Exodus 10

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, ^fg2and so that you may tell ^hyour son and grandson ⁱhow severely I dealt with the Egyptians and performed miraculous signs among them, and you will know that I am Yahweh.”

³So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what Yahweh, 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. ^j4But if you refuse to let My people go, then tomorrow I will bring locusts ^kinto 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 ^lto 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 ancestors 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 ^mto us? Let the men go, so that they may worship Yahweh their God. Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is devastated?”

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

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

¹⁰He said to them, “May Yahweh be with you if I ever let you and your families go! ^oLook out—you are planning evil. ¹¹No, only the men may go and worship Yahweh, for that is what you have been asking for.” 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. ^p15They 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. ^q

¹⁶Pharaoh urgently sent for Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against Yahweh your God and against you. ¹⁷Please forgive my sin once more and make an appeal to Yahweh your God, so that He will take this death away from me.” ¹⁸Moses left Pharaoh’s presence and appealed to the Lord. ^r19Then the Lord changed the wind to a strong west ^swind, and it carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. ^tNot a single locust was left in all the territory of Egypt. ²⁰But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, ^uand 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. ^v

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

²⁵Moses responded, “You must also let us have ^wsacrifices and burnt offerings to prepare for Yahweh 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 Yahweh our God. We will not know what we will use to worship Yahweh until we get there.”

²⁷But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, ^xand 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.” ^y