1Und Jehovah sprach zu Mose: Siehe, Ich habe dich zum Gott für Pharao gegeben, und Aharon, dein Bruder, soll dein Prophet sein. 2Du sollst alles reden, was Ich dir gebiete und dein Bruder Aharon soll reden zu Pharao, auf daß er die Söhne Israels aus seinem Lande entlasse. 3Und Ich will verhärten Pharaos Herz, und viel machen Meiner Zeichen und Meiner Wahrzeichen in Ägyptenland. 4Und Pharao wird nicht auf euch hören; aber Ich werde Meine Hand auf die Ägypter legen und durch große Gerichte Meine Heerscharen, Mein Volk, die Söhne Israels aus Ägyptenland herausbringen. 5Und wissen sollen die Ägypter, daß Ich Jehovah bin, wenn Ich Meine Hand ausstrecke über Ägypten und Israels Söhne aus ihrer Mitte herausbringe. 6Und Mose und Aharon taten wie Jehovah ihnen geboten hatte, so taten sie. 7Und Mose war achtzig Jahre alt und Aharon dreiundachtzig Jahre alt, als sie zu Pharao redeten. 8Und Jehovah redete zu Mose und zu Aharon und sprach: 9So Pharao zu euch redet und spricht: Gebet für euch ein Wahrzeichen, dann sprich zu Aharon: Nimm deinen Stab und wirf ihn hin vor Pharao. Er soll zur Wasserschlange werden. 10Und Mose ging hinein und Aharon zu Pharao und sie taten so wie Jehovah geboten hatte, und Aharon warf seinen Stab vor Pharao und vor seine Knechte und er ward zur Wasserschlange. 11Und Pharao rief auch die Weisen und Zauberer, und auch sie, die Wahrsager Ägyptens, taten also mit ihren Zauberformeln. 12Und sie warfen jeder Mann seinen Stab hin, und sie wurden zu Wasserschlangen; aber Aharons Stab verschlang ihre Stäbe. 13Und Pharaos Herz ward bestärkt; und er hörte nicht auf sie, wie Jehovah geredet hatte. 14Und Jehovah sprach zu Mose: Schwer ist Pharaos Herz; er weigert sich, das Volk zu entlassen. 15Gehe zu Pharao am Morgen! Siehe, er geht aus an das Wasser, und stelle dich ihm entgegen am Ufer des Stromes, und nimm den Stab, der in eine Schlange verwandelt worden, in deine Hand. 16Und sprich zu ihm: Jehovah, der Gott der Hebräer, hat mich zu dir gesandt und spricht: Entlaß Mein Volk, daß sie Mir dienen in der Wüste! Und siehe, du hast bis jetzt nicht darauf gehört. 17So spricht Jehovah: Daran sollst du wissen, daß Ich Jehovah bin: Siehe, ich schlage mit dem Stabe, der in meiner Hand ist, auf die Wasser, die im Strome sind, und sie werden in Blut verwandelt. 18Und der Fisch im Strom soll sterben, und stinken soll der Strom, daß die Ägypter sich abmühen, Wasser aus dem Strome zu trinken. 19Und Jehovah sprach zu Mose: Sprich zu Aharon: Nimm deinen Stab und strecke deine Hand aus über die Wasser Ägyptens, über ihre Flüsse, über ihre Ströme und über ihre Seen und über jegliche Sammlung ihrer Wasser, und sie sollen zu Blut werden; und soll Blut sein im ganzen Land Ägypten und in Holz und in Stein. 20Und Mose und Aharon taten so, wie Jehovah geboten hatte. Und er hob den Stab empor und schlug die Wasser in dem Strom vor den Augen Pharaos und vor den Augen seiner Knechte, und alle Wasser in dem Strom wurden in Blut verwandelt. 21Und der Fisch im Strome starb und der Strom stank, und die Ägypter vermochten nicht das Wasser aus dem Strom zu trinken; und das Blut war in ganz Ägyptenland. 22Und es taten so auch die Wahrsager Ägyptens mit ihren Zauberformeln und Pharaos Herz ward bestärkt und er hörte nicht auf sie, wie Jehovah geredet hatte. 23Und Pharao wandte sich und kam in sein Haus, und nahm auch dies nicht zu Herzen. 24Und alle Ägypter gruben in den Umgebungen des Stroms nach Wasser zum Trinken; denn sie vermochten nicht von dem Wasser des Stromes zu trinken. 25Und es wurden erfüllt sieben Tage, seitdem Jehovah den Strom geschlagen hatte. 26Und Jehovah sprach zu Mose: Gehe hinein zu Pharao und sprich zu ihm: So spricht Jehovah: Entlaß Mein Volk, daß sie Mir dienen. 27Und wenn du dich weigerst, es zu entlassen, siehe, so schlage ich all deine Grenze mit Fröschen. 28Und der Strom soll von Fröschen wimmeln, und sie sollen heraufsteigen und kommen in dein Haus und in deine Schlafkammer und auf dein Bett, und in das Haus deiner Knechte und zu deinem Volk, und in deine Öfen und in deine Backtröge. 29Und an dich und dein Volk und an alle deine Knechte sollen die Frösche heraufkommen.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 SECOND INTERVIEW WITH PHARAOH. (Exo. 7:1-25)
the Lord said unto Moses--He is here encouraged to wait again on the king--not, however, as formerly, in the attitude of a humble suppliant, but now armed with credentials as God's ambassador, and to make his demand in a tone and manner which no earthly monarch or court ever witnessed.
I have made thee a god--"made," that is, set, appointed; "a god"; that is, he was to act in this business as God's representative, to act and speak in His name and to perform things beyond the ordinary course of nature. The Orientals familiarly say of a man who is eminently great or wise, "he is a god" among men.
Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet--that is, "interpreter" or "spokesman." The one was to be the vicegerent of God, and the other must be considered the speaker throughout all the ensuing scenes, even though his name is not expressly mentioned.
3 I will harden Pharaoh's heart--This would be the result. But the divine message would be the occasion, not the cause of the king's impenitent obduracy.
4 I may lay mine hand upon Egypt, &c.--The succession of terrible judgments with which the country was about to be scourged would fully demonstrate the supremacy of Israel's God.
7 Moses was fourscore years old--This advanced age was a pledge that they had not been readily betrayed into a rash or hazardous enterprise, and that under its attendant infirmities they could not have carried through the work on which they were entering had they not been supported by a divine hand.
9 When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, &c.--The king would naturally demand some evidence of their having been sent from God; and as he would expect the ministers of his own gods to do the same works, the contest, in the nature of the case, would be one of miracles. Notice has already been taken of the rod of Moses (
Exod 4:2), but rods were carried also by all nobles and official persons in the court of Pharaoh. It was an Egyptian custom, and the rods were symbols of authority or rank. Hence God commanded His servants to use a rod.
10 Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, &c.--It is to be presumed that Pharaoh had demanded a proof of their divine mission.
11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, &c.--His object in calling them was to ascertain whether this doing of Aaron's was really a work of divine power or merely a feat of magical art. The magicians of Egypt in modern times have been long celebrated adepts in charming serpents, and particularly by pressing the nape of the neck, they throw them into a kind of catalepsy, which renders them stiff and immovable--thus seeming to change them into a rod. They conceal the serpent about their persons, and by acts of legerdemain produce it from their dress, stiff and straight as a rod. Just the same trick was played off by their ancient predecessors, the most renowned of whom, Jannes and Jambres (
2Tim 3:8), were called in on this occasion. They had time after the summons to make suitable preparations--and so it appears they succeeded by their "enchantments" in practising an illusion on the senses.
12 but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods--This was what they could not be prepared for, and the discomfiture appeared in the loss of their rods, which were probably real serpents.
14 Pharaoh's heart is hardened--Whatever might have been his first impressions, they were soon dispelled; and when he found his magicians making similar attempts, he concluded that Aaron's affair was a magical deception, the secret of which was not known to his wise men.
15 Get thee unto Pharaoh--Now began those appalling miracles of judgment by which the God of Israel, through His ambassadors, proved His sole and unchallengeable supremacy over all the gods of Egypt, and which were the natural phenomena of Egypt, at an unusual season, and in a miraculous degree of intensity. The court of Egypt, whether held at Rameses, or Memphis, or Tanis in the field of Zoan (
Ps 78:12), was the scene of those extraordinary transactions, and Moses must have resided during that terrible period in the immediate neighborhood.
in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water--for the purpose of ablutions or devotions perhaps; for the Nile was an object of superstitious reverence, the patron deity of the country. It might be that Moses had been denied admission into the palace; but be that as it may, the river was to be the subject of the first plague, and therefore, he was ordered to repair to its banks with the miracle-working rod, now to be raised, not in demonstration, but in judgment, if the refractory spirit of the king should still refuse consent to Israel's departure for their sacred rites.
17 Aaron lifted up the rod and smote the waters, &c.--Whether the water was changed into real blood, or only the appearance of it (and Omnipotence could effect the one as easily as the other), this was a severe calamity. How great must have been the disappointment and disgust throughout the land when the river became of a blood red color, of which they had a national abhorrence; their favorite beverage became a nauseous draught, and the fish, which formed so large an article of food, were destroyed. [See on
Num 11:5.] The immense scale on which the plague was inflicted is seen by its extending to "the streams," or branches of the Nile--to the "rivers," the canals, the "ponds" and "pools," that which is left after an overflow, the reservoirs, and the many domestic vessels in which the Nile water was kept to filter. And accordingly the sufferings of the people from thirst must have been severe. Nothing could more humble the pride of Egypt than this dishonor brought on their national god.
22 And the magicians . . . did so with their enchantments, &c.--Little or no pure water could be procured, and therefore their imitation must have been on a small scale --the only drinkable water available being dug among the sands. It must have been on a sample or specimen of water dyed red with some coloring matter. But it was sufficient to serve as a pretext or command for the king to turn unmoved and go to his house.