Exodus 9:23–35

²³So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail. ^wLightning struck the earth, and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. ²⁴The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. ²⁵Throughout the land of Egypt, the hail struck down everything in the field, both man and beast. The hail beat down every plant of the field and shattered every tree in the field. ²⁶The only place it didn’t hail was in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were. ^x

²⁷Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. “I have sinned this time,” he said to them. “Yahweh is the Righteous ^yOne, and I and my people are the guilty ones. ²⁸Make an appeal to Yahweh. There has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go; ^zyou don’t need to stay any longer.”

²⁹Moses said to him, “When I have left the city, I will extend my hands ^ato Yahweh. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know the earth ^bbelongs to Yahweh. ³⁰But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear Yahweh our God.”

³¹The flax and the barley were destroyed because the barley was ripe ^cand the flax was budding, ^d32but the wheat and the spelt were not destroyed since they are later crops. ^e

³³Moses went out from Pharaoh and the city, and extended his hands to the Lord. Then the thunder and hail ceased, and rain no longer poured down on the land. ³⁴When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his officials. ³⁵So Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he did not let the Israelites go, as the Lord had said through Moses.