1. Then the Lord told Moses, “Go to the king of Egypt. Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go to worship me.
2. You might refuse to let them go and continue to hold them.
3. Then the Lord will punish you. He will send a terrible disease on all your farm animals. He will cause all of your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle and sheep to become sick.
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 tomorrow as the time he will do this in the land.’”
6. The next day the Lord did as he promised. All the farm animals in Egypt died. But none of the animals belonging to Israelites died.
7. The king sent people to see what had happened to the animals of Israel. They found that not one of them had died. But the king was still stubborn. He did not let the people go.
8. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Fill your hands with the ashes from a furnace. Moses, throw the ashes into the air in front of the king of Egypt.