Exodus 10
10
Locusts
1The Lord said to Moses:
Go back to the king.#10.1 the king: See the note at 1.11. I have made him and his officials stubborn, so that I could work these miracles. 2I did this because I want you to tell your children and your grandchildren about my miracles and about my harsh treatment of the Egyptians. Then all of you will know that I am the Lord.
3Moses and Aaron went to the king and told him that the Lord God of the Hebrews had said:
How long will you stubbornly refuse to obey? Release my people so they can worship me. 4Do this by tomorrow, or I will cover your country with so many locusts#10.4 locusts: A type of grasshopper that comes in swarms and causes great damage to crops. 5that you won't be able to see the ground. Most of your crops were ruined by the hailstones, but these locusts will destroy what little is left, including the trees. 6Your palace, the homes of your officials, and all the other houses in Egypt will overflow with more locusts than have ever been seen in this country.
After Moses left the palace, 7the king's officials asked, “Your Majesty, how much longer is this man going to be a troublemaker? Why don't you let the people leave, so they can worship the Lord their God? Don't you know that Egypt is a disaster?”
8The king had Moses and Aaron brought back, and he said, “All right, you may go and worship the Lord your God. But first tell me who will be going.”
9“Everyone, young and old,” Moses answered. “We will even take our sheep, goats, and cattle, because we want to hold a celebration in honor of the Lord.”
10The king replied, “The Lord had better watch over you on the day I let you leave with your families! You're up to no good. 11Do you want to worship the Lord? All right, take only the men and go.” Then Moses and Aaron were chased out of the palace.
12The Lord told Moses, “Stretch your arm toward Egypt. Swarms of locusts will come and eat everything left by the hail.”
13Moses held out his walking stick, and the Lord sent an east wind that blew across Egypt the rest of the day and all that night. By morning, locusts 14#Rev 9.2,3. were swarming everywhere. Never before had there been so many locusts in Egypt, and never again will there be so many. 15The ground was black with locusts, and they ate everything left on the trees and in the fields. Nothing green remained in Egypt—not a tree or a plant.
16At once the king sent for Moses and Aaron. He told them, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. 17Forgive me one more time and ask the Lord to stop these insects from killing every living plant.”
18Moses left the palace and prayed. 19Then the Lord sent a strong west wind#10.19 west wind: The Hebrew text has “wind from the sea,” referring to the Mediterranean Sea (see verse 13). that swept the locusts into the Red Sea.#10.19 Red Sea: Hebrew yam suph, here referring to the Gulf of Suez, since the term is extended to include the northwestern arm of the Red Sea (see also the note at 13.18). Not one locust was left anywhere in Egypt, 20but the Lord made the king so stubborn that he still refused to let the Israelites go.
Darkness
21 #
Ws 17.1-21. The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch your arm toward the sky, and everything will be covered with darkness thick enough to touch.” 22#Ps 105.28; Rev 16.10. Moses stretched his arm toward the sky, and Egypt was covered with darkness for three days. 23During that time, the Egyptians could not see each other or leave their homes, but there was light where the Israelites lived.
24The king#10.24 The king: See the note at 1.11. sent for Moses and told him, “Go worship the Lord! And take your families with you. Just leave your sheep, goats, and cattle.”
25“No!” Moses replied. “You must let us offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, 26and we won't know which animals we will need until we get there. That's why we can't leave even one of them here.”
27This time the Lord made the king so stubborn 28that he said to Moses, “Get out and stay out! If you ever come back, you're dead!”
29“Have it your way,” Moses answered. “You won't see me again.”
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Exodus 10: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Exodus 10
10
1 The LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these my signs amongst them; 2and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your son’s son, what things I have done to Egypt, and my signs which I have done amongst them; that you may know that I am the LORD.”
3 Moses and Aaron went in 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, that they may serve me. 4Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, 5and they shall cover the surface of the earth, so that one won’t be able to see the earth. They shall eat the residue of that which has escaped, which remains to you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which grows for you out of the field. 6Your houses shall be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were on the earth to this day.’” He turned, and went out from Pharaoh.
7 Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD, their God. Don’t you yet know that Egypt is destroyed?”
8 Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve the LORD your God; but who are those who will go?”
9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and with our old. We will go with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds; for we must hold a feast to the LORD.”
10 He said to them, “The LORD be with you if I let you go with your little ones! See, evil is clearly before your faces. 11Not so! Go now you who are men, and serve the LORD; for that is what you desire!” Then they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
12 The LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up on the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail has left.” 13Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind on the land all that day, and all night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. 14The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the borders of Egypt. They were very grievous. Before them there were no such locusts as they, nor will there ever be again. 15For they covered the surface of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened, and they ate every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. There remained nothing green, either tree or herb of the field, through all the land of Egypt. 16Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and he said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. 17Now therefore please forgive my sin again, and pray to the LORD your God, that he may also take away from me this death.”
18 Moses went out from Pharaoh, and prayed to the LORD. 19The LORD sent an exceedingly strong west wind, which took up the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea.#10:19 “Red Sea” is the translation for the Hebrew “Yam Suf”, which could be more literally translated “Sea of Reeds” or “Sea of Cattails”. It refers to the body of water currently known as the Red Sea, or possibly to one of the bodies of water connected to it or near it. There remained not one locust in all the borders of Egypt. 20But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he didn’t let the children of Israel go.
21 The LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand towards the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.” 22Moses stretched out his hand towards the sky, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. 23They didn’t see one another, and nobody rose from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
24 Pharaoh called to Moses, and said, “Go, serve the LORD. Only let your flocks and your herds stay behind. Let your little ones also go with you.”
25 Moses said, “You must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. 26Our livestock also shall go with us. Not a hoof shall be left behind, for of it we must take to serve the LORD our God; and we don’t know with what we must serve the LORD, until we come there.”
27 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he wouldn’t let them go. 28Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me! Be careful to see my face no more; for in the day you see my face you shall die!”
29 Moses said, “You have spoken well. I will see your face again no more.”
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