The Ninth Plague: Darkness

²¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(A)“Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be ^(B)darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” ²² So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. ²³ They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but ^(C)all the people of Israel had light where they lived. ²⁴ Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, ^(D)“Go, serve the Lord; ^(E)your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.” ²⁵ But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. ²⁶ Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the Lord our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.” ²⁷ But the Lord ^(F)hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. ²⁸ Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.” ²⁹ Moses said, “As you say! ^(G)I will not see your face again.”

The Death of Saul

31 ^(A)Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain ^(B)on Mount Gilboa. ² And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down ^(C)Jonathan and ^(D)Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. ^3 (E)The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. ^4 (F)Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these ^(G)uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.” But his armor-bearer would not, ^(H)for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword ^(I)and fell upon it. ⁵ And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. ⁶ Thus Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, on the same day together. ⁷ And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. And the Philistines came and lived in them.

⁸ The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁹ So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines, ^(J)to carry the good news ^(K)to the house of their idols and to the people. ^10 (L)They put his armor in the temple of ^(M)Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of ^(N)Beth-shan. ^11 (O)But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, ^12 (P)all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh ^(Q)and burned them there. ¹³ And they took their bones ^(R)and buried them under ^(S)the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and ^(T)fasted seven days.

Famine, Sword, and Death

16 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. ³ For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: ^4 (A)They shall die of deadly diseases. ^(B)They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. ^(C)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ^(D)They shall perish by the sword and by famine, ^(E)and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

⁵ “For thus says the Lord: ^(F)Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord. ⁶ Both great and small shall die in this land. ^(G)They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or ^(H)cut himself ^(I)or make himself bald for them. ⁷ No one shall ^(J)break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. ⁸ You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. ⁹ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(K)Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰ “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ^(L)‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ ¹¹ then you shall say to them: ^(M)‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and ^(N)have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, ¹² and because ^(O)you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ^(P)every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. ¹³ Therefore ^(Q)I will hurl you out of this land into ^(R)a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, ^(S)and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

Into Your Hand I Commit My Spirit

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.