Locusts

¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go and see the king. I have made him and his officials stubborn, in order that I may perform these miracles among them

²and in order that you may be able to tell your children and grandchildren how I made fools of the Egyptians when I performed the miracles. All of you will know that I am the Lord.”

³So Moses and Aaron went to the king and said to him, “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says, ‘How much longer will you refuse to submit to me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me.

⁴If you keep on refusing, then I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow.

⁵There will be so many that they will completely cover the ground. They will eat everything that the hail did not destroy, even the trees that are left.

⁶They will fill your palaces and the houses of all your officials and all your people. They will be worse than anything your ancestors ever saw.’” Then Moses turned and left.

⁷The king's officials said to him, “How long is this man going to give us trouble? Let the Israelite men go, so that they can worship the Lord their God. Don't you realize that Egypt is ruined?”

⁸So Moses and Aaron were brought back to the king, and he said to them, “You may go and worship the Lord your God. But exactly who will go?”

⁹Moses answered, “We will all go, including our children and our old people. We will take our sons and daughters, our sheep and goats, and our cattle, because we must hold a festival to honor the Lord.”

¹⁰The king said, “I swear by the Lord that I will never let you take your women and children! It is clear that you are plotting to revolt.

¹¹No! Only the men may go and worship the Lord if that is what you want.” With that, Moses and Aaron were driven out of the king's presence.

¹²Then the Lord said to Moses, “Raise your hand over the land of Egypt to bring the locusts. They will come and eat everything that grows, everything that has survived the hail.”

¹³So Moses raised his stick, and the Lord caused a wind from the east to blow on the land all that day and all that night. By morning it had brought the locusts.

¹⁴They came in swarms and settled over the whole country. It was the largest swarm of locusts that had ever been seen or that ever would be seen again.

¹⁵They covered the ground until it was black with them; they ate everything that the hail had left, including all the fruit on the trees. Not a green thing was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.

¹⁶Then the king hurriedly called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.

¹⁷Now forgive my sin this one time and pray to the Lord your God to take away this fatal punishment from me.”

¹⁸Moses left the king and prayed to the Lord.

¹⁹And the Lord changed the east wind into a very strong west wind, which picked up the locusts and blew them into the Gulf of Suez. Not one locust was left in all of Egypt.

²⁰But the Lord made the king stubborn, and he did not let the Israelites go.

Darkness

²¹The Lord then said to Moses, “Raise your hand toward the sky, and a darkness thick enough to be felt will cover the land of Egypt.”

²²Moses raised his hand toward the sky, and there was total darkness throughout Egypt for three days.

²³The Egyptians could not see each other, and no one left his house during that time. But the Israelites had light where they were living.

²⁴The king called Moses and said, “You may go and worship the Lord; even your women and children may go with you. But your sheep, goats, and cattle must stay here.”

²⁵Moses answered, “Then you would have to provide us with animals for sacrifices and burnt offerings to offer to the Lord our God.

²⁶No, we will take our animals with us; not one will be left behind. We ourselves must select the animals with which to worship the Lord our God. And until we get there, we will not know what animals to sacrifice to him.”

²⁷The Lord made the king stubborn, and he would not let them go.

²⁸He said to Moses, “Get out of my sight! Don't let me ever see you again! On the day I do, you will die!”

²⁹“You are right,” Moses answered. “You will never see me again.”

Moses Announces the Death of the First-Born

¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will send only one more punishment on the king of Egypt and his people. After that he will let you leave. In fact, he will drive all of you out of here.

²Now speak to the people of Israel and tell all of them to ask their neighbors for gold and silver jewelry.”

³The Lord made the Egyptians respect the Israelites. Indeed, the officials and all the people considered Moses to be a very great man.

⁴Moses then said to the king, “The Lord says, ‘At about midnight I will go through Egypt,

⁵and every first-born son in Egypt will die, from the king's son, who is heir to the throne, to the son of the slave woman who grinds grain. The first-born of all the cattle will die also.

⁶There will be loud crying all over Egypt, such as there has never been before or ever will be again.

⁷But not even a dog will bark at the Israelites or their animals. Then you will know that I, the Lord, make a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites.’”

⁸Moses concluded by saying, “All your officials will come to me and bow down before me, and they will beg me to take all my people and go away. After that, I will leave.” Then in great anger Moses left the king.

⁹The Lord had said to Moses, “The king will continue to refuse to listen to you, in order that I may do more of my miracles in Egypt.”

¹⁰Moses and Aaron performed all these miracles before the king, but the Lord made him stubborn, and he would not let the Israelites leave his country.

The Ordination of Aaron and His Sons

¹The Lord said to Moses,

²“Take Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of my presence and bring the priestly garments, the anointing oil, the young bull for the sin offering, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread.

³Then call the whole community together there.”

⁴Moses did as the Lord had commanded, and when the community had assembled,

⁵he said to them, “What I am now about to do is what the Lord has commanded.”

⁶Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and had them take a ritual bath.

⁷He put the shirt and the robe on Aaron and the sash around his waist. He put the ephod on him and fastened it by putting its finely woven belt around his waist.

⁸He put the breastpiece on him and put the Urim and Thummim in it.

⁹He placed the turban on his head, and on the front of it he put the gold ornament, the sacred sign of dedication, just as the Lord had commanded him.

¹⁰Then Moses took the anointing oil and put it on the Tent of the Lord's presence and everything that was in it, and in this way he dedicated it all to the Lord.

¹¹He took some of the oil and sprinkled it seven times on the altar and its equipment and on the basin and its base, in order to dedicate them to the Lord.

¹²He ordained Aaron by pouring some of the anointing oil on his head.

¹³Next, Moses brought the sons of Aaron forward and put shirts on them, put sashes around their waists, and tied caps on their heads, just as the Lord had commanded.

¹⁴Then Moses brought the young bull for the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head.

¹⁵Moses killed it and took some of the blood, and with his finger put it on the projections at the corners of the altar, in order to dedicate it. He then poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. In this way he dedicated it and purified it.

¹⁶Moses took all the fat on the internal organs, the best part of the liver, and the kidneys with the fat on them, and burned it all on the altar.

¹⁷He took the rest of the bull, including its skin, flesh, and intestines, and burned it outside the camp, just as the Lord had commanded.

¹⁸Next, Moses brought the ram for the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head.

¹⁹Moses killed it and threw the blood on all four sides of the altar.

^20-21He cut the ram in pieces, washed the internal organs and the hind legs with water, and burned the head, the fat, and all the rest of the ram on the altar, just as the Lord had commanded. This burnt offering was a food offering, and its odor was pleasing to the Lord.

²²Then Moses brought the second ram, which was for the ordination of priests, and Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head.

²³Moses killed it and took some of the blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

²⁴Then he brought Aaron's sons forward and put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Moses then threw the rest of the blood on all four sides of the altar.

²⁵He took the fat, the fat tail, all the fat covering the internal organs, the best part of the liver, the kidneys with the fat on them, and the right hind leg.

²⁶Then he took one loaf of bread from the basket of unleavened bread dedicated to the Lord, one loaf made with oil, and one thin cake, and he put them on top of the fat and the right hind leg.

²⁷He put all of this food in the hands of Aaron and his sons, and they presented it as a special gift to the Lord.

²⁸Then Moses took the food from them and burned it on the altar, on top of the burnt offering, as an ordination offering. This was a food offering, and its odor was pleasing to the Lord.

²⁹Then Moses took the breast and presented it as a special gift to the Lord. It was Moses' part of the ordination ram. Moses did everything just as the Lord had commanded.

³⁰Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled them on Aaron and his sons and on their clothes. In this way he consecrated them and their clothes to the Lord.

³¹Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Take the meat to the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence, boil it, and eat it there with the bread that is in the basket of ordination offerings, just as the Lord commanded.

³²Burn up any meat or bread that is left over.

³³You shall not leave the entrance of the Tent for seven days, until your ordination rites are completed.

³⁴The Lord commanded us to do what we have done today, in order to take away your sin.

³⁵You must stay at the entrance of the Tent day and night for seven days, doing what the Lord has commanded. If you don't, you will die. This is what the Lord has commanded me.”

³⁶So Aaron and his sons did everything that the Lord had commanded through Moses.

True Worship

¹The Almighty God, the Lord, speaks; he calls to the whole earth from east to west.

²God shines from Zion, the city perfect in its beauty.

³Our God is coming, but not in silence; a raging fire is in front of him, a furious storm around him.

⁴He calls heaven and earth as witnesses to see him judge his people.

⁵He says, “Gather my faithful people to me, those who made a covenant with me by offering a sacrifice.”

⁶The heavens proclaim that God is righteous, that he himself is judge.

⁷“Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel. I am God, your God.

⁸I do not reprimand you because of your sacrifices and the burnt offerings you always bring me.

⁹And yet I do not need bulls from your farms or goats from your flocks;

¹⁰all the animals in the forest are mine and the cattle on thousands of hills.

¹¹All the wild birds are mine and all living things in the fields.

¹²“If I were hungry, I would not ask you for food, for the world and everything in it is mine.

¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴Let the giving of thanks be your sacrifice to God, and give the Almighty all that you promised.

¹⁵Call to me when trouble comes; I will save you, and you will praise me.”

¹⁶But God says to the wicked, “Why should you recite my commandments? Why should you talk about my covenant?

¹⁷You refuse to let me correct you; you reject my commands.

¹⁸You become the friend of every thief you see, and you associate with adulterers.

¹⁹“You are always ready to speak evil; you never hesitate to tell lies.

²⁰You are ready to accuse your own relatives and to find fault with them.

²¹You have done all this, and I have said nothing, so you thought that I am like you. But now I reprimand you and make the matter plain to you.

²²“Listen to this, you that ignore me, or I will destroy you, and there will be no one to save you.

²³Giving thanks is the sacrifice that honors me, and I will surely save all who obey me.”