Bible Time

¹THEN Yahvah said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says Yahvah, Let my people go that they may serve me. ²And if you refuse to let them go, look, I will strike all your borders with frogs; ³And the river will swarm with frogs, which will come up and enter into your house and into your bedroom and into your bed and into the houses of your servants and of your people and into your inner chambers and into your kneading troughs; ⁴And the frogs will come up both on you and on all your people.

⁵And Yahvah said to Moses, Say to Aaron your brother, Lift up your hand with your staff over the rivers and over the streams and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come on the land of Egypt. ⁶So Aaron lifted up his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. ⁷And the magicians did the same with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.

⁸Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said to them, Pray to Yahvah, that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go that they may sacrifice to Yahvah. ⁹And Moses said to Pharaoh, Appoint a time; when will I pray for you and for your servants and for your people, to destroy the frogs from you and your house? ¹⁰And he said to him, Tomorrow. And Moses said, Be it according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like Yahvah our God. ¹¹And the frogs will depart from you and from your house and from your servants and from your people; they will remain in the river only. ¹²And Moses and Aaron went out from the presence of Pharaoh; and Moses prayed before Yahvah because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh. ¹³And Yahvah did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died that were in the houses and in the courtyards and in the fields. ¹⁴And they gathered them together in heaps; and the land stank. ¹⁵And when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as Yahvah had said to Moses.

¹⁶And Yahvah said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Lift up your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. ¹⁷And he did so; and Aaron lifted up his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on men and on cattle; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. ¹⁸And the magicians did the same by means of their magic to bring forth lice, but they could not get rid of the lice; so there were lice on men and on cattle. ¹⁹Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God; and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as Yahvah had said.

²⁰And Yahvah said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh; look, he goes out to his daily duty; and say to him, Thus says Yahvah, Let my people go that they may serve me. ²¹Else, if you will not let my people go, look, I will send swarms of flies on you and on your people and on your house; and the houses of the Egyptians will be filled with swarms of flies, like a field when it is covered with them. ²²And I will set apart on that day the land of Goshen, in which my people live, that no swarms of flies will be there, to the end that you may know that I am Yahvah in the middle of the earth. ²³And I will put a division between my people and your people; tomorrow this sign will be. ²⁴And Yahvah did so; and he brought great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses and into all the land of Egypt; and the land was ruined by reason of the swarms of flies. ²⁵Then Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said to them, Go, sacrifice to your God inside the land. ²⁶And Moses said, It is not proper to do so; for we will sacrifice to Yahvah our God some of the animals that are an abomination to the Egyptians. And if we should sacrifice animals that are idols before Egyptian eyes, they would stone us. ²⁷We will go 3 days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to Yahvah our God, as he has commanded us.

²⁸And Pharaoh said, I will let you go that you may sacrifice to Yahvah your God in the wilderness; only you will not go very far away, and you must also pray for me. ²⁹And Moses said, Look, I go out from your presence and I will pray before Yahvah and he will cause the swarms of flies to depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow; but do not let Pharaoh deal deceitfully any longer by refusing to allow the people to go to sacrifice to Yahvah. ³⁰So Moses went out from the presence of Pharaoh and prayed before Yahvah. ³¹And Yahvah did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh and from his servants and from his people; there remained not one. ³²And Pharaoh also hardened his heart at this time and did not let the people go.