Exodus 7

¹And the Lord said to Moses , See , I have made you like God to Pharaoh , and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet .

²You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land .

³But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart , and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt ,

⁴Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts , my people the children of Israel , out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment .

⁵The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.

⁶Moses and Aaron did so ; they did just as the Lord commanded them.

⁷Now Moses was eighty years old , and Aaron eighty-three years old , when they spoke to Pharaoh .

⁸Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron ,

⁹When Pharaoh says to you, Prove yourselves by working a miracle , then you shall say to Aaron , Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh , that it may become a serpent .

¹⁰So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded . Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants , and it became a serpent .

¹¹Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers , and they, the magicians of Egypt , also did the same by their secret arts .

¹²For each man cast down his staff , and they became serpents . But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs .

¹³Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened , and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said .

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses , Pharaoh’s heart is hardened ; he refuses to let the people go .

¹⁵Go to Pharaoh in the morning , as he is going out to the water . Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him , and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent .

¹⁶And you shall say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews , sent me to you, saying , Let my people go , that they may serve me in the wilderness . But so far , you have not obeyed .

¹⁷Thus says the Lord, By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile , and it shall turn into blood .

¹⁸The fish in the Nile shall die , and the Nile will stink , and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile .

¹⁹And the Lord said to Moses , Say to Aaron , Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt , over their rivers , their canals , and their ponds , and all their pools of water , so that they may become blood , and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt , even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone .

²⁰Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded . In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile , and all the water in the Nile turned into blood .

²¹And the fish in the Nile died , and the Nile stank , so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile . There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt .

²²But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts . So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened , and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said .

²³Pharaoh turned and went into his house , and he did not take even this to heart .

²⁴And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink , for they could not drink the water of the Nile .

²⁵Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile .