1Then Yahweh said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.
2You shall speak all that I command you, and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, so that he sends the sons of Israel out of his land.
3But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and I will multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
4Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring out my hosts, my people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt with great judgments.
5And Egypt will know that I am Yahweh when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from among them.”
6And Moses and Aaron did so; just as Yahweh commanded them, so they did.
7Now Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.
8Then Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron,
9“When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Perform a wonder for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a serpent.’”
10So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as Yahweh commanded. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
11Then Pharaoh also summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they too—the magicians of Egypt—did the same with their secret arts.
12Each one threw down his staff, and they became serpents; but Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.
13Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, just as Yahweh had said.
14Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is heavy; he refuses to let the people go.
15Go to Pharaoh in the morning; behold, he is going out to the water. Station yourself to meet him on the bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was turned into a snake.
16And you shall say to him, ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness”; but behold, until now you have not listened.
17Thus says Yahweh: “By this you shall know that I am Yahweh: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I am about to strike the water that is in the Nile, and it will be turned to blood.
18The fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink water from the Nile.”’”
19Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over their rivers, over their canals, over their ponds, and over all their reservoirs of water—that they may become blood.’ So there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and vessels of stone.”
20And Moses and Aaron did so, just as Yahweh commanded. He lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood.
21And the fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile; and the blood was throughout all the land of Egypt.
22But the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, just as Yahweh had said.
23Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart.
24And all the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink, because they could not drink from the water of the Nile.
25Seven days were completed after Yahweh had struck the Nile.
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