Exodus 11

₁Then the Lord said to Moses: ‘I will punish Pharaoh and the Egyptians only one more time. Then he will let you go. Not only will he let you go, but he will chase you out of his land. ₂Now talk to the people of Israel and tell all of them to ask their neighbours for gold and silver jewellery.’

₃The Egyptians were very friendly to the Israelites because the Lord made them friendly. All the Egyptians and the officials realised that Moses was a very important_leader.

₄Moses said to Pharaoh: ‘The Lord said: “In the middle of the night I will go through Egypt. ₅The oldest son in every family in Egypt will die. Pharaoh's oldest son will die, and the oldest sons of the slave girls that grind wheat at the grinding-stone. Every one will die. All the bull-calves and ram-lambs that were born first will also die. ₆All over Egypt there will be people who will cry loudly. The people of Egypt will cry more than they have ever cried before and they will never cry so much again. ₇But this will not happen to the Israelites. No person or animal will die. Not even a dog will bark at them. Then you will know that I, the Lord, am good to the Israelites, but I punish the Egyptians.” ’

₈Moses also said to Pharaoh: ‘All your officials will come to me and bow down before me, and they will beg me to take all my people and go away. After that, I will go away.’ Moses was very angry and he went away from Pharaoh.

₉The Lord said to Moses: ‘Pharaoh will not listen to you, but then I will do more miracles in Egypt.’ ₁₀Moses and Aaron did all these miracles before Pharaoh, but the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn. He did not let the Israelites go out of his land.