Now HaShem told Moshe and Aharon to warn Paraoh that the next plague would be as terrifying as all of the other ones combined!
Moshe scratched a line on the wall inside Paraoh's palace and said, "At this time tomorrow, the sun that shines in that window will reach this line. When it does, HaShem will send an enormous hailstorm. It will be a storm like you've never seen before -- and will never see again!"
The next day, Moshe reached his hand toward the sky, and -- BOOM! There was thunder and lightning, and then came hailstones -- bigger than golf balls, bigger than baseballs, even bigger than basketballs! Mixed in with the blocks of falling ice was fire, which miraculously did not melt the hail.
Any person or animal that was outside while the storm was raging was killed. (Egyptians who believed that HaShem was the One sending the plagues saved themselves by staying indoors and keeping their animals safely inside with them.) Even the Egyptians' trees and plants were ruined by the pounding hail and the burning fire. But there was no hail at all in Goshen.
Paraoh called for Moshe and Aharon to come to his palace. "I can't take it anymore!" he cried. "Tell HaShem to stop this bizarre hailstorm. I have sinned, and HaShem is fair and good. He is right -- my people and I deserve to be punished! I WILL let the Jews go! I promise! Now make that hail go away... please!"
So Moshe left the palace and went outside of the city. He prayed to HaShem to stop the thunder and the ice and the fire -- and the storm came to a sudden end. Even hailstones that were already on their way down from the sky stopped in mid-air and never hit the ground!
