Exodus 9

¹ Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, “This is the message of Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go to offer me worship.

² If you refuse to let them go and detain them any longer,

³ you will find that the hand of Yahweh will fall on your livestock in the fields, horse and donkey and camel, herd and flock, with a deadly plague.

⁴ Yahweh will discriminate between the livestock of Israel and of Egypt: nothing shall die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel.

⁵ Yahweh has fixed the hour. Tomorrow, he has said, Yahweh will carry out this threat in all the land.”

⁶ Next day Yahweh kept his word; all the Egyptians’ livestock died, but none owned by the sons of Israel died.

⁷ Pharaoh had inquiries made, but it was true: none was dead of the livestock owned by the sons of Israel. But Pharaoh became adamant again and did not let the people go. The sixth plague: the boils

⁸ Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and before the eyes of Pharaoh let Moses throw it in the air.

⁹ It shall spread like fine dust over the whole land of Egypt and bring out boils that break into sores on man and beast all over the land of Egypt.’

¹⁰ So they took soot from the kiln and stood in front of Pharaoh, and Moses threw it in the air. And on man and beast it brought out boils breaking into sores.

¹¹ And the magicians could not face Moses, because the magicians were covered with boils like all the other Egyptians.

¹² But Yahweh made Pharaoh’s heart stubborn and, as Yahweh had foretold, he refused to listen to them. The seventh plague: the hail

¹³ Then Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Get up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh. Say to him, “This is the message of Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go to offer me worship.

¹⁴ This time I mean to send all my plagues on you and your courtiers and your subjects so that you shall learn that there is no one like me in the whole world.

¹⁵ Had I stretched out my hand to strike you and your subjects with pestilence, you would have been swept from the earth.

¹⁶ But I have let you live for this: to make you see my power and to have my name published throughout all the earth.

¹⁷ High-handed with my people still, you will not let them go.

¹⁸ Tomorrow, therefore, at about this time, I will let fall so great a storm of hail as was never known in Egypt from the day of its foundation.

¹⁹ So now have your livestock, and everything that is yours in the fields put under cover: on man and beast, on all that remains in the fields and is not brought indoors, the hail will fall and they will die.”‘

²⁰ Some of Pharaoh’s courtiers, terrified by Yahweh’s threat, brought their slaves and livestock indoors,

²¹ but those who disregarded Yahweh’s threat left their slaves and livestock, in the fields.

²² Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand towards heaven so that hail may fall on the whole land of Egypt, on man and beast and all that grows in the fields in the land of Egypt’.

²³ Moses stretched out his staff towards heaven, and Yahweh thundered and rained down hail. Lightning struck the earth. Yahweh rained down hail on the land of Egypt.

²⁴ The hail fell, and lightning flashing in the midst of it, a greater storm of hail than had ever been known in Egypt since it first became a nation.

²⁵ Throughout the land of Egypt the hail struck down everything in the fields, man and beast. It struck all the crops in the fields, and it shattered every tree in the fields.

²⁶ Only in the land of Goshen where the Hebrews lived, was there no hail.

²⁷ Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. ‘This time’ he said ‘I admit my fault. Yahweh is in the right; I and my subjects are in the wrong.

²⁸ Entreat Yahweh to stop the thunder and the hail; I promise to let you go, and you shall stay here no longer.’

²⁹ Moses answered him, ‘The moment I leave the city I will stretch out my hands to Yahweh. The thunder will stop, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to Yahweh.

³⁰ But as for you and your courtiers, I know very well that you have no fear yet of Yahweh our God.’

³¹ The flax and the barley were ruined, since the barley was in the ear and the flax budding.

³² The wheat and the spelt, being late crops, were not destroyed.

³³ Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He stretched out his hands to Yahweh and the thunder and the hail stopped and the rain no longer poured down on the earth.

³⁴ When Pharaoh saw that rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned yet again.

³⁵ He became adamant, he and his courtiers. The heart of Pharaoh was stubborn and, as Yahweh had foretold through Moses, he did not let the sons of Israel go.