16. Pharaoh called urgently for Moses and Aaron and said, "I’ve sinned against the Lord your God and against you.
17. Please forgive my sin this time. Pray to the Lord your God just to take this deathly disaster away from me."
18. So Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord.
19. The Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind that lifted the locusts and drove them into the Reed Sea. Not a single locust was left in the whole country of Egypt.
20. But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn so that he wouldn’t let the Israelites go.
21. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Raise your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over the land of Egypt, a darkness that you can feel."
22. So Moses raised his hand toward the sky, and an intense darkness fell on the whole land of Egypt for three days.
23. People couldn’t see each other, and they couldn’t go anywhere for three days. But the Israelites all had light where they lived.
24. Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, "Go! Worship the Lord! Only your flocks and herds need to stay behind. Even your children can go with you."
25. But Moses said, "You need to let us have sacrifices and entirely burned offerings to present to the Lord our God.
26. So our livestock must go with us. Not one animal can be left behind. We’ll need some of them for worshipping the Lord our God. We won’t know which to use to worship the Lord until we get there."
27. But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn so that he wasn’t willing to let them go.
28. Pharaoh said to him, "Get out of here! Make sure you never see my face again, because the next time you see my face you will die."
29. Moses said, "You’ve said it! I’ll never see your face again!"