Exodus 7–8

Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh

7And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like ^oGod to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your ^pprophet. ^2qYou 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 ^rI will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I ^smultiply 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 ^tshall 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 ^ueighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

⁸Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹“When Pharaoh says to you, ^v‘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 ^wmagicians of Egypt, also ^xdid 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 ^rPharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, ^ras the Lord had said.

The First Plague: Water Turned to Blood

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. ^15yGo to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water, and stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him. Take in your hand ^zthe staff that turned into a ^aserpent. ¹⁶And you shall say to him, ‘The ^bLord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, ^cthat they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. ¹⁷Thus says the Lord, “By this ^dyou 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 ^eit shall turn into blood. ¹⁸The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will ^fgrow weary of drinking water from the Nile.” ’ ” ¹⁹And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and ^gstretch 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 ^hlifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the ⁱwater in the Nile turned into blood. ²¹And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians ^jcould not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. ²²But ^kthe magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So ^lPharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as ^mthe 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.

The Second Plague: Frogs

8¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that ⁿthey may serve me. ²But if you ^orefuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with ^pfrogs. ³The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into ^qyour bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people,² and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. ⁴The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.” ’ ” ⁵³ And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ^r‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’ ” ⁶So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and ^sthe frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. ⁷But ^tthe magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

⁸Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, ^u“Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and ^vI will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” ⁹Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when ^uI am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” ¹⁰And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so ^wthat you may know that ^xthere is no one like the Lord our God. ¹¹The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile.” ¹²So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh.^{4 13}And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. ¹⁴And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. ¹⁵But when Pharaoh saw that there was a ^yrespite, he ^zhardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

The Third Plague: Gnats

¹⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ^a‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’ ” ¹⁷And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and ^bthere were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. ¹⁸The ^cmagicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. ¹⁹Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is ^dthe finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

The Fourth Plague: Flies

²⁰Then the Lord said to Moses, ^e“Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, ^f“Let my people go, that they may serve me. ²¹Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. ²²But on that day ^gI will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, ^hthat you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.^{5 23}Thus I will put a division⁶ between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.” ’ ” ²⁴And the Lord did so. ⁱThere came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants’ houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies.

²⁵Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” ²⁶But Moses said, “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an ^jabomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings ^jabominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? ²⁷We must go ^kthree days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God ^las he tells us.” ²⁸So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. ^mPlead for me.” ²⁹Then Moses said, “Behold, I am going out from you and I will plead with the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh ⁿcheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” ³⁰So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. ³¹And the Lord did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained. ³²But Pharaoh ^ohardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.