1 The LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.
2 You are to speak everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land.
3 But I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, and I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.
4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my armies, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt with mighty acts of judgment.
5 The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the children of Israel out from among them."
6 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 tells you, 'Show a miracle for yourselves,' say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh,' and it will turn into a serpent."
10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the LORD had commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his servants, and it turned into a serpent.
11 Pharaoh in turn summoned the wise men and sorcerers, and the magicians of Egypt also did the same thing by their secret arts.
12 Each of them threw his staff down, and the staffs turned into serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed theirs.
13 Still Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
14 The LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go.
15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning when he goes out to the water. Wait for him on the bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a snake.
16 Tell him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you to say, "Let my people go, so that they may serve me in the wilderness." Until now you have not listened.
17 This is what the LORD says: "By this you will know that I am the LORD: with the staff in my hand I am going to strike the water of the Nile, and it will turn into blood.
18 The fish in the Nile will die, the Nile will reek, and the Egyptians will find it impossible to drink water from the Nile."'"
19 And the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch your hand out over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, their ponds and every reservoir of water, so that they turn to blood.' There will be blood all over the land of Egypt, even in containers of wood and of stone."
20 Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and his servants he raised the staff and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned to blood.
21 The fish in the Nile died, and the Nile reeked so badly that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in the land of Egypt.
22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same thing by their secret arts, so Pharaoh's heart remained hard, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
23 Pharaoh turned away and went into his palace, and he paid no attention even to this.
24 All the Egyptians dug along the Nile for drinking water, since they could not drink the water of the Nile.
25 Seven days passed after the LORD struck the Nile.