1 Then Yahweh said to Moses/me, “Go to the king again. I have made him and his officials stubborn [IDM]. I have done that in order that I would have a good reason to perform all these plagues among them, 2 and also in order that you would be able to tell your children and your grandchildren how I caused the Egyptians to act very foolishly when I performed all these miracles. Then all of you will know that I, Yahweh, have the power to do what I say that I will do.”

3 So Aaron and Moses/I went into the king’s palace and said to him, “Yahweh God, whom we Hebrews worship, says this: ‘How long will you stubbornly refuse to do what I tell you [MTY]? Let my people go, in order that they may worship me in the desert 4 If you keep refusing to let them go, I warn you that tomorrow I will bring ◄locusts/large flying insects called locusts► into your country. 5  They will completely cover the ground so that you will not even be able to see the ground. They will eat everything that the hail did not destroy. They will eat everything that is left on the trees. 6 They will fill your houses, and the houses of all your officials, and the houses of all the rest of the Egyptians. There will be more locusts than you or your parents or your grandparents have ever seen, from the time your ancestors first came to this land until the present time!’ ” Then he/I turned and Aaron and I left the king.

7 The king’s officials said to him, “◄How long is this man going to continue to bring disasters on us?/We must not let this man continue to cause trouble for us!► [RHQ] Let the Israeli men leave, in order that they may worship Yahweh, their god. ◄Do you not yet understand that this man has ruined Egypt?/You ought to realize by now that this man has ruined Egypt!►” [RHQ] 8 So they brought Aaron and Moses/me back to the king. He said to them/us, “All right, you can go and worship Yahweh your god. But who are the ones who will go?” 9 Moses/I replied, “We all need to go, everyone, including those who are young and those who are old. We need to take our sons and our daughters and our flocks of sheep and goats and herds of livestock, because we must have a festival to honor Yahweh.”

10  Moses/I really did not intend that the Israelis would ever return to Egypt, and the king knew that also. So the king replied sarcastically, “If you all leave, it will be clear that Yahweh has helped you, but I myself will never let you take your children and your wives when you go! It is clear that you are wickedly planning not to return. 11 So no, I will not let you all go. The Israeli men may go and worship Yahweh, if that is what you want.” Then the king expelled them/us from his palace.

12 Then Yahweh said to Moses/me, “Reach out your hand as though you were stretching it over the land to welcome the locusts. They will come to the country of Egypt and eat every plant that is left in the land, every plant that the hail has not destroyed.”

13 So Moses/I held out his/my stick as though he/I was stretching it over the whole land of Egypt. Then Yahweh caused a strong wind to blow from the east, and it blew over the land all that day and all that night. By the next morning, it had brought the locusts. 14 The locusts swarmed all over Egypt. It was larger than any swarm of locusts that had ever been seen, and there will never be a swarm of locusts like that again. 15 They covered the surface of the ground and made it appear black. They ate all the plants in the land and everything on the trees that had not been destroyed by the hail. Nothing that was green was left on any plant or on any tree, anywhere in Egypt.

16 The king quickly summoned Aaron and Moses/me and said, “I have sinned against Yahweh, your god, and against you two. 17 So now I ask you to forgive me this one time for having sinned, and pray to Yahweh your god to stop these locusts [MTY] from causing everything to die.”

18 They/We left the king, and Moses/I prayed to Yahweh. 19 Then Yahweh changed the wind so that it blew strongly from the west, and it blew all the locusts into the Red Sea (OR, the Gulf of Suez). There was not one locust left anywhere in the country of Egypt.

20 But Yahweh made the king stubborn [IDM] again, and he did not let the Israeli people go.

21 Yahweh said to Moses/me, “Reach your hand up toward the sky, in order that there will be darkness over all the land of Egypt, a darkness so complete that people will have to grope around to know where to walk.” 22 So Moses/I reached his/my hand toward the sky, and it became totally dark all over Egypt for three days and nights. 23 People could not see each other. No one left his house during that whole time. But there was light in the area where the Israeli people were living.

24 The king summoned Moses/me and said, “All right, you may go and worship Yahweh. Your wives and your children may go with you. But your flocks of sheep and goats and your herds of cattle must remain here.” 25 But Moses/I replied, “No, you must let us take along the sheep and goats, in order that we may have some of them to sacrifice and give as burned offerings to Yahweh, our God. 26 Our livestock must also go with us; we are not going to leave one of them [SYN] behind. We must take them to worship Yahweh. We will not know which animals to sacrifice until we get to where we are going.”

27 But Yahweh made the king continue to be stubborn [IDM], and he would not let the Israeli people go. 28 The king said to me, “Get out of here! Make sure that you never come to see me [SYN] again! The day you see me again, I will have you executed!” 29 Moses/I replied, “You are correct! You will never see me [SYN] again!”