Lexicon :: Strong's G3756 - ou

The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”

Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand.

So Moses thought, “I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up? ”

“However, I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go, even under force from a strong hand.

“And I will give these people such favor with the Egyptians that when you go, you will not go empty-handed.

But Moses replied to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent ​— ​either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant ​— ​because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish.”[fn]

The LORD said to him, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Isn’t Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, he is on his way now to meet you. He will rejoice when he sees you.

The LORD instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, make sure you do before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart[fn] so that he won’t let the people go.

“But require the same quota of bricks from them as they were making before; do not reduce it. For they are slackers ​— ​that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’

“Go get straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’ ”

Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s slave drivers had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why haven’t you finished making your prescribed number of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before? ”

“No straw has been given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks! ’ Look, your servants are being beaten, but it is your own people who are at fault.”

“Now get to work. No straw will be given to you, but you must produce the same quantity of bricks.”

The Israelite foremen saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You cannot reduce your daily quota of bricks.”

“Ever since I went in to Pharaoh to speak in your name he has caused trouble for this people, and you haven’t rescued your people at all.”

Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor.

But Moses said in the LORD’s presence, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, then how will Pharaoh listen to me, since I am such a poor speaker? ”[fn]

However, Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

“Tell him: The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you: Let my people go, so that they may worship[fn] me in the wilderness. But so far you have not listened.

“The fish in the Nile will die, the river will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink water from it.”

The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad the Egyptians could not drink water from it. There was blood throughout the land of Egypt.

But the magicians of Egypt did the same thing by their occult practices. So Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

Pharaoh turned around, went into his palace, and didn’t take even this to heart.

All the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink because they could not drink the water from the river.

But when Pharaoh saw there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

The magicians tried to produce gnats using their occult practices, but they could not. The gnats remained on people and animals.

“This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

“But on that day I will give special treatment to the land of Goshen, where my people are living; no flies will be there. This way you will know that I, the LORD, am in the land.

But Moses said, “It would not be right[fn] to do that, because what we will sacrifice to the LORD our God is detestable to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what the Egyptians detest in front of them, won’t they stone us?

Pharaoh responded, “I will let you go and sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness, but don’t go very far. Make an appeal for me.”

The LORD did as Moses had said: He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, his officials, and his people; not one was left.

But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also and did not let the people go.

The LORD did this the next day. All the Egyptian livestock died, but none among the Israelite livestock died.

Pharaoh sent messengers who saw that not a single one of the Israelite livestock was dead. But Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not let the people go.

The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians as well as on all the Egyptians.

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had told Moses.

“For this time I am about to send all my plagues against you,[fn] your officials, and your people. Then you will know there is no one like me on the whole earth.

“Tomorrow at this time I will rain down the worst hail that has ever occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.

The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.