1 Jehovah said to Moses: »I will send only one more punishment plague on the king of Egypt and his people. After that he will let you leave. In fact, he will drive all of you out of here.
2 »Speak to the people of Israel and tell all of them to ask their neighbors for gold and silver jewelry.«
3 Jehovah made the Egyptians respect the Israelites. Indeed, the officials and all the people considered Moses to be a very great man.
4 Moses approached the king. He said: »I have come to let you know what Jehovah is going to do. About midnight he will go through the land of Egypt,
5 and wherever he goes, the first-born son in every family will die. Your own son will die. So will the son of the lowest slave woman. Even the first-born males of cattle will die.
6 »Everywhere in Egypt there will be loud crying. Nothing like this has ever happened before or will ever happen again.
7 »But against any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even bark, whether against man or beast. This is so you may understand how Jehovah makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.«
8 All these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves before me. They will say: »Go out, you and all the people who follow you. Then I will go out.« He went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.
9 Then Jehovah said to Moses: »Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that my signs will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.«
10 Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh. Yet Jehovah hardened Pharaohs heart. He did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.