¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and his servants' hearts in order that I may show these signs of mine in his full view, ²and in order that you may relate in your son's and your grandson's ear what I have undertaken against Egypt, and my signs which I showed among them, so that you may know that I am the Lord.” ³So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the Lord God of the Hebrews says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go so that they may serve me. ⁴For if you refuse to let my people go, you will find me bringing locusts into your territory tomorrow. ⁵And they will cover the landscape, and one will not be able to see the land, and they will devour the remainder of the remnant that remains to you from the hail, and they will devour every tree springing up to you in the countryside. ⁶And they will fill your houses and all your servants' houses and the houses of the whole of Egypt, such as your fathers and your grandfathers never saw from the day they came into being on the earth up to this day.’ ” Then he turned and departed from Pharaoh. ⁷Then Pharaoh's servants said to him, “How long will we have this as a snare to us? Let the men go and serve the Lord their God. Do you still not acknowledge that Egypt is being destroyed?” ⁸Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go. Serve the Lord your God. But who exactly are those that are to go?” ⁹Then Moses said, “We will go with our young ones and with our old ones, with our sons and with our daughters. With our sheep and with our cattle we will go, for we have a festival to the Lord.” ¹⁰Then he said to them, “Let it be so. The Lord be with you when I let you and your little ones go. Look out, for evil is ahead of you. ¹¹But it will not be quite like that. Just let the men go and serve the Lord, for that is what you are requesting.” Then he drove them out from Pharaoh's presence. ¹²Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch your hand out over the land of Egypt for the locusts so that they come up over the land of Egypt and devour all the vegetation of the land – everything that the hail has left.” ¹³So Moses stretched his rod out over the land of Egypt, and the Lord set an east wind in motion in the land, all that day and all night. Then morning came, and the east wind brought the locusts. ¹⁴And the locusts came up over the whole land of Egypt, and they settled on all the territory of Egypt. It was very severe; before it there had never been such a locust plague as this, and after it there never will be such a one. ¹⁵And they covered the landscape of the whole land, and the land became dark, and they devoured all the vegetation of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left, and no greenery remained on the trees at all, nor on the vegetation of the countryside in all the land of Egypt. ¹⁶Then Pharaoh hastened to call for Moses and for Aaron, and he said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. ¹⁷So now, forgive my sin, just this time, and entreat the Lord your God that he removes just this deadly thing from me.” ¹⁸And he departed from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord. ¹⁹At which the Lord turned it to a very strong westerly wind, and it carried away the locusts and drove them to the Red Sea. Not one locust remained in all the territory of Egypt. ²⁰Then the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go. ²¹And the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand towards the sky and let there be darkness over the land of Egypt, and they will have to grope in the dark.” ²²So Moses stretched out his hand towards the sky and a thick darkness came over all the land of Egypt for three days. ²³One person could not see another, and no-one could get up from the spot where he was for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwelling places. ²⁴Then Pharaoh called for Moses and said, “Go. Serve the Lord, but let your sheep and oxen be left behind, but your little ones can also go with you.” ²⁵Then Moses said, “You must also hand our animals over to us for sacrifices and burnt offerings for us to perform them to the Lord our God. ²⁶And our cattle must also go with us: not a hoof shall remain, for we must take some from it to serve the Lord our God, and we won't know what to serve the Lord with until we arrive there.” ²⁷Then the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to let them go. ²⁸And Pharaoh said to him, “Go away from me. Watch out: do not see my face any more, for on the day when you see my face, you will die.” ²⁹To this Moses said, “Thus you have spoken. I will not see your face any more.”