8 Then the Lord told Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him that the Lord says, ‘Let my people go to worship me! ²If you refuse to let my people go, then I will fill Egypt with frogs. ³The Nile River will be filled with frogs. They will come from the river and enter your houses. They will be in your bedrooms, and in your beds. The frogs will be in the houses of your officials and in your ovens and in your jars of water. ⁴The frogs will be all over you, your people, and your officials.’” ⁵Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron to hold the walking stick in his hand over the canals, rivers, and lakes. Then the frogs will come out onto the land of Egypt.” ⁶So Aaron raised his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs began coming out of the water and covered the land of Egypt. ⁷The magicians used their tricks to do the same thing—so even more frogs came out onto the land in Egypt! ⁸Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh said, “Ask the Lord to remove the frogs from me and my people. I will let the people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.” ⁹Moses said to Pharaoh, “Tell me when you want the frogs to go away. I will pray for you, your people, and your officials. Then the frogs will leave you and your houses. The frogs will remain only in the river. {When do you want the frogs to leave?}” ¹⁰Pharaoh said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “It will happen as you say. In this way, you will know that there is no god like the Lord our God. ¹¹The frogs will leave you, your house, your officials, and your people. The frogs will remain only in the river.” ¹²Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh. Moses prayed to the Lord about the frogs he had sent against Pharaoh. ¹³And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the yards, and in the fields. ¹⁴They began to rot, and the whole country began to stink. ¹⁵Pharaoh saw that they were free of the frogs, and he again became stubborn. Pharaoh did not do what Moses and Aaron had asked him to do. This happened just like the Lord had said.

The Lice

¹⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron to raise his stick and hit the dust on the ground, and everywhere in Egypt dust will become lice.” ¹⁷They did this. Aaron raised the stick in his hand and hit the dust on the ground, and everywhere in Egypt the dust became lice. The lice got on the animals and the people. ¹⁸The magicians used their tricks and tried to do the same thing. But the magicians could not make lice come from the dust. The lice remained on the animals and the people. ¹⁹So the magicians told Pharaoh that the power of God did this. But Pharaoh refused to listen to them. This happened just like the Lord had said.

The Flies

²⁰The Lord said to Moses, “Get up in the morning and go to Pharaoh. Pharaoh will go out to the river. Tell him that the Lord says, ‘Let my people go and worship me! ²¹If you don’t let my people go, then flies will come into your houses. The flies will be on you and your officials. The houses of Egypt will be full of flies. The flies will be all over the ground too! ²²But I will not treat the people of Israel the same as the Egyptian people. There will not be any flies in Goshen, where my people live. In this way you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. ²³So tomorrow I will treat my people differently from your people. That will be my proof.” ²⁴So the Lord did just what he said. Many, many flies came into Egypt. The flies were in Pharaoh’s house, and they were in all his officials’ houses. The flies were all over Egypt. The flies were ruining the country. ²⁵So Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh told them, “Offer sacrifices* to your God here in this country.” ²⁶But Moses said, "It would not be right to do that. The Egyptians think that it is a terrible thing to {kill animals as} sacrifices* for the Lord our God. If we do this here, then the Egyptians will see us, and they will throw stones at us and kill us. ²⁷Let us go three days into the desert and offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. This is what the Lord told us to do.” ²⁸So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go and offer sacrifices* to the Lord your God in the desert. But, you must not go very far! Now, go and pray for me.” ²⁹Moses said, “Look, I will leave and ask the Lord to remove the flies from you, your people, and your officials tomorrow. But you must not stop the people from offering sacrifices* to the Lord.” ³⁰So Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. ³¹And the Lord did what Moses asked. The Lord removed the flies from Pharaoh, his officials, and his people. None of the flies remained. ³²But Pharaoh again became stubborn and did not let the people go.

sacrifice(s) A gift to God. Usually it was a special animal that was killed and burned on an altar.

The Disease of the Farm Animals

9 Then the Lord told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him: “The Lord, the God of the Hebrew people, says, ‘Let my people go to worship me!’ ²If you continue to hold them and refuse to let them go, ³then the Lord will use his power against your animals in the fields. The Lord will cause all of your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, and sheep to become sick with a terrible disease. ⁴The Lord will treat Israel’s animals differently from the animals of Egypt. None of the animals that belong to the people of Israel will die. ⁵The Lord has set the time for this to happen. Tomorrow the Lord will cause this to happen in this country.’” ⁶The next morning, all the farm animals in Egypt died. But none of the animals that belonged to the people of Israel died. ⁷Pharaoh sent people to see if any of the animals of Israel died. And not one of the animals of Israel died. Pharaoh remained stubborn. He did not let the people go.

The Boils

⁸The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Fill your hands with the ashes from an oven. Moses, throw the ashes into the air in front of Pharaoh. ⁹This will become dust that will go throughout the land of Egypt. Whenever the dust touches a person or an animal in Egypt, boils (sores) will break out on the skin.” ¹⁰So Moses and Aaron took ashes from a furnace. Then they went and stood before Pharaoh. They threw the ashes into the air, and boils began breaking out on people and animals. ¹¹The magicians could not stop Moses from doing this, because even the magicians had the boils. This happened everywhere in Egypt. ¹²But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn. So Pharaoh refused to listen to Moses and Aaron. This happened just like the Lord had said.

The Hail

¹³Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up in the morning and go to Pharaoh. Tell him that the Lord, the God of the Hebrew people says, ‘Let my people go to worship me! ¹⁴If you don’t do this, then I will use my full power against you, your officials, and your people. Then you will know that there is no god in the world like me. ¹⁵I could use my power and cause a disease that would wipe you and your people off the earth. ¹⁶But I have put you here for a reason. I have put you here so that I could show you my power. Then people all over the world will learn about me! ¹⁷You are still against my people. You are not letting them go free. ¹⁸So, at this time tomorrow, I will cause a very bad hailstorm. There has never been a hailstorm like this in Egypt, not since Egypt became a nation. ¹⁹Now, you must put your animals in a safe place. Everything you own that is now in the fields must be put in a safe place. Why? Because any person or animal that remains in the fields will be killed. The hail will fall on everything that is not gathered into your houses.’” ²⁰Some of Pharaoh’s officials paid attention to the Lord’s message. Those men quickly put all of their animals and slaves into houses. ²¹But other people ignored the Lord’s message. Those people lost all their slaves and animals that were in the fields. ²²The Lord told Moses, “Raise your arms into the air and the hail will start falling all over Egypt. The hail will fall on all the people, animals, and plants in all the fields of Egypt.” ²³So Moses raised his walking stick into the air, and the Lord caused thunder, lightning, and hail to fall to earth. The hail fell all over Egypt. ²⁴The hail was falling. And there was lightning flashing all through it. It was the worst hailstorm that had ever hit Egypt since it had been a nation. ²⁵The storm destroyed everything in the fields in Egypt. The hail destroyed people, animals, and plants. The hail also broke all the trees in the fields. ²⁶The only place that did not get hail was the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel lived. ²⁷Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh told them, “This time I have sinned. The Lord is right, and I and my people are wrong. ²⁸The hail and thunder from God are too much! Ask God to stop the storm and I will let you go. You don’t have to stay here.” ²⁹Moses told Pharaoh, “When I leave the city, I will lift my arms in prayer to the Lord. And the thunder and hail will stop. Then you will know that the Lord is in this land. ³⁰But I know that you and your officials don’t really fear and respect the Lord yet.” ³¹The flax had already developed its seeds. And the barley was already blooming. So these plants were destroyed. ³²But the wheat and spelt ripen later than the other grains, so these plants were not destroyed. ³³Moses left Pharaoh and went outside the city. He lifted his arms in prayer to the Lord. And the thunder and hail stopped, and then even the rain stopped. ³⁴When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had stopped, he again did wrong. He and his officials became stubborn again. ³⁵Pharaoh refused to let the people of Israel go free. This happened just like the Lord had said through Moses.