Aaron’s Miraculous Rod

⁸ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹ “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a wonder,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.’ ”^{(A) 10} So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the Lord had commanded; Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake.^{(B) 11} Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts.^{(C) 12} Each one threw down his staff, and they became snakes, but Aaron’s staff swallowed up theirs. ¹³ However, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.^(D)

The First Plague: Water Turned to Blood

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go.^{(E) 15} Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water; stand by at the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was turned into a snake.^{(F) 16} Say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you to say, “Let my people go, so that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But until now you have not listened.^{(G) 17} Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord.” See, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall be turned to blood.^{(H) 18} The fish in the river shall die, the river itself shall stink, and the Egyptians shall be unable to drink water from the Nile.’ ”^{(I) 19} The Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over its rivers, its canals, and its ponds, and all its pools of water—so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout the whole land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.”^(J)

²⁰ Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and of his officials he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile; all the water in the river was turned into blood,^{(K) 21} and the fish in the river died. The river stank so that the Egyptians could not drink its water, and there was blood throughout the whole land of Egypt.^{(L) 22} But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts; so Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.^{(M) 23} Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. ²⁴ And all the Egyptians had to dig along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the river.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.^{[a] 15} For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing:^{(A) 16} to the one group a fragrance from death^[b] to death, to the other a fragrance from life^[c] to life. Who is qualified for these things?^{(B) 17} For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many,^[d] but as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God, we are speaking in Christ before God.^(C)

Ministers of the New Covenant

3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we?^{(D) 2} You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, ³ and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are human hearts.^[e](E)

⁴ Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are qualified of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our qualification is from God,^{(F) 6} who has made us qualified to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.^(G)

Teaching about Divorce

10 He left that place and went to the region of Judea and^[a] beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him, and, as was his custom, he again taught them.^(A)

² Some,^[b] testing him, asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³ He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.”^{(B) 5} But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’^{(C) 7} ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,^{[c](D) 8} and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.^{(E) 9} Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

¹⁰ Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹ He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her,^{(F) 12} and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Jesus Blesses Little Children

¹³ People were bringing children to him in order that he might touch them, and the disciples spoke sternly to them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. ¹⁵ Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”^{(G) 16} And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.^(H)