The Authentication of the Word

6:28 43 When44 the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, 6:29 he said to him,45 “I am the Lord. Tell46 Pharaoh king of Egypt all that47 I am telling48 you.” 6:30 But Moses said before the Lord, “Since I speak with difficulty,49 why should Pharaoh listen to me?”

7:1 So the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God1 to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.2 7:2 You are to speak3 everything I command you,4 and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh that he must release5 the Israelites from his land. 7:3 But I will harden6 Pharaoh’s heart, and although I will multiply7 my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt, 7:4 Pharaoh will not listen to you.8 I will reach into9 Egypt and bring out my regiments,10 my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment. 7:5 Then11 the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I extend my hand12 over Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.

7:6 And Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. 7:7 Now Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.

7:8 The Lord said13 to Moses and Aaron,14 7:9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Do15 a miracle,’ and you say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down16 before Pharaoh,’ it will become17 a snake.” 7:10 When18 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, they did so, just as the Lord had commanded them—Aaron threw19 down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a snake.20 7:11 Then Pharaoh also summoned wise men and sorcerers,21 and the magicians22 of Egypt by their secret arts23 did the same thing. 7:12 Each man24 threw down his staff, and the staffs became snakes. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 7:13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard,25 and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.