﻿Exodus.
Chapter 7.
The LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 
You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh, so that he may let the Israelites go out of his land. 
I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. 
Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my armies, my people the Israelites, out of the land of Egypt with great judgments. 
The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand over Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.” 
Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded them; so they did. 
Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh. 
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 
“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a wonder,’ you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.’” 
Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. 
Pharaoh also called for the wise men and sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their enchantments. 
Each threw down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs. 
Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said. 
The LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go. 
Go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was turned into a serpent. 
Say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, so that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But until now you have not listened. 
Thus says the LORD: “By this you shall know that I am the LORD. I am about to strike the water in the Nile with the staff in my hand, and it shall turn to blood. 
The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile shall stink, and the Egyptians will struggle to drink water from the Nile.”’” 
The LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood. There shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in containers of wood and stone.’” 
Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded. He raised the staff and struck the water in the Nile before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water in the Nile turned to blood. 
The fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, and the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 
The magicians of Egypt did the same by their enchantments. Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said. 
Pharaoh turned and went into his house. He did not take even this to heart. 
All the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile. 
Seven days passed after the LORD struck the Nile. 
