20. Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside.
21. But those who ignored the word of the Lord left their slaves and livestock in the field.
22. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand towards the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt – on people and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt.’
23. When Moses stretched out his staff towards the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt;
24. hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.
25. Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields – both people and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree.
26. The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.
27. Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. ‘This time I have sinned,’ he said to them. ‘The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.
28. Pray to the Lord, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.’
29. Moses replied, ‘When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the Lord. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.
30. But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the Lord God.’
31. (The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bloom.