1. And Yahweh said to Moses, “See, I have made you as a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.
2. You will speak all that I will command you, and Aaron your brother will speak to Pharaoh, and he will release the Israelites from his land.
3. And I myself will harden the heart of Pharaoh, and I will make my signs and my wonders numerous in the land of Egypt.
4. And Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will put my hand into Egypt and bring out my divisions, my people, the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great punishments.
5. And the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh when I stretch out my hand over Egypt and bring the Israelites out from their midst.”
6. And Moses and Aaron did it; as Yahweh commanded them, so they did.
7. (And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.)
8. And Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
9. “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Do a wonder for yourselves,’ you will say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.’ ”
10. And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and they did so, as Yahweh had commanded. And Aaron threw his staff before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a snake.
11. And Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did likewise with their secret arts.
12. Each threw down his staff, and they became snakes, and Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.
13. And Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not listen to them, as Yahweh had said.
14. And Yahweh said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is insensitive; he refuses to release the people.
15. Go to Pharaoh in the morning. Look, he is going out to the water, and you must wait to meet him on the bank of the Nile, and you must take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.