¹Yahweh said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart heavy and the heart of his slaves, so that I may set these my signs in his midst,

²and so that you may recount in the ears of your son and your son's son how I dealt severely with Egypt, and my signs which I put among them, and you will know that I am Yahweh."

³Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of the Eberites: How long have you refused to humble yourself before my face? Send my people away, and they will serve me.

⁴For if you refuse to send my people, look, I am about to bring locusts tomorrow into your boundary.

⁵And they will cover the eye of the land, and one will not be able to see the land; and they will eat the remainder of the escaped remnant that is left to you from the hail, and they will eat every tree that sprouts for you from the field.

⁶And they will fill your houses, and the houses of all your slaves, and the houses of all the Egyptians, such as your fathers and your fathers' fathers did not see from the day they were on the ground until this day." And he turned and went out from Pharaoh.

⁷Pharaoh's slaves said to him, "How long will this man be a trap for us? Send away the men, and they will serve Yahweh their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt has perished?"

⁸So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, "Go, serve Yahweh your God. Who and who are the ones going?"

⁹Moses said, "We will go with our boys and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our cattle we will go, for it is a festival of Yahweh for us."

¹⁰He said to them, "So may Yahweh be with you, as I send you and your children away! See, for evil is before your faces.

¹¹Not so! Go, please, you men, and serve Yahweh, for it is this that you are seeking." And they were driven out from the face of Pharaoh.

¹²Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, and let them come up over the land of Egypt, and let them eat all the grass of the land, all that the hail left."

¹³Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh drove an east wind into the land all that day and all the night; when morning came, the east wind carried the locusts.

¹⁴The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the boundary of Egypt, exceedingly severe; before it there was not such a locust like it, and after it there will not be so.

¹⁵They covered the eye of all the land, and the land grew dark; and they ate all the grass of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left over, and not any green was left on the trees or on the grass of the field in all the land of Egypt.

¹⁶Pharaoh hurried to summon Moses and Aaron, and he said, "I have sinned against Yahweh your God and against you.

¹⁷And now, please take away my sin only this time, and pray to Yahweh your God, that he may remove from me only this death."

¹⁸He went out from Pharaoh and prayed to Yahweh.

¹⁹Yahweh turned a very strong west wind, and it carried away the locusts and drove them into the Sea of Reeds; not one locust was left in all the boundary of Egypt.

²⁰But Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not send the children of Israel.

²¹Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the skies, and let there be darkness over the land of Egypt, so that one may grope in darkness."

²²Moses stretched out his hand over the skies, and there was a darkness of gloom in all the land of Egypt for three days.

²³No one saw his brother, and no one rose from his place for three days; but to all the children of Israel there was light in their dwelling places.

²⁴Pharaoh called to Moses and said, "Go, serve Yahweh; only your flocks and your cattle will be held back; even your children may go with you."

²⁵Moses said, "You also will give into our hands sacrifices and burnt offerings, and we will make them for Yahweh our God.

²⁶Our livestock too will go with us; not a hoof will be left behind, for we must take some of it to serve Yahweh our God; and we do not know with what we will serve Yahweh until we arrive there.

²⁷But Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he was not willing to let them go.

²⁸Pharaoh said to him, "Go from me! Guard yourself: do not see my face again, for on the day you see my face you will die."

²⁹Moses said, "You have spoken rightly. I will not see your face again."