The Fifth Plague: Livestock Die
1Yahweh said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him: This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2For if you refuse to let them go and keep holding them, 3the hand of Yahweh will fall on your livestock in the field — on the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks — with a very severe plague. 4But Yahweh will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing belonging to the Israelites will die.” 5Yahweh set a time, saying, “Tomorrow Yahweh will do this thing in the land.” 6And Yahweh did this the next day: all the livestock of Egypt died, but of the livestock of the Israelites not one died. 7Pharaoh inquired and found that not even one animal of Israel’s livestock had died. But his heart remained hard, and he did not let the people go.
The Sixth Plague: Boils
8Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from a furnace, and have Moses throw it toward the sky in front of Pharaoh. 9It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and it will break out in festering boils on people and animals throughout the land.” 10So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses threw it toward the sky, and festering boils broke out on people and animals. 11The magicians could not even stand before Moses, because of the boils — for the boils were on the magicians as on all the Egyptians. 12But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as Yahweh had told Moses.
The Seventh Plague: Hail
13Yahweh said to Moses, “Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him: This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14This time I will send the full force of my plagues against your very heart, and against your servants and your people, so that you may know there is no one like me in all the earth. 15By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with plague, and you would have been wiped off the earth. 16But this is exactly why I have let you stand — to show you my power, and so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. 17Yet you still set yourself up against my people, refusing to let them go. 18So tomorrow, about this time, I will rain down hail so severe that nothing like it has ever fallen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 19Now send word to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to safety — every person and animal caught in the field and not brought indoors will die when the hail falls on them.” 20Whoever among Pharaoh’s servants feared the word of Yahweh hurried his servants and livestock into shelter, 21but whoever paid no attention to the word of Yahweh left his servants and livestock out in the field. 22Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, so that hail may fall on the whole land of Egypt — on people, on animals, and on every plant of the field throughout the land of Egypt.” 23So Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and Yahweh sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the ground. Yahweh rained hail on the land of Egypt — 24hail, with fire flashing continually in the midst of it, so severe that nothing like it had ever fallen in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25The hail struck down everything in the field throughout the land of Egypt, both people and animals; it beat down every plant of the field and shattered every tree in the field. 26Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, was there no hail. 27Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “Yahweh is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. 28Plead with Yahweh, for we have had enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go — you need not stay any longer.” 29Moses said to him, “As soon as I leave the city, I will spread out my hands to Yahweh. The thunder will stop, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to Yahweh. 30But as for you and your servants, I know that you still do not fear Yahweh God.” 31The flax and the barley were destroyed, for the barley had ripened and the flax was in bud, 32but the wheat and the spelt were not destroyed, since they ripen later. 33So Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city and spread out his hands to Yahweh; the thunder and hail stopped, and rain no longer poured down on the land. 34But when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had stopped, he sinned yet again, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35So Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, and he did not let the Israelites go, just as Yahweh had said through Moses.
