Frogs

8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the king and tell him that the Lord says, ‘Let my people go, so that they can worship me. ² If you refuse, I will punish your country by covering it with frogs. ³ The Nile will be so full of frogs that they will leave it and go into your palace, your bedroom, your bed, the houses of your officials and your people, and even into your ovens and baking pans. ⁴ They will jump up on you, your people, and all your officials.’”

⁵ The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron to hold out his walking stick over the rivers, the canals, and the pools, and make frogs come up and cover the land of Egypt.” ⁶ So Aaron held it out over all the water, and the frogs came out and covered the land. ⁷ But the magicians used magic, and they also made frogs come up on the land.

⁸ The king called for Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the Lord to take away these frogs, and I will let your people go, so that they can offer sacrifices to the Lord.”

⁹ Moses replied, “I will be glad to pray for you. Just set the time when I am to pray for you, your officers, and your people. Then you will be rid of the frogs, and there will be none left except in the Nile.”

¹⁰ The king answered, “Pray for me tomorrow.”

Moses said, “I will do as you ask, and then you will know that there is no other god like the Lord, our God. ¹¹ You, your officials, and your people will be rid of the frogs, and there will be none left except in the Nile.” ¹² Then Moses and Aaron left the king, and Moses prayed to the Lord to take away the frogs which he had brought on the king. ¹³ The Lord did as Moses asked, and the frogs in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields died. ¹⁴ The Egyptians piled them up in great heaps, until the land stank with them. ¹⁵ When the king saw that the frogs were dead, he became stubborn again and, just as the Lord had said, the king would not listen to Moses and Aaron.

Gnats

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron to strike the ground with his stick, and all over the land of Egypt the dust will change into gnats.” ¹⁷ So Aaron struck the ground with his stick, and all the dust in Egypt was turned into gnats, which covered the people and the animals. ¹⁸ The magicians tried to use their magic to make gnats appear, but they failed. There were gnats everywhere, ^19 (A)and the magicians said to the king, “God has done this!” But the king was stubborn and, just as the Lord had said, the king would not listen to Moses and Aaron.

Flies

²⁰ The Lord said to Moses, “Early tomorrow morning go and meet the king as he goes to the river, and tell him that the Lord says, ‘Let my people go, so that they can worship me. ²¹ I warn you that if you refuse, I will punish you by sending flies on you, your officials, and your people. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and the ground will be covered with them. ²² But I will spare the region of Goshen, where my people live, so that there will be no flies there. I will do this so that you will know that I, the Lord, am at work in this land. ²³ I will make a distinction^[a] between my people and your people. This miracle will take place tomorrow.’” ²⁴ The Lord sent great swarms of flies into the king's palace and the houses of his officials. The whole land of Egypt was brought to ruin by the flies.

²⁵ Then the king called for Moses and Aaron and said, “Go and offer sacrifices to your God here in this country.”

²⁶ “It would not be right to do that,” Moses answered, “because the Egyptians would be offended by our sacrificing the animals that we offer to the Lord our God. If we use these animals and offend the Egyptians by sacrificing them where they can see us, they will stone us to death. ²⁷ We must travel three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, just as he commanded us.”

²⁸ The king said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord, your God, in the desert, if you do not go very far. Pray for me.”

²⁹ Moses answered, “As soon as I leave, I will pray to the Lord that tomorrow the flies will leave you, your officials, and your people. But you must not deceive us again and prevent the people from going to sacrifice to the Lord.”

³⁰ Moses left the king and prayed to the Lord, ³¹ and the Lord did as Moses asked. The flies left the king, his officials, and his people; not one fly remained. ³² But even this time the king became stubborn, and again he would not let the people go.

Death of the Animals

9 The Lord said to Moses, “Go to the king and tell him that the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says, ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me. ² If you again refuse to let them go, ³ I will punish you by sending a terrible disease on all your animals—your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, and goats. ⁴ I will make a distinction between the animals of the Israelites and those of the Egyptians, and no animal that belongs to the Israelites will die. ⁵ I, the Lord, have set tomorrow as the time when I will do this.’”

⁶ The next day the Lord did as he had said, and all the animals of the Egyptians died, but not one of the animals of the Israelites died. ⁷ The king asked what had happened and was told that none of the animals of the Israelites had died. But he was stubborn and would not let the people go.

Boils

⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take a few handfuls of ashes from a furnace; Moses is to throw them into the air in front of the king. ⁹ They will spread out like fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and everywhere they will produce boils that become open sores on the people and the animals.” ^10 (B)So they got some ashes and stood before the king; Moses threw them into the air, and they produced boils that became open sores on the people and the animals. ¹¹ The magicians were not able to appear before Moses, because they were covered with boils, like all the other Egyptians. ¹² But the Lord made the king stubborn and, just as the Lord had said, the king would not listen to Moses and Aaron.

Hail

¹³ The Lord then said to Moses, “Early tomorrow morning meet with the king and tell him that the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says, ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me. ¹⁴ This time I will punish not only your officials and your people, but I will punish you as well, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the world. ¹⁵ If I had raised my hand to strike you and your people with disease, you would have been completely destroyed. ^16 (C)But to show you my power I have let you live so that my fame might spread over the whole world. ¹⁷ Yet you are still arrogant and refuse to let my people go. ¹⁸ This time tomorrow I will cause a heavy hailstorm, such as Egypt has never known in all its history. ¹⁹ Now give orders for your livestock and everything else you have in the open to be put under shelter. Hail will fall on the people and animals left outside unprotected, and they will all die.’” ²⁰ Some of the king's officials were afraid because of what the Lord had said, and they brought their slaves and animals indoors for shelter. ²¹ Others, however, paid no attention to the Lord's warning and left their slaves and animals out in the open.

²² Then the Lord said to Moses, “Raise your hand toward the sky, and hail will fall over the whole land of Egypt—on the people, the animals, and all the plants in the fields.” ²³ So Moses raised his stick toward the sky, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the ground. The Lord sent ^24 (D)a heavy hailstorm, with lightning flashing back and forth. It was the worst storm that Egypt had ever known in all its history. ²⁵ All over Egypt the hail struck down everything in the open, including all the people and all the animals. It beat down all the plants in the fields and broke all the trees. ²⁶ The region of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was the only place where there was no hail.

²⁷ The king sent for Moses and Aaron and said, “This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and my people and I are in the wrong. ²⁸ Pray to the Lord! We have had enough of this thunder and hail! I promise to let you go; you don't have to stay here any longer.”

²⁹ Moses said to him, “As soon as I go out of the city, I will lift up my hands in prayer to the Lord. The thunder will stop, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to the Lord. ³⁰ But I know that you and your officials do not yet fear the Lord God.”

³¹ The flax and the barley were ruined, because the barley was ripe, and the flax was budding. ³² But none of the wheat was ruined, because it ripens later.

³³ Moses left the king, went out of the city, and lifted up his hands in prayer to the Lord. The thunder, the hail, and the rain all stopped. ³⁴ When the king saw what had happened, he sinned again. He and his officials remained as stubborn as ever ³⁵ and, just as the Lord had foretold through Moses, the king would not let the Israelites go.

Jesus Blesses Little Children^(A)

¹³ Some people brought children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and to pray for them, but the disciples scolded the people. ¹⁴ Jesus said, “Let the children come to me and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

¹⁵ He placed his hands on them and then went away.

The Rich Young Man^(B)

¹⁶ Once a man came to Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?”

¹⁷ “Why do you ask me concerning what is good?” answered Jesus. “There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life.”

^18 (C)“What commandments?” he asked.

Jesus answered, “Do not commit murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely; ^19 (D)respect your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

²⁰ “I have obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else do I need to do?”

²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”

²² When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very rich.

²³ Jesus then said to his disciples, “I assure you: it will be very hard for rich people to enter the Kingdom of heaven. ²⁴ I repeat: it is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”

²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were completely amazed. “Who, then, can be saved?” they asked.

²⁶ Jesus looked straight at them and answered, “This is impossible for human beings, but for God everything is possible.”

²⁷ Then Peter spoke up. “Look,” he said, “we have left everything and followed you. What will we have?”

^28 (E)Jesus said to them, “You can be sure that when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne in the New Age, then you twelve followers of mine will also sit on thrones, to rule the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹ And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake, will receive a hundred times more and will be given eternal life. ^30 (F)But many who now are first will be last, and many who now are last will be first.

The Great King^[a]

More Warnings

6 ^(A)My child, have you promised to be responsible for someone else's debts? ² Have you been caught by your own words, trapped by your own promises? ³ Well then, my child, you are in that person's power, but this is how to get out of it: hurry to him, and beg him to release you. ⁴ Don't let yourself go to sleep or even stop to rest. ⁵ Get out of the trap like a bird or a deer escaping from a hunter.