only your flocks and your herds are to be left behind. Even your little ones may go with you.”
25But Moses said, “You yourself must also place in our hand sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may offer them to Yahweh our God.
26Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for from them we will take to serve Yahweh our God, and we ourselves do not know with what we will serve Yahweh until we come there.”
27But Yahweh strengthened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to send them away.
28Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me! Guard yourself—do not see my face again, for on the day you see my face you will die.”
29And Moses said, “You have spoken rightly. I will not see your face again.”
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