The Second Plague: Frogs

8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, and tell him that this is what the Lord says: Let my people go so that they may serve me.^{[a] 2} If you refuse to let them go, watch out. I will send a plague of frogs on your entire territory. ³ The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up and enter into your palace, into your bedroom, onto your bed, into your servants’ houses, on your people, into your ovens, and into your kneading troughs. ⁴ The frogs will come up on you, your people, and all your servants.”

⁵ The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, streams, and ponds, and bring frogs up onto the land of Egypt.’” ⁶ So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt. The frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. ⁷ But the magicians did the same thing by their occult practices and brought frogs up onto the land of Egypt.

⁸ Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let the people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.”

⁹ Moses said to Pharaoh, “I give you the honor of setting the time when I should plead for you, your servants, and your people so that the Lord will rid you and your houses of the frogs. They will remain only in the Nile.”

¹⁰ Pharaoh said, “Tomorrow.”

Moses replied, “It will take place just as you have said, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. ¹¹ The frogs will leave you and your houses, your servants, and your people. They will remain only in the Nile.”

¹² Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs, which he had brought upon Pharaoh. ¹³ The Lord did as Moses said: The frogs from the houses, courtyards, and fields died. ¹⁴ The people piled them up into heaps, and the land stank. ¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he made his heart unyielding and did not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.