Good News Bible

Exodus 9:13-25 Good News Bible (GNB)

13. The Lord then said to Moses, “Early tomorrow morning meet with the king and tell him that the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says, ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me.

14. This time I will punish not only your officials and your people, but I will punish you as well, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the world.

15. If I had raised my hand to strike you and your people with disease, you would have been completely destroyed.

16. But to show you my power I have let you live so that my fame might spread over the whole world.

17. Yet you are still arrogant and refuse to let my people go.

18. This time tomorrow I will cause a heavy hailstorm, such as Egypt has never known in all its history.

19. Now give orders for your livestock and everything else you have in the open to be put under shelter. Hail will fall on the people and animals left outside unprotected, and they will all die.’ ”

20. Some of the king's officials were afraid because of what the Lord had said, and they brought their slaves and animals indoors for shelter.

21. Others, however, paid no attention to the Lord's warning and left their slaves and animals out in the open.

22. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Raise your hand towards the sky, and hail will fall over the whole land of Egypt — on the people, the animals, and all the plants in the fields.”

23. So Moses raised his stick towards the sky, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the ground. The Lord sent

24. a heavy hailstorm, with lightning flashing to and fro. It was the worst storm that Egypt had ever known in all its history.

25. All over Egypt the hail struck down everything in the open, including all the people and all the animals. It beat down all the plants in the fields and broke all the trees.