Yahweh sent hail on all the Egyptian people and their animals

13 Then Yahweh said to Moses/me, “Get up early tomorrow morning. Go and stand in front of the king and tell him that Yahweh God, the one that the Hebrew people worship, says this: ‘Let my people go, in order that they may worship me in the desert. 14 If you do not let them go, this time I will punish with plagues not only your officials and the rest of your people, but I will punish you yourself [SYN], in order that you will know there is no god like me anywhere in the world. 15 By this time I could have used my power [MTY] to strike you and your people with terrible diseases that would have wiped you all from the earth. 16 But I have let you live. The reason I have let you live is to show you my power, with the result that people all over the earth [HYP] will know how great I [MTY] am. 17 You are still acting proudly and refusing to let my people go. 18 So listen to this: About this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall in Egypt. From the time Egypt first became a country, there has never been a hailstorm as bad as this one will be. 19 So you should send a message to everyone to put their cattle, and everything else that they own that is out in the fields, under shelters. The hail will fall on every person and every animal that is out in the fields and that is not put under a shelter, and they will all die.’ ” So Moses/I did what Yahweh said.

20 Some of the king’s officials who heard what Yahweh had said became very afraid. So they put all their animals and their slaves under shelters. 21 But those who did not pay any attention to what Yahweh had said left their slaves and their animals in the fields. 22 Then Yahweh said to Moses/me, “Raise your hand up toward the sky, in order that hail will fall all over the land of Egypt—on the people and on their animals and on all the plants in the fields.” 23 So Moses/I lifted his/my stick up toward the sky. And Yahweh sent down hail, all over the land of Egypt. There was also thunder and lightning. 24 While very heavy hail was falling, there was thunder, and lightning struck the ground. There had never been a hailstorm like that since Egypt first became a country. 25 The hail struck everything that was in the fields all over Egypt—every person and every animal. The hail destroyed the plants in the fields and stripped the leaves off the trees. 26 Only in the Goshen region, where the Israeli people were living, was there no hail.

27 Then the king sent someone to summon Aaron and Moses/me. When they/we came to the king, he said to them/us, “This time I admit that I have sinned. What Yahweh has done is right, and what I and my people have done is wrong. 28 ◄Pray to/Plead with► Yahweh to cause it to stop! We cannot endure any more of this thunder and hail! I will let your people go; they do not have to stay here in Egypt any longer.”

29 Moses/I replied, “As soon as I go out of this city, I will lift up my hands and pray to Yahweh. Then the thunder will cease, and no more hail will fall. This will happen in order that you will know that Yahweh, not your gods, controls everything that happens on the earth. 30 But as for you and your officials, I know that you do not yet fear Yahweh God.”

31 When the hail fell, the flax was ruined because the buds were forming, and the barley was ruined because its grain was ripe. 32 But none of the wheat crops was ruined, because their shoots were still very small.

33 So Moses/I left the king and went outside the city. He/I lifted up his/my hands toward Yahweh and prayed. Then the thunder and the hail stopped, and the rain also stopped falling on the land of Egypt. 34 But when the king saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he sinned again. He and his officials continued to be stubborn [IDM]. 35 So, just as Yahweh had predicted by what he told Moses/me, the king did not allow the Israeli people to leave.