Exodus 10:21-11:8

Common English Bible

Darkness covers Egypt

²¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Raise your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over the land of Egypt, a darkness that you can feel.” ²² So Moses raised his hand toward the sky, and an intense darkness fell on the whole land of Egypt for three days. ²³ People couldn’t see each other, and they couldn’t go anywhere for three days. But the Israelites all had light where they lived.

²⁴ Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go! Worship the Lord! Only your flocks and herds need to stay behind. Even your children can go with you.”

²⁵ But Moses said, “You need to let us have sacrifices and entirely burned offerings to present to the Lord our God. ²⁶ So our livestock must go with us. Not one animal can be left behind. We’ll need some of them for worshipping the Lord our God. We won’t know which to use to worship the Lord until we get there.”

²⁷ But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn so that he wasn’t willing to let them go. ²⁸ Pharaoh said to him, “Get out of here! Make sure you never see my face again, because the next time you see my face you will die.”

²⁹ Moses said, “You’ve said it! I’ll never see your face again!”

God announces the final disaster

11 The Lord said to Moses, “I’ll bring one more disaster on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he’ll let you go from here. In fact, when he lets you go, he’ll eagerly chase you out of here. ² Tell every man to ask his neighbor and every woman to ask her neighbor for all their silver and gold jewelry.” ³ The Lord made sure that the Egyptians were kind to the Hebrew people. In addition, Pharaoh’s officials and the Egyptian people even came to honor Moses as a great and important man in the land.

⁴ Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: At midnight I’ll go throughout Egypt. ⁵ Every oldest child in the land of Egypt will die, from the oldest child of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the oldest child of the servant woman by the millstones, and all the first offspring of the animals. ⁶ Then a terrible cry of agony will echo through the whole land of Egypt unlike any heard before or that ever will be again. ⁷ But as for the Israelites, not even a dog will growl at them, at the people, or at their animals. By this, you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. ⁸ Then all your officials will come down to me, bow to me, and say, ‘Get out, you and all your followers!’ After that I’ll leave.” Then Moses, furious, left Pharaoh.