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6Aaron obeyed, and suddenly frogs were everywhere in Egypt.
7But the magicians used their secret powers to do the same thing.
8The king sent for Moses and Aaron and told them, “If you ask the Lord to take these frogs away from me and my people, I will let your people go and offer sacrifices to him.”
9“All right,” Moses answered. “You choose the time when I am to pray for the frogs to stop bothering you, your officials, and your people, and for them to leave your houses and be found only in the river.”
10“Do it tomorrow!” the king replied.
“As you wish,” Moses agreed. “Then everyone will discover that there is no god like the Lord ,
11and frogs will no longer be found anywhere, except in the Nile.”
12After Moses and Aaron left the palace, Moses begged the Lord to do something about the frogs he had sent as punishment for the king.
13The Lord listened to Moses, and the frogs died everywhere—in houses, yards, and fields.
14The dead frogs were placed in piles, and the whole country began to stink.
15But when the king saw that things were now better, he again did just as the Lord had said he would and stubbornly refused to listen to Moses and Aaron.
16The Lord said to Moses, “Command Aaron to strike the ground with his walking stick, and everywhere in Egypt the dust will turn into gnats.”
17They obeyed, and when Aaron struck the ground with the stick, gnats started swarming on people and animals. In fact, every speck of dust in Egypt turned into a gnat.
18When the magicians tried to use their secret powers to do this, they failed, and gnats stayed on people and animals.[#8.18 Or “to get rid of the gnats.”]
19The magicians told the king, “God has done this.”[#Lk 11.20.; #8.19 See the note at 1.11.]
But, as the Lord had said, the king was too stubborn to listen.
20The Lord said to Moses:
24The Lord kept his promise—the palace and the homes of the royal officials swarmed with flies, and the rest of the country was infested with them as well.
25Then the king sent for Moses and Aaron and told them, “Go ahead and sacrifice to your God, but stay here in Egypt.”
26“That's impossible!” Moses replied. “Any sacrifices we offer to the Lord our God would disgust the Egyptians, and they would stone us to death.
27No indeed! The Lord has ordered us to walk three days into the desert before offering sacrifices to him, and that's what we have to do.”
28Then the king told him, “I'll let you go into the desert to offer sacrifices, if you don't go very far. But in the meantime, pray for me.”
29“Your Majesty,” Moses replied, “I'll pray for you as soon as I leave, and by tomorrow the flies will stop bothering you, your officials, and the citizens of your country. Only make sure that you're telling the truth this time and that you really intend to let our people offer sacrifices to the Lord .”
30After leaving the palace, Moses prayed,
31and the Lord answered his prayer. Not a fly was left to pester the king, his officials, or anyone else in Egypt.
32But the king turned stubborn again and would not let the people go.