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1 And the Lord said unto Moses, “See now I have made you as god to Pharaoh: and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.

2 You shall speak all that I command you; and Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land.

3 And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

4 But Pharaoh shall not listen to you, so that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth my armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt with great acts of judgement.

5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”

6 And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them; as so, did they.

7 And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spoke unto Pharaoh.

8 And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

9 “When Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, 'Show me a miracle,' then you shall say unto Aaron, 'Take your staff and cast it before Pharaoh, wherefore it shall become a serpent.'”

10 So Moses and Aaron went in to see Pharaoh, and they did as the Lord had commanded: Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

11 Then Pharaoh called his wise men and his sorcerers, the magicians of Egypt, and they could also perform the same miracle with their enchantments:

12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents; but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.

13 Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened such that he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

14 And the LORD said unto Moses, “Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuses to let the people go.

15 Return to Pharaoh in the morning; as he goes out onto the water; you shall stand by the riverbank where he goes, and take with you in your hand your staff which was turned into a serpent.

16 And you shall say to him, 'The LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, `Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness;` yet even until now you would not hear.

17 Therefore, says the Lord, in this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

18 And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.`'”

19 And the Lord spoke unto Moses, “Say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch out your hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, and they will become blood; and there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.'”

20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

21 And the fish that were in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

22 Yet the magicians of Egypt also did so with their enchantments; and Pharaoh's heart was hardened such that he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.

23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, as if nothing special had happened.

24 And all the Egyptians dug around the river for water to drink, because they could not drink the water of the Nile.

25 It was seven days since the LORD struck the Nile.[a]

25a this is the start of the next chapter.

h.נתתיך אלהים לפרעה This signifies I have made thee a judge and castigator — to castigate him with plagues and pains.

h.יהיה נביאך [AARON] SHALL BE THY PROPHET — This must be understood as the Targum takes it: thy interpreter. Similarly, wherever this term of נבואה is mentioned it refers to a man who publicly proclaims and utters to the people words of reproof. It is of the same derivation as, (Isaiah 57:19) “utterance (ניב) of the lips”; (Proverbs 10:31) “it utters (ינוב) wisdom”; (I Samuel 10:13) “he made an end of proclaiming (התנבות)”, which is in the book of Samuel. In old French we call him predicar; English preacher.

h.אתה תדבר THOU SHALT SPEAK once, every separate message just as you have heard it from My mouth, and your brother Aaron shall express it in eloquent language and explain it in Pharaoh’s hearing.

h.ואני אקשה AND I WILL ALLOW [PHARAOH’S HEART] TO HARDEN — Since he has wickedly resisted Me, and it is manifest to Me that the heathen nations find no spiritual satisfaction in setting their whole heart to return to Me penitently, it is better that his heart should be hardened in order that My signs may be multiplied against him so that ye may recognise My divine power. Such, indeed, is the method of the Holy One, blessed be He: He brings punishment upon the nations so that Israel may hear of it and fear Him, as it is said, (Zephaniah 3:6, 3:7) “I have cut off nations, their corners are desolate etc. … I said: Surely thou wilt fear Me, thou wilt receive correction” (cf. Yevamot 63a). Nevertheless, in the case of the first five plagues it is not stated, “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” but “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened” (Midrash Tanchuma, Vaera 3).

h.את ידי this must be translated literally, “hand”, (not “power”) I will lay My hand upon Egypt to smite them.

h.מופת A WONDER — a sign to prove that there is power in Him who is sending you.

h.לתנין means A SERPENT.

h.בלהטיהם The Targum renders this by בלחשיהון: with their secret spells. There is no other example of this word in the Bible. One may compare it to the first word in (Genesis 3:24) “the להט of the sword that turned round” — it appeared to turn round through some magic spell.

h.ויבלע מטה אהרן BUT AARON’S STAFF SWALLOWED (It states that the staff swallowed) — after it had again become a staff it swallowed all of them (Shabbat 97 a; Exodus Rabbah 9:7).

h.כבד — This word should be translated in the Targum by יקיר (his heart is hard — an adjective) and not by אתיקר (his heart has become Hard — a verb, as is given in some editions of Onkelos) because it is an adjective, just as (Exodus 18:18) “the thing is too heavy (כָּבֵד) for thee”.

h.הנה יצא המימה LO, HE GOETH OUT UNTO THE WATER to ease himself. For he claimed to be a god and asserted that because of his divine power he did not need to ease himself; and therefore he used to rise early and go to the Nile and there eased himself in secret (Midrash Tanchuma, Vaera 14; Exodus Rabbah 9:8).

h.עד כה means UNTIL NOW. A Midrashic explanation (taking this sentence to mean, “thou wilt not hearken until (עד) thou hearest the word “כה”) is: until thou hearest from me the announcement of the slaughter of the first-born, which I will begin with the words, (Exodus 11:4) “Thus (כה) saith the Lord, About midnight etc.”

h.ונהפכו לדם AND THEY SHALL BE TURNED INTO BLOOD — Because rain does not fall in Egypt but the Nile rises and irrigates the land and the Egyptians on this account worshipped the Nile, therefore God first smote their deity and afterwards smote them (Exodus Rabbah 9:9).

h.ונלאו מצרים THE EGYPTIANS SHALL WEARY THEMSELVES in seeking a cure for the waters of the river that they may become fitted for drinking.

h.אמר אל אהרן SAY UNTO AARON — Because the river had protected Moses when he was cast into it, therefore it was not smitten by him neither at the plague of blood nor at that of frogs, but it was smitten by Aaron (Exodus Rabbah 9:10).

h.נהרתם THEIR STREAMS — These are the flowing rivers, just like our rivers in France.

h.יאריהם — These are canals which convey water being made by human agency and extending from the river bank into the fields. The waters of the Nile increase in volume and rise by way of these canals and so irrigate the fields.

h.אגמיהם — A collection of waters that neither spring up from beneath the ground nor flow along, but which remain in one spot. In old French they call it étang.

h.בכל ארץ מצרים [THERE WILL BE BLOOD] THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND OF EGYPT— also in their bathing establishments and in the baths in their houses.

h.ובעצים ובאבנים — the water which happened to be BOTH IN vessels of WOOD AND in vessels of STONE.

h.בלטיהם SECRET ARTS — magic formulas which they utter secretly and in a whisper. Our Rabbis stated that בלטיהם refers to the work of demons, בלהטיהם to witchcraft (Sanhedrin 67b; Exodus Rabbah 9:11).

h.ויחזק לב פרעה AND PHARAOH’S HEART WAS HARDENED so that he said: You are doing this by witchcraft: “You are bringing straw to Afarayim”— a city that is full of straw; thus you bring sorcery to Egypt, a land that is full of sorcery (Menachot 85a; Exodus Rabbah 9:6-7).

h.גם לזאת [NEITHER DID HE SET HIS HEART] TO THIS ALSO — to the wonder of the staff which was changed into a serpent and also not to that of the blood.

h.וימלא AND THERE WAS COMPLETED (the verb is singular) שבעת ימים the number of SEVEN DAYS during which the river did not return to its original condition. For each plague functioned a quarter of a month and for three quarters He warned and cautioned them (Midrash Tanchuma, Vaera 13; Exodus Rabbah 9:12).

h.ואם מאן אתה — AND IF THOU BE A REFUSER. מאן — The word has the same meaning as ממאן, refusing, (the Piel participle) only the difference is that it is a description of a person having reference to the action he always does (i. e. it is an adjective and the full phrase would be איש מאן) similar to שָׁלֵו “a man at ease” (Job 16:12); שָׁקֵט “a man at ease” (Jeremiah 48:11); וְזָעֵף [‎סר] “a man displeased” (1 Kings 20:43), whilst מְמאֵן merely describes the person as refusing at some particular moment.

h.נגף את כל גבולך I WILL PLAGUE ALL THY BOUNDARIES — נוגף means smiting. So, too, wherever a form from the root נגף occurs, it does not necessarily denote killing but it may mean merely smiting. Similarly, (Exodus 21:22) “and if they hurt (ונגפו) a woman with child”, does not mean they kill (as the context shows); so, too, (Jeremiah 13:16) “and before your feet stumble (יתנגפו)” (i. e. hit against something); (Psalms 91:12) “lest thou dash (תגף) thy foot against a stone”; (Isaiah 8:14) ”and for a stone of stumbling (נגף)‎”.

h.ועלו AND THEY SHALL GO UP from the river

h.בביתך — first into thine house and afterwards, בבית עבדיך — into the house of thy servants; he took the first step in counselling evil against Israel, as it is stated (1:9) “He spake to his people, “[Behold, the children of Israel are more numerous and powerful than we]”, and with him, therefore, did punishment begin (cf. Sotah 11a and Exodus Rabbah 10:3).

h.ובכה ובעמך AND UPON (or in) THEE AND THY PEOPLE [SHALL THE FROGS COME] — they made their way right into their bodies and crowed (Exodus Rabbah 10:3).