Exodus 7:8–21

Provision of a Wonder: Aaron’s Staff Becomes a Snake

⁸And Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ⁹“When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Do a wonder for yourselves,’ you will say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.’ ” ¹⁰And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and they did so, as Yahweh had commanded. And Aaron threw his staff before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a snake.

¹¹And Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did likewise with their secret arts. ¹²Each threw down his staff, and they became snakes, and Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³And Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not listen to them, as Yahweh had said.

Plague One: Blood

¹⁴And Yahweh said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is insensitive;^f he refuses to release the people. ¹⁵Go to Pharaoh in the morning. Look, he is going out to the water, and you must wait to meet him on the bank of the Nile, and you must take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. ¹⁶And you must say to him, ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, “Release my people that they may serve me in the desert, and, look, you have not listened until now.” ¹⁷Thus says Yahweh, “By this you will know that I am Yahweh. Look, I am about to strike with the staff that is in my hand the water that is in the Nile, and it will be changed to blood. ¹⁸And the fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink water from the Nile.” ’ ”

¹⁹And Yahweh said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch your hand out over the waters of Egypt and over their rivers, over their canals, and over their pools and over all of their reservoirs of water, so that they become blood,’ and blood will be in all the land of Egypt and in vessels of wood and of stone.”

²⁰And Moses and Aaron did so, as Yahweh had commanded, and he raised the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile before the eyes of Pharaoh and before the eyes of his servants, and all of the water that was in the Nile was changed to blood. ²¹And the fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, and the Egyptians were not able to drink water from the Nile, and the blood was in all the land of Egypt.