1Entonces Jehovah dijo a Moisés: —Mira, yo te he puesto como dios para el faraón, y tu hermano Aarón será tu profeta. 2Tú dirás todas las cosas que yo te mande, y Aarón tu hermano hablará al faraón para que deje ir de su tierra a los hijos de Israel. 3Yo endureceré el corazón del faraón y multiplicaré mis señales y mis prodigios en la tierra de Egipto. 4El faraón no os escuchará. Pero yo pondré mi mano sobre Egipto y sacaré a mis ejércitos, mi pueblo, los hijos de Israel, de la tierra de Egipto con grandes actos justicieros. 5Así sabrán los egipcios que yo soy Jehovah, cuando extienda mi mano sobre Egipto y saque a los hijos de Israel de en medio de ellos. 6Moisés y Aarón hicieron como Jehovah les mandó; así lo hicieron. 7Moisés tenía 80 años y Aarón 83 años, cuando hablaron al faraón. 8Jehovah habló a Moisés y a Aarón diciendo: 9—Cuando el faraón os responda y diga: "Mostrad señales," tú dirás a Aarón: "Toma tu vara y arrójala delante del faraón, y ella se transformará en una serpiente." 10Fueron, pues, Moisés y Aarón al faraón, e hicieron como Jehovah les había mandado: Aarón echó su vara delante del faraón y de sus servidores, y se convirtió en una serpiente. 11El faraón también llamó a los sabios y a los hechiceros, y también ellos, los magos de Egipto, hicieron lo mismo con sus encantamientos. 12Cada uno echó su vara, las cuales se convirtieron en serpientes; pero la vara de Aarón se tragó las varas de ellos. 13Y el corazón del faraón se endureció, y no los escuchó, tal como Jehovah había dicho. 14Entonces Jehovah dijo a Moisés: —El corazón del faraón se ha endurecido, y rehúsa dejar ir al pueblo. 15Vé por la mañana al faraón, cuando él salga al río. Ponte frente a él a la orilla del Nilo. Toma en tu mano la vara que se transformó en serpiente, 16y dile: "Jehovah, el Dios de los hebreos, me ha enviado a ti para decirte: ‘Deja ir a mi pueblo para que me sirva en el desierto.’ Pero he aquí que hasta ahora no has querido escuchar. 17Así ha dicho Jehovah: ‘En esto conocerás que yo soy Jehovah’; he aquí, con la vara que tengo en mi mano golpearé las aguas del Nilo, y éstas se convertirán en sangre. 18Los peces que hay en el Nilo morirán. El Nilo apestará, y los egipcios tendrán asco de beber agua del Nilo." 19Jehovah dijo también a Moisés: —Di a Aarón: "Toma tu vara y extiende tu mano sobre las aguas de Egipto, sobre sus ríos, sobre sus canales, sobre sus estanques y sobre todos sus depósitos de agua; y ellas se convertirán en sangre." Habrá sangre en toda la tierra de Egipto, hasta en los baldes de madera y en las vasijas de piedra. 20Moisés y Aarón hicieron como les mandó Jehovah. Alzó la vara y golpeó las aguas del Nilo en presencia del faraón y de sus servidores, y todas las aguas del Nilo se convirtieron en sangre. 21Los peces que había en el Nilo murieron. Y el Nilo apestaba, de modo que los egipcios no podían beber de él. Hubo sangre en toda la tierra de Egipto. 22Pero los magos de Egipto hicieron lo mismo con sus encantamientos. Y el corazón del faraón se endureció, y no los escuchó, tal como Jehovah lo había dicho. 23Después se volvió el faraón y entró en su casa, y no quiso prestar más atención al asunto. 24Y todos los egipcios hicieron pozos alrededor del Nilo para beber, porque no podían beber las aguas del Nilo. 25Pasaron siete días después que Jehovah golpeó el Nilo.
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.