Exodus 7

God prepares Moses and Aaron for a long contest with Pharaoh, warning that Pharaoh’s heart will stay hard. Aaron’s staff becomes a serpent and swallows up the staffs of Egypt’s magicians. Then the first plague strikes the Nile, turning Egypt’s lifeline to blood, so that Egypt may know that the LORD is God.

Exodus 7:1-2

God gives Moses a daunting place before Pharaoh: he speaks with God’s authority, and Aaron is his spokesman. Moses had pleaded that he could not speak well. God answers by supplying help and by reminding him that the words are God’s, not his own.

BSA: prophet (“one who speaks for God, a spokesperson”): Aaron carries Moses’ words, just as Moses carries God’s.

See also: Exodus 4:14-16.

Exodus 7:3-4

God tells Moses at the start that Pharaoh will refuse. The signs will pile up, and still Pharaoh will not listen. This is no surprise to God. He will use even this resistance to bring out His people with mighty acts of judgment.

BSA: harden (“make stubborn, strengthen”): God’s hardening makes Pharaoh firm in the stubborn course he has already chosen.

Hebrew: אַקְשֶׁה (aqsheh, H7185) — “I will make hard, stiff.” The word pictures a stiff neck or stubborn will. Throughout the story Pharaoh also hardens his own heart, so both God’s purpose and Pharaoh’s choice are at work.

See also: Exodus 4:21; Romans 9:17.

Exodus 7:5

The purpose of all this is that Egypt will know who the LORD is. Pharaoh had asked, ‘Who is the LORD?’ The plagues are the answer. God’s outstretched hand will free Israel and show the nations who truly rules.

BSA: know (“learn, perceive, ascertain by seeing”): Egypt will come to know God by seeing what He does, not just by hearing about Him.

See also: Exodus 5:2.

Exodus 7:6-7

Moses and Aaron obey exactly as commanded. Their ages are given: eighty and eighty-three. God’s great work of rescue begins through two old men, after forty years of Moses’ quiet life in the desert. God is not hurried by age.

BSA: commanded (“given orders, appointed”): Their obedience matches the exact orders God gave them.

Exodus 7:8-9

God tells them ahead of time what Pharaoh will demand and how to answer. Pharaoh will ask for a miracle to prove their claim. Aaron is to throw down his staff, and it will become a serpent. God goes before His servants and prepares them.

BSA: serpent (“snake, or monster”): The creature is large and dangerous, not a harmless garden snake.

Hebrew: תַּנִּין (tannin, H8577) — “serpent, large reptile, sea monster.” This is a different word from the one used when Moses’ staff became a snake at the burning bush. It suggests something bigger and more fearsome, perhaps echoing the cobra symbol on Pharaoh’s crown.

Exodus 7:10

Aaron throws his staff down before Pharaoh and his officials, and it becomes a serpent, just as God said. The sign is given openly in the royal court. It shows that the God of the Hebrew slaves has power over the very symbols of Egypt’s king.

BSA: staff (“rod”): The plain shepherd’s rod becomes the instrument of God’s power.

See also: Exodus 4:2-4.

Exodus 7:11-12

Pharaoh’s wise men and magicians imitate the sign by their secret arts. Yet Aaron’s staff swallows up all the others. Whatever tricks or powers Egypt had, they were plainly shown to be smaller than God’s power.

BSA: swallowed up (“devoured, completely destroyed”): God’s sign does not merely match theirs; it consumes and overcomes it.

Hebrew: חַרְטֻמֵּי (ḥarṭummê, H2748) — “magicians, sacred scribes.” This word names Egypt’s trained priests and scribes who handled sacred writings and rituals. These were official, learned men, not street performers.

See also: 2 Timothy 3:8.

Exodus 7:13

In spite of seeing Aaron’s staff win, Pharaoh will not listen. A hard heart can watch real evidence and still refuse. The writer reminds us again that this is just as the LORD had said.

BSA: hardened (“made strong, stubborn”): Pharaoh’s heart was made firm against God’s word.

Exodus 7:14

God now describes Pharaoh’s heart plainly. It is heavy and unyielding, and he refuses to let the people go. The word ‘heavy’ suggests a heart weighed down and unmoving, like a stone that cannot be shifted.

BSA: unyielding (“heavy, stubborn, or hardened”): The Hebrew sense is a heavy heart that will not move.

Hebrew: כָּבֵד (kaved, H3515) — “heavy, weighty.” The same root can mean ‘glory’ or ‘honor’ elsewhere. Pharaoh is weighty with his own importance, and God will show whose glory is truly weighty.

Exodus 7:15

Moses is to meet Pharaoh early at the Nile, where the king goes out to the water. The river was central to Egyptian life and was honored as sacred. God will confront Pharaoh at the very place he trusts. Moses is to bring the staff that became a serpent.

BSA: Wait (“stand and station yourself”): Moses is to take his post firmly and be ready when Pharaoh comes.

Exodus 7:16

Moses repeats the message that has been given all along: let My people go so they may worship Me. The goal of freedom is worship. Pharaoh’s refusal up to now is named plainly, so the coming judgment is not a surprise.

BSA: worship (“serve, honor”): The same word means both ‘serve’ and ‘worship.’ Israel is to leave serving Pharaoh to serve God.

Hebrew: יַעַבְדֻנִי (ya’avduni, H5647) — “that they may serve Me.” The verb is the one used for slave labor in Egypt. Israel is being moved from one master to the true Master.

See also: Exodus 8:1.

Exodus 7:17-18

God announces the first plague in advance. The Nile will turn to blood, the fish will die, and the water will stink and be undrinkable. The sign will show who the LORD is, by striking the heart of Egypt’s life and food.

BSA: strike (“hit, smite”): God’s blow falls on the river itself, the source of Egypt’s life.

See also: Psalm 78:44.

Exodus 7:19

The plague reaches every water source in Egypt, from rivers to canals to ponds and reservoirs. Even stored water in wooden and stone vessels is affected. Nowhere in the land is there an escape from what God is doing.

BSA: blood (“the liquid that flows through the body”): Water, the source of life, becomes something that speaks of death.

Exodus 7:20-21

Aaron strikes the Nile in full view of Pharaoh and his officials, and the whole river turns to blood. The fish die, the smell is terrible, and the Egyptians cannot drink. God’s word is carried out exactly as spoken.

See also: Revelation 16:4-6.

Exodus 7:22

Egypt’s magicians again copy the sign by their secret arts, and Pharaoh takes comfort in that. But they only added more blood, with no one able to undo it. Pharaoh’s heart stays hard, as God had said.

BSA: magic arts (“secret arts, enchantments”): These were hidden practices, set against the open power of God.

Exodus 7:23

Pharaoh simply turns and goes home, not taking any of this to heart. The sign was clear, but he refused to think about it. It is a sobering picture of how a person can see God’s hand and walk away.

BSA: heart (“his inner being, mind, and will”): In the Bible the heart is where a person thinks and decides, not only feels.

Exodus 7:24

The ordinary Egyptians suffer thirst and dig around the Nile, hoping to find clean water filtering through the ground. The plague falls on the whole land, and the people feel the cost of their king’s stubbornness.

BSA: dug (“sought, searched deeply”): The people were desperate, searching for any water that was fit to drink.

Exodus 7:25

Seven full days passed after the LORD struck the Nile. The plague was not a brief moment but a lasting, painful judgment. God gave Pharaoh ample time to reconsider, and the next chapter shows that he still would not.

BSA: seven (“sacred”): The number seven often marks completeness, here a full period of judgment.