Chapter 11

The death of every *firstborn son in Egypt

v1 The *Lord said to Moses: I will bring one more bad trouble on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Then Pharaoh will let you go away. He will really cause you to go out of the country completely. v2 Tell the people now what they must do. Every man must ask the *Egyptians that live near him for gold and *silver. Every woman must do the same thing. v3 And the *Lord made the *Egyptians think well of the *Israelites. Also, Pharaohs servants and the *Eg yptian people thought very well of Moses. v4 So Moses said: The *Lord says this: At about midnight, I will walk through the country of Egypt. v5 Then all the *firstborn sons in the country of Egypt will die. The *firstborn son of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, will die. The *firstborn son of the slave, the woman who makes flour, will die. Even the *firstborn of the animals will die. Verse 5 the slave, the woman who makes flour. This was very hard work. The women had to break up the food seeds with a heavy stone. When they did this, the seeds became flour. The *firstborn son of every family in Egypt would die during that night. There would be no difference between the rich family and the poor family. v6 Everyone will be crying loudly in the whole country called Egypt. Never before have the people felt so sad or cried so loudly. It will never happen again. v7 But among the *Israelites, not even a wild animal will attack any of them. Then you will know that the *Lord makes a difference between Egypt and *Israel. v8 All these servants of yours will come to me. They will fall down in front of me. They will say to me: Go! Both you and all the people who follow you. And then, I will leave. Then Moses was very angry and he left Pharaoh. v9 The *Lord had said to Moses: Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you. But then I will do even greater *signs in the country of Egypt. v10 Moses and Aaron did all these signs in front of Pharaoh. But the *Lord made Pharaoh angry and cruel. So Pharaoh would not let the *Israelites go out of his country.