Study Desk

So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said, "A bridegroom of blood," referring to the circumcision.)

The Lord said to Aaron, "Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and greeted him with a kiss.

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "Thus says the Lord , the God of Israel, ‘Release my people so that they may hold a pilgrim feast to me in the desert.'"

And they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a three-day journey into the desert so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or the sword."

Make the work harder for the men so they will keep at it and pay no attention to lying words!"

So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said, "Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I am not giving you straw.

So the people spread out through all the land of Egypt to collect stubble for straw.

So now, get back to work! You will not be given straw, but you must still produce your quota of bricks!"

and they said to them, "May the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the opinion of Pharaoh and his servants, so that you have given them an excuse to kill us!"

So the Lord said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

And Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them.

When Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, they did so, just as the Lord had commanded them—Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a snake.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over Egypt's waters—over their rivers, over their canals, over their ponds, and over all their reservoirs—so that it becomes blood.' There will be blood everywhere in the land of Egypt, even in wooden and stone containers."

Moses and Aaron did so, just as the Lord had commanded. Moses raised the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile right before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood.

When the fish that were in the Nile died, the Nile began to stink, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood everywhere in the land of Egypt!

But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts, and so Pharaoh's heart remained hard, and he refused to listen to Moses and Aaron—just as the Lord had predicted.

So Aaron extended his hand over the waters of Egypt, and frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.

Moses said to Pharaoh, "You may have the honor over me—when shall I pray for you, your servants, and your people, for the frogs to be removed from you and your houses, so that they will be left only in the Nile?"

He said, "Tomorrow." And Moses said, "It will be as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.

They did so; Aaron extended his hand with his staff, he struck the dust of the ground, and it became gnats on people and on animals. All the dust of the ground became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.