Beginning
The Eighth Plague: Locusts
10 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart unyielding, and his officials’ hearts too, so that I may perform these signs of mine in their midst, 2 and so that you may tell your children and your grandchildren how harshly I dealt with Egypt and about my signs which I did among them. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
3 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go so that they may serve me. 4 But if you refuse to let my people go, watch out, because tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory. 5 They will cover the surface of the ground so that no one will be able to see the ground. The locusts will eat what little you have left after the hail. They will also eat every tree that you have growing in the field. 6 Your houses, your officials’ houses, and every Egyptian’s house will be filled with them, something neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen, from the day that they settled in this land up to this day.” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
7 Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go so that they may serve the Lord, their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?”
8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. But who exactly would be going?”
9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters. We will go with our flocks and herds, for we are celebrating a festival to the Lord.”
10 But he said to them, “May the Lord be with you if I would ever let you and your families go! I see you are determined to do evil. 11 No! The men may go and serve the Lord, for that is what you have been asking for!” Then they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
12 So the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt so that locusts come up over the land and eat every plant in the land, everything left by the hail.”
13 Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow over the land all that day and all through the night. When morning came, the east wind had brought the locusts. 14 The locusts came up over the entire land of Egypt and settled down in the entire territory of Egypt. There had never been such a large number of locusts before, and there would never be again. 15 They covered the surface of the ground so completely that the land was dark. They ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees—everything left after the hail. Nothing green was left on the trees or on the plants in the field throughout the entire land of Egypt.
16 Then Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. 17 Now please forgive my sin once more, and plead to the Lord your God so that he may also remove this death from me.”
18 So Moses went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord. 19 The Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind. That wind lifted up the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not one locust remained in the entire territory of Egypt. 20 But the Lord made Pharaoh’s heart hard, and he did not let the Israelites go.
The Ninth Plague: Darkness
21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness that can be felt.” 22 Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was a thick darkness in the entire land of Egypt for three days. 23 No one could see anyone else, and for three days none of them moved from where they were. Yet all the Israelites had light where they lived.
24 Pharaoh called to Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord. Even your families may also go with you. But you must leave your flocks and herds behind.”
25 But Moses said, “You must also let us take sacrifices with us and burnt offerings to present to the Lord our God. 26 Our livestock must also go with us. Not a hoof is to be left behind, for we must take some of them to serve the Lord our God. We will not know, however, what we will need to serve the Lord until we get there.”
27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. 28 Pharaoh said to Moses, “Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die!”
29 Moses said, “Just as you have spoken: I will never see your face again.”
The Tenth Plague: The Death of the Firstborn
11 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will certainly drive you completely out of here. 2 Now tell the people that both the men and the women are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.” 3 (The Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Even the man Moses was highly regarded in the land of Egypt in the sight of Pharaoh’s officials and the people.)
4 So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says. About midnight I will go throughout Egypt, 5 and every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the hand mill, even all the firstborn of the livestock. 6 There will be a loud outcry in the entire land of Egypt, unlike anything that happened before or anything that will take place again. 7 But among all the Israelites, not a dog will bark[a] at a person or animal, so that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8 All these officials of yours will come and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that, I will leave.” Then Moses, hot with anger, went out from Pharaoh.
9 The Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you so that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” 10 Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord made Pharaoh’s heart hard, and he did not let the Israelites go out of his land.
Instructions for the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread
12 The Lord told Moses and Aaron this in the land of Egypt: [b]
2 This month is to be the beginning of your calendar. It is to be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell the entire Israelite community that on the tenth day of this month, they are to take a lamb or a young goat[c] for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, one lamb per household. 4 But if the household is too small for a whole lamb, then that person and his neighbor next door to him must select one, based on the number of people. Determine what size lamb is needed according to how much each person will eat.
5 Your lamb must be unblemished, a year-old male. You may take it from the sheep or the goats. 6 You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month. Then the whole assembly of the Israelite community is to slaughter the lambs at sunset.[d] 7 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat the lamb. 8 That night they shall eat the meat that has been roasted over a fire, along with unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over a fire—with its head, its legs, and its internal organs. 10 You shall not leave any of it until the morning. Whatever remains until the morning, you shall burn in the fire. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt ready for travel,[e] your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.
12 For on that night I will pass through the land of Egypt. I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. There will be no plague among you to destroy you when I strike down the land of Egypt.
14 This day shall be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. Throughout your generations you must celebrate it as a permanent regulation. 15 For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you must be sure to remove all yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day will be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you are to have a holy convocation; also on the seventh day there is to be a holy convocation. You shall not do any work, except to prepare what everybody needs to eat. That is all you may do.
17 You shall observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought your divisions out from the land of Egypt. You shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent regulation. 18 In the first month, you shall eat unleavened bread from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month. 19 No yeast is to be found in your houses for seven days, for whoever eats something leavened must be cut off from the Israelite community, whether a foreigner or native-born of the land. 20 You shall not eat anything leavened. You shall eat unleavened bread in every place you live.
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take lambs for yourselves according to your family size, and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 You shall take a bundle of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and paint the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you are to go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.
24 “You shall observe these instructions as a perpetual regulation for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you just as he said he would, you shall observe this ceremony. 26 So when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Passover to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. When he struck the Egyptians, he spared our houses.’”
The people bowed down and worshipped. 28 The Israelites went and did all this. They did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
The Exodus
29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, even all the firstborn of the livestock. 30 During the night Pharaoh got up—he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians—and there was a loud outcry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not someone dead. 31 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron that night and said, “Get up, get away from my people! Both you and the Israelites, go, serve the Lord, as you have said! 32 Take also your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go! But also bless me!”
33 The Egyptians urged the people to leave the land quickly, for the Egyptians said, “We are all going to die!” 34 The Israelites took their dough before it was leavened. They carried their kneading bowls, which were wrapped in their clothing, on their shoulders. 35 The Israelites did just as Moses had said, and they asked the Egyptians for articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. 36 The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they let the Israelites have what they asked for. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites set out from Rameses to Sukkoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides their families. 38 A mixed group of non-Israelites also went up along with them, as well as a large amount of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 The Israelites baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves, for it had not been leavened, because they had been driven out of Egypt and could not delay. They also had not prepared any provisions for themselves.
40 The amount of time that the Israelites lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. 41 At the end of four hundred thirty years, to the very day, all of the Lord’s divisions went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It was a night that the Lord kept vigil to bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is dedicated to the Lord. All the Israelites are to keep vigil throughout their generations.
Passover Restrictions
43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the regulation concerning the Passover: No foreigner may eat it. 44 But any slave whom you have purchased may eat it if you circumcise him. 45 A temporary resident or a hired servant may not eat it. 46 It must be eaten inside one house. You are not to carry any of the meat outside of the house. Do not break any of its bones. 47 The whole community of Israel shall do this. 48 If a resident alien among you wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, every male in his household must be circumcised. Then he may take part in it. He will be treated like a native-born of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it. 49 The same law will apply to the native-born and to the alien who resides among you.” 50 So that is what all the Israelites did. They did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 That same day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, lined up by their divisions.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.