Exodus 7

God Commands Moses and Aaron

¹Yahweh answered Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. ²You are to speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land.

• EX 7:1[FULFILLS]God told Moses Pharaoh would refuse but Israel would leave with Egyptian wealth ← EX 3:18-22

³But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I will multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, ⁴Pharaoh will not listen to you.

Then I will lay My hand on Egypt, and by mighty acts of judgment I will bring the divisions of My people the Israelites out of the land of Egypt. ⁵And the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh, when I stretch out My hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.”

⁶So Moses and Aaron did just as Yahweh had commanded them. ⁷Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Aaron’s Staff

⁸Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹“When Pharaoh tells you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ you are to say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a serpent.”

¹⁰So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as Yahweh had commanded. Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent.

¹¹But Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same things by their magic arts. ¹²Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up the other staffs.

• EX 7:11[DEMONIC]Pharaoh's magicians copy the sign by their secret arts

¹³Still, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as Yahweh had said.

The First Plague: Blood

¹⁴Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. ¹⁵Go to Pharaoh in the morning as you see him 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. ¹⁶Then say to him, ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened. ¹⁷This is what Yahweh says: By this you will know that I am Yahweh. Behold, with the staff in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will turn to blood. ¹⁸The fish in the Nile will die, the river will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink its water.’”

• EX 7:17[PROPHECY]The Nile would be turned to blood → EX 7:20-21

¹⁹And Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over their rivers and canals and ponds and all the reservoirs—that they may become blood.’ There will be blood throughout the land of Egypt, even in the vessels of wood and stone.”

• EX 7:19[ALLUDED TO]The New Testament refers to this → REV 11:6

²⁰Moses and Aaron did just as Yahweh had commanded; in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials, Aaron raised the staff and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was turned to blood. ²¹The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. And there was blood throughout the land of Egypt.

• EX 7:20[MIRACLE]The Nile turns to blood
• EX 7:20[FULFILLS]The Nile would be turned to blood ← EX 7:17
• EX 7:20[FIELD NOTES]See the Ipuwer Papyrus Field Notes page.

²²But the magicians of Egypt did the same things by their magic arts. So Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as Yahweh had said. ²³Instead, Pharaoh turned around, went into his palace, and did not take any of this to heart. ²⁴So all the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink, because they could not drink the water from the river.

• EX 7:22[DEMONIC]Egypt's magicians copy the water turning to blood

²⁵And seven full days passed after Yahweh had struck the Nile.