Study Desk

If they will not believe even these two signs or heed you, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground."

Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, "Please let me go back to my kindred in Egypt and see whether they are still living." And Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."

On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord met him and tried to kill him.

The people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had given heed to the Israelites and that he had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "Thus says the Lord , the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.'"

Pharaoh continued, "Now they are more numerous than the people of the land and yet you want them to stop working!"

But you shall require of them the same quantity of bricks as they have made previously; do not diminish it, for they are lazy; that is why they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.'

Let heavier work be laid on them; then they will labor at it and pay no attention to deceptive words."

As they left Pharaoh, they came upon Moses and Aaron who were waiting to meet them.

They said to them, "The Lord look upon you and judge! You have brought us into bad odor with Pharaoh and his officials, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."

Moses told this to the Israelites; but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.

It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, the same Moses and Aaron.

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

Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts.

Each one threw down his staff, and they became snakes; but Aaron's staff swallowed up theirs.

The Lord said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over its rivers, its canals, and its ponds, and all its pools of water—so that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout the whole land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.'"

And all the Egyptians had to dig along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the river.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord : Let my people go, so that they may worship me.

The river shall swarm with frogs; they shall come up into your palace, into your bedchamber and your bed, and into the houses of your officials and of your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls.