“I held back the rain from you three months before harvest time. Then I let it rain on one city but not on another. Rain fell on one field, but another field got none and dried up.
But I will not treat the Israelites the same as the Egyptian people. There will not be any flies in the land of Goshen, where my people live. By this you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land.
Do foreign idols have the power to bring rain? Does the sky itself have the power to send down showers? No, it is you, Lord our God. You are our only hope, because you are the one who made all these things.
The important men send their servants to get water. They go to the wells, but they find no water. So they return with empty jars. They are ashamed and embarrassed and cover their heads in shame.
So the rain has not come, and there have not been any spring rains. But your face still looks like the face of a prostitute. You refuse even to be ashamed of what you did.
So be happy, people of Jerusalem; be joyful in the Lord your God. Because he does what is right, he has brought you rain; he has sent the fall rain and the spring rain for you, as before.
Who says you are better than others? What do you have that was not given to you? And if it was given to you, why do you brag as if you did not receive it as a gift?
If you do, the Lord will become angry with you and will shut the heavens so it will not rain. Then the land will not grow crops, and you will soon die in the good land the Lord is giving you.
These witnesses have the power to stop the sky from raining during the time they are prophesying. And they have power to make the waters become blood, and they have power to send every kind of trouble to the earth as many times as they want.