The Death of the Firstborn

11 Now the Lord had told Moses, “I have one more ·way to punish the king and the people of [^Lplague to bring on Pharaoh and] Egypt. After this, ·the king [^Lhe] will send all of you away from ·Egypt [^Lthis place]. When he does, he will ·force you to leave completely [drive you away]. ² Tell ·the men and women of Israel [^Lin the hearing of the people] ·to ask their neighbors [that each man should ask his neighbor and each woman should ask her neighbor] for things made of silver and gold.” ³ The Lord had caused the Egyptians to ·respect [show favor to] the Israelites, and both ·the king’s [^LPharaoh’s] officers and the Egyptian people considered Moses to be a great man.

⁴ So Moses said to ·the king [^Lhim], “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight tonight I will go through all Egypt. ⁵ Every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die—from the firstborn son of ·the king [^LPharaoh], who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl ·grinding grain [^Lwho is behind the handmill]. Also the firstborn farm animals will die. ⁶ There will be loud outcries everywhere in Egypt, worse than any time before or after this. ⁷ But not even a dog will ·bark [growl] at the ·Israelites [^Lthe sons/^Tchildren of Israel] or their animals.’ Then you will know that the Lord ·treats Israel differently from [makes a distinction between Israel and] Egypt. ⁸ All your officers will come to me. They will bow facedown to the ground before me and say, ‘Leave and take all your people ·with you [who follow you; ^Lwho are on your foot].’ After that, I will leave.” Then Moses very angrily left ·the king [^LPharaoh].

⁹ The Lord had told Moses, “·The king [^LPharaoh] will not listen to ·you and Aaron [^Lyou] so that I may do many ·miracles [wonders] in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron did all these great ·miracles [wonders] in front of ·the king [^LPharaoh]. But the Lord ·made him stubborn [^Lhardened the heart of Pharaoh], and the king would not let the ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel] leave his country.