Exodus 8:20–9:12

²⁰The Lord said to Moses, “Early tomorrow morning go and meet the king as he goes to the river, and tell him that the Lord says, ‘Let my people go, so that they can worship me. ²¹I warn you that if you refuse, I will punish you by sending flies on you, your officials, and your people. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and the ground will be covered with them. ²²But I will spare the region of Goshen, where my people live, so that there will be no flies there. I will do this so that you will know that I, the Lord, am at work in this land. ²³I will make a distinctionⁱ between my people and your people. This miracle will take place tomorrow.’ ” ²⁴The Lord sent great swarms of flies into the king’s palace and the houses of his officials. The whole land of Egypt was brought to ruin by the flies.

²⁵Then the king called for Moses and Aaron and said, “Go and offer sacrifices to your God here in this country.”

²⁶“It would not be right to do that,” Moses answered, “because the Egyptians would be offended by our sacrificing the animals that we offer to the Lord our God. If we use these animals and offend the Egyptians by sacrificing them where they can see us, they will stone us to death. ²⁷We must travel three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, just as he commanded us.”

²⁸The king said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord, your God, in the desert, if you do not go very far. Pray for me.”

²⁹Moses answered, “As soon as I leave, I will pray to the Lord that tomorrow the flies will leave you, your officials, and your people. But you must not deceive us again and prevent the people from going to sacrifice to the Lord.”

³⁰Moses left the king and prayed to the Lord, ³¹and the Lord did as Moses asked. The flies left the king, his officials, and his people; not one fly remained. ³²But even this time the king became stubborn, and again he would not let the people go.

9The Lord said to Moses, “Go to the king and tell him that the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says, ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me. ²If you again refuse to let them go, ³I will punish you by sending a terrible disease on all your animals—your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, and goats. ⁴I will make a distinction between the animals of the Israelites and those of the Egyptians, and no animal that belongs to the Israelites will die. ⁵I, the Lord, have set tomorrow as the time when I will do this.’ ”

⁶The next day the Lord did as he had said, and all the animals of the Egyptians died, but not one of the animals of the Israelites died. ⁷The king asked what had happened and was told that none of the animals of the Israelites had died. But he was stubborn and would not let the people go.

⁸Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take a few handfuls of ashes from a furnace; Moses shall throw them into the air in front of the king. ⁹They will spread out like fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and everywhere they will produce boils that become open sores on the people and the animals.” ^10*So they got some ashes and stood before the king; Moses threw them into the air, and they produced boils that became open sores on the people and the animals. ¹¹The magicians were not able to appear before Moses, because they were covered with boils, like all the other Egyptians. ¹²But the Lord made the king stubborn and, just as the Lord had said, the king would not listen to Moses and Aaron.