Then the Lord said to Moses: Pharaoh is obstinate in refusing to let the people go.

In the morning, just when he sets out for the water, go to Pharaoh and present yourself by the bank of the Nile, holding in your hand the staff that turned into a snake.

Say to him: The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you with the message: Let my people go to serve me in the wilderness. But as yet you have not listened.

Thus says the Lord: This is how you will know that I am the Lord. With the staff here in my hand, I will strike the water in the Nile and it will be changed into blood.

The fish in the Nile will die, and the Nile itself will stink so that the Egyptians will be unable to drink water from the Nile.

The Lord then spoke to Moses: Speak to Aaron: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—its streams, its canals, its ponds, and all its supplies of water—that they may become blood. There will be blood throughout the land of Egypt, even in the wooden pails and stone jars.

This, then, is what Moses and Aaron did, exactly as the Lord had commanded. Aaron raised his staff and struck the waters in the Nile in full view of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water in the Nile was changed into blood.

The fish in the Nile died, and the Nile itself stank so that the Egyptians could not drink water from it. There was blood throughout the land of Egypt.

But the Egyptian magicians did the same by their magic arts. So Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

Pharaoh turned away and went into his house, with no concern even for this.

All the Egyptians had to dig round about the Nile for drinking water, since they could not drink any water from the Nile.