Exodus 10:1–20

The Eighth Plague: Locusts

10Now the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh; ^afor I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, ^bthat I may show these signs of Mine before him, ²and that ^cyou may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may ^dknow that I am the Lord.”

³So Moses and Aaron came in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: ‘How long will you refuse to ^ehumble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may ^fserve Me. ⁴Or else, if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring ^glocusts into your territory. ⁵And they shall cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the earth; and ^hthey shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field. ⁶They shall ⁱfill your houses, the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians—which neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were on the earth to this day.’ ” And he turned and went out from Pharaoh.

⁷Then Pharaoh’s ^jservants said to him, “How long shall this man be ^ka snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?”

⁸So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. Who are the ones that are going?”

⁹And Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for ^lwe must hold a feast to the Lord.”

¹⁰Then he said to them, “The Lord had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go! Beware, for evil is ahead of you. ¹¹Not so! Go now, you who are men, and serve the Lord, for that is what you desired.” And they were driven ^mout from Pharaoh’s presence.

¹²Then the Lord said to Moses, ⁿ“Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come upon the land of Egypt, and ^oeat every herb of the land—all that the hail has left.” ¹³So Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind on the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. ¹⁴And ^pthe locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested on all the territory of Egypt. They were very severe; ^qpreviously there had been no such locusts as they, nor shall there be such after them. ¹⁵For they ^rcovered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they ^sate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. So there remained nothing green on the trees or on the plants of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.

¹⁶Then Pharaoh called ^tfor Moses and Aaron in haste, and said, ^u“I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. ¹⁷Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and ^ventreat ¹the Lord your God, that He may take away from me this death only.” ¹⁸So he ^wwent out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord. ¹⁹And the Lord turned a very strong west wind, which took the locusts away and blew them ^xinto the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the territory of Egypt. ²⁰But the Lord ^yhardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.