Exodus 10:1-13:16

New American Standard Bible

The Plague of Locusts

10 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for ^(A)I have ^[a]hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, so that I may ^[b]perform these signs of Mine ^[c]among them, ² and ^(B)that you may tell in the ^[d]presence of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I ^[e]performed My signs among them, ^(C)so that you may know that I am the Lord.”

³ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews says: ‘How long will you refuse to ^(D)humble yourself before Me? ^(E)Let My people go, so that they may serve Me. ⁴ For if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory. ⁵ And they will cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land. ^(F)They will also eat the rest of what has survived—what is left to you from the hail—and they will eat every tree of yours which grows ^[f]in the field. ⁶ Then ^(G)your houses will be filled with them, ^[g]together with the houses of all your servants and the houses of all the Egyptians, something which neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day that they ^[h]came upon the earth until this day.’” And he turned and left Pharaoh. ⁷ Then ^(H)Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be ^(I)a snare to us? Let the ^[i]people go, so that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet ^[j]realize that Egypt is destroyed?” ⁸ So Moses and Aaron ^(J)were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “^(K)Go, serve the Lord your God! ^[k]Who specifically are the ones who are going?” ⁹ Moses said, “^(L)We shall go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, ^(M)with our flocks and our herds we shall go, for we ^[l]must hold a feast to the Lord.” ¹⁰ Then he said to them, “So may the Lord be with you, when I let you and your little ones go! Watch out, for evil is ^[m]on your mind! ¹¹ Not so! Go now, but only the men among you, and serve the Lord, since ^[n]that is what you desire.” So ^(N)they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.

¹² Then the Lord said to Moses, “^(O)Reach out with your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come up on the land of Egypt and ^(P)eat every plant of the land, everything that the hail has left.” ¹³ So Moses reached out with his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord directed an east wind on the land all that day and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind ^[o]brought the ^(Q)locusts. ^14 (R)The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt; they were very ^[p]numerous. There had never been so many ^[q]locusts, nor would there be so many ^[r]again. ¹⁵ For they covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened; and they ^(S)ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Therefore nothing green was left on tree or plant of the field throughout the land of Egypt. ¹⁶ Then Pharaoh hurriedly ^(T)called for Moses and Aaron, and he said, “^(U)I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. ¹⁷ So now, please forgive my sin only this once, and ^(V)plead with the Lord your God, that He would only remove this death from me.” ¹⁸ Then ^(W)he left Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord. ¹⁹ So the Lord shifted the wind to a very strong west wind, which picked up the locusts and drove them into the ^[s]Red Sea; not one locust was left in all the territory of Egypt. ²⁰ But ^(X)the Lord ^[t]hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go.

Darkness over the Land

²¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “^(Y)Reach out with your hand toward the sky, so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness ^(Z)which may be felt.” ²² So Moses reached out with his hand toward the sky, and there was ^(AA)thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. ²³ They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, ^(AB)but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings. ²⁴ Then Pharaoh ^(AC)called for Moses, and said, “Go, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be left behind. Even ^(AD)your little ones may go with you.” ²⁵ But Moses said, “You must also ^[u]let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, so that we may ^[v]sacrifice them to the Lord our God. ^26 (AE)Therefore, our livestock too shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we shall take some of them to serve the Lord our God. And until we arrive there, we ourselves do not know with what we shall serve the Lord.” ²⁷ But ^(AF)the Lord ^[w]hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go. ²⁸ Then Pharaoh said to him, “^(AG)Get away from me! ^[x]Be careful, do not see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you shall die!” ²⁹ Moses said, “You have spoken correctly; ^(AH)I shall never see your face again!”

The Last Plague

11 Now the Lord said to Moses, “One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt; ^(AI)after that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will assuredly drive you out from here completely. ² Speak now ^[y]so that the people hear, that ^(AJ)each man is to ask of his neighbor, and each woman of her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold.” ³ And ^(AK)the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. ^(AL)Furthermore, the man Moses himself was ^[z]greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.

⁴ Then Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About ^(AM)midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt, ⁵ and ^(AN)all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; all the firstborn of the cattle as well. ⁶ So there shall be ^(AO)a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again. ^7 (AP)But not even a dog will ^[aa]threaten any of the sons of Israel, nor anything from person to animal, so that you may ^[ab]learn how the Lord distinguishes between Egypt and Israel.’ ⁸ And ^(AQ)all these servants of yours will come down to me and bow themselves ^[ac]before me, saying, ‘Go out, you and all the people who ^[ad]follow you,’ and after that I will go out.” ^(AR)And he left Pharaoh in the heat of anger.

⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “^(AS)Pharaoh will not listen to you, so ^(AT)that My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰ So ^(AU)Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet ^(AV)the Lord ^[ae]hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.

The Passover Lamb

12 Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of ^[af]Egypt, ² “^(AW)This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you. ³ Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are, each one, to take a ^[ag]lamb for themselves, according to the fathers’ households, a ^[ah]lamb for ^[ai]each household. ⁴ Now if the household is too small for a ^[aj]lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the ^[ak]number of persons in them; in proportion to ^[al]what each one should eat, you are to ^[am]divide the lamb. ⁵ Your ^[an]lamb shall be ^(AX)an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ^6 [ao]You shall keep it until the ^(AY)fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it ^[ap](AZ)at twilight. ^7 (BA)Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel ^[aq]of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸ They shall eat the flesh ^(BB)that same night, ^(BC)roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with ^(BD)unleavened bread ^[ar](BE)and bitter herbs. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather ^(BF)roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with ^(BG)its entrails. ^10 (BH)And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall completely burn with fire. ¹¹ Now you shall eat it in this way: with your garment ^[as]belted around your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in a hurry—it is ^(BI)the Lord’s Passover. ¹² For ^(BJ)I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals; and ^(BK)against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—^(BL)I am the Lord. ^13 (BM)The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you ^[at]live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you ^[au]to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Feast of Unleavened Bread

¹⁴ ‘Now ^(BN)this day shall be ^(BO)a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as ^[av](BP)a permanent ordinance. ¹⁵ For ^(BQ)seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove dough with yeast from your houses; for whoever eats anything with yeast from the first day until the seventh day, ^(BR)that ^[aw]person shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ And ^(BS)on the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except for what must be eaten by every person—that alone may be ^[ax]prepared by you. ¹⁷ You shall also keep ^(BT)the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this ^(BU)very day I brought your ^[ay]multitudes out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall keep this day throughout your generations as ^(BV)a ^[az]permanent ordinance. ^18 (BW)In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. ¹⁹ For ^(BX)seven days there shall be no dough with yeast found in your houses; for whoever eats anything with yeast, that ^[ba](BY)person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. ²⁰ You shall not eat anything with yeast; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’”

²¹ Then ^(BZ)Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and ^(CA)take for yourselves ^[bb]lambs according to your families, and slaughter ^(CB)the Passover lamb. ²² And ^(CC)you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and ^[bc]apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

A Memorial of Redemption

²³ For ^(CD)the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; but when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will ^(CE)not allow the ^(CF)destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you. ²⁴ And ^(CG)you shall keep this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. ²⁵ When you enter the land which the Lord will give you, as He has ^[bd]promised, you shall keep this ^[be]rite. ^26 (CH)And when your children say to you, ‘^[bf]What does this rite mean to you?’ ²⁷ then you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to ^(CI)the Lord because He passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians, but ^[bg]spared our homes.’” ^(CJ)And the people bowed low and worshiped.

²⁸ Then the sons of Israel went and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

²⁹ Now it came about at ^(CK)midnight that ^(CL)the Lord struck all ^(CM)the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of ^(CN)cattle. ³⁰ And Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was ^(CO)a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead. ³¹ Then ^(CP)he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Rise up, ^(CQ)get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, ^[bh]worship the Lord, as you have said. ³² Take ^(CR)both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also.”

Exodus of Israel

^33 (CS)The Egyptians urged the people, to send them out of the land in a hurry, for they said, “We will all be dead.” ³⁴ So the people took ^(CT)their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls bound up in the clothes on their shoulders.

^35 (CU)Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; ³⁶ and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have their request. Therefore they ^(CV)plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷ Now the ^(CW)sons of Israel journeyed from ^(CX)Rameses to Succoth, about ^(CY)six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children. ³⁸ A ^(CZ)mixed multitude also went up with them, ^[bi]along with flocks and herds, a ^(DA)very large number of livestock. ³⁹ And they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread. For it had no yeast, since they were ^(DB)driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they ^[bj]prepared any provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰ Now the time ^[bk]that the sons of Israel had lived in Egypt was ^(DC)430 years. ⁴¹ And at the end of 430 years, on ^(DD)this very day, ^(DE)all the ^[bl]multitudes of the Lord departed from the land of Egypt.

Ordinance of the Passover

^42 (DF)It is a night ^[bm]to be observed for the Lord, for having brought them out of the land of Egypt; this night is for the Lord, ^[bn]to be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.

⁴³ And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of ^(DG)the Passover: no ^[bo](DH)foreigner is to eat it; ⁴⁴ but as for every ^(DI)slave ^[bp]that someone has purchased with money, after you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. ^45 (DJ)A stranger or a hired worker shall not eat it. ⁴⁶ It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring any of the meat outside of the house, ^(DK)nor are you to break any bone of it. ^47 (DL)All the congregation of Israel are to ^[bq]celebrate this. ⁴⁸ But ^(DM)if a stranger resides with you and ^[br]celebrates the Passover to the Lord, all of his males are to be circumcised, and then he shall come near to ^[bs]celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised male may eat it. ^49 [bt](DN)The same law shall ^[bu]apply to the native as to the stranger who resides among you.”

⁵⁰ Then all the sons of Israel did so; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹ And on that very day ^(DO)the Lord brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt ^(DP)according to their ^[bv]multitudes.

13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “^(DQ)Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the firstborn of every womb among the sons of Israel, among people and animals alike; it belongs to Me.”

³ And Moses said to the people, “^(DR)Remember this day in which you departed from Egypt, from the house of ^[bw]slavery; for ^(DS)by ^[bx]a powerful hand the Lord brought you out from this place. ^(DT)And nothing with yeast shall be eaten. ⁴ On this day in the ^(DU)month of Abib, you are about to go out from here. ⁵ And it shall be when the Lord ^(DV)brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which ^(DW)He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, ^(DX)that you shall ^[by]perform this rite in this month. ⁶ For ^(DY)seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. ⁷ Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and ^(DZ)nothing with yeast shall ^[bz]be seen among you, nor shall any dough with yeast ^[ca]be seen among you in all your borders. ⁸ And ^(EA)you shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ ⁹ And ^(EB)it shall ^[cb]serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder ^[cc]on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with ^(EC)a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt. ¹⁰ Therefore, you shall ^(ED)keep this ordinance at its appointed time from ^[cd]year to year.

¹¹ “Now when ^(EE)the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as ^(EF)He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, ^12 (EG)you shall ^[ce]devote to the Lord every firstborn of a womb, and every firstborn offspring of an animal that you own; the males belong to the Lord. ¹³ But ^(EH)every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and ^(EI)every ^[cf]firstborn among your sons you shall redeem. ^14 (EJ)And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ then you shall say to him, ‘^(EK)With ^[cg]a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of ^[ch]slavery. ¹⁵ And it came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the ^(EL)Lord put to death every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human firstborns to animal firstborns. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord the males, every firstborn of a womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ ¹⁶ So ^(EM)it shall ^[ci]serve as a sign on your hand and as ^[cj]phylacteries ^[ck]on your forehead, for with ^[cl]a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”