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Exodus 7

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And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

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Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.

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And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

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But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

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And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

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

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And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.

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And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

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When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.

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And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

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Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.

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For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

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And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.

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And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.

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Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.

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And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.

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Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

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And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.

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And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.

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And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

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And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

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And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the Lord had said.

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And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.

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And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.

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And seven days were fulfilled, after that the Lord had smitten the river.

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Exodus 7

Exodus 7 opens the contest between the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt, and the opening move is a declaration of sovereignty: I have made you like God to Pharaoh. Moses is eighty, Aaron eighty-three. When Aaron's staff becomes a serpent and the Egyptian magicians replicate the sign, Aaron's serpent swallows theirs — a small but decisive preview of what is coming. Then the first plague begins: the Nile turns to blood. Every water source in Egypt — the river the Egyptians called a god, the source of their agricultural life — becomes blood. Fish die. The water is undrinkable. Yet Pharaoh's magicians replicate this too, Pharaoh's heart remains hard, and he walks away. The hardening of Pharaoh's heart, which will recur throughout the plague narrative, is both a judicial act — God confirming a direction Pharaoh has already chosen — and a theological statement about how resistance to God eventually becomes its own punishment. Romans 9:17 quotes God's purpose in raising up Pharaoh: that His name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

Exodus 7:1

The Lord said to Moses: see, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. The language is extraordinary — Moses is designated as like God before Pharaoh, and Aaron as his prophet, his mouthpiece. The structure mirrors the divine arrangement: as God speaks and prophets deliver His word, so Moses receives and Aaron declares. The relationship being described here is not one of equals but of source and voice. John 1:1 describes the Word in relation to God before creation: the same logic of delegated authority, the word going out from the source. Moses will be to Pharaoh what God is to Moses — the originating authority whose word must be reckoned with. This elevation does not make Moses divine; it makes him the representative of the divine in the most consequential negotiation of the ancient world.

Exodus 7:2

You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. The same charge given in 6:29 — say everything I tell you — is here distributed across the partnership: Moses receives, Aaron delivers. The chain of transmission is clean: God to Moses to Aaron to Pharaoh. Nothing is to be filtered, softened, or embellished. 2 Timothy 4:2 tells Timothy to preach the word in season and out of season — the same charge of complete and faithful transmission regardless of reception. Moses' history of objection has not changed the content of what he is being asked to carry. The message is what it always was: let my people go. The partnership is now fully operational, and the plagues are about to begin.

Exodus 7:3

But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. God states the outcome in advance: Pharaoh will not listen, and God will multiply the signs. The hardening and the multiplication are causally connected — Pharaoh's resistance is the stage on which the signs will be performed, and the signs accumulate in response to the resistance. Romans 9:17 explains the purpose: so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. The plagues are not failed negotiations; they are proclamations. Each one names a different attribute of God's power, dismantles a different Egyptian claim, and contributes to the comprehensive demonstration that the Lord is God. The announcement that Pharaoh will not listen is not a reason for despair; it is the disclosure of the curriculum that is about to be taught to Egypt, Israel, and all who hear the story afterward.

Exodus 7:4

Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. The phrase my divisions — the same word used in Exodus 6:26 and 12:41 for Israel's organized march — reveals that God views the enslaved nation not as a scattered collection of individuals but as a structured people with a military and covenantal formation. My people is possessive and intimate. The mighty acts of judgment are not punishment for its own sake but the force that will pry open a closed system. Ezekiel 20:33–34 uses the same language — with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm I will rule over you — in the context of a new Exodus at the end of history. The pattern of Exodus is understood in Scripture as repeatable and eschatological: what God did in Egypt He will do again, in larger ways, until every captivity is ended.

Exodus 7:5

And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it. The goal of the plagues is knowledge — specifically, the knowledge of the Egyptians that the God of the Hebrews is the Lord. This is mission disguised as judgment. The ten plagues are addressed not only to Israel but to the watching empire. Ezekiel uses the phrase they will know that I am the Lord more than sixty times, always in the context of God acting in history so that nations recognize His identity. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19 is the positive invitation form of the same goal: all nations knowing and acknowledging God. What Egypt learns through judgment, the nations are invited to learn through the gospel. The knowledge is the point — not domination but recognition.

Exodus 7:6

Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. These brief compliance verses are theologically significant — they mark the end of objection and the beginning of action. After five objections, after genealogy, after renewed commission, Moses and Aaron simply do what they were told. Hebrews 11:8 commends Abraham because he obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Moses and Aaron obey and go even though they know exactly how Pharaoh will receive them. Obedience in Scripture is rarely the beginning of certainty; it is more often the proof that faith has decided to move before certainty arrives. The doing just as commanded refrain will appear eleven more times in the construction of the tabernacle in Exodus 39–40. Faithfulness in confronting Pharaoh and faithfulness in building the sanctuary are the same act — the alignment of human action with divine instruction.

Exodus 7:7

Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh. The ages are not incidental. Moses spent forty years in Pharaoh's palace and forty years in Midian before he was sent back to Pharaoh. The eighty years of preparation — palace formation, wilderness formation — are not wasted years; they are the exact preparation required for this moment. Caleb says in Joshua 14:11 that he is still as strong at eighty-five as he was when Moses sent him out to spy. Age in biblical terms does not disqualify from calling. The disciples Jesus sent out were likely young men; the patriarchs were old. God calibrates the timing of His commissions to the formation He designs, not to the career stage the world expects. Moses at eighty is exactly the right age for the task God has prepared him for.

Exodus 7:8

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron. The brief transitional verse marks the beginning of the plague narrative proper. All the preparation — the burning bush, the objections, the genealogy, the commission — has been prologue. Now the confrontation begins. What God says in the verses that follow establishes the first sign before Pharaoh, the conversion of Aaron's staff to a serpent. The dual address to Moses and Aaron reflects the partnership now fully operational: God speaks to both, both are responsible, both act together. The plural commission is a covenant pattern — the witnesses needed to establish testimony are always at least two (Deuteronomy 19:15). Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh are two witnesses to the same truth, as the two olive trees and the two lampstands in Revelation 11:4 stand before the Lord of the earth.

Exodus 7:9

When Pharaoh says to you, perform a miracle, then say to Aaron: take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake. God anticipates Pharaoh's demand for credentials — show me something. The prepared sign is the staff-to-serpent transformation Moses was first given at the burning bush in Exodus 4:3. What was given privately as authentication for Israel is now performed publicly as authentication before the world's most powerful ruler. Matthew 12:39 records Jesus refusing to give a sign to a wicked and adulterous generation, but the context of Exodus is different: Pharaoh is not a seeker whose faith will be strengthened; he is a ruler who will be publicly and judicially confronted. The sign is not for his conversion but for his condemnation and the liberation of Israel.

Exodus 7:10

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. The setting — before Pharaoh and his officials — is a royal court, and the sign is performed as a public declaration before the full apparatus of Egyptian power. The snake that appeared at the burning bush in private now appears in the most public venue available. The sign is not hidden or incremental; it is performed in the center of Pharaoh's authority. Acts 4:13 records that the officials noted that Peter and John were ordinary, unschooled men who had been with Jesus — the confrontation of ordinary people before power is a consistent pattern. Moses and Aaron, a shepherd and a Levite, are standing before the most powerful court in the world with nothing but a wooden staff and the word of God.

Exodus 7:11

Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts. Pharaoh does not respond to the sign with wonder or question; he summons his own specialists. The magicians — hartumim, a word used for Egyptian diviners — replicate the sign, producing serpents from their own staffs. The replication is significant: it shows that signs are not automatically self-interpreting, that counterfeit can mimic the genuine, and that the confrontation will require an escalating series of events before the decisive difference becomes undeniable. 2 Timothy 3:8 names Jannes and Jambres — the traditional names of the Egyptian magicians — as those who opposed Moses, as those who oppose the truth in every generation. The ability to replicate a sign does not validate the replicator; it begins the process of differentiation.

Exodus 7:12

Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. The decisive moment is quiet and conclusive: Aaron's serpent swallows the others. There is no contest, no struggle — simply the fact that what God creates will consume what is made in opposition to it. Revelation 12:4 and 17:14 describe similar encounters at eschatological scale — the dragon and the Lamb — with the same inevitable outcome. The Egyptian magicians can replicate; they cannot contain. What God sends is not a match for what they produce; it is in a different category. The swallowing is a preview of the sea swallowing Pharaoh's army, of the God of Israel swallowing every claim made against Him. The sign is given, the differentiation is established, and the battle of the remaining nine plagues will be the working out of this first declaration.

Exodus 7:13

Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted. The hardening is reported as predicted — God announced it in verse 3, and now it occurs. This is not the first hardening of Pharaoh's heart but the establishment of a pattern that will repeat throughout the plague narrative. The fulfillment of prophecy in real time is itself a form of authentication: God is not reacting to events; He is directing them. Isaiah 46:10 declares: I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. Pharaoh's predictable hardness is evidence that the God of Israel is the God of prophecy — the one who speaks outcomes before they occur and sees them come to pass. The hard heart is not a surprise to anyone in the room except Pharaoh.

Exodus 7:14

Then the Lord said to Moses: Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. God's assessment is a legal declaration: the sign has been performed, the demand has been made, the refusal has been given, and now judgment will proceed. The word unyielding — kabed, heavy — is the same root as the word for glory — kavod. Pharaoh's heavy heart stands against the heavy glory of God. The irony is precise: the heaviness that is meant to express power expresses instead the gravity of judgment. Matthew 11:28 offers the opposite of Pharaoh's heavy-heartedness: come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Pharaoh's refusal to give rest to the people becomes the occasion for God to demonstrate that He alone gives the rest Pharaoh withholds.

Exodus 7:15

Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. God instructs Moses to intercept Pharaoh at the Nile — the center of Egyptian religious life. The morning visit to the Nile may be a religious ritual, a royal inspection of Egypt's lifeblood, or simply a regular routine. Whatever its nature, God uses it as the moment of encounter. The staff now identified as the one changed into a snake connects the first confrontation at court to this second one at the river. The Nile that Pharaoh is about to visit is the Nile that killed Hebrew infants and that baby Moses was placed in. God is bringing His messenger to the very place where Pharaoh's policy was most brutally enacted.

Exodus 7:16

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 me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened. The message is the same message Moses has been delivering since Exodus 5:1: let my people go to worship me. The phrase until now you have not listened is a legal notation — the record is being established. Each refusal is counted, noted, and will be accounted for. Luke 11:29 records Jesus warning the crowds that this generation will be held accountable — the same logic of accumulated refusal producing accumulated judgment. Every time Pharaoh says no, he is adding to the case against himself. The God who sent Moses is keeping records, and the first plague is the first installment of what those records require.

Exodus 7:17

This is what the Lord says: by this you will know that I am the Lord — I will strike the water of the Nile with the staff in my hand, and it will be changed into blood. The first plague is announced with a stated purpose: you will know. The knowledge formula connects the Nile's transformation to the revelation of the divine identity. Blood in the Nile is not merely an ecological disaster; it is the refutation of the Nile's divinity in Egyptian religion. Revelation 16:3–4 depicts the seas and rivers turned to blood in eschatological judgment — the pattern of Exodus is read as the template for the final reckoning with powers that refuse to acknowledge God. The staff that Moses holds — the staff of God — is the same instrument. What Pharaoh refused to acknowledge in the court he will now be forced to see in the water.

Exodus 7:18

The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water. The practical consequences are spelled out in advance: death, stench, undrinkability. The Nile's transformation destroys the food supply (fish), the sensory environment (smell), and the essential resource (water). Egypt cannot function without the Nile. By striking the river, God is not attacking a water source; He is attacking the economic, religious, and practical foundation of Egyptian civilization. Isaiah 19:8 prophesies the mourning of Egypt's fishermen — the fish of the Nile are a primary food source. The plague announces its effects ahead of time because the announcement is itself part of the pedagogy: Pharaoh will know what is coming, will not prevent it, and will see the God of the Hebrews fulfill every word He spoke.

Exodus 7:19

The Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron: take your staff and stretch out your hand 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 of wood and stone. The scope of the plague is comprehensive: not just the Nile but every water source. Streams, canals, ponds, reservoirs, and even water stored in containers. There is no part of Egypt's water system that escapes. The thoroughness is theological: the judgment that falls on Egypt's waters reaches into every corner, every home, every vessel. Revelation 8:8–9 and 16:3–4 envision similar comprehensive judgments at the end of history. The blood in the wood and stone vessels is the blood that will not go away — it follows into the private spaces, the domestic spaces, the spaces Pharaoh cannot see from his throne.

Exodus 7:20

Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. The obedience is public and immediate. The raising of the staff before Pharaoh and his officials means the act is witnessed by the Egyptian court — no one can later claim they did not see. The transformation of all the Nile water to blood is instantaneous and complete. The same river where Pharaoh commanded Hebrew infants to be thrown is now the instrument of judgment against him. What was used as a weapon against Israel becomes a weapon against Egypt. Psalm 78:44 recalls this plague as one of God's testimonies in history: he turned their rivers to blood. The plague is not forgotten; it is rehearsed across generations as proof of God's faithfulness to His people.

Exodus 7:21

The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt. Every detail God promised in verse 18 comes to pass: the fish die, the river stinks, the water is undrinkable. The plague is exactly as described. The fulfillment of specific prophecy is its own form of sign — the God who said this would happen is the God who made it happen, and the precision of fulfillment authenticates the precision of the one who spoke. Revelation 8:9 records the death of a third of the creatures of the sea as one of the trumpet judgments. The fish of the Nile dying is the small-scale pattern of a larger eschatological reality: creation groans under the weight of human refusal to acknowledge the Creator (Romans 8:22).

Exodus 7:22

But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had predicted. The magicians replicate the blood — presumably working with water that was not yet transformed, or possibly turning blood back to water and then re-transforming it. The replication is their last moment of apparent parity: they can match the blood, but the gnats in Exodus 8:18 will expose the limit of their arts. Pharaoh's hardness is reaffirmed, and the phrase just as the Lord had predicted appears again. The narrative insists that the outcome is not a surprise to anyone paying attention. God has been saying this would happen; it is happening. The pattern is established: sign, magicians' imitation, Pharaoh's hardness, divine prediction fulfilled. Each plague will follow the same arc until the arc breaks.

Exodus 7:23

Pharaoh turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. Pharaoh's response to the Nile turning to blood is to turn away. The Egyptian word for Pharaoh means great house — and into his great house he retreats, insulating himself from the reality in front of him. The phrase did not take even this to heart uses the same word as the hardening of heart — he does not let what he has seen penetrate. Proverbs 4:23 says above all else guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Pharaoh guards his heart against the only knowledge that could save him: the knowledge that the Lord is God. Every successive plague is an attempt to break through the insulation. Each refusal thickens the walls. The retreat into the palace is the first of many retreats from a reality he cannot ultimately outrun.

Exodus 7:24

And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river. The plague has practical human consequences beyond the religious and political. Ordinary Egyptians — not just Pharaoh and his court — are suffering. They are digging in the riverbank trying to find filtered water, trying to survive in a land whose primary resource has been made undrinkable. The plague hits at the level of daily survival: drinking water. Revelation 22:17 closes Scripture with the invitation: let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. Against the backdrop of Exodus 7:24, where water is unavailable to those under judgment, the gospel offer of living water in John 4:10 and 7:38 carries its full weight. Egypt digging for water in the bank of a blood-red river is the image of those who seek life in every direction except the source.

Exodus 7:25

Seven days passed after the Lord struck the Nile. The duration of the first plague — seven days — carries the same weight as the seven days of creation and the seven days of Passover. The number seven in Hebrew narrative signals completeness. The plague ran its full course; Egypt experienced seven days of blood, stench, and thirst before the next act began. The waiting is part of the judgment: time to reflect, time to respond, time to acknowledge what has happened and change course. 2 Peter 3:9 says God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish. The seven days after the Nile turned to blood were seven days of invitation — would Pharaoh ask Moses to pray? Would he acknowledge the God who had spoken? He did not. The patience of God expressed in the interval becomes the measure of Pharaoh's culpability. He had seven days and did not use them.