Exodus 10–12

CHAPTER 10

The Plague of Locusts

¹Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Come to Pharaoh, for ^aI have ¹hardened his heart and the heart of his servants with firmness, that I may ²set these signs of Mine ³among them,

²and ^athat you may recount in the ¹hearing of your son and of your grandson, how I dealt severely with the Egyptians, and how I ²put My signs among them, ^bthat you may know that I am Yahweh.”

³Then Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to ^ahumble yourself before Me? ^bLet My people go, that they may serve Me.

⁴‘For if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.

⁵‘And they shall cover the ¹surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land. ^aThey will also eat the rest of what has escaped—what remains for you from the hail—and they will eat every tree which sprouts for you out of the field.

⁶‘Then ^ayour houses and the houses of all your servants and the houses of all the Egyptians shall be filled, something which neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day that they ¹came upon the earth until this day.’” And he turned and went out from Pharaoh.

^7aAnd Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this man be ^ba snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve Yahweh their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?”

⁸So Moses and Aaron ^awere brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “^bGo, serve Yahweh your God! ¹Who are the ones that are going?”

⁹And Moses said, “^aWe shall go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, ^bwith our flocks and our herds we shall go, for it is a feast of Yahweh for us.”

¹⁰Then he said to them, “Thus may Yahweh be with you, ¹if ever I let you and your little ones go! See, for evil is ²on your faces.

¹¹“Not so! Go now, the men among you, and serve Yahweh, for ¹that is what you are seeking.” So ^athey were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.

¹²Then Yahweh said to Moses, “^aStretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up on the land of Egypt and ^beat every plant of the land, all that the hail has left remaining.”

¹³So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh directed an east wind on the land all that day and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind ¹brought the ^alocusts.

^14aAnd the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and rested on all the territory of Egypt; they were very heavy. There had never been so many ¹locusts, nor would there be so many ²again.

¹⁵For they covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened; and they ^aate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Thus nothing green was left on tree or plant of the field through all the land of Egypt.

¹⁶Then Pharaoh hurriedly ^acalled for Moses and Aaron, and he said, “^bI have sinned against Yahweh your God and against you.

¹⁷“So now, please forgive my sin only this once and ^aentreat Yahweh your God, that He would only cause this death to depart from me.”

^18aAnd he went out from Pharaoh and entreated Yahweh.

¹⁹So Yahweh changed the wind to a very strong west wind which took up the locusts and drove them into the ¹Red Sea; not one locust remained in all the territory of Egypt.

²⁰But ^aYahweh ¹hardened Pharaoh’s heart with strength, and he did not let the sons of Israel go.

The Plague of Darkness

²¹Then Yahweh said to Moses, “^aStretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness ^bwhich may be felt.”

²²So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was ^athick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.

²³They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, ^abut all the sons of Israel had light in their places of habitation.

²⁴Then Pharaoh ^acalled to Moses and said, “Go, serve Yahweh; only let your flocks and your herds be detained. Even ^byour little ones may go with you.”

²⁵But Moses said, “You must also ¹let us have in our hand sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may ²sacrifice them to Yahweh our God.

²⁶“^aTherefore, our livestock too shall go with us; not a hoof shall remain behind, for we shall take some of them to serve Yahweh our God. And until we come there, we ourselves do not know with what we shall serve Yahweh.”

²⁷But ^aYahweh ¹hardened Pharaoh’s heart with strength, and he was not willing to let them go.

²⁸Then Pharaoh said to him, “^aGet away from me! ¹Beware, do not see my face again, for in the day you see my face you shall die!”

²⁹And Moses said, “As you have spoken; ^aI shall never see your face again!”

CHAPTER 11

Yahweh Says One More Plague

¹Then Yahweh said to Moses, “One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt; ^aafter that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here completely.

²“Speak now in the ¹hearing of the people so that ^aeach man may ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold.”

^3a(And Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. ^bMoreover, the man Moses himself was very great in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.)

⁴So Moses said, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘About ^amidnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt,

⁵and ^aall the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the servant-girl who is behind the millstones; and all the firstborn of the cattle.

⁶‘Moreover, there shall be ^aa great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again.

⁷‘^aBut for any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even ¹bark, whether against man or beast, that you may know how Yahweh makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’

⁸“^aThen all these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves ¹before me, saying, ‘Go out, you and all the people who ²follow you,’ and after that I will go out.” ^bAnd he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.

⁹Then Yahweh said to Moses, “^aPharaoh will not listen to you, so ^bthat My miraculous wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

^10aNow Moses and Aaron did all these miraculous wonders before Pharaoh; yet ^bYahweh ¹hardened Pharaoh’s heart with strength, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.

CHAPTER 12

The Passover Lamb

¹Now Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of ¹Egypt,

²“^aThis month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.

³“Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a ¹lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a ²lamb for ³each household.

⁴‘Now if the household is too small for a ¹lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the ²number of persons in them; according to ³what each man should eat, you are to ⁴apportion the lamb.

⁵‘Your ¹lamb shall be ^aa male, without blemish, a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

⁶‘¹And you shall keep it until the ^afourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it ^2bat twilight.

⁷‘^aMoreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel ¹of the houses in which they eat it.

⁸‘And they shall eat the flesh ^athat night, ^broasted with fire, and they shall eat it with ^cunleavened bread ^1dand bitter herbs.

⁹‘Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather ^aroasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with ^bits entrails.

¹⁰‘^aAnd you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.

¹¹‘Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is ^athe Passover of Yahweh.

¹²‘And ^aI will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and ^bagainst all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—^cI am Yahweh.

¹³‘^aAnd the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood, and I will pass over you, and there shall be no plague among you ¹to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

¹⁴‘Now ^athis day will be ^ba memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to Yahweh; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as ^1ca perpetual statute.

¹⁵‘^aSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall ¹remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, ^bthat ²person shall be cut off from Israel.

¹⁶‘^aNow on the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten ¹by every person, that alone may be done by you.

¹⁷‘You shall also keep ^athe Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this ^bvery day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall keep this day throughout your generations as ^1ca perpetual statute.

¹⁸‘^aIn the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

¹⁹‘^aSeven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that ^1bperson shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land.

²⁰‘You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your places of habitation you shall eat unleavened bread.’”

²¹Then ^aMoses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “¹Bring out and ^btake for yourselves ²lambs according to your families and slaughter ^cthe Passover lamb…