9:13 The Seventh Blow: Hail
1 The Lord said 2 to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, stand 3 before Pharaoh, and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: “Release my people so that they may serve me! 9:14 For this time I will send all my plagues 4 on your very self 5 and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. 9:15 For by now I could have stretched out 6 my hand and struck you and your people with plague, and you would have been destroyed 7 from the earth. 9:16 But 8 for this purpose I have caused you to stand: 9 to show you 10 my strength, and so that my name may be declared 11 in all the earth. 9:17 You are still exalting 12 yourself against my people by 13 not releasing them. 9:18 I am going to cause very severe hail to rain down 14 about this time tomorrow, such hail as has never occurred 15 in Egypt from the day it was founded 16 until now. 9:19 So now, send instructions 17 to gather 18 your livestock and all your possessions in the fields to a safe place. Every person 19 or animal caught 20 in the field and not brought into the house – the hail will come down on them, and they will die!”’”
9:20 Those 21 of Pharaoh’s servants who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their 22 servants and livestock into the houses, 9:21 but those 23 who did not take 24 the word of the Lord seriously left their servants and their cattle 25 in the field.
9:22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward the sky 26 that there may be 27 hail in all the land of Egypt, on people and on animals, 28 and on everything that grows 29 in the field in the land of Egypt.” 9:23 When Moses extended 30 his staff toward the sky, the Lord 31 sent thunder 32 and hail, and fire fell to the earth; 33 so the Lord caused hail to rain down on the land of Egypt. 9:24 Hail fell 34 and fire mingled 35 with the hail; the hail was so severe 36 that there had not been any like it 37 in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. 9:25 The hail struck everything in the open fields, both 38 people and animals, throughout all the land of Egypt. The hail struck everything that grows 39 in the field, and it broke all the trees of the field to pieces. 9:26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was there no hail.
9:27 So Pharaoh sent and summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time! 40 The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty. 41 9:28 Pray to the Lord, for the mighty 42 thunderings and hail are too much! 43 I will release you and you will stay no longer.” 44
9:29 Moses said to him, “When I leave the city 45 I will spread my hands to the Lord, the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to the Lord. 46 9:30 But as for you 47 and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear 48 the Lord God.”
9:31 (Now the 49 flax and the barley were struck 50 by the hail, 51 for the barley had ripened 52 and the flax 53 was in bud. 9:32 But the wheat and the spelt 54 were not struck, for they are later crops.) 55
9:33 So Moses left Pharaoh, went out of the city, and spread out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain stopped pouring on the earth. 9:34 When Pharaoh saw 56 that the rain and hail and thunder ceased, he sinned again: 57 both he and his servants hardened 58 their hearts. 9:35 So Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, 59 and he did not release the Israelites, as the Lord had predicted through Moses.
