Exodus 10–12

THE EIGHTH PLAGUE: LOCUSTS

10Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may do these miraculous signs of mine among them,^{Dn 2}and so that you may tell^E your son and grandson^o how severely I dealt with the Egyptians and performed miraculous signs among them, and you will know that I am the Lord.”

³So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may worship me.^{p 4}But if you refuse to let my people go, then tomorrow I will bring locusts^q into your territory. ⁵They will cover the surface of the land so that no one will be able to see the land. They will eat the remainder left^a to you that escaped the hail; they will eat every tree you have growing in the fields. ⁶They will fill your houses, all your officials’ houses, and the houses of all the Egyptians—something your fathers and grandfathers never saw since the time they occupied the land until today.” Then he turned and left Pharaoh’s presence.

⁷Pharaoh’s officials asked him, “How long must this man be a snare^b to us? Let the men go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is devastated?”

⁸So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship the Lord your God,” Pharaoh said. “But exactly who will be going?”

⁹Moses replied, “We will go with our young and with our old; we will go with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds because we must hold the Lord’s festival.”^c

¹⁰He said to them, “The LORD would have to be with you if I would ever let you and your families go! Look out—you’re heading for trouble. ¹¹No, go—just able-bodied men—worship the Lord, since that’s what you want.” And they were driven from Pharaoh’s presence.

¹²The Lord then said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt, and the locusts will come up over it and eat every plant in the land, everything that the hail left.” ¹³So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and through the night. By morning the east wind had brought in the locusts. ¹⁴The locusts went up over the entire land of Egypt and settled on the whole territory of Egypt. Never before had there been such a large number of locusts, and there never will be again.^{d 15}They covered the surface of the whole land so that the land was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green was left on the trees or the plants in the field throughout the land of Egypt.^e

¹⁶Pharaoh urgently sent for Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. ¹⁷Please forgive my sin once more and make an appeal to the Lord your God, so that he will just take this death away from me.” ¹⁸Moses left Pharaoh’s presence and appealed to the Lord.^{f 19}Then the Lord changed the wind to a strong west^A wind, and it carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea.^g Not a single locust was left in all the territory of Egypt. ²⁰But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart,^h and he did not let the Israelites go.

THE NINTH PLAGUE: DARKNESS

²¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt.” ²²So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days. ²³One person could not see another, and for three days they did not move from where they were. Yet all the Israelites had light where they lived.ⁱ

²⁴Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship the Lord. Even your families may go with you; only your flocks and herds must stay behind.”

²⁵Moses responded, “You must also let us have^A sacrifices and burnt offerings to prepare for the Lord our God. ²⁶Even our livestock must go with us; not a hoof will be left behind because we will take some of them to worship the Lord our God. We will not know what we will use to worship the Lord until we get there.”

²⁷But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart,^j and he was unwilling to let them go. ²⁸Pharaoh said to him, “Leave me! Make sure you never see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die.”

²⁹“As you have said,” Moses replied, “I will never see your face again.”^k

THE TENTH PLAGUE: DEATH OF THE FIRSTBORN

11The Lord said^B to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go,^C he will drive you out of here. ²Now announce to the people that both men and women should ask their neighbors for silver and gold items.” ³The Lord gave^D the people favor with the Egyptians. In addition, Moses himself was very highly regarded^E in the land of Egypt by^F Pharaoh’s officials and the people.^l

⁴So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: About midnight I will go throughout Egypt, ⁵and every firstborn male in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the servant girl who is at the grindstones, as well as every firstborn of the livestock. ⁶Then there will be a great cry of anguish through all the land of Egypt such as never was before or ever will be again. ⁷But against all the Israelites, whether people or animals, not even a dog will snarl,^G so that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. ⁸All these officials of yours will come down to me and bow before me, saying: Get out, you and all the people who follow you.^H After that, I will get out.” And he went out from Pharaoh’s presence fiercely angry.^a

⁹The Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen^b to you, so that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart,^c and he would not let the Israelites go out of his land.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PASSOVER

12The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ²“This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.^{d 3}Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ families, one animal per family. ⁴If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each will eat. ⁵You must have an unblemished^e animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. ⁶You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.^{f 7}They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. ⁸They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.^{g 9}Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling^A water, but only roasted^h over fire—its head as well as its legs and inner organs. ¹⁰You must not leave any of it until morning;ⁱ any part of it left until morning you must burn. ¹¹Here is how you must eat it: You must be dressed for travel,^B your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover.^j

¹²“I will pass through^k the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am the Lord; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.^{l 13}The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴“This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute.^{m 15}You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeastⁿ from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off^o from Israel. ¹⁶You are to hold a sacred assembly^p on the first day and another sacred assembly on the seventh day. No work may be done on those days except for preparing what people need to eat—you may do only that.

¹⁷“You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your military divisions out of the land of Egypt.^q You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute. ¹⁸You are to eat unleavened bread in the first month,^r from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a resident alien or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel. ²⁰Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”^C

²¹Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal.^{s 22}Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood^t that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. ²³When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, he will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you.^a

²⁴“Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. ²⁵When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, you are to observe this ceremony. ²⁶When your children^b ask you, ‘What…