Exodus 11

Living Bible

11 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will send just one more disaster on Pharaoh and his land, and after that he will let you go; in fact, he will be so anxious to get rid of you that he will practically throw you out of the country. ² Tell all the men and women of Israel to ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold and silver jewelry.”

³ (For God caused the Egyptians to be very favorable to the people of Israel, and Moses was a very great man in the land of Egypt and was revered by Pharaoh’s officials and the Egyptian people alike.)

⁴ Now Moses announced to Pharaoh,^[a] “Jehovah says, ‘About midnight I will pass through Egypt. ⁵ And all the oldest sons shall die in every family in Egypt, from the oldest child of Pharaoh, heir to his throne, to the oldest child of his lowliest slave; and even the firstborn of the animals. ⁶ The wail of death will resound throughout the entire land of Egypt; never before has there been such anguish, and it will never be again.

⁷ “‘But not a dog shall move his tongue against any of the people of Israel, nor shall any of their animals die. Then you will know that Jehovah makes a distinction between Egyptians and Israelis.’ ⁸ All these officials of yours will come running to me, bowing low and begging, ‘Please leave at once, and take all your people with you.’ Only then will I go!” Then, red-faced with anger, Moses stomped from the palace.^[b]

⁹ The Lord had told Moses, “Pharaoh won’t listen, and this will give me the opportunity of doing mighty miracles to demonstrate my power.” ¹⁰ So, although Moses and Aaron did these miracles right before Pharaoh’s eyes, the Lord hardened his heart so that he wouldn’t let the people leave the land.