Plague #8: Locusts
Exodus 10YHWH said to Moses, “You are to go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, so that I may show these my signs among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your grandson how severely I dealt with Egypt and how I performed signs among them. Then y’all will know that I am YHWH.”
Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, “This is what YHWH, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, watch, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, and they will cover the surface of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the land. They will eat the remainder of what is left to y’all that escaped the hail, and they will eat every tree which grows for y’all from the field. Your houses will be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were on the earth to this day.’” He turned, and went out from Pharaoh.
Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, that they may serve YHWH, their God. Don’t you yet know that Egypt is destroyed?”
Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Y’all are to go and serve YHWH y’all’s God. Who all will be going?”
Moses said, “We will go with our young and with our old. We will go with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds; for we must hold a feast to YHWH.”
He said to them, “YHWH will need to be with y’all if I let y’all’s families go with y’all! Look! Y’all’s faces are set toward evil. Therefore no! Those who are men only—y’all may go now and serve YHWH, since that is what y’all want!” Then they were driven from Pharaoh’s presence.
YHWH said to Moses, “You are to stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come up on the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail has left.” Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and YHWH brought an east wind on the land all that day, and all night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the borders of Egypt. They were very grievous. Before them there were no such locusts as they, nor will there ever be again. For they covered the surface of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened, and they ate every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. There remained nothing green, either tree or herb of the field, through all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh quickly called for Moses and Aaron, and he said, “I have sinned against YHWH y’all’s God, and against y’all. Now please forgive my sin again, and pray to YHWH y’all’s God, that ʜᴇ would just take this death away from me.”
Moses went out from Pharaoh, and prayed to YHWH. YHWH sent an exceedingly strong west wind, which took up the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea.+10:19 “Red Sea” is the translation for the Hebrew “Yam Suf”, which could be more literally translated “Sea of Reeds” or “Sea of Cattails”. It refers to the body of water currently known as the Red Sea, or possibly to one of the bodies of water connected to it or near it. There remained not one locust in all the borders of Egypt. But YHWH hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he didn’t let the children of Israel go.
Plague #9: Darkness
YHWH said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.” Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They didn’t see one another, and nobody rose from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
Pharaoh called to Moses, and said, “Y’all go and serve YHWH. Even y’all’s children may go with y’all. Just y’all’s flocks and herds must stay behind.”
Moses said, “You must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to YHWH our God. Our livestock will also go with us. Not a hoof will be left behind, for of it we must take to serve YHWH our God; and we don’t know with what we must serve YHWH, until we come there.”
But YHWH hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he wouldn’t let them go. Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me! Be careful to see my face no more; for in the day you see my face you will die!”
Moses said, “You have spoken well. I will see your face again no more.”