hen Moses got back to Egypt, he and his brother Aaron went to the Pharaoh, and told him, “Yahweh, the god of Israel, says, ‘Let my people go, so that they can hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”

But the Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey him? I do not know your god, and I will not let your people go. Get back to work.” And the Pharaoh told his overseers that the Hebrews were lazy, and made them work even harder, gathering straw and making bricks for the Egyptians.

...the east wind brought the locusts.

So Moses and Aaron went to the Pharaoh again, and said, “The god of the Hebrews has told you, ‘Let my people go’, but you would not listen--now he will turn the waters of your river into blood.”

And Aaron struck the water with his staff, and the water turned to blood. The fish in the river died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water. But the magicians of Egypt could do the same with their enchantments, so the Pharaoh would not let the people go.

Then God sent frogs from all the rivers and streams of Egypt, and the frogs came into people’s houses, and their kitchens, and their beds. And he sent biting gnats and swarms of flies that filled the air. But the Pharaoh would not let the people go.

God sent a plague that killed all the cattle of Egypt, and a plague of boils so that sores broke out on the skin of all the people of Egypt. But still the Pharaoh would not let the people go.

God sent a storm of hail that destroyed the crops in the fields, and broke the branches from the trees. He sent locusts that covered the land, and ate all the crops that the hail had left. And he sent a thick darkness over all of Egypt, so that no one could see anything for three days. But God hardened the Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the people go.

God told Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Egypt, and then Pharaoh will let you go. I will pass through the land tonight, and kill all the firstborn in Egypt, both man and beast. But you must take the blood of lambs, and put it on the doorposts of your houses, and when I see the blood, I will pass over your houses.”

So the children of Israel did as God had told Moses. And in the middle of the night, God killed every firstborn in Egypt, from the Pharaoh’s firstborn child to the firstborn calves among the cattle. There was crying throughout Egypt, because there was not a house where there was not someone dead.

Then the Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, “Go, leave my people, you and the children of Israel. Go and serve Yahweh, as you have said.”