Exodus 7:14-21

Expanded Bible

The Water Becomes Blood

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “·The king is being stubborn [^LPharaoh’s heart is hard/heavy] and refuses to let the people go. ¹⁵ In the morning ·the king [^LPharaoh] will go out to the ·Nile River [^Lwater]. Go meet him by the edge of the ·river [^LNile], and take with you the ·walking stick [staff] that became a ·snake [serpent]. ¹⁶ Tell him: The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you. He said, ‘Let my people go ·worship [serve] me in the ·desert [wilderness].’ Until now you have not listened. ¹⁷ This is what the Lord says: ‘This is how you will know that I am the Lord. I will strike the water of the Nile River with this ·stick [staff] in my hand, and the water will change into blood. ¹⁸ Then the fish in the Nile will die, and the river will begin to stink. The Egyptians will not be able to drink the water from the Nile.’”

¹⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron: ‘Take the ·walking stick [staff] in your hand and stretch your hand over the rivers, canals, ponds, and pools in Egypt.’ The water will become blood everywhere in Egypt, both in wooden buckets and in stone jars.”

²⁰ So Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. In front of ·the king [^LPharaoh] and his officers, Aaron raised his ·walking stick [staff] and struck the water in the Nile River. So all the water in the Nile changed into blood. ²¹ The fish in the Nile died, and the river began to stink, so the Egyptians could not drink water from it. Blood was everywhere in the land of Egypt.