Exodus 10:1–20

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.