Plague Seven: Hail

¹³ And Yahweh said to Moses, “Start early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh. Look, he is going out to the water, and you must say to him, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, “Release my people so that they may serve me. ¹⁴ For at this time I am sending all of my plagues to you personally^[a] and among your servants and among your people so that you will know that there is no one like me in all the earth. ¹⁵ For now I could have stretched out my hand, and I could have struck you and your people with the plague, and you would have perished from the earth. ¹⁶ But for the sake of this I have caused you to stand—for the sake of showing you my strength and in order to proclaim my name in all the earth. ¹⁷ Still you are behaving haughtily to my people by not releasing them. ¹⁸ Look, about this time tomorrow, I am going to cause very severe^[b] hail to rain, the like of which has not been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. ¹⁹ And now send word; bring into safety your livestock and all that belongs to you in the field. The hail will come down on every human and animal that is found in the field and not gathered into the house, and they will die.”’”

²⁰ Anyone from the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of Yahweh caused his servants and livestock to flee to the houses. ²¹ But whoever did not give regard to^[c] the word of Yahweh abandoned his servants and his livestock in the field.

²² And Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand to the heavens, and let there be hail in all the land of Egypt, on human and on animal and on all the vegetation of the field in the land of Egypt.” ²³ And Moses stretched out his staff to the heavens, and Yahweh gave thunder^[d] and hail, and fire went to the earth, and Yahweh caused hail to rain on the land of Egypt. ²⁴ And there was hail, and fire was flashing back and forth in the midst of the very severe hail, the like of which was not in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. ²⁵ And the hail struck in all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, from human to animal, and the hail struck all the vegetation of the field and smashed every tree of the field. ²⁶ Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites^[e] were, there was no hail.

²⁷ And Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time. Yahweh is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones. ²⁸ Pray to Yahweh. The thunder of God and hail are enough,^[f] and I will release you, and you will no longer have to stay.”^{[g] 29} And Moses said to him, “At my leaving the city, I will spread out my hands to Yahweh. The thunder will stop, and the hail will be no more, so that you will know that the earth belongs to Yahweh. ³⁰ But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the presence of Yahweh God.”

³¹ And the flax and the barley were struck, because the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. ³² But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, because they are late-ripening.

³³ And Moses went from Pharaoh out of the city, and he spread his hands to Yahweh, and the thunder and the hail stopped, and rain did not pour on the earth. ³⁴ And Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder stopped, and he again sinned^[h] and made his heart insensitive,^[i] he and his servants. ³⁵ And Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not release the Israelites,^[j] as Yahweh had said by the agency of Moses.^[k]