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The LORD said to Moses, "Go to the king and tell him that the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says, 'Let my people go, so that they may worship me.
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If you again refuse to let them go,
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I will punish you by sending a terrible disease on all your animals---your horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, and goats.
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I will make a distinction between the animals of the Israelites and those of the Egyptians, and no animal that belongs to the Israelites will die.
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I, the LORD, have set tomorrow as the time when I will do this.' "
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The next day the LORD did as he had said, and all the animals of the Egyptians died, but not one of the animals of the Israelites died.
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The king asked what had happened and was told that none of the animals of the Israelites had died. But he was stubborn and would not let the people go.
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Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take a few handfuls of ashes from a furnace; Moses is to throw them into the air in front of the king.
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They will spread out like fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and everywhere they will produce boils that become open sores on the people and the animals."
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So they got some ashes and stood before the king; Moses threw them into the air, and they produced boils that became open sores on the people and the animals.
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The magicians were not able to appear before Moses, because they were covered with boils, like all the other Egyptians.
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But the LORD made the king stubborn and, just as the LORD had said, the king would not listen to Moses and Aaron.
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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.
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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.
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If I had raised my hand to strike you and your people with disease, you would have been completely destroyed.
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But to show you my power I have let you live so that my fame might spread over the whole world.
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Yet you are still arrogant and refuse to let my people go.
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This time tomorrow I will cause a heavy hailstorm, such as Egypt has never known in all its history.
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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.' "
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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.
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Others, however, paid no attention to the LORD's warning and left their slaves and animals out in the open.
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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Raise your hand toward the sky, and hail will fall over the whole land of Egypt---on the people, the animals, and all the plants in the fields."
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So Moses raised his stick toward the sky, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the ground. The LORD sent
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a heavy hailstorm, with lightning flashing back and forth. It was the worst storm that Egypt had ever known in all its history.
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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.
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The region of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was the only place where there was no hail.
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The king sent for Moses and Aaron and said, "This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and my people and I are in the wrong.
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Pray to the LORD! We have had enough of this thunder and hail! I promise to let you go; you don't have to stay here any longer."
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Moses said to him, "As soon as I go out of the city, I will lift up my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to the LORD.
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But I know that you and your officials do not yet fear the LORD God."
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The flax and the barley were ruined, because the barley was ripe, and the flax was budding.
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But none of the wheat was ruined, because it ripens later.
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Moses left the king, went out of the city, and lifted up his hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder, the hail, and the rain all stopped.
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When the king saw what had happened, he sinned again. He and his officials remained as stubborn as ever
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and, just as the LORD had foretold through Moses, the king would not let the Israelites go.
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Then 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
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and 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."
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So 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.
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If you keep on refusing, then I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow.
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There 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.
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They 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.
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The 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?"
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So 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?"
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Moses 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."
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The 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.
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No! 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.
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Then 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."
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So 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.
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They 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.
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They 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.
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Then the king hurriedly called Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
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Now forgive my sin this one time and pray to the LORD your God to take away this fatal punishment from me."
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Moses left the king and prayed to the LORD.
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And 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.
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But the LORD made the king stubborn, and he did not let the Israelites go.
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The 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."
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Moses raised his hand toward the sky, and there was total darkness throughout Egypt for three days.
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The Egyptians could not see each other, and no one left his house during that time. But the Israelites had light where they were living.
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The 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."
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Moses answered, "Then you would have to provide us with animals for sacrifices and burnt offerings to offer to the LORD our God.
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No, 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."
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The LORD made the king stubborn, and he would not let them go.
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He said to Moses, "Get out of my sight! Don't let me ever see you again! On the day I do, you will die!"
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"You are right," Moses answered. "You will never see me again."
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Then 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.
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Now speak to the people of Israel and tell all of them to ask their neighbors for gold and silver jewelry."
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The LORD made the Egyptians respect the Israelites. Indeed, the officials and all the people considered Moses to be a very great man.
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Moses then said to the king, "The LORD says, 'At about midnight I will go through Egypt,
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and 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.
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There will be loud crying all over Egypt, such as there has never been before or ever will be again.
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But 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.' "
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Moses 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.
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The 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."
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Moses 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.
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Very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, carrying the spices they had prepared.
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They found the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb,
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so they went in; but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
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They stood there puzzled about this, when suddenly two men in bright shining clothes stood by them.
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Full of fear, the women bowed down to the ground, as the men said to them, "Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive?
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He is not here; he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was in Galilee:
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'The Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, be crucified, and three days later rise to life.' "
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Then the women remembered his words,
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returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven disciples and all the rest.
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The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; they and the other women with them told these things to the apostles.
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But the apostles thought that what the women said was nonsense, and they did not believe them.
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But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; he bent down and saw the grave cloths but nothing else. Then he went back home amazed at what had happened.
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On that same day two of Jesus' followers were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,
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and they were talking to each other about all the things that had happened.
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As they talked and discussed, Jesus himself drew near and walked along with them;
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they saw him, but somehow did not recognize him.
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Jesus said to them, "What are you talking about to each other, as you walk along?" They stood still, with sad faces.
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One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have been happening there these last few days?"
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"What things?" he asked. "The things that happened to Jesus of Nazareth," they answered. "This man was a prophet and was considered by God and by all the people to be powerful in everything he said and did.
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Our chief priests and rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and he was crucified.
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And we had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set Israel free! Besides all that, this is now the third day since it happened.
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Some of the women of our group surprised us; they went at dawn to the tomb,
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but could not find his body. They came back saying they had seen a vision of angels who told them that he is alive.
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Some of our group went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women had said, but they did not see him."
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Then Jesus said to them, "How foolish you are, how slow you are to believe everything the prophets said!
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Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and then to enter his glory?"
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And Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets.
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As they came near the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther;
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but they held him back, saying, "Stay with us; the day is almost over and it is getting dark." So he went in to stay with them.
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He sat down to eat with them, took the bread, and said the blessing; then he broke the bread and gave it to them.
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Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight.
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They said to each other, "Wasn't it like a fire burning in us when he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?"
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They got up at once and went back to Jerusalem, where they found the eleven disciples gathered together with the others
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and saying, "The Lord is risen indeed! He has appeared to Simon!"
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The two then explained to them what had happened on the road, and how they had recognized the Lord when he broke the bread.
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While the two were telling them this, suddenly the Lord himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."
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They were terrified, thinking that they were seeing a ghost.
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But he said to them, "Why are you alarmed? Why are these doubts coming up in your minds?
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Look at my hands and my feet, and see that it is I myself. Feel me, and you will know, for a ghost doesn't have flesh and bones, as you can see I have."
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He said this and showed them his hands and his feet.
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They still could not believe, they were so full of joy and wonder; so he asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?"
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They gave him a piece of cooked fish,
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which he took and ate in their presence.
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Then he said to them, "These are the very things I told you about while I was still with you: everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms had to come true."
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Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
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and said to them, "This is what is written: the Messiah must suffer and must rise from death three days later,
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and in his name the message about repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be preached to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
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You are witnesses of these things.
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And I myself will send upon you what my Father has promised. But you must wait in the city until the power from above comes down upon you."
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Then he led them out of the city as far as Bethany, where he raised his hands and blessed them.
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As he was blessing them, he departed from them and was taken up into heaven.
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They worshiped him and went back into Jerusalem, filled with great joy,
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and spent all their time in the Temple giving thanks to God.
