Exodus 8:1–20

The Second Plague: Frogs

8¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that ⁿthey may serve me. ²But if you ^orefuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with ^pfrogs. ³The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into ^qyour bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people,² and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. ⁴The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.” ’ ” ⁵³ And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ^r‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’ ” ⁶So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and ^sthe frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. ⁷But ^tthe magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

⁸Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, ^u“Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and ^vI will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” ⁹Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when ^uI am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” ¹⁰And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so ^wthat you may know that ^xthere is no one like the Lord our God. ¹¹The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile.” ¹²So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh.^{4 13}And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. ¹⁴And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. ¹⁵But when Pharaoh saw that there was a ^yrespite, he ^zhardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

The Third Plague: Gnats

¹⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ^a‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’ ” ¹⁷And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and ^bthere were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. ¹⁸The ^cmagicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. ¹⁹Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is ^dthe finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

The Fourth Plague: Flies

²⁰Then the Lord said to Moses, ^e“Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, ^f“Let my people go, that they may serve me.