²⁴ As the hail fell, lightning pierced the darkness and lit up the sky. The hailstorm was so intense that it was like no other that had ever occurred in Egypt since its beginning. ²⁵ The hail pounded everything to the ground that remained in the fields, both people and their animals; it crushed every crop, it shattered every tree. ²⁶ There was only one place the hail did not fall—Goshen—where the people of Israel lived.