1   The Lord answered Moses, ‘See now, I have made you like a god for Pharaoh, with your brother Aaron as your spokesman. ^note 2   You must tell your brother Aaron all I bid you say, and he will tell Pharaoh, and Pharaoh will let the Israelites go out of his country; 3   but I will make him stubborn. Then will I show sign after sign and portent after portent in the land of Egypt. 4   But Pharaoh will not listen to you, so I will assert my power in Egypt, and with mighty acts of judgement I will bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt in their tribal hosts. 5   When I put forth my power against the Egyptians and bring the Israelites out from them, then Egypt will know that I am the Lord.’ 6   So Moses and Aaron did exactly as the Lord had commanded. 7   At the time when they spoke to Pharaoh, Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three.

8    9   The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘If Pharaoh demands some portent from you, then you, Moses, must say to Aaron, “Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and it will turn into a serpent.”’ 10   When Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, they did as the Lord had told them. Aaron threw down his staff in front of Pharaoh and his courtiers, and it turned into a serpent. 11   At this, Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians

Israel enslaved in Egypt too did the same thing by their spells. 12   Every man threw his staff down, and each staff turned into a serpent; but Aaron's staff swallowed up theirs. 13   Pharaoh, however, was obstinate; as the Lord had foretold, he would not listen to Moses and Aaron.

14   Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh is obdurate: he has refused to set the people free. 15   Go to him in the morning on his way out to the river. Stand and wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take with you the staff that turned into a snake. 16   Say this to him: “The Lord the God of the Hebrews sent me to bid you let his people go in order to worship him in the wilderness. So far you have not listened to his words; 17   so now the Lord says, ‘By this you shall know that I am the Lord.’ With this rod that I have in my hand, I shall now strike the water in the Nile and it will be changed into blood. 18   The fish will die and the river will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink water from the Nile.”’ 19   The Lord then told Moses to say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch your hand out over the waters of Egypt, its rivers and its streams, and over every pool and cistern, to turn them into blood. There shall be blood throughout the whole of Egypt, blood even in their wooden bowls and jars of stone.’ 20   So Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded. He lifted up his staff and struck the water of the Nile in the sight of Pharaoh and his courtiers, and all the water was changed into blood. 21   The fish died and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood everywhere in Egypt. 22   But the Egyptian magicians did the same thing by their spells; and still Pharaoh remained obstinate, as the Lord had foretold, and did not listen to Moses and Aaron. 23   He turned away, went into his house and dismissed the matter from his mind. 24   Then the Egyptians all dug for drinking water round about the river, because they could not drink from the waters of the Nile itself. 25   This lasted for seven days from the time when the Lord struck the Nile.

Previous section

Next section