Xuất Ai Cập Ký 9

Disease strikes the livestock

¹The LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says this: Release my people, so they can serve me. ²If you refuse to let them go and keep your grip on them, ³then the hand of the LORD will fall on your animals out in the fields, on your horses, donkeys, and camels, your cattle and your sheep, with a very severe disease. ⁴But the LORD will set Israel’s livestock apart from Egypt’s, and not one animal that belongs to the Israelites will die.’” ⁵The LORD fixed a time and said, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this in the land.” ⁶The LORD carried this out on the following day. Egypt’s livestock all died, but of the livestock of the Israelites not one animal was lost.^{a 7}Pharaoh sent men to look into it, and indeed not a single animal of Israel’s livestock had died. Yet Pharaoh stayed stubborn and did not release the people.

Boils

⁸The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Fill both your hands with soot from a kiln, and let Moses throw it up toward the sky in Pharaoh’s sight. ⁹It will turn into fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and all through the land it will become boils, bursting into blisters on people and on animals.”^{b 10}They took the kiln soot and went to stand in front of Pharaoh. When Moses threw it up toward the sky, it became boils, breaking out in blisters on people and animals alike. ¹¹The boils kept the magicians from even appearing before Moses, for they had the boils, as did all the Egyptians. ¹²The LORD, however, hardened the heart of Pharaoh, who refused to listen to them, as the LORD had told Moses.

A warning of hail

¹³The LORD said to Moses, “Be up early in the morning and take your stand in front of Pharaoh. Tell him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says this: Release my people, so they can serve me. ¹⁴For now I will aim all my plagues at your very heart, and at your officials and your people. Then you will learn that in the whole world there is none like me.^{c 15}I could already have raised my hand and struck you and your people with deadly disease, and you would have disappeared from the earth. ¹⁶But I have let you survive for this purpose: to show you my power and to have my name declared throughout the earth.^{d 17}Even now you raise yourself up against my people, refusing to release them. ¹⁸About this time tomorrow I will rain down hail so heavy that Egypt has seen nothing like it from the day the nation began until now. ¹⁹So now send word to get your livestock and everything you have out in the open under cover. Any person or animal still in the fields and not brought indoors will die when the hail falls on them.’” ²⁰Among Pharaoh’s officials, those who feared the word of the LORD made their servants and their livestock run for the houses. ²¹Others gave no thought to the word of the LORD and left their servants and livestock out in the open.

Hail strikes Egypt

²²The LORD told Moses, “Raise your hand toward the sky so that hail comes down all over the land of Egypt, striking people, animals, and every green plant in Egypt’s fields.” ²³Moses held his staff up toward the sky, and the LORD sent out peals of thunder and hail. Lightning streaked down to the earth while the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt. ²⁴Hail fell, with lightning flaring through the middle of it. The hail was very heavy, worse than any the whole land of Egypt had known since it became a nation. ²⁵All across the land of Egypt, whatever was out in the fields, human or animal, was struck by the hail. The hail flattened every plant in the fields and splintered every tree. ²⁶Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was there no hail. ²⁷Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time. The LORD is in the right, and the guilt lies with me and my people. ²⁸Plead with the LORD. There has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will release you. You will stay here no longer.”^{e 29}Moses replied, “As soon as I am outside the city, I will spread my hands out toward the LORD. Then the thunder will end and the hail will be gone, and you will learn that the earth belongs to the LORD. ³⁰But you and your officials, I know, have yet to fear the LORD God.” ³¹The flax and barley crops were lost, because the barley had already headed out and the flax had come into flower. ³²The wheat and spelt escaped, since they are later crops. ³³So Moses left Pharaoh and went outside the city, where he spread his hands out toward the LORD. The thunder and hail came to an end, and the rain stopped pouring onto the ground. ³⁴Once Pharaoh saw that rain, hail, and thunder had all ceased, he went back to sinning: he hardened his heart, and so did his officials. ³⁵Pharaoh remained stubborn and refused to release the Israelites. It was as the LORD had foretold through Moses.