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Exodus 7:9-19

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9 "When Pharaoh tells you: Perform a miracle, tell Aaron: Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh. It will become a serpent."
10 So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent.
11 But then Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers-the magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same thing by their occult practices.
12 Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron's staff swallowed their staffs.
13 However, Pharaoh's heart hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

The First Plague: Water Turned to Blood

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh is unresponsive: he refuses to let the people go.
15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning. When you see him walking out to the water, stand ready to meet him by the bank of the Nile. Take in your hand the staff that turned into a snake.
16 Tell him: The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you: Let My people go, so that they may worship[a] Me in the wilderness, but so far you have not listened.
17 This is what the Lord says: Here is how you will know that I am the Lord. Watch. I will strike the water in the Nile with the staff in my hand, and it will turn to blood.
18 The fish in the Nile will die, the river will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink water from it."
19 So the Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt-over their rivers, canals,[b] ponds, and all their water reservoirs-and they will become blood. There will be blood throughout the land of Egypt, even in wooden and stone [containers]."
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Exodus 7:9-19 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 7

Moses and Aaron are ordered to go to Pharaoh, and require the dismission of the people of Israel, but they are told before hand that Pharaoh's heart would be hardened, and would refuse to let them go, until the hand of the Lord was stretched out, and great judgments were brought down upon, Egypt, and then they should come forth, Ex 7:1-5, which orders Moses and Aaron obeyed, and their age is observed, when this was done, Ex 7:6,7 and they are bid to work a miracle, when Pharaoh should demand one, by turning a rod into a serpent, which they did; but Pharaoh's magicians doing the same in appearance, his heart was hardened, Ex 7:8-14 and then they are directed to meet him at the river, and require the same as before; and if he refused, to smite the waters of the river with the rod, and turn them into blood, which they did, Ex 7:15-21, but Pharaoh's magicians doing the same by enchantments, he did not regard it, though the plague lasted seven days, Ex 7:22-25.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Or serve; Ex 4:23
  • [b]. The Hb word refers specifically to the various branches and canals of the Nile River; Ex 8:5.
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.