Exodus 8

₁The Lord said to Moses that he must go to Pharaoh and tell him: ‘The Lord says you must let his people go so that they can worship Him. ₂If you do not let them go, He will punish you and your land. He will fill the whole land with frogs. ₃The Nile River will be so full of frogs that they will jump out of the river and go into your palace, into your bedroom, your bed, the houses of your servants and all your people, and even into your ovens and baking pans. ₄The frogs will jump up against you and on the people and on all your servants.’

₅The Lord said to Moses that he must tell Aaron: ‘Hold up your hand with your staff over all the places where there is water, so that there will be frogs everywhere in Egypt.’ ₆Aaron held up his hand over the waters of Egypt and the frogs came out. They covered the land of Egypt. ₇But the magicians used magic and they also made frogs come onto the land.

₈Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said: ‘You must pray to the Lord and ask Him to take the frogs away from me and my people. I will let the Israelites go and they can sacrifice_offerings to the Lord.’ ₉Moses answered and said: ‘You can tell me what time I must pray to the Lord and ask Him to take away the frogs from you, your officials, your people and all their houses. Then there will be frogs only in the river.’

₁₀Pharaoh said: ‘Tomorrow.’ Moses said: ‘It will happen as you say and you will know that there is no other god like our God, the Lord. ₁₁The frogs will go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. There will be frogs only in the Nile River.’

₁₂Then Moses and Aaron went away from Pharaoh. Moses prayed and asked God to take away the frogs that He had sent to punish Pharaoh. ₁₃The Lord did what Moses asked. All the frogs died, in the houses, outside and in the field. ₁₄The people threw all the frogs onto heaps and it smelled very bad in the land. ₁₅But when Pharaoh saw that the frogs were gone, he became stubborn again. He did not listen to Moses and Aaron. It happened just as the Lord had said.

₁₆The Lord said to Moses that he must tell Aaron: ‘Hit the ground with your staff, and then all over the land of Egypt the dust will change into gnats.’

₁₇Moses and Aaron did what the Lord said. Aaron hit the ground with his staff and the dust changed into gnats that started to sit on the people and animals. All the dust in the land of Egypt changed into gnats. ₁₈The magicians tried to do the same, and they also wanted to change dust into gnats but they could not do it. The gnats were on all the people and animals. ₁₉Then the magicians said to Pharaoh: ‘It is God who has sent the gnats.’

But Pharaoh was stubborn. He did not listen to them. It happened as the Lord had said.

₂₀The Lord said to Moses: ‘Go and wait for Pharaoh when he goes to the river tomorrow morning. Tell him the Lord says he must let the Israelites go so that they can worship Me. ₂₁If he does not let the Israelites go, I will send lots of flies. The flies will be on Pharaoh, on his servants, on his people and in their homes. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies and there will be flies all over the land. ₂₂But I will not do this in the land of Goshen where my people live. There will be no flies there. I will do this so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. ₂₃I will protect my people, but I will not protect the Egyptians. This will happen tomorrow and will prove that I am the Lord.’

₂₄The Lord did what He had said and big swarms of flies came into Pharaoh's house, into his officials' houses and everywhere in Egypt. The people of the land suffered a lot because there were so many flies. ₂₅Then the king called Moses and Aaron and told them: ‘You may go and sacrifice to your God, but you must stay here in Egypt.’

₂₆But Moses answered and said: ‘That will not be right. The Egyptians hate the offerings that we sacrifice to the Lord our God. When they see the offerings that we sacrifice here, they will throw stones at us. ₂₇We want to go into the desert for as far as we can walk in 3 days. We want to sacrifice_offerings to our God as He told us.’

₂₈Then Pharaoh said: ‘I will let you go to sacrifice_offerings to the Lord your God in the desert, but you must not go very far and you must pray for me.’

₂₉Moses answered and said: ‘When I go away from you, I will pray to the Lord and tomorrow the flies will disappear from you, from your officials and from all your people. But, Pharaoh, you must not lie to us again and change what you have told us now and say we may not go to sacrifice to the Lord.’

₃₀Moses went away from Pharaoh and he prayed to the Lord as Pharaoh had asked. ₃₁The Lord did what Moses asked. He made the flies go away from Pharaoh and his officials and his people. Not one fly was left. ₃₂But Pharaoh was stubborn again. He did not let the Israelites go.