Exodus 8:8–19

⁸Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray^d to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices^e to the Lord.”

⁹Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time^f for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”

¹⁰“Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.

Moses replied, “It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God.^{g 11}The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile.”

¹²After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. ¹³And the Lord did what Moses asked.^h The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. ¹⁴They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them. ¹⁵But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief,ⁱ he hardened his heart^j and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.

The Plague of Gnats

¹⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff^k and strike the dust of the ground,’ and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.” ¹⁷They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats^l came on people and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. ¹⁸But when the magicians^m tried to produce gnats by their secret arts,ⁿ they could not.

Since the gnats were on people and animals everywhere, ¹⁹the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger^o of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart^p was hard and he would not listen,^q just as the Lord had said.