1. Then the Lord told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him: “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says, ‘Let my people go to worship me!’
2. If you continue to hold them and refuse to let them go,
3. then the Lord will use his power against your animals in the fields. He will cause all of your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, and sheep to get sick with a terrible disease.
4. But the Lord will treat Israel’s animals differently from the animals of Egypt. None of the animals that belong to the Israelites will die.
5. The Lord has set the time for this to happen. He said, ‘Tomorrow the Lord will make this happen in this country.’”
6. The next morning the Lord did what he said. All the farm animals of the Egyptians died, but none of the animals that belonged to the Israelites died.
7. Pharaoh sent people to see if any of the animals of Israel died. Not one of them died. But Pharaoh remained stubborn and did not let the people go.
8. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Fill your hands with the ashes from a furnace. Moses, you throw the ashes into the air in front of Pharaoh.
9. This will become dust that will go throughout the land of Egypt. Whenever the dust touches a person or an animal in Egypt, sores will break out on the skin.”
10. So Moses and Aaron took ashes from a furnace and went and stood before Pharaoh. Moses threw the ashes into the air, and sores began breaking out on people and animals.
11. The magicians could not stop Moses from doing this, because even the magicians had the sores. This happened everywhere in Egypt.
12. But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn, so he refused to listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.