2: Frogs

8 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, “This is the message from the Lord: Let my people go so that they may worship me. ² If you refuse to let them go, I will send thousands of frogs to bring trouble to your whole country. ³ The Nile river will be full of frogs. The frogs will go into your house. They will jump into your bed. They will go into the houses of your servants. They will go into the houses of your people. They will jump into your ovens and into your dishes. ⁴ The frogs will jump all over you. They will jump on your people and on all your servants.” ’

⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron, “Take your stick in your hand. Then raise your hand over the rivers, the streams and the pools. You will cause frogs to come up over the whole of Egypt.” ’

⁶ So Aaron lifted up his hand over the water of Egypt. Then the frogs came up and they covered the whole of Egypt.

⁷ But the magicians used their magic to do the same thing. They also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

⁸ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to come to him. He said, ‘Pray to the Lord. Ask him to remove the frogs from me and from my people. Then I will let your people go. They can offer sacrifices to the Lord.’

⁹ Moses said to Pharaoh, ‘I will let you choose the time when I should pray to God. Then I will ask God to do this for you, for your servants and for your people. I will ask God to remove the frogs from you and from all your houses. The frogs will remain only in the Nile river.’

¹⁰ Pharaoh said, ‘Do it tomorrow.’ Moses answered, ‘I will do what you have asked. Then you will know that there is nobody like the Lord our God. ¹¹ The frogs will go away from you and your houses. They will go away from your servants and your people. They will remain only in the river.’

¹² So Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh. Then Moses prayed to the Lord about the frogs that he had brought to punish Pharaoh. ¹³ And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs in the houses, in the yards and in the fields all died. ¹⁴ The people swept the frogs together to make big heaps. There was a very bad smell over the whole country. ¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that the trouble had gone, his mind became hard again. He refused to listen to Moses and Aaron. The Lord had said that this would happen, and it did!

3: Gnats

¹⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron, “Lift up your stick and hit the dirt on the ground. It will become gnats in the whole land of Egypt.” ’

¹⁷ Moses and Aaron obeyed God. Aaron lifted up his hand and he hit the dirt with his stick. The dirt became gnats that flew onto all the people and onto all the animals. The dirt on the ground became gnats all over Egypt. ¹⁸ Then the Egyptian magicians tried to use their magic to make gnats appear. But they could not do it. The gnats were on all the people and on all the animals.

¹⁹ Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the work of God.’ But there was no change in Pharaoh's thoughts. He would not listen to them. The Lord had said that this would happen, and it did!

4: Flies

²⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Get up early in the morning. Meet Pharaoh when he goes out to the river. Then say to him, “The Lord says: You must let my people go. Let them go to worship me. ²¹ If you do not let my people go, I will send thousands of flies on you. I will send them on your servants and on your people. I will send them into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies. The flies will cover all the ground where people live.

²² But it will be different in the region of Goshen, where my people live. I will not send flies there. Then you will know that I, the Lord, am doing my work here in this land. ²³ I will make a difference between my people and your people. This miracle will happen tomorrow.” ’

²⁴ That is what the Lord did. Great numbers of flies came into Pharaoh's house and into his servants' houses. The flies went all over Egypt and they destroyed the whole land.

²⁵ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to come to him. He said to them, ‘Go! You can offer sacrifices to your God here, in Egypt.’ ²⁶ But Moses said, ‘It would not be right to do that. The Egyptians do not like our sacrifices of animals. If we offer these sacrifices to the Lord our God, the Egyptians will be angry with us. They will throw stones at us to kill us. ²⁷ So we must go on a journey for three days into the desert. We will offer sacrifices to the Lord our God there, as he has told us to do.’

²⁸ So Pharaoh said, ‘I will let you go. You may go into the desert and offer sacrifices to the Lord your God there. But do not go very far away. And pray for me too.’

²⁹ Then Moses said, ‘I will leave you now, and I will pray to the Lord. Tomorrow, all the flies will go away from you, your officers and your people. But be careful! Do not deceive us, as you did before. You must really let the people go away to offer sacrifices to the Lord.’

³⁰ So Moses left Pharaoh and he prayed to the Lord. ³¹ The Lord did what Moses asked him. All the flies left Pharaoh, his officers and his people. Not one fly remained! ³² But again, Pharaoh's mind became hard. He refused to let the people go.