Exodus 7:1-25

7  And Jehovah said to Moses “See, I make you a god to the Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2  You shall speak everything that I commission you to, and your brother Aaron shall speak to the Pharaoh, and he shall let the sons of Israel go out of Egypt. 3  But I will make the Pharaoh obstinate, and will multiply my tokens and miracles in Egypt 4  and the Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will put my hand on Egypt and bring out of Egypt by great judgments my armies, my people, the sons of Israel; 5  and the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah when I stretch my hand out over Egypt and bring the sons of Israel out from among them.” 6  And Moses and Aaron did it: as Jehovah had commanded them, so they did. 7  And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to the Pharaoh. 8  And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron 9  “When the Pharaoh tells you ‘Present a miracle,’ say to Aaron ‘Take your stick and throw it down before the Pharaoh to become a dragon.’” 10  And Moses and Aaron went in to the Pharaoh and did so, as Jehovah had ordered, and Aaron threw down his stick before the Pharaoh and his officers, and it became a dragon. 11  And the Pharaoh summoned the sages and the wizards, and they too, the scholars of Egypt, did the like by their occult arts, 12  and each threw down his stick and they became dragons. And Aaron’s stick swallowed theirs; 13  but the Pharaoh was headstrong and would not listen to them, as Jehovah had predicted. 14  And Jehovah said to Moses “The Pharaoh is haughty, he refuses to let the people go. 15  Go to the Pharaoh in the morning; you will find him coming out to the water, and you shall take your stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him; and you shall take in your hand the stick that was turned to a snake. 16  And say to him ‘Jehovah, the Hebrews’ God, sent us to you with the message “Let my people go to worship me in the wilderness”; and here you have not listened till now. 17  Says Jehovah, By this you shall know that I am Jehovah. I am going to strike with the stick I have in my hand on the water in the Nile, and it shall turn to blood, 18  and the fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile shall smell, and the Egyptians shall try in vain to drink Nile water.’” 19 * And Jehovah said to Moses “Say to Aaron ‘Take your stick and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, its streams, its arms of the Nile, and its pools, and everything in it that holds water, and have it become blood; and it shall become blood throughout Egypt, both in its natural places and in wood and stone.” 20  And Moses and Aaron did so, as Jehovah had ordered; and he swung the stick high and struck the water in the Nile in sight of the Pharaoh and of his officers, and all the water in the Nile turned to blood. 21  And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile smelled, and the Egyptians could not drink Nile water, and the blood was all through Egypt. 22  And the scholars of Egypt did the like by their occult arts, and the Pharaoh was headstrong and would not listen to them, as Jehovah had predicted; 23  and the Pharaoh turned round and went into his palace, and disregarded this too. 24  And all the Egyptians dug around the Nile for drinking-water, because they could not drink the Nile water. 25  And a week elapsed after Jehovah struck the Nile;

Footnotes

7:19 Lit. throughout Egypt and in wood and in stone