The Eighth Plague: Locusts

10 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may do these miraculous signs of Mine among them,^{[a](A) 2} and so that you may tell^[b] your son and grandson^(B) how severely I dealt with the Egyptians and performed miraculous signs among them, and you will know that I am Yahweh.”

³ So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may worship Me.^{(C) 4} But if you refuse to let My people go, then tomorrow I will bring locusts^(D) into your territory. ⁵ They will cover the surface of the land so that no one will be able to see the land. They will eat the remainder left^(E) to you that escaped the hail; they will eat every tree you have growing in the fields. ⁶ They will fill your houses, all your officials’ houses, and the houses of all the Egyptians—something your fathers and ancestors never saw since the time they occupied the land until today.” Then he turned and left Pharaoh’s presence.

⁷ Pharaoh’s officials asked him, “How long must this man be a snare^(F) to us? Let the men go, so that they may worship Yahweh their God. Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is devastated?”

⁸ So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship Yahweh your God,” Pharaoh said. “But exactly who will be going?”

⁹ Moses replied, “We will go with our young and our old; we will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds because we must hold Yahweh’s festival.”^(G)

¹⁰ He said to them, “May Yahweh be with you if I ever let you and your families go!^[c] Look out—you are planning evil. ¹¹ No, only the men may go and worship Yahweh, for that is what you have been asking for.” And they were driven from Pharaoh’s presence.

¹² The Lord then said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt and the locusts will come up over it and eat every plant in the land, everything that the hail left.” ¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and through the night. By morning the east wind had brought in the locusts. ¹⁴ The locusts went up over the entire land of Egypt and settled on the whole territory of Egypt. Never before had there been such a large number of locusts, and there never will be again.^{(H) 15} They covered the surface of the whole land so that the land was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green was left on the trees or the plants in the field throughout the land of Egypt.^(I)

¹⁶ Pharaoh urgently sent for Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against Yahweh your God and against you. ¹⁷ Please forgive my sin once more and make an appeal to Yahweh your God, so that He will take this death away from me.” ¹⁸ Moses left Pharaoh’s presence and appealed to the Lord.^{(J) 19} Then the Lord changed the wind to a strong west^[d] wind, and it carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea.^(K) Not a single locust was left in all the territory of Egypt. ²⁰ But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart,^(L) and he did not let the Israelites go.

The Ninth Plague: Darkness

²¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt.” ²² So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days. ²³ One person could not see another, and for three days they did not move from where they were. Yet all the Israelites had light where they lived.^(M)

²⁴ Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship Yahweh. Even your families may go with you; only your flocks and herds must stay behind.”

²⁵ Moses responded, “You must also let us have^[e] sacrifices and burnt offerings to prepare for Yahweh our God. ²⁶ Even our livestock must go with us; not a hoof will be left behind because we will take some of them to worship Yahweh our God. We will not know what we will use to worship Yahweh until we get there.”

²⁷ But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart,^(N) and he was unwilling to let them go. ²⁸ Pharaoh said to him, “Leave me! Make sure you never see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die.”

²⁹ “As you have said,” Moses replied, “I will never see your face again.”^(O)

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn

11 The Lord said^[f] to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go,^[g] he will drive you out of here. ² Now announce to the people that both men and women should ask their neighbors for silver and gold jewelry.” ³ The Lord gave^[h] the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And the man Moses was highly regarded^[i] in the land of Egypt by^[j] Pharaoh’s officials and the people.^(P)

⁴ So Moses said, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt, ⁵ and every firstborn male in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the servant girl who is behind the millstones, as well as every firstborn of the livestock. ⁶ Then there will be a great cry of anguish through all the land of Egypt such as never was before, or ever will be again. ⁷ But against all the Israelites, whether man or beast, not even a dog will snarl,^[k] so that you may know that Yahweh makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. ⁸ All these officials of yours will come down to me and bow before me, saying: Leave, you and all the people who follow you.^[l] After that, I will leave.’” And he left Pharaoh’s presence in fierce anger.^(Q)

⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen^(R) to you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart,^(S) and he would not let the Israelites go out of his land.

Instructions for the Passover

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: ² “This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.^{(T) 3} Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ households, one animal per household. ⁴ If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each person^[m] will eat. ⁵ You must have an unblemished^(U) animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. ⁶ You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.^{(V) 7} They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. ⁸ They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.^{(W) 9} Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling^[n] water, but only roasted^(X) over fire—its head as well as its legs and inner organs. ¹⁰ Do not let any of it remain until morning;^(Y) you must burn up any part of it that does remain before morning. ¹¹ Here is how you must eat it: you must be dressed for travel,^[o] your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover.^(Z)

¹² “I will pass through^(AA) the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.^{(AB) 13} The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ “This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute.^{(AC) 15} You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast^(AD) from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off^(AE) from Israel. ¹⁶ You are to hold a sacred assembly^(AF) on the first day and another sacred assembly on the seventh day. No work may be done on those days except for preparing what people need to eat—you may do only that.

¹⁷ “You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt.^(AG) You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute. ¹⁸ You are to eat unleavened bread in the first month,^(AH) from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreign resident or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel. ²⁰ Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”^[p]

²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal.^{(AI) 22} Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood^(AJ) that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. ²³ When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, He will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you.^(AK)

²⁴ “Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. ²⁵ When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, you are to observe this ritual. ²⁶ When your children^(AL) ask you, ‘What does this ritual mean to you?’ ²⁷ you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice^(AM) to the Lord, for He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” So the people bowed down and worshiped. ²⁸ Then the Israelites went and did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

The Exodus

²⁹ Now at midnight the Lord struck every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock.^{(AN) 30} During the night Pharaoh got up, he along with all his officials and all the Egyptians, and there was a loud wailing^(AO) throughout Egypt because there wasn’t a house without someone dead. ³¹ He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, worship Yahweh as you have asked. ³² Take even your flocks and your herds as you asked and leave, and also bless me.”

³³ Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!”^{(AP) 34} So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders.

³⁵ The Israelites acted on Moses’ word and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing.^{(AQ) 36} And the Lord gave the people such favor in the Egyptians’ sight that they gave them what they requested. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷ The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth,^(AR) about 600,000^(AS) soldiers on foot, besides their families. ³⁸ An ethnically diverse crowd also went up with them, along with a huge number of livestock, both flocks and herds. ³⁹ The people baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves, since it had no yeast; for when they had been driven^(AT) out of Egypt they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰ The time that the Israelites lived in Egypt^[q] was 430 years.^{(AU) 41} At the end of 430 years, on that same day, all the Lord’s divisions went out from the land of Egypt. ⁴² It was a night of vigil in honor of the Lord, because He would bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is in honor of the Lord, a night vigil for all the Israelites throughout their generations.^(AV)

Passover Instruction

⁴³ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner may eat it. ⁴⁴ But any slave a man has purchased may eat it, after you have circumcised him. ⁴⁵ A temporary resident or hired hand may not eat the Passover.^{(AW) 46} It is to be eaten in one house. You may not take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of its bones.^{(AX) 47} The whole community of Israel must celebrate^[r] it. ⁴⁸ If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate;^[s] he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it. ⁴⁹ The same law will apply to both the native and the foreigner^(AY) who resides among you.”

⁵⁰ Then all the Israelites did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹ On that same day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt according to their divisions.^(AZ)