Exodus 8:20-32

International Children’s Bible

The Flies

²⁰ The Lord told Moses, “Get up early in the morning. Meet the king of Egypt as he goes out to the river. Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go so they can worship me. ²¹ If you don’t let them go, I will send swarms of flies. I will send them into your houses. The flies will be on you, your officers and your people. The houses of Egypt will be full of flies. And they will be all over the ground, too. ²² But I will not treat the people of Israel the same as the Egyptian people. There will not be any flies in the land of Goshen, where my people live. By this you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. ²³ I will treat my people differently from your people. This miracle will happen tomorrow.’”

²⁴ So the Lord did as he had said. Great swarms of flies came into the king’s palace and his officers’ houses. All over Egypt flies were ruining the land. ²⁵ The king called for Moses and Aaron. He told them, “Offer sacrifices to your God here in this country.”

²⁶ But Moses said, “It wouldn’t be right to do that. The Egyptians hate the sacrifices we offer to the Lord our God. They will see us offer sacrifices they hate. Then they will throw stones at us and kill us. ²⁷ Let us make a three-day journey into the desert. We must offer sacrifices to the Lord our God there. This is what the Lord told us to do.”

²⁸ The king said, “I will let you go. Then you may offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the desert. But you must not go very far away. Now go and pray for me.”

²⁹ Moses said, “I will leave and pray to the Lord. He will take the flies away from you, your officers and your people tomorrow. But do not try to trick us again. Do not stop the people from going to offer sacrifices to the Lord.”

³⁰ So Moses left the king and prayed to the Lord. ³¹ And the Lord did as Moses asked. He removed the flies from the king, his officers and his people. Not one fly was left. ³² But the king became stubborn again and did not let the people go.