Exodus 7, Two Signs: Serpents and Blood

Moses continues to resist his assigned role in freeing the Israelites.

Exodus 7:1-5, Go to Pharaoh

Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country.  But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. 

    

Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it."

Part of YHWH's plan is that the Egyptians will know Who, which king, is truly the God of the universe.

What does it mean to "harden" Pharaoh's heart?  Commentators point out that during the first half of the upcoming plagues, Pharaoh hardens himself, his own heart, against Moses and the Israelites. After that, YHWH seems to hold Pharaoh to this hardening, as Pharaoh becomes more and more obstinate.

Exodus 7:6-7, Moses and Aaron obey

Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them.

Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

God has a long-term plan; Moses and Aaron are just playing some assigned roles. Aaron is three years older than Moses, possibly born before the cruel decision, by a former Pharaoh, to kill male Hebrew babies.

Exodus 7:8-12, Serpents

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "When Pharaoh says to you, `Perform a miracle,' then say to Aaron, `Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,' and it will become a snake."

     

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake.

    

Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. 

    

But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.

What a strange passage! We have a magical competition, appropriate for Hogwarts!?

The serpent (says Imes) was a classical Egyptian symbol, often accompanying images of the Pharaoh. Here the word translated "serpent" is commonly used for dragons or monsters or venomous snakes. These are scary beings!  Although the magicians appear to duplicate this, the serpents of YHWH swallow the serpents of Israel, a clear statement and warning of things to come.  (Freitheim says that the word used for "swallowed up" appears only one other time in Exodus, when the sea "swallows up" the Egyptian army.)

Exodus 7:13-19 Next to come: water turned to blood

Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.

    

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.    

    

Then say to him, `The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.'"

    

The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, `Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt--over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs'--and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars."

Moses's request is to take his people for a short trip into the desert to worship.  Pharaoh resists even that.  

The Nile will be turned to blood. The effect of this on the people of Egypt will be painful. The Nile river is the major source for Egypt's prosperity.

The second sign, of leprosy (see Exodus 4:6-8), is not used with Pharaoh, at least according to this account. Was it used with the Hebrew elders?

YHWH is identified here as "God of the Hebrews". The covenant with Abraham is entering a new phase.  YHWH again says, "Know Me!" He will show Himself to Moses and to Israel, to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians.

Exodus 7:20-25, Nile turns to blood

Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.

    

But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said. Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart.

    

And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river. 

    

Seven days passed after the LORD struck the Nile.

In this sign, Pharaoh is warned in advance. The king's magicians can duplicate the plague but apparently cannot reverse it. No clue is given as to how the Egyptian magicians achieve their results.  So far they have (roughly) matched the signs of Moses and Aaron.  Pharaoh is apparently unimpressed and his heart "becomes hard", resistant to the claims of Moses.

The king rejects YHWH and turns back into his palace.  The "hardening" of his heart is stressed with the insistence, in verse 23, that the king would not even "take this to heart" -- he will not even consider surrendering to Moses or YHWH.

Some Hebrew vocabulary

Our Hebrew word for the day is tannin,

תַּנִּין

a masculine noun, meaning "dragon, sea monster, serpent". The word is often translated "dragon" by the King James Version. It first appears in Genesis 1:21 where the NIV translates it as "sea creature."

Some Random Thoughts

There are, in this chapter, two signs of God's power over creation:

• Serpents
• Blood

We will now enter a cycle of plagues in Egypt. In the standard counting of the plagues, only the episode of blood is considered a plague. (The competition with serpents is a sign of God's power, but it is not a plague of Egypt.) The river turning to blood is the first plague. Nine more will come.

First published March 8, 2023; updated March 7, 2026