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the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 You are to say whatever I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you. Then I will lay My hand on Egypt and through great acts of judgment I will bring out My people the Israelites, company by company, out of the land of Egypt. 5 And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out My hand against Egypt, and bring out the Israelites from among them.”
6 So Moses and Aaron did this; they did just as the Lord commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.
8 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle’, then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff on throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake’.”
10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. 11 But Pharaoh summoned the wise men and sorcerers, and the magicians of Egypt also did the same things by their secret arts. 12 Each one threw down his staff, and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is walking out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him: ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews has sent me to say to you: “Let My people go, so that they may worship Me in the wilderness”. But until now you have not listened. 17 This is what the Lord says: “By this you will know that I am the Lord: Watch, with the staff in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink, and the Egyptians will not be able to drink the water of the river” ’.”
19 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron: ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the rivers and canals, over the ponds, and over all the reservoirs of water—and they will turn to blood. There will be blood throughout the whole land of Egypt, even in wooden buckets and stone containers’.”
20 So Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. He raised his staff and struck the water in the Nile in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials, and all water was changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad the Egyptians could not drink water from it. There was blood throughout the land of Egypt.
22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same things by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. 23 Pharaoh turned around and went back to his palace, and he did not take even this to heart. 24 Ans all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, because they could not drink the water from the river. 25 Seven days passed after the Lord struck the Nile.