Exodus 7:1-13

Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh

1 And the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like ¹God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your ²prophet.

2 ³You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land.

3 But ⁴I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I ⁵multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,

4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.

5 The Egyptians ⁶shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them."

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

7 Now Moses was ⁷eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

8 Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

9 "When Pharaoh says to you, ⁸'Prove yourselves by working a miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.'"

10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.

11 Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the ⁹magicians of Egypt, also ¹⁰did the same by their secret arts.

12 For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.

13 Still ¹¹Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, ¹²as the LORD had said.

Exodus 7:1-13 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.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 4:16
• 2. Genesis 20:7; [1 Samuel 9:9]
• 3. [Exodus 4:15; Exodus 6:29]
• 4. See Exodus 4:21
• 5. Exodus 11:9; Psalms 135:9; See Psalms 78:43-51; Psalms 105:26-36
• 6. ver. 17; Exodus 8:10, 22; Exodus 14:4, 18
• 7. [Deuteronomy 29:5; Deuteronomy 31:2; Deuteronomy 34:7; Acts 7:23, 30]
• 8. [Isaiah 7:11; John 2:18; John 4:48; John 6:30]
• 9. Genesis 41:8
• 10. ver. 12, 22; Exodus 8:7, 18; Exodus 9:11; 2 Timothy 3:8
• 11. [See ver. 3 above]
• 12. [See ver. 3 above]