1. The Lord said to Moses, “I have made you like God to the king of Egypt, and your brother Aaron will be like a prophet for you.
2. Tell Aaron your brother everything that I command you, and let him tell the king of Egypt to let the Israelites leave his country.
3. But I will make the king stubborn. I will do many miracles in Egypt,
4. but he will still refuse to listen. So then I will punish Egypt terribly, and I will lead my divisions, my people the Israelites, out of that land.
5. I will punish Egypt with my power, and I will bring the Israelites out of that land. Then they will know I am the Lord.”
6. Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded them.
7. Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three when they spoke to the king.
8. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
9. “Moses, when the king asks you to do a miracle, tell Aaron to throw his walking stick down in front of the king, and it will become a snake.”
10. So Moses and Aaron went to the king as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw his walking stick down in front of the king and his officers, and it became a snake.
11. So the king called in his wise men and his magicians, and with their tricks the Egyptian magicians were able to do the same thing.
12. They threw their walking sticks on the ground, and their sticks became snakes. But Aaron’s stick swallowed theirs.
13. Still the king was stubborn and refused to listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.
14. Then the Lord said to Moses, “The king is being stubborn and refuses to let the people go.
15. In the morning the king will go out to the Nile River. Go meet him by the edge of the river, and take with you the walking stick that became a snake.