Exodus 10

¹ Yahweh said to Moses: "Enter to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart glory and the hearts of his servants that I may set these My signs among them, ² and that you may relate in the ears of your son, and your son's son, that which I set in action in Egypt, and My signs which I placed among them, that you will know that I am Yahweh." ³ So Moses and Aaron entered to Pharaoh and said to him: "Thus says Yahweh, Elohim of the Hebrews, How long will you refuse to be humbled because of My presence? Dismiss My people that they may serve Me! ⁴ For if you refuse to dismiss My people, behold Me bringing the locusts swarm tomorrow into your boundary, ⁵ and it will cover the eye of the land, so that none can see the land, and it will eat the delivered leavings, whatever remained for you from the hail. It will eat every tree which is sprouting for you from the field. ⁶ Your houses will be full and the houses of all your servants and the houses of all the Egyptians, such as your fathers and your fathers' fathers had not seen, from the day they came to be on the ground until this day." Then he turned around and went forth from Pharaoh. ⁷ Now the servants of Pharaoh said to him: "How long shall this man become a trap to us? Dismiss the men that they may serve Yahweh their Elohim. Do you not yet know that Egypt perishes?" ⁸ When Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, he said to them: "Go! Serve Yahweh your Elohim! Who and who are those going?" ⁹ Moses said: "With our youths and with our elders shall we go, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds shall we go, for it is a celebration of Yahweh for us." ¹⁰ Then he said to them: "So let Yahweh be with you, if ever I dismiss you and your little ones! Discern that evil is in front of your faces. ¹¹ Not so! Go now, just the men of mastery, and serve Yahweh, for it is what you are seeking." So they drove them out from the presence of Pharaoh. ¹² Yahweh said to Moses: "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locust that it may ascend over the land of Egypt and devour all the herbage of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail has let remain." ¹³ So Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh drove an east wind into the land all that day and all the night. The morning came, and the east wind carried the locust swarm along. ¹⁴ Then the locust swarm ascended over all the land of Egypt, and it rested within the entire boundary of Egypt, exceedingly heavy. Before it there had not come to be a locust swarm so great as it, and after it none shall come to be so. ¹⁵ It covered the eye of all the land, and the land was darkened. And it devoured all the herbage of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left, so that no green at all was left on the trees nor on the herbage of the field in all the land of Egypt. ¹⁶ Now Pharaoh hastened to call for Moses and for Aaron and said: "I have sinned against Yahweh your Elohim and against you. ¹⁷ And now, I pray, bear with my sin only this time, and make an entreaty to Yahweh your Elohim that he may take away from over me but this death!" ¹⁸ So Moses went forth from Pharaoh and entreated Yahweh. ¹⁹ Then Yahweh turned an exceedingly steadfast sea wind, and it carried away the locust swarm and blew it toward the Sea of Weeds. Not one locust remained within the entire boundary of Egypt. ²⁰ Yet Yahweh made the heart of Pharaoh steadfast, so that he did not dismiss the sons of Israel. ²¹ Yahweh said to Moses: "Stretch out your hand to the heavens, and let a darkness come on the land of Egypt so that the darkness may cause them to grope." ²² Then Moses stretched out his hand to the heavens, and gloomy darkness came to be in all the land of Egypt for three days. ²³ No one saw his brother, and no one rose from the place beneath him for three days. Yet all the sons of Israel came to have light in their dwellings. ²⁴ Now Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said: "Go! Serve Yahweh your Elohim, but your flocks and your herds shall be made to stay put. However your little ones may go with you." ²⁵ Moses said: "You, moreover, should give sacrifices and ascent offerings into our hand, that we may make them to Yahweh our Elohim. ²⁶ And even our cattle shall go with us. Not a hoof shall remain, for from them shall we take to serve Yahweh our Elohim, for we do not know what we shall serve Yahweh until we come there." ²⁷ Yet Yahweh made the heart of Pharaoh steadfast, and he did not comply so as to dismiss them. ²⁸ So Pharaoh said to him: "Go away from me! Guard yourself! Do not continue to see my face, for in the day you see my face you shall die!" ²⁹ Hence Moses said: "Properly you have spoken! No further shall I continue to see your face!"