1: Moses changes water into blood
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh's mind is still hard. He refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning when he goes to the river. Wait for him by the edge of the river. Then take in your hand the stick that became a snake. 16 Then say to Pharaoh, “The Lord, the God of the Israelites, has sent me to you to say, ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert.’ But until now, you have not listened to my message. 17 So this is what the Lord says: In this way, you will know that I am the Lord. Look! I will hit the water in the Nile river with the stick that is in my hand. Then the water will become blood. 18 The fish in the river will die, and the river will have a very bad smell. Then the Egyptians will not be able to drink the water from the Nile river.” ’
19 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron, “Take your stick. Lift up your hand over the waters of Egypt. Lift your stick up over their rivers and their streams. Lift it up over their lakes and pools of water. Do that so that all the water becomes blood.” There will be blood in every part of Egypt. There will even be blood in their buckets and bowls.’
20 Moses and Aaron obeyed the command of the Lord. Aaron lifted up the stick in front of Pharaoh and his servants. He hit the water in the Nile river with the stick. Then all the water in the river became blood. 21 The fish in the river died. The river had such a bad smell that the Egyptians could not drink its water. There was blood in every part of Egypt.
22 But the Egyptian magicians used their magic and they did the same thing. So Pharaoh's mind continued to be hard. He still refused to listen to Moses and Aaron. The Lord had said that this would happen, and it did! 23 Pharaoh turned away and he went into his house. He did not worry about what had happened. 24 The Egyptians dug holes on the shore of the Nile river to find water to drink. They could not drink the water from the river itself.
7:24The river gave the Egyptians all that they needed. It was called the River Nile. It gave water to drink and to put on food plants. At certain times the river rose over the fields and it gave food to the plants. The Egyptians needed the river Nile so that they could live.
25 After the Lord had made the water in the river become blood, another seven days passed.