¹⁷ But take this staff^(A) in your hand^(B) so you can perform the signs^(C) with it.”

²⁰ So Moses took his wife and sons,^(A) put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff^(B) of God in his hand.

¹⁸ He said, “What pledge should I give you?”

“Your seal^(A) and its cord, and the staff^(B) in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.^(C)

¹⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff^(A) and stretch out your hand^(B) 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.”

⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff^(A) over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs^(B) come up on the land of Egypt.’”

The Plague of Gnats

¹⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff^(A) and strike the dust of the ground,’ and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.”

¹⁶ Raise your staff^(A) and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water^(B) so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.

²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand^(A) over the sea,^(B) and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind^(C) and turned it into dry land.^(D) The waters were divided,^(E)

⁵ The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff^(A) with which you struck the Nile,^(B) and go. ⁶ I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb.^(C) Strike^(D) the rock, and water^(E) will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.