10 The Lord said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart hard, and his servants’ hearts, that I might show these My signs [of divine power] before him,
2 And that you may recount in the ears of your son and of your grandson what I have done in derision of the Egyptians and what things I have [repeatedly] done there—My signs [of divine power] done among them—that you may recognize and know that I am the Lord.
3 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, and said to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
4 For if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.
5 And they shall cover the land so that one cannot see the ground; and they shall eat the remainder of what escaped and is left to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field;
6 The locusts shall fill your houses and those of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen from their birth until this day. Then Moses departed from Pharaoh.
7 And Pharaoh’s servants said to him, How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God; do you not yet understand and know that Egypt is destroyed?
8 So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh; and he said to them, Go, serve the Lord your God; but just who are to go?
9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds [all of us and all we have], for we must hold a feast to the Lord.
10 Pharaoh said to them, Let the Lord be with you, if I ever let you go with your little ones! See, you have some evil purpose in mind.
11 Not so! You that are men, [without your families] go and serve the Lord, for that is what you want. And [Moses and Aaron] were driven from Pharaoh’s presence.
12 Then 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 all the vegetation of the land, all that the hail has left.
13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night; when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
14 And the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled down on the whole country of Egypt, a very dreadful mass of them; never before were there such locusts as these, nor will there ever be again.
15 For they covered the whole land, so that the ground was darkened, and they ate every bit of vegetation of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left; there remained not a green thing of the trees or the plants of the field in all the land of Egypt.
16 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron in haste. He said, I have sinned against the Lord your God and you.
17 Now therefore forgive my sin, I pray you, only this once, and entreat the Lord your God only that He may remove from me this [plague of] death.
18 Then Moses left Pharaoh and entreated the Lord.
19 And the Lord turned a violent west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea; not one locust remained in all the country of Egypt.
20 But the Lord made Pharaoh’s heart more strong and obstinate, and he would not let the Israelites go.
21 And the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward the heavens, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness which may be felt.
22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and for three days a thick darkness was all over the land of Egypt.
23 The Egyptians could not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days; but all the Israelites had natural light in their dwellings.
24 And Pharaoh called to Moses, and said, Go, serve the Lord; let your little ones also go with you; it is only your flocks and your herds that must not go.
25 But Moses said, You must give into our hand also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.
26 Our livestock also shall go with us; there shall not a hoof be left behind; for of them must we take to serve the Lord our God, and we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.
27 But the Lord made Pharaoh’s heart stronger and more stubborn, and he would not let them go.
28 And Pharaoh said to Moses, Get away from me! See that you never enter my presence again, for the day you see my face again you shall die!
29 And Moses said, You have spoken truly; I will never see your face again.