The Living Bible (22 page)

Exodus
7

Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have appointed you as my ambassador to Pharaoh, and your brother, Aaron, shall be your spokesman.
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 Tell Aaron everything I say to you, and he will announce it to Pharaoh, demanding that the people of Israel be allowed to leave Egypt.
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 But I will cause Pharaoh to stubbornly refuse, and I will multiply my miracles in the land of Egypt.
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 Yet even then Pharaoh won’t listen to you; so I will crush Egypt with a final major disaster and then lead my people out.
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 The Egyptians will find out that I am indeed God when I show them my power and force them to let my people go.”

    
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 So Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them.
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 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three at this time of their confrontation with Pharaoh.

    
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 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
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 “Pharaoh will demand that you show him a miracle to prove that God has sent you; when he does, Aaron is to throw down his rod, and it will become a serpent.”

    
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 So Moses and Aaron went in to see Pharaoh, and performed the miracle, as Jehovah had instructed them—Aaron threw down his rod before Pharaoh and his court, and it became a serpent.
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 Then Pharaoh called in his sorcerers—the magicians of Egypt—and they were able to do the same thing with their magical arts!
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 Their rods became serpents, too! But Aaron’s serpent swallowed their serpents!
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 Pharaoh’s heart was still hard and stubborn, and he wouldn’t listen, just as the Lord had predicted.
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 The Lord pointed this out to Moses, that Pharaoh’s heart had been unmoved, and that he would continue to refuse to let the people go.

    
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 “Nevertheless,” the Lord said, “go back to Pharaoh in the morning, to be there as he goes down to the river. Stand beside the riverbank and meet him there, holding in your hand the rod that turned into a serpent.
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 Say to him, ‘Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me back to demand that you let his people go to worship him in the wilderness. You wouldn’t listen before,
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 and now the Lord says this: “You are going to find out that I am God. For I have instructed Moses to hit the water of the Nile with his rod, and the river will turn to blood!
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 The fish will die and the river will stink, so that the Egyptians will be unwilling to drink it.”’”

    
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 Then the Lord instructed Moses: “Tell Aaron to point his rod toward the waters of Egypt: all its rivers, canals, marshes, and reservoirs, and even the water stored in bowls and pots in the homes will turn to blood.”

    
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 So Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them. As Pharaoh and all of his officials watched, Aaron hit the surface of the Nile with the rod, and the river turned to blood.
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 The fish died and the water became so foul that the Egyptians couldn’t drink it; and there was blood throughout the land of Egypt.
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 But then the magicians of Egypt used their secret arts and they, too, turned water into blood; so Pharaoh’s heart remained hard and stubborn, and he wouldn’t listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had predicted,
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 and he returned to his palace, unimpressed.
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 Then the Egyptians dug wells along the riverbank to get drinking water, for they couldn’t drink from the river.

    
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 A week went by.

Exodus
8

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in again to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Jehovah says, “Let my people go and worship me.
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 If you refuse, I will send vast hordes of frogs across your land from one border to the other.
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 The Nile River will swarm with them, and they will come out into your houses, even into your bedrooms and right into your beds! Every home in Egypt will be filled with them. They will fill your ovens and your kneading bowls; you and your people will be immersed in them!”’”

    
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 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Instruct Aaron to point the rod toward all the rivers, streams, and pools of Egypt, so that there will be frogs in every corner of the land.”
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 Aaron did, and frogs covered the nation.
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 But the magicians did the same with their secret arts, and they, too, caused frogs to come up on the land.

    
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 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and begged, “Plead with God to take the frogs away, and I will let the people go and sacrifice to him.”

    
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 “Be so kind as to tell me when you want them to go,” Moses said, “and I will pray that the frogs will die at the time you specify, everywhere except in the river.”

    
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 “Do it tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.

    
“All right,” Moses replied, “it shall be as you have said; then you will know that there is no one like the Lord our God.
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 All the frogs will be destroyed, except those in the river.”

    
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 So Moses and Aaron went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and Moses pleaded with the Lord concerning the frogs he had sent.
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 And the Lord did as Moses promised—dead frogs covered the countryside and filled the nation’s homes.
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 They were piled into great heaps, making a terrible stench throughout the land.
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 But when Pharaoh saw that the frogs were gone, he hardened his heart and refused to let the people go, just as the Lord had predicted.

    
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 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron to strike the dust with his rod, and it will become lice, throughout all the land of Egypt.”
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 So Moses and Aaron did as God commanded, and suddenly lice infested the entire nation, covering the Egyptians and their animals.
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 Then the magicians tried to do the same thing with their secret arts, but this time they failed.

    
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 “This is the finger of God,” they exclaimed to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and stubborn, and he wouldn’t listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

    
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 Next the Lord told Moses, “Get up early in the morning and meet Pharaoh as he comes out to the river to bathe, and say to him, ‘Jehovah says, “Let my people go and worship me.
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 If you refuse I will send swarms of flies throughout Egypt. Your homes will be filled with them and the ground will be covered with them.
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 But it will be very different in the land of Goshen where the Israelis live. No flies will be there; thus you will know that I am the Lord God of all the earth,
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 for I will make a distinction between your people and my people. All this will happen tomorrow.”’”

    
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 And Jehovah did as he had said, so that there were terrible swarms of flies in Pharaoh’s palace and in every home in Egypt.

    
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 Pharaoh hastily summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “All right, go ahead and sacrifice to your God, but do it here in the land. Don’t go out into the wilderness.”

    
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 But Moses replied, “That won’t do! Our sacrifices to God are hated by the Egyptians, and if we do this right here before their eyes, they will kill us.
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 We must take a three-day trip into the wilderness and sacrifice there to Jehovah our God, as he commanded us.”

    
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 “All right, go ahead,” Pharaoh replied, “but don’t go too far away. Now, hurry and plead with God for me.”

    
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 “Yes,” Moses said, “I will ask him to cause the swarms of flies to disappear. But I am warning you that you must never again lie to us by promising to let the people go and then changing your mind.”

    
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 So Moses went out from Pharaoh and asked the Lord to get rid of the flies.
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 And the Lord did as Moses asked and caused the swarms to disappear, so that not one remained. But Pharaoh hardened his heart again and did not let the people go!

Exodus
9

“Go back to Pharaoh,” the Lord commanded Moses, “and tell him, ‘Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, demands that you let his people go to sacrifice to him.
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 If you refuse,
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 the power of God will send a deadly plague to destroy your cattle, horses, donkeys, camels, flocks, and herds.
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 But the plague will affect only the cattle of Egypt; none of the Israeli herds and flocks will even be touched!’”

    
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 The Lord announced that the plague would begin the very next day,
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 and it did. The next morning all the cattle of the Egyptians began dying, but not one of the Israeli herds was even sick.
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 Pharaoh sent to see whether it was true that none of the Israeli cattle were dead, yet when he found out that it was so, even then his mind remained unchanged and he refused to let the people go.

    
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 Then Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, “Take ashes from the kiln and have Moses toss them into the sky as Pharaoh watches.
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 They will spread like fine dust over all the land of Egypt and cause boils to break out upon people and animals alike, throughout the land.”

    
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 So they took ashes from the kiln and went to Pharaoh; as he watched, Moses tossed them toward the sky, and they became boils that broke out on men and animals alike throughout all Egypt.
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 And the magicians couldn’t stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils appeared upon them too.
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 But Jehovah hardened Pharaoh in his stubbornness, so that he refused to listen, just as the Lord had predicted to Moses.

    
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 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Jehovah the God of the Hebrews says, “Let my people go to worship me.
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 This time I am going to send a plague that will really speak to you and to your servants and to all the Egyptian people, and prove to you there is no other God in all the earth.
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 I could have killed you all by now,
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 but I didn’t, for I wanted to demonstrate my power to you and to all the earth.
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 So you still think you are so great, do you, and defy my power, and refuse to let my people go?
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 Well, tomorrow about this time I will send a hailstorm across the nation such as there has never been since Egypt was founded!
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 Quick! Bring in your cattle from the fields, for every man and animal left out in the fields will die beneath the hail!”’”

    
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 Some of the Egyptians, terrified by this threat, brought their cattle and slaves in from the fields;
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 but those who had no regard for the word of Jehovah left them out in the storm.

    
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 Then Jehovah said to Moses, “Point your hand toward heaven and cause the hail to fall throughout all Egypt, upon the people, animals, and trees.”

    
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 So Moses held out his hand, and the Lord sent thunder and hail and lightning.
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 It was terrible beyond description. Never in all the history of Egypt had there been a storm like that.
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 All Egypt lay in ruins. Everything left in the fields, men and animals alike, was killed, and the trees were shattered and the crops were destroyed.
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 The only spot in all Egypt without hail that day was the land of Goshen where the people of Israel lived.

    
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 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. “I finally see my fault,” he confessed. “Jehovah is right, and I and my people have been wrong all along.
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 Beg God to end this terrifying thunder and hail, and I will let you go at once.”

    
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 “All right,” Moses replied, “as soon as I have left the city I will spread out my hands to the Lord, and the thunder and hail will stop. This will prove to you that the earth is controlled by Jehovah.
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 But as for you and your officials, I know that even yet you will not obey him.”
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 All the flax and barley were knocked down and destroyed (for the barley was ripe, and the flax was in bloom),
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 but the wheat and the emmer were not destroyed, for they were not yet out of the ground.

    
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 So Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city and lifted his hands to heaven to the Lord, and the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain ceased pouring down.
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 When Pharaoh saw this, he and his officials sinned yet more by their stubborn refusal to do what they had promised;
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 so Pharaoh refused to let the people leave, just as the Lord had predicted to Moses.