Dual Panel1The LORD answered, “See now, I have made you like a god for Pharaoh, with your brother Aaron as your spokesman.
2Tell Aaron all I command you to say, and he will tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave his country.
3But I shall make him stubborn, and though I show sign after sign and portent after portent in the land of Egypt,
4Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I shall assert my power in Egypt, and with mighty acts of judgement I shall bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt in their tribal hosts.
5When I exert my power against Egypt and bring the Israelites out from there, then the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.”
6Moses and Aaron did exactly as the LORD had commanded.
7At the time when they spoke to Pharaoh, Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three.
8The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
9“If Pharaoh demands some portent from you, then you, Moses, must say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh,’ and it will turn into a serpent.”
10When Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, they did as the LORD had told them; Aaron threw down his staff in front of Pharaoh and his courtiers, and it turned into a serpent.
11At this, Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians did the same thing by their spells:
12every man threw his staff down, and each staff turned into a serpent. But Aaron's staff swallowed up theirs.
13Pharaoh, however, was obstinate; as the LORD had foretold, he would not listen to Moses and Aaron.
14The LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh has been obdurate: he has refused to let the people go.
15In the morning go to him on his way out to the river. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take with you the staff that turned into a snake.
16Say to him: ‘The LORD the God of the Hebrews sent me with this message for you: Let my people go in order to worship me in the wilderness. So far you have not listened.
17Now the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD. With this rod I hold in my hand, I shall strike the water of the Nile and it will be changed into blood.
18The fish will die and the river will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink water from the Nile.’”
19The LORD told Moses to say to Aaron, “Take your staff and stretch your hand out over the waters of Egypt, its rivers and its canals, and over every pool and cistern, to turn them into blood. There will be blood throughout the whole of Egypt, blood even in their wooden bowls and stone jars.”
20Moses and Aaron did as the LORD had commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and his courtiers Aaron lifted his staff and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed to blood.
21The fish died and the river stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood everywhere in Egypt.
22But the Egyptian magicians did the same thing by their spells. So Pharaoh still remained obstinate, as the LORD had foretold, and he did not listen to Moses and Aaron.
23He turned and went into his palace, dismissing the matter from his mind.
24The Egyptians all dug for drinking water round about the river, because they could not drink from the waters of the Nile itself.
25This lasted for seven days from the time when the LORD struck the Nile.