couer the erth, so that it can not be sene / and they shall eate the resydue, whiche remayneth vnto you and escaped the hayle / and they shal eate all your grene trees vpon the felde / and they shall fyll thy houses, & all thy seruauntes houses / and the houses of all the Egyptians after suche a maner as neyther thy fathers nor thy fathers fathers haue sene, sythens the tyme they were create vpon the erth vn••o this daye. And he turned hym selfe aboute, and went out from Pharao.
[ B] And Pharaos seruauntes sayde vnto hym: How longe shall we be thus euyll entreated? Let the men go that they may serue the Lorde theyr god: wylt thou not yet knowe that E∣gypte is destroyed? And then Moses & Aaron were brought agayne vnto Pharao, & he sayd vnto them: Go and serue the lorde your god, but who are they that shall go? And Moses answered, we wyll go with yong and old / yea and with our sonnes and wt our doughters / & with our shepe and oxen must we go. For we must holde a feast vnto the Lorde.
[ C] And he sayd vnto them: shall it be so? The Lorde be with you / sholde I let you go / and your chyldren also? Take hede, for ye haue some myschefe in hande. Naye not so, but go ye that are men and serue the Lorde, for that was your desyre. And they thrust them out of Pharaos presence.
And the Lorde sayd vnto Moses: Stretche out thyne hande ouer the lande of Egypte for greshoppers, that they come vpon the lande of Egypt and eate all the herbes of the lande / and all that the hayle lefte vntouched. And Moses stretched forth his rod ouer the lande of Egypte, and the Lorde broughte an east wynde vpon the lande, all that daye and all [ D] nyght. And in the mornynge the east wynde brought the greshoppers / and the greshoppers went vp ouer all the land of Egypt and lygh∣ted in all quarters of Egypte very greuously, so that before them were there no suche gres∣hoppers, neither after them shall be. And they couered all the erthe / so that the lande was darke therwith. And they are all the herbes of the lande, and all the frutes of the trees which the hayle had left, so that there was no grene thyng lefte in the trees and herbes of the felde through all the lande of Egypte.
Then Pharao called for Moses and Aaron [ E] in haste and sayd: I haue synned agaynst the Lorde your God, and agaynst you. Forgyue me yet my synne onely this ones, and pray vn∣to the Lorde your God, that he may take a∣way from me this deth only. And he went out from Pharao, and prayed vnto the Lord, and the Lorde turned the wynde in to a myghtye stronge weste wynde / and it toke awaye the greshoppers and cast them in to the reed see: so that there was not one greshopper in al the coostes of Egypte. But the Lorde harde∣ned Pharaos herte, so that he wolde not let the chyldren of Israel go.
And the Lorde sayd vnto Moses: Stretche out thy hand vnto heuen / & let there be dark∣nesse vpon the lande of Egypt, euen that they may grope the darknes. And Moses stretched forthe his hande vnto heuen, and there was a thycke darkenes vpon the lande of Egypt .iii. dayes long, so that no man sawe an other nei∣ther rose vp from the place where he was by the space of .iij. dayes / but all the children of Is∣rael had lyght where they dwelled.
Then Pharao called for Moses and sayde: [ F] Go and serue the Lorde, onely let your shepe and your oxen abyde, but let your chyldren go with you. And Moses answered: thou muste gyue vs also offringes and burnt offrynges for to sacrifyce vnto the Lorde our God: our ca∣tell therfore shall go with vs / and there shall not one hofe be lefte behynde, for therof must we take to serue the Lorde our God. Moreo∣uer we can not know wherwith we shal serue the Lorde, tyll we come thyther. [ G]
But the Lorde hardened Pharaos herte, so that he wolde not let them go. And Pharao sayd vnto him: get the from me and take hede to thy selfe that thou se my face no more. For when so euer thou commest in my syght / thou shalt dye. And Moses sayd: Let it be as thou hast sayd: I wyll se thy face no more.