Yahweh said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart and the hearts of his servants unyielding, that I may show these my signs in their midst,
and 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 that I have done among them, that you may know that I am Yahweh.”
Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what Yahweh, 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.
Or else if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,
and they will cover the surface of the earth, so that one won’t be able to see the earth. They will eat the residue of what has escaped that remains to you from the hail, and will eat every tree that grows for you out of the field.
Your houses will 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.
Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve Yahweh their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?”
Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve Yahweh your God. But who are those who will go?”
Moses said, “We will go with our young and with our old. With our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go, for we must hold a feast to Yahweh.”
He said to them, “Yahweh be with you, if I will let you go with your little ones! See, evil is clearly before your faces.
Not so! Go now, you who are men, and serve Yahweh; for that is what you desire!” They were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
Yahweh 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.”
Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh brought an east wind on the land all that day and all the night. And when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested in all the territory of Egypt. They were very grievous. There had never been so many locusts before, and there will never be so many after them.
For 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 that the hail had left. There remained nothing green, neither tree or herb of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste and he said, “I have sinned against Yahweh your God, and against you.
Now therefore, please forgive my sin again, and pray to Yahweh your God that he may also take away from me this death.”
He went out from Pharaoh and prayed to Yahweh.
Yahweh turned an exceeding strong west wind that took up the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the territory of Egypt.
But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.
The Ninth Plague: Darkness
Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness that may be felt.”
Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was a gloom, a darkness, in all the land of Egypt three days.
They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
Pharaoh called to Moses and said, “Go, serve Yahweh; only let your flocks and your herds stay behind; let your little ones also go with you.”
Moses said, “You must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh our God.
Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof will be left behind, for of it we must take to serve Yahweh our God, and we do not know with what we must serve Yahweh until we come there.”
But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.
Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me! Be careful to see my face no more, for in the day you see my face you will die!”
Moses said, “You have spoken well. I will see your face again no more.”