¹⁰ When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel ^(A)cried out to the Lord. ¹¹ They ^(B)said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Is not this what ^(C)we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

²² But on that day ^(A)I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, ^(B)that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.^{[a] 23} Thus I will put a division^[b] between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.”’”

^4 (A)But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.”’” ⁵ And the Lord set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.” ⁶ And the next day the Lord did this thing. ^(B)All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. ⁷ And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But ^(C)the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

²⁵ The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail ^(A)struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. ^26 (B)Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.

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.

A Final Plague Threatened

11 The Lord said to Moses, “Yet ^(A)one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. ^(B)When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. ² Speak now in the hearing of the people, that ^(C)they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” ^3 (D)And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people.

⁴ So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ^(E)‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, ⁵ and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is ^(F)behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. ^6 (G)There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. ⁷ But not a dog shall growl ^(H)against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord ^(I)makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ ⁸ And ^(J)all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. ⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(K)“Pharaoh will not listen to you, that ^(L)my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

¹⁰ Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord ^(M)hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

^27 (A)So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea ^(B)returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord ^(C)threw^[a] the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. ²⁸ The ^(D)waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, ^(E)not one of them remained. ²⁹ But the ^(F)people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

³⁰ Thus the Lord ^(G)saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

Bread from Heaven

16 They ^(A)set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. ² And the whole congregation of the people of Israel ^(B)grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, ³ and the people of Israel said to them, ^(C)“Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, ^(D)when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

³⁵ The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had ^(A)asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. ^36 (B)And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that ^(C)they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.