Exodus 9

¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him that this is what the Lord says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

³So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told 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 worship Me.

¹³Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh, and tell him that this is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

²⁰Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, and when Pharaoh goes out to the water, stand before him and tell him that this is what the Lord says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

¹⁸The elders of Israel will listen to what you say, and you must go with them to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’

¹After that, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’”

²But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.

²³And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

²⁴then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

²⁰But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

²¹Surely God will crush the heads of His enemies, the hairy crowns of those who persist in guilty ways.

²³and I told you to let My son go so that he may worship Me. But since you have refused to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son!’”

⁹And the people were scorched by intense heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues. Yet they did not repent and give Him glory.

⁴Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay My hand on Egypt, and by mighty acts of judgment I will bring the divisions of My people the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.

¹¹Now look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and for a time you will be blind and unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

⁹but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the Lord who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.”

⁶Now the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors.

⁷And when the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, because His hand is heavy upon us and upon our god Dagon.”

¹⁹“This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

³“The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they answered. “Please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

²²But on that day I will give special treatment to the land of Goshen, where My people live; no swarms of flies will be found there. In this way you will know that I, the Lord, am in the land.

¹³The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁸So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

¹³Therefore this is what the Lord God says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.

¹⁴My servants will shout for joy with a glad heart, but you will cry out with a heavy heart and wail with a broken spirit.

²³No one could see anyone else, and for three days no one left his place. Yet all the Israelites had light in their dwellings.

²³I will make a distinction between My people and your people. This sign will take place tomorrow.’”

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. You will die this year because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’”

¹⁷And in the seventh month of that very year, the prophet Hananiah died.

⁵Then he said to Korah and all his followers, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will reveal who belongs to Him and who is holy, and He will bring that person near to Himself. The one He chooses He will bring near to Himself.

¹“Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days?

¹⁸Behold, at this time tomorrow I will rain down the worst hail that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded until now.

⁴But if you refuse to let My people go, I will bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.

⁴⁸He abandoned their cattle to the hail and their livestock to bolts of lightning.

²⁵Throughout the land of Egypt, the hail struck down everything in the field, both man and beast; it beat down every plant of the field and stripped every tree.

⁵⁰He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.

¹⁹So give orders now to shelter your livestock and everything you have in the field. Every man or beast that remains in the field and is not brought inside will die when the hail comes down upon them.’”

²⁰Those among Pharaoh’s officials who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their servants and livestock to shelter,

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go.

³²But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time as well, and he would not let the people go.

⁴God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

¹A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery.

¹⁸Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.

²⁰But when his heart became arrogant and his spirit was hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his glory was taken from him.

¹⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may turn into swarms of gnats throughout the land of Egypt.’”

²So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and loathsome, malignant sores broke out on those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

²⁷The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured.

³⁵The Lord will afflict you with painful, incurable boils on your knees and thighs, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

⁷So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

¹⁸When a boil appears on someone’s skin and it heals,

¹⁹and a white swelling or a reddish-white spot develops where the boil was, he must present himself to the priest.

²⁷The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured.

⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth. They are depraved in mind and disqualified from the faith.

⁹But they will not advance much further. For just like Jannes and Jambres, their folly will be plain to everyone.

¹²So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

¹³You are wearied by your many counselors; let them come forward now and save you—your astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate.

¹¹But Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same things by their magic arts.

¹²Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up the other staffs.

²So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and loathsome, malignant sores broke out on those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

¹⁸The magicians tried to produce gnats using their magic arts, but they could not. And the gnats remained on man and beast.

¹⁹“This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

²¹The Lord instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

¹¹But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.

¹²So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

¹³Still, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go.

¹⁰And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and men began to gnaw their tongues in anguish

¹¹and curse the God of heaven for their pains and sores. Yet they did not repent of their deeds.

²⁰Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, and when Pharaoh goes out to the water, stand before him and tell him that this is what the Lord says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

¹⁵Go to Pharaoh in the morning as you see him walking out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.

¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him that this is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

¹⁰“Tomorrow,” Pharaoh answered. “May it be as you say,” Moses replied, “so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.

¹⁸And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins.

²⁸then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.

²¹If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins.

³⁹See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

⁴⁰For I lift up My hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever,

¹³Therefore I am striking you severely, to ruin you because of your sins.

²⁰So I will stretch out My hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders I will perform among them. And after that, he will release you.

²⁹Now at midnight the Lord struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock.

³⁰During the night Pharaoh got up—he and all his officials and all the Egyptians—and there was loud wailing in Egypt; for there was no house without someone dead.

³then the hand of the Lord will bring a severe plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks.

⁶And the next day the Lord did just that. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died.

⁴So Moses declared, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt,

⁵and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl behind the hand mill, as well as the firstborn of all the cattle.

¹⁶But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power to you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

⁴The Lord has made everything for His purpose—even the wicked for the day of disaster.

¹⁷May they be ever ashamed and terrified; may they perish in disgrace.

¹⁸May they know that You alone, whose name is the Lord, are Most High over all the earth.

⁹Then all mankind will fear and proclaim the work of God; so they will ponder what He has done.

²⁴Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.

⁴And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue them. But I will gain honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So this is what the Israelites did.

²²Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

²⁹Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’

²³Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!

²⁴Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest heights, the densest of its forests.

⁴God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

⁹Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

¹⁵Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it? Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it, or a staff lifting him who is not wood!

⁶But about this time tomorrow I will send my servants to search your palace and the houses of your servants. They will seize and carry away all that is precious to you.’”

²So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like the lives of those you killed!”

¹Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says: ‘About this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria, a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel, and two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel.’”

¹⁵so pursue them with Your tempest, and terrify them with Your storm.

²²Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that hail may fall on all the land of Egypt—on man and beast and every plant of the field throughout the land of Egypt.”

²³So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. So the Lord rained down hail upon the land of Egypt.

¹⁸It happened just as the man of God had told the king: “About this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria, two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel.”

²O Lord, I have heard the report of You; I stand in awe, O Lord, of Your deeds. Revive them in these years; make them known in these years. In Your wrath, remember mercy!

¹³He who despises instruction will pay the penalty, but the one who respects a command will be rewarded.

³The prudent see danger and take cover, but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences.

⁷By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

¹⁴So when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

¹⁵Let no one on the housetop go back inside to retrieve anything from his house.

⁵And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.

⁶When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

²³for the Lord will take up their case and will plunder those who rob them.

¹⁹Now set your heart and soul to seek the Lord your God. Begin building the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy articles of God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the Lord.”

¹⁷What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him,

²³Instead, Pharaoh turned around, went into his palace, and did not take any of this to heart.

¹²“Do not be afraid, Daniel,” he said, “for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.

³²I observed and took it to heart; I looked and received instruction:

⁴“Son of man,” he said to me, “look with your eyes, hear with your ears, and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Report to the house of Israel everything you see.”

²¹And great hailstones weighing almost a hundred pounds each rained down on them from above. And men cursed God for the plague of hail, because it was so horrendous.

¹⁹And the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over their rivers and canals and ponds and all the reservoirs—that they may become blood.’ There will be blood throughout the land of Egypt, even in the vessels of wood and stone.”

¹⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may turn into swarms of gnats throughout the land of Egypt.’”

⁵And the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers and canals and ponds, and cause the frogs to come up onto the land of Egypt.’”

¹¹As they fled before Israel along the descent from Beth-horon to Azekah, the Lord cast down on them large hailstones from the sky, and more of them were killed by the hailstones than by the swords of the Israelites.

¹³The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded—hailstones and coals of fire.

²²I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed. I will pour out torrents of rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.

³⁰And the Lord will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.

⁷Then the first angel sounded his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, along with a third of the trees and all the green grass.

⁸lightning and hail, snow and clouds, powerful wind fulfilling His word,

²³So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. So the Lord rained down hail upon the land of Egypt.

²¹For at that time there will be great tribulation, unseen from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.

⁶They will fill your houses and the houses of all your officials and every Egyptian—something neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen since the day they came into this land.’” Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh’s presence.

³²He gave them hail for rain, with lightning throughout their land.

³³He struck their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their country.

⁴⁷He killed their vines with hailstones and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

⁷But among all the Israelites, not even a dog will snarl at man or beast.’ Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

⁴But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’”

²³No one could see anyone else, and for three days no one left his place. Yet all the Israelites had light in their dwellings.

⁶And the next day the Lord did just that. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died.

¹³The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

²²But on that day I will give special treatment to the land of Goshen, where My people live; no swarms of flies will be found there. In this way you will know that I, the Lord, am in the land.

²³I will make a distinction between My people and your people. This sign will take place tomorrow.’”

⁶So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is righteous.”

¹⁶Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.

¹⁸The Lord is righteous, yet I rebelled against His command. Listen, all you people; look upon my suffering. My young men and maidens have gone into captivity.

⁴The Lord is righteous; He has cut me from the cords of the wicked.

¹⁷The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

⁸Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people. Then I will let your people go, that they may sacrifice to the Lord.”

¹⁷Now please forgive my sin once more and appeal to the Lord your God, that He may remove this death from me.”

²⁸Pharaoh answered, “I will let you go and sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.”

²⁴Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

³The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is heard over many waters.

⁴The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.

¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will bring upon Pharaoh and Egypt one more plague. After that, he will allow you to leave this place. And when he lets you go, he will drive you out completely.

⁶I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah

³⁸then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—

²²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,

²⁶for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

¹⁵When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

¹⁴Behold, to the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it.

¹⁰Though grace is shown to the wicked man, he does not learn righteousness. In the land of righteousness he acts unjustly and fails to see the majesty of the Lord.

⁶By loving devotion and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one turns aside from evil.

¹⁷Why, O Lord, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.

²²So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

²³So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean grain until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

¹⁷Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls,

⁹“I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the Lord.

²²So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and total darkness covered all the land of Egypt for three days.

²⁹Moses said to him, “When I have left the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.

¹²After Moses and Aaron had left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord for help with the frogs that He had brought against Pharaoh.

¹⁷Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

¹⁸Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth yielded its crops.

¹⁸So Moses left Pharaoh’s presence and appealed to the Lord.

¹⁹And the Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind that carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust remained anywhere in Egypt.

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go.

²²In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord.

¹⁵When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, however, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.

¹³He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. But Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel.

²¹The Lord instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

²³but he did not humble himself before the Lord as his father Manasseh had done; instead, Amon increased his guilt.

²¹The Lord instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.