Exodus 7:8–21

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.