² Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,”^(A) he replied.

⁹ “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,^(A)’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”^(B)

¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. ¹¹ Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers,^(C) and the Egyptian magicians^(D) also did the same things by their secret arts:^{(E) 12} Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³ Yet Pharaoh’s heart^(F) became hard and he would not listen^(G) to them, just as the Lord had said.

The Plague of Blood

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding;^(H) he refuses to let the people go. ¹⁵ Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river.^(I) Confront him on the bank of the Nile,^(J) 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^(K) me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened.^{(L) 17} This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord:^(M) With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.^{(N) 18} The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink;^(O) the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.’”^(P)

¹⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff^(Q) and stretch out your hand^(R) over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs—and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels^[a] of wood and stone.”

²⁰ Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded.^(S) He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile,^(T) and all the water was changed into blood.^(U)

²³ When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder^(A) and hail,^(B) and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt;

¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff^(A) over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts;^(B)

The Plague of Darkness

²¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness^(A) spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.” ²² So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness^(B) covered all Egypt for three days.