And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.

And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.

And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; cast him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand, to restore him to his father.

Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?

Then they took Joseph’s robe, and killed a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood;

And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the lad? But you would not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.”

Binding his foal to the vine and his ass’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes;

If they will not believe even these two signs or heed your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it upon the dry ground; and the water which you shall take from the Nile will become blood upon the dry ground.”

Then Zippo′rah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”

So he let him alone. Then it was that she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.

The First Plague: Water Turned to Blood

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuses to let the people go.

Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the rod that is in my hand, and it shall be turned to blood,

And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’”

Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded; in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, he lifted up the rod and struck the water that was in the Nile, and all the water that was in the Nile turned to blood.

And the fish in the Nile died; and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

Then they shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them.

The blood shall be a sign for you, upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood which is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.

For the Lord will pass through to slay the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to slay you.

“If a thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him;

but if the sun has risen upon him, there shall be bloodguilt for him.

“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning.

The Blood of the Covenant

And he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abi′hu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship afar off.