1 The LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart and the hearts of his servants stubborn, so that I may put these signs of mine among them,
2 and so that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I made fools of the Egyptians and what signs I performed among them. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
3 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may serve me.
4 If you refuse to let my people go, tomorrow I am going to bring locusts into your country.
5 They will cover the surface of the ground until the ground cannot be seen. They will devour whatever little you have left from the hail, including every tree you have growing in the fields.
6 They will fill your palaces and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, something neither your fathers nor your grandfathers ever saw from the day they came into being until today.'" Then he turned and left Pharaoh.
7 Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long is this man going to be a trap for us? Let the men go and serve the LORD their God. Do you still not realize that Egypt is ruined?"
8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. "Go, serve the LORD your God," he said to them. "But just who will be going?"
9 Moses answered, "We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters; we will go with our flocks and our herds, because we are to hold a feast to the LORD."
10 He said to them, "The LORD would have to be with you if I ever let you go along with your little ones! Clearly you are up to something evil.
11 No! Let the men go and serve the LORD, since that is what you have been asking for." And they were driven out of Pharaoh's presence.
12 The LORD said to Moses, "Stretch your hand out over the land of Egypt so that locusts swarm over the land of Egypt and devour every plant in the land, everything the hail left."
13 Moses stretched his staff out over the land of Egypt, and the LORD drove an east wind across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the east wind had carried in the locusts.
14 The locusts came up over the whole land of Egypt and settled on every part of Egypt in great numbers. There had never been a locust swarm like it before, and there never will be again.
15 They covered the surface of the whole land until the land turned dark. They devoured every plant in the land and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green was left on tree or plant anywhere in the land of Egypt.
16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
17 Now forgive my sin, I beg you, just this once, and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly thing away from me."
18 Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD.
19 And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and hurled them into the Red Sea. Not one locust was left anywhere in Egypt.
20 But the LORD made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not let the children of Israel go.
21 The LORD said to Moses, "Stretch your hand toward the sky, so that darkness spreads over the land of Egypt, darkness thick enough to be felt."
22 Moses stretched his hand toward the sky, and deep darkness covered the whole land of Egypt for three days.
23 People could not see one another, and no one left his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light where they lived.
24 Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, "Go, serve the LORD. Even your little ones may go with you; only your flocks and herds must stay behind."
25 Moses replied, "You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to the LORD our God.
26 Our livestock must go with us as well; not a hoof will be left behind. We have to take some of them to serve the LORD our God, and until we get there we will not know what we are to serve the LORD with."
27 But the LORD made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he would not agree to let them go.
28 Pharaoh said to him, "Get out of my sight! Be sure you do not see my face again, for the day you see my face you will die."
29 "You have spoken rightly," Moses replied. "I will not see your face again."