A reading from the Book of Exodus.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart

of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in

the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians,

and what signs I have done among

them, that you may know that I am the Lord. So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him,

Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

Let my people go that they may serve me, For if you refuse to let my people go,

behold, tomorrow, I will bring locusts into your country, and they shall cover the face of the

land, so that no one can see the land, and they shall eat what is left to you after the hail,

and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, and they shall fill your houses,

and the houses of all your servants, and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your

grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.

Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.

Then Pharaoh's servants said to him,

"'How long shall this man be a snare to us?

Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God.

Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?'

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them,

"'Go, serve the Lord your God, but which ones are to go?'

Moses said, "'We will go with our young and our old.

We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.

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