出埃及記 7
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Traditional)
亞倫和摩西面見法老
7 耶和華對摩西說：「我要使你在法老面前像上帝一樣，你哥哥亞倫是你的發言人。 2 你要把我吩咐你的話告訴你哥哥亞倫，由他要求法老讓以色列人離開埃及。 3 可是，我要使法老的心剛硬，雖然我在埃及行許多神蹟奇事， 4 他將無動於衷。那時，我必伸手重重地懲罰埃及，然後領我的大隊子民離開埃及。 5 埃及人看見我伸手攻擊他們、把以色列人帶出埃及，就會知道我是耶和華。」 6 摩西和亞倫便遵命而行。 7 去見法老的時候，摩西八十歲，亞倫八十三歲。
8 耶和華對摩西和亞倫說： 9 「倘若法老要你們行神蹟給他看，你就吩咐亞倫把手杖丟在法老面前，使杖變作蛇。」
10 摩西和亞倫照耶和華的吩咐來到法老面前。亞倫把手杖丟在法老和他的臣僕面前，杖就變作蛇。 11 法老召他的謀士和巫師前來，這些人是埃及的術士，他們也用邪術如法炮製。 12 各人將自己的手杖扔在地上，杖就變作蛇，但亞倫的杖吞噬了他們的杖。 13 法老卻仍然硬著心，不肯聽從摩西和亞倫，正如耶和華所言。
水變血之災
14 耶和華對摩西說：「法老非常頑固，不肯釋放百姓。 15 明天早晨，法老會去尼羅河邊，你就在那裡等他，要拿著曾變成蛇的手杖。 16 你要對他說，『希伯來人的上帝耶和華差遣我來告訴你，要讓祂的子民到曠野去事奉祂，但到如今你還是不肯。 17 所以祂說要用手杖擊打尼羅河水，使河水變成血，好叫你知道祂是耶和華。 18 河裡的魚會死，河水會發臭，埃及人不能再喝尼羅河的水。』」
19 耶和華對摩西說：「你告訴亞倫，讓他向埃及境內的各江河、溪流、池塘伸杖，使水變成血。埃及境內，包括木桶和石缸裡將到處是血。」 20 摩西和亞倫就按著耶和華所吩咐的去做，亞倫在法老和埃及眾臣僕面前舉杖擊打尼羅河水，河水都變成了血。 21 河裡的魚都死了，河水臭得不能飲用。埃及遍地都是血。 22 可是，法老的巫師也一樣用邪術使水變成血。法老的心仍然剛硬，不肯聽從摩西和亞倫的話，正如耶和華所言。 23 法老若無其事地轉身回宮去了。 24 因為河水不能飲用，埃及人就在尼羅河兩岸掘井取水飲用。
25 擊打河水後，七天過去了。
Exodus 7
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 7
1 The Lord answered Moses: See! I have made you a god to Pharaoh,(A) and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.[a] 2 You will speak all that I command you. In turn, your brother Aaron will tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land. 3 Yet I will make Pharaoh so headstrong that, despite the many signs and wonders that I work in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Therefore I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring my armies, my people the Israelites, out of the land of Egypt. 5 All Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of their midst.
6 This, then, is what Moses and Aaron did. They did exactly as the Lord had commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
III. The Contest with Pharaoh
The Staff Turned into a Serpent. 8 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 9 When Pharaoh demands of you, “Produce a sign or wonder,” you will say to Aaron: “Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will turn into a serpent.”(B) 10 Then Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it turned into a serpent. 11 Pharaoh, in turn, summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians(C) of Egypt, did the same thing by their magic arts. 12 Each one threw down his staff, and they turned into serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs. 13 Pharaoh, however, hardened his heart and would not listen to them, just as the Lord had foretold.
First Plague: Water Turned into Blood.[b] 14 Then the Lord said to Moses: Pharaoh is obstinate[c] in refusing to let the people go. 15 In the morning, just when he sets out for the water, go to Pharaoh and present yourself by the bank of the Nile, holding in your hand the staff that turned into a snake.[d] 16 Say to him: The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you with the message: Let my people go to serve me in the wilderness. But as yet you have not listened. 17 Thus says the Lord: This is how you will know that I am the Lord. With the staff here in my hand, I will strike the water in the Nile and it will be changed into blood.(D) 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the Nile itself will stink so that the Egyptians will be unable to drink water from the Nile.
19 The Lord then spoke to Moses: Speak to Aaron: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—its streams, its canals, its ponds, and all its supplies of water—that they may become blood. There will be blood throughout the land of Egypt, even in the wooden pails and stone jars.
20 This, then, is what Moses and Aaron did, exactly as the Lord had commanded. Aaron raised his staff and struck the waters in the Nile in full view of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water in the Nile was changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the Nile itself stank so that the Egyptians could not drink water from it. There was blood throughout the land of Egypt. 22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same[e] by their magic arts. So Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said. 23 Pharaoh turned away and went into his house, with no concern even for this. 24 All the Egyptians had to dig round about the Nile for drinking water, since they could not drink any water from the Nile.
Second Plague: The Frogs. 25 Seven days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile. 26 Then the Lord said to Moses: Go to Pharaoh and tell him:(E) Thus says the Lord: Let my people go to serve me. 27 If you refuse to let them go, then I will send a plague of frogs over all your territory. 28 The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up and enter into your palace and into your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your servants, too, and among your people, even into your ovens and your kneading bowls. 29 The frogs will come up over you and your people and all your servants.
Footnotes
- 7:1 Prophet: Hebrew nabi, one who can legitimately speak for God and in God’s name to another or others. Just as God spoke to Moses, so Moses will speak to Aaron, who will be a “prophet” to Pharaoh. Cf. 4:16.
- 7:14–12:30 After a brief preface (vv. 8–13) drawn from the Priestly source, a narrative depicting the series of ten disasters that God brings upon Pharaoh because of his stubbornness ensues. Although most of these disasters, known traditionally as the “ten plagues of Egypt,” could be interpreted as naturally occurring phenomena, they are clearly represented by the biblical authors as extraordinary events indicative of God’s intervention on behalf of Israel and as occurring exactly according to Moses’ commands. See Ps 78:43–51 and 105:27–36 for poetic versions of these plagues, which also differ significantly from the account here.
- 7:14 Pharaoh is obstinate: lit., “Pharaoh’s heart is heavy” (kabed); thus not precisely the same Hebrew idiom as found in vv. 13 and 22, “stubborn,” lit., “Pharaoh’s heart was hard(ened)” (hazaq) (cf. the related idiom with Pharaoh as the object, e.g., 4:21).
- 7:15 The staff that turned into a snake: the allusion is to 4:2–4 rather than 7:9–12. The latter comes from the hand of the Priestly writer and features Aaron—with his staff—as the principal actor.
- 7:22 The Egyptian magicians did the same: this is an exaggeration, presumably influenced by the similar statement in v. 11; whereas the magicians could turn their staffs into snakes after Aaron had done so, after Aaron’s sign there should not have been any water in Egypt still unchanged to blood for the magicians “to do the same” with it (cf. v. 24).
Copyright © 2004 by World Bible Translation Center
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