Exodus 10

¹And the Lord said to Moses: Go in to Pharaoh, for I have made heavy his heart and the heart of his servants, so that I may place these signs of mine among them.

²and so that you may recount in the hearing of your son and your son's son what I have dealt severely with Egypt, and my signs that I have placed among them, and you will know that I am the LORD.

³And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and said to him: Thus says Yhwh, the God of the Hebrews: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.

⁴For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, I am bringing locusts tomorrow into your territory.

⁵It shall cover the face of the land so that none will be able to see the land, and it will eat the remainder of what escaped, what was left of you all from the hail, and it will eat every tree that grows for you all from the field.

⁶They will fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and the houses of all Egypt, as neither your fathers nor your fathers' fathers have seen, from the day they were upon the earth until this day. And he turned and went out from Pharaoh.

⁷And the servants of Pharaoh said to him: How long shall this one be a snare to us? Let the men go so that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?

⁸And Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, Go, serve the LORD your God of you all. But who and who are those going?

⁹And Moses said: With our young and our old we will go, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for it is a pilgrimage feast to Yhwh for us.

¹⁰And he said to them: So may the Lord be with you all, just as I would let you all and your little ones go — see, for trouble is before your faces.

¹¹Not so. Go now, the men, and serve the LORD, for that is what you are seeking. And they were driven out from the presence of Pharaoh.

¹²And Yhwh said to Moses: Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up over the land of Egypt and eat every plant of the land, all that the hail has left.

¹³And Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord drove an east wind through the land all that day and all that night. When morning came, the east wind had carried the locusts.

¹⁴And the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt, very heavy; before it there had been no such locust as it, nor after it will there be such.

¹⁵And it covered the eye of all the land, and the land was darkened. And it ate all the vegetation of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left, and no green thing remained in the trees or the vegetation of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.

¹⁶And Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said: I have sinned against Yhwh, the God of you all, and against you.

¹⁷And now, please forgive my sin only this once, and plead with the LORD your God of you all, that he may remove from me only this death.

¹⁸And he went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord.

¹⁹And Yhwh turned a very strong west wind, and it lifted the locusts and drove them into the Sea of Reeds; not one locust remained in all the territory of Egypt.

²⁰But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not send the children of Israel away.

²¹And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch out your hand over the heavens, so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt — darkness that may be felt.

²²And Moses stretched out his hand over the heavens, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.

²³No one could see another, and no one could rise from his place for three days; but for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwellings.

²⁴And Pharaoh called to Moses and said: Go, serve the Lord. Only your flocks and your herds shall be left behind; your little ones also may go with you all.

²⁵And Moses said, You will also put into our hands sacrifices and burnt offerings, and we will make them to the LORD our God.

²⁶And also our livestock must go with us; not a hoof must be left behind, for from it we must take to serve Yhwh our God — and we ourselves do not know with what we are to serve Yhwh until we come there.

²⁷But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he was not willing to send them away.

²⁸And Pharaoh said to him: Get away from me! Take care, do not see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.

²⁹And Moses said: You have spoken rightly. I will never see your face again.