9. Moses answered, “Everyone! We’ll be taking our young and old, our sons and daughters, our flocks and herds with us. For us it’s a pilgrimage festival in the Lord’s honor.”
10. Pharaoh said to them, “The Lord would have to be with you if I would ever let you take your women and children along. I know you’re up to no good!
11. No! Only the men may go to worship the Lord, since that’s what you’ve been asking for.” Then Moses and Aaron were thrown out of Pharaoh’s palace.
12. The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over Egypt to bring locusts. They will invade Egypt and eat up every plant in the land—everything left by the hail.”
13. Moses held his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord made a wind from the east blow over the land all that day and all that night. By morning the east wind had brought the locusts.
14. They invaded all of Egypt and landed all over the country in great swarms. Never before had there been so many locusts like this, nor would there ever be that many again.
15. They covered all the ground until it was black ⌊with them⌋. They ate all the plants and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant anywhere in Egypt.
16. Then Pharaoh quickly called for Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.
17. Please forgive my sin one more time. Pray to the Lord your God to take this deadly plague away from me.”
18. Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord.
19. Then the Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind. It picked up the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not one locust was left anywhere in Egypt.
20. But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn, so he did not let the Israelites go.