²³When Moses raised his walking stick toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the earth. So he caused hail to fall upon the land of Egypt. ²⁴There was hail, and lightning flashed as it hailed—the worst hailstorm in Egypt since it had become a nation. ²⁵The hail destroyed all the people and animals that were in the fields in all the land of Egypt. It also destroyed everything that grew in the fields and broke all the trees in the fields. ²⁶The only place it did not hail was in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived.

²⁷The king sent for Moses and Aaron and told them, “This time I have sinned. The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. ²⁸Pray to the Lord. We have had enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go; you do not have to stay here any longer.”

²⁹Moses told the king, “When I leave the city, I will raise my hands to the Lord in prayer, and the thunder and hail will stop. Then you will know that the earth belongs to the Lord. ³⁰But I know that you and your officers do not yet fear the Lord God.”

³¹The flax was in bloom, and the barley had ripened, so these crops were destroyed. ³²But both wheat crops ripen later, so they were not destroyed.

³³Moses left the king and went outside the city. He raised his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and hail stopped. The rain also stopped falling to the ground. ³⁴When the king saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had stopped, he sinned again, and he and his officers became stubborn. ³⁵So the king became stubborn and refused to let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had said through Moses.

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