The Plague of Blood

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding;^(A) he refuses to let the people go. ¹⁵ Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river.^(B) Confront him on the bank of the Nile,^(C) and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 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^(D) me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened.^{(E) 17} This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord:^(F) With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.^{(G) 18} The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink;^(H) the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.’”^(I)

¹⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff^(J) and stretch out your hand^(K) 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^[a] of wood and stone.”

²⁰ Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded.^(L) He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile,^(M) and all the water was changed into blood.^{(N) 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.

²² But the Egyptian magicians^(O) did the same things by their secret arts,^(P) and Pharaoh’s heart^(Q) became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. ²³ Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. ²⁴ And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water^(R), because they could not drink the water of the river.