Exodus 7:17–24

¹⁷‘Thus says the Lord, “^aBy this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, I will strike ¹the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and ^bit will be turned to blood.

¹⁸“^aThe fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will ¹become foul, and the Egyptians will ^2bfind difficulty in drinking water from the Nile.” ’ ”

¹⁹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and ^astretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their ¹streams, and over their pools, and over all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’ ”

²⁰So Moses and Aaron did even as the Lord had commanded. And he lifted up ^1athe staff and struck the water that was in the Nile, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and ^ball the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood.

²¹The fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile ¹became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was through all the land of Egypt.

^22aBut the ¹magicians of Egypt did ²the same with their secret arts; and Pharaoh’s heart was ³hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

²³Then Pharaoh turned and went into his house ¹with no concern even for this.

²⁴So all the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water of the Nile.