Exodus 7–8

Chapter 7

¹And Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made thee God to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. ²Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. ³And I will render Pharaoh’s heart obdurate, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. ⁴And Pharaoh will not hearken unto you; and I will lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. ⁵And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth my hand on Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them. ⁶And Moses and Aaron did as Jehovah had commanded them: so did they. ⁷And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

⁸And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ⁹When Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, Do a miracle for yourselves, —then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy staff and cast it before Pharaoh—it will become a serpent. ¹⁰And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and did so, as Jehovah had commanded; and Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh, and before his bondmen, and it became a serpent. ¹¹And Pharaoh also called the sages and the sorcerers; and they too, the scribes of Egypt, did so with their enchantments: ¹²they cast down every man his staff, and they became serpents; but Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staves. ¹³And Pharaoh’s heart was stubborn, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had said.

¹⁴And Jehovah said to Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened: he refuseth to let the people go. ¹⁵Go unto Pharaoh in the morning—behold, he will go out unto the water—and take thy stand by the bank of the river in front of him; and take in thy hand the staff that was turned into a serpent. ¹⁶And say unto him, Jehovah the God of the Hebrews has sent me to thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness; but behold, hitherto thou hast not hearkened. ¹⁷Thus saith Jehovah: In this shalt thou know that I am Jehovah—behold, I will smite with the staff that is in my hand upon the water which is in the river, and it shall be turned into blood. ¹⁸And the fish that is in the river shall die; and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink the water out of the river. ¹⁹And Jehovah said to Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy staff, and stretch out thy hand upon the waters of the Egyptians—upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. ²⁰And Moses and Aaron did so, as Jehovah had commanded; and he lifted up the staff, and smote the waters that were in the river before the eyes of Pharaoh, and before the eyes of his bondmen; and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood. ²¹And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river; and the blood was throughout the land of Egypt. ²²And the scribes of Egypt did so with their sorceries; and Pharaoh’s heart was stubborn, neither did he hearken to them, as Jehovah had said. ²³And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and took not this to heart either. ²⁴And all the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river. ²⁵And seven days were fulfilled, after Jehovah had smitten the river.

Chapter 8

¹And Jehovah said to Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith Jehovah: Let my people go, that they may serve me. ²And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. ³And the river shall swarm with frogs, and they shall go up and come into thy house, and into thy bedroom, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy bondmen, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs. ⁴And the frogs shall come up both upon thee and upon thy people, and upon all thy bondmen. ⁵And Jehovah said to Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy hand with thy staff over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt. ⁶And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. ⁷And the scribes did so with their sorceries, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt. ⁸And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat Jehovah, that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to Jehovah. ⁹And Moses said to Pharaoh, Glory over me, for what time shall I intreat for thee, and for thy bondmen, and for thy people, to cut off the frogs from thee and from thy houses; so that they shall remain in the river only? ¹⁰And he said, For to-morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word; that thou mayest know that there is none like Jehovah our God. ¹¹And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy bondmen, and from thy people: they shall remain in the river only. ¹²And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and Moses cried to Jehovah because of the frogs that he had brought against Pharaoh. ¹³And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courts, and out of the fields. ¹⁴And they gathered them in heaps; and the land stank. ¹⁵And Pharaoh saw that there was respite; and he hardened his heart, and hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had said.

¹⁶And Jehovah said to Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy staff, and smite the dust of the earth, and it shall become gnats throughout the land of Egypt. ¹⁷And they did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and smote the dust of the earth, and there arose gnats on man and on beast: all the dust of the land became gnats throughout the land of Egypt. ¹⁸And the scribes did so with their sorceries, to bring forth gnats; but they could not. And the gnats were on man and on beast. ¹⁹Then the scribes said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God! But Pharaoh’s heart was stubborn, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had said.

²⁰And Jehovah said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh—behold, he will go out to the water—and say to him, Thus saith Jehovah, Let my people go, that they may serve me. ²¹For, if thou do not let my people go, behold, I will send dog-flies upon thee, and upon thy bondmen, and upon thy people, and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of dog-flies, and also the ground on which they are. ²²And I will distinguish in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no dog-flies shall be there; that thou mayest know that I Jehovah am in the midst of the land. ²³And I will put a separation between my people and thy people; to-morrow shall this sign be. ²⁴And Jehovah did so; and there came dog-flies in a multitude into the house of Pharaoh, and into the houses of his bondmen; and throughout the land of Egypt, the land was corrupted by the dog-flies. ²⁵And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, Go, sacrifice to your God in the land. ²⁶And Moses said, It is not proper to do so; for we should sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God: lo, if we sacrificed the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, would they not stone us? ²⁷We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Jehovah our God, as he shall command us. ²⁸And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to Jehovah your God in the wilderness; only, go not very far away: intreat for me! ²⁹And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and will intreat Jehovah; and the dog-flies will depart from Pharaoh, from his bondmen, and from his people, to-morrow; only let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to Jehovah. ³⁰And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated Jehovah. ³¹And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the dog-flies from Pharaoh, from his bondmen, and from his people; there remained not one. ³²And Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and would not let the people go.