Exodus 7

Introduction

Exodus 7 marks the beginning of the direct confrontation between the God of Israel and Pharaoh, the most powerful ruler in the ancient world. After Moses' repeated objections and God's patient answers in chapters 3-6, the scene shifts decisively from preparation to action. God redefines Moses' role — he will be "like God" to Pharaoh, with Aaron serving as his prophet — and announces in advance that he will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply his signs in the land of Egypt. The chapter then narrates two encounters with Pharaoh: Aaron's staff becoming a serpent (which Pharaoh's magicians replicate, though Aaron's staff swallows theirs), and the first plague, in which the waters of the Nile are turned to blood.

The theological architecture of the chapter is carefully constructed. The plagues are not random acts of destruction but deliberate confrontations with the Egyptian religious system. The Nile was venerated as a source of life, closely associated with the gods Hapi and Osiris. To turn its waters to blood — the substance of death — is to strike at the heart of Egypt's self-understanding. Throughout the chapter, two key Hebrew verbs describe what happens to Pharaoh's heart: חָזַק ("to be strong, to harden") and כָּבֵד ("to be heavy, to be stubborn"). These verbs will recur throughout the plague narrative and raise profound questions about divine sovereignty and human responsibility. The chapter also introduces the Egyptian magicians (חַרְטֻמִּים), who can replicate God's signs but cannot undo them — a pattern that will escalate as the plagues intensify.

God Commands Moses and Aaron (vv. 1-7)

Notes

• נְתַתִּיךָ אֱלֹהִים לְפַרְעֹה ("I have set you as God to Pharaoh") — The verb נָתַן ("to give, set, make") combined with אֱלֹהִים produces a striking declaration: Moses will function in the role of God toward Pharaoh. This does not mean Moses becomes divine, but that he will stand before Pharaoh as God's direct representative, with the authority and power of God backing his words. The KJV translates "I have made thee a god to Pharaoh" (without the article), while the BSB adds "like God." The Hebrew has no preposition "like" — it simply reads "I have given you God to Pharaoh." The effect is to invert the entire Egyptian power structure. Pharaoh, who claimed to be a god, will now stand before an eighty-year-old shepherd who speaks with the authority of the true God. This picks up the promise made in Exodus 4:16, where God told Moses that he would be "like God" to Aaron.

• נְבִיאֶךָ ("your prophet") — Aaron will serve as Moses' נָבִיא ("prophet"). This is one of the clearest definitions of the prophetic role in the Old Testament: a prophet is one who speaks on behalf of another. Just as a prophet receives God's word and declares it to the people, Aaron will receive Moses' word and declare it to Pharaoh. The chain of communication is God to Moses to Aaron to Pharaoh — a structure that mirrors the prophetic office in Israel's later history. The word נָבִיא may derive from the Akkadian nabu ("to call, proclaim"), suggesting one who is called to proclaim, or it may be related to a Hebrew root meaning "to bubble forth" — one from whom words flow.

• אַקְשֶׁה אֶת לֵב פַּרְעֹה ("I will make Pharaoh's heart hard") — The verb here is קָשָׁה ("to be hard, difficult, severe") in the Hiphil (causative) form. This is the first of three different Hebrew verbs used throughout the plague narrative for "hardening" Pharaoh's heart. The three are: (1) קָשָׁה — "to make hard, stiff" (used here in 7:3); (2) חָזַק — "to be strong, to strengthen" (used in vv. 13, 22); and (3) כָּבֵד — "to be heavy, weighty" (used in v. 14). Each carries a different nuance. קָשָׁה suggests rigidity and stubbornness; חָזַק suggests a heart that becomes unyieldingly strong or resolute; כָּבֵד suggests a heart that is heavy, dull, insensible — too weighed down to respond. The interplay of these verbs across the plague narrative is significant: sometimes God is the subject (he hardens), and sometimes Pharaoh's heart hardens of its own accord or Pharaoh hardens his own heart. This alternation is central to the theological debate about the passage.

• אֹתֹתַי וְאֶת מוֹפְתַי ("my signs and my wonders") — The word pair אוֹת ("sign") and מוֹפֵת ("wonder, portent") occurs frequently in Exodus and Deuteronomy to describe the plagues. An אוֹת is a sign that points beyond itself — it signifies something, communicates a message. A מוֹפֵת is a wonder that astonishes, a demonstration of power that overwhelms. The plagues are both: they communicate who God is (signs) and they display what God can do (wonders).

• צִבְאֹתַי אֶת עַמִּי ("my armies, my people") — God calls Israel צְבָאוֹת ("armies, hosts, divisions"). This is the same root found in the divine title יהוה צְבָאוֹת ("the LORD of hosts"). The enslaved people are described in military terms — they are God's army, and their departure from Egypt is not a flight but a marshaled exodus. The term was introduced in Exodus 6:26 and anticipates the organized departure described in Exodus 12:41 ("all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt").

• בִּשְׁפָטִים גְּדֹלִים ("by great judgments") — The word שְׁפָטִים ("judgments") frames the plagues not as arbitrary punishments but as judicial acts. God is rendering a verdict against Egypt, executing sentence on a nation that has enslaved his people and defied his authority. The same word is used in Numbers 33:4: "upon their gods the LORD executed judgments." The plagues are thus a trial in which Egypt's gods are weighed and found wanting.

• The ages of Moses (eighty) and Aaron (eighty-three) at the time of confrontation with Pharaoh are noted with the precision of historical record. Moses has spent forty years in Pharaoh's court and forty years as a shepherd in Midian (Acts 7:23, Acts 7:30). He is now entering the third and final phase of his life. The tradition divides Moses' 120 years into three equal periods: forty years learning to be somebody, forty years learning to be nobody, and forty years proving that God is everybody.

Interpretations

The hardening of Pharaoh's heart is one of the most debated theological questions in the Old Testament. Calvinist/Reformed interpreters emphasize God's sovereign action: God declares in advance that he will harden Pharaoh's heart (vv. 3-4), and this is understood as an expression of God's absolute sovereignty over human hearts. Pharaoh's resistance serves God's purposes by multiplying the occasions for demonstrating divine power and making the name of the LORD known throughout the earth (Romans 9:17-18). Arminian interpreters observe that the text alternates between God hardening Pharaoh's heart and Pharaoh hardening his own heart. They note that in the early plagues, Pharaoh hardens his own heart first (e.g., Exodus 8:15, Exodus 8:32), and only later does God harden it (beginning decisively in Exodus 9:12). On this reading, God's hardening is a judicial response to Pharaoh's freely chosen resistance — God confirms Pharaoh in the direction he has already chosen. A mediating view holds that the three different Hebrew verbs capture a complex process: God creates the conditions (signs and wonders) that provoke Pharaoh's stubborn nature, Pharaoh responds with increasing obstinacy, and God ratifies and intensifies that obstinacy so that all his purposes are accomplished. The text itself preserves the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility without resolving it into a neat formula.

Aaron's Staff Becomes a Serpent (vv. 8-13)

Notes

• תְּנוּ לָכֶם מוֹפֵת ("give a wonder as proof") — Pharaoh demands a מוֹפֵת ("wonder, sign, portent") to validate Moses and Aaron's authority. The BSB renders this "Perform a miracle." The verb נָתַן ("to give") with מוֹפֵת literally means "produce a portent for yourselves" — prove your credentials. This was standard practice in the ancient Near East: a messenger claiming to speak for a deity would be expected to provide supernatural authentication.

• תַנִּין ("great serpent, sea creature") — The word used here is critically different from the word in Exodus 4:3, where Moses' staff became a נָחָשׁ ("snake"). תַנִּין is a much larger, more fearsome creature. In the Old Testament, תַנִּין can refer to a large serpent, a sea monster, a crocodile, or even a mythological chaos creature (Isaiah 27:1, Isaiah 51:9, Psalm 74:13, Ezekiel 29:3). Significantly, Ezekiel 29:3 uses תַנִּין to describe Pharaoh himself: "the great dragon that lies in the midst of his rivers." The choice of this word in Pharaoh's court is thus loaded with symbolic meaning — Aaron's staff becomes the very creature that symbolizes Pharaoh's own power, and then swallows the Egyptian versions of itself. The Nile crocodile was a symbol of royal power in Egypt, associated with the god Sobek. If תַנִּין here evokes the crocodile, the sign directly challenges Pharaoh's claim to divine power.

• לַחֲכָמִים וְלַמְכַשְּׁפִים ("the wise men and the sorcerers") — Pharaoh summons three categories of practitioners: חֲכָמִים ("wise men" — learned advisors), מְכַשְּׁפִים ("sorcerers" — practitioners of magic, from the root כָּשַׁף, "to practice sorcery"), and חַרְטֻמִּים ("magicians"). The last term, חַרְטֻמִּים, is likely an Egyptian loanword, possibly from the Egyptian hry-tp meaning "chief lector priest" — the priestly class who read sacred texts and performed ritual magic. These are the same חַרְטֻמִּים whom Pharaoh summoned to interpret his dreams in Genesis 41:8. Paul names two of them as Jannes and Jambres (2 Timothy 3:8).

• בְּלַהֲטֵיהֶם ("by their secret arts") — The word לַהַט has been understood in two ways. Some connect it to לַהַט meaning "flame" (cf. the flaming sword of Genesis 3:24), suggesting fiery incantations or sleight of hand. Others derive it from a root meaning "secret, concealed" — hidden arts, esoteric techniques. The KJV translates "enchantments," the ESV "secret arts." In v. 22, a different but similar word is used: בְּלָטֵיהֶם, which more clearly derives from לָט ("secret, hidden"). The subtle variation between the two terms across the chapter may be intentional or may simply reflect alternative spellings of the same concept. Whatever the precise meaning, the text does not deny the reality of what the magicians accomplish — it simply shows that their power is inferior to God's.

• וַיִּבְלַע מַטֵּה אַהֲרֹן אֶת מַטֹּתָם ("Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs") — The verb בָּלַע ("to swallow") is the same verb used of the earth swallowing Korah and his followers in Numbers 16:32 and of the sea swallowing the Egyptian army in Exodus 15:12. Note carefully: the text says Aaron's staff swallowed their staffs, not Aaron's serpent swallowed their serpents. This may be a subtle but important distinction — the staff has returned to its original form but retains its superior power. The symbolic message is clear: the power of God does not merely match Egyptian magic; it consumes it entirely. Pharaoh's own symbol of royal authority (the serpent/crocodile) is devoured by God's instrument.

• וַיֶּחֱזַק לֵב פַּרְעֹה ("Pharaoh's heart grew strong") — Here the verb is חָזַק in the Qal stem. The Qal form describes a state: Pharaoh's heart was or became strong. The subject is Pharaoh's heart — it strengthened itself. This is an important grammatical distinction from v. 3, where God said "I will make hard" (Hiphil, causative). Here, the text does not say God hardened Pharaoh's heart; it says Pharaoh's heart hardened. The refrain "just as the LORD had spoken" (כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהוָה) indicates that this outcome was anticipated and incorporated into God's plan, but the grammar leaves the immediate agency with Pharaoh.

The First Plague: Water Turned to Blood (vv. 14-25)

Notes

• כָּבֵד לֵב פַּרְעֹה ("Pharaoh's heart is heavy") — Here the third "hardening" verb appears: כָּבֵד, an adjective meaning "heavy, weighty, burdensome." This is the same root as כָּבוֹד ("glory, weight, honor") — the word for God's glory. There is a bitter irony: the word that describes God's glorious weightiness also describes Pharaoh's stubborn heaviness. God's heart is weighty with glory; Pharaoh's heart is weighty with obstinacy. The BSB translates "unyielding," the KJV "hardened," the ESV "hardened." I have translated "heavy" to preserve the distinct nuance from חָזַק ("strong") in v. 13 and to reflect the literal meaning of the Hebrew.

• הִנֵּה יֹצֵא הַמַּיְמָה ("look, he is going out to the water") — Pharaoh's morning visit to the Nile has prompted much discussion. Some scholars believe he went to bathe, others to perform religious rituals (the Nile was an object of worship), and others for more mundane reasons. The Nile was the center of Egyptian life — its annual flood determined the agricultural cycle, and the entire economy depended on it. Whatever the specific purpose, Moses is instructed to confront Pharaoh at the very place where Egypt's dependence on the Nile is most visible. The confrontation at the water's edge sets the stage for what God is about to do to the water itself.

• לְנָחָשׁ ("into a snake") — Notably, v. 15 refers to the staff that was turned into a נָחָשׁ ("snake"), using the word from Exodus 4:3 rather than תַנִּין used in vv. 9-10. This distinction may reflect the different contexts: the original sign given to Moses privately (chapter 4) involved a נָחָשׁ, while the sign performed before Pharaoh (vv. 9-10) involved a תַנִּין. The reference back to נָחָשׁ here may indicate that the staff Moses carries to the Nile is identified by its first transformation rather than its second.

• בְּזֹאת תֵּדַע כִּי אֲנִי יְהוָה ("by this you will know that I am the LORD") — This formula — "you will know that I am the LORD" — appears repeatedly throughout the plague narrative and becomes one of its central theological refrains (Exodus 7:5, Exodus 8:10, Exodus 8:22, Exodus 9:14, Exodus 9:29, Exodus 14:4, Exodus 14:18). The plagues are not simply punishments; they are revelations. Their purpose is knowledge — that Pharaoh, Egypt, and ultimately the whole world will come to know that the LORD is God. Pharaoh had asked "Who is the LORD?" (Exodus 5:2). The plagues are the answer.

• הַיְאֹר ("the Nile") — The Hebrew word יְאֹר is an Egyptian loanword, derived from the Egyptian itrw (later ior), the common Egyptian term for the Nile. The use of the Egyptian word rather than a native Hebrew term for "river" (נָהָר) underscores the specifically Egyptian setting and strikes at an Egyptian reality in Egyptian terms. The Nile was not merely a river to the Egyptians — it was a divine entity. The annual inundation of the Nile was attributed to the god Hapi, and the Nile's waters were associated with the life-giving power of Osiris. To turn the Nile to blood is to assault the most sacred element of Egyptian religion and daily life.

• וְנֶהֶפְכוּ לְדָם ("and it will be turned to blood") — The word דָּם ("blood") is unambiguous. Whether the transformation was a literal change of water into biological blood or a blood-like appearance (some naturalistic interpreters have proposed red algae, volcanic sediment, or red clay), the text presents it as a direct divine act with devastating consequences: the fish die, the river stinks, and the water is undrinkable. The scope is comprehensive — v. 19 extends the plague beyond the Nile itself to all the waters of Egypt: נַהֲרֹתָם ("their rivers"), יְאֹרֵיהֶם ("their channels"), אַגְמֵיהֶם ("their pools"), and כָּל מִקְוֵה מֵימֵיהֶם ("every gathering of their waters"). Even water stored in wooden and stone vessels is affected. This totality rules out a merely natural phenomenon — the plague reaches into every household.

• וַיָּרֶם בַּמַּטֶּה וַיַּךְ ("he raised the staff and struck") — The subject of "he raised" is ambiguous in the Hebrew. The BSB reads "Aaron raised the staff" (following v. 19, where Aaron is told to stretch out his hand). The Hebrew simply says "he raised" without naming the subject. This ambiguity is reflected in the BSB footnote, which notes that some translators read "Moses raised the staff." The interchangeability of Moses and Aaron in the narrative reflects their joint commission: Moses is the one sent by God, Aaron is the one who acts with the staff, but they function as a unified agent of divine will.

• וְלֹא שָׁת לִבּוֹ גַּם לָזֹאת ("he did not set his heart even to this") — The phrase שִׁית לֵב ("to set the heart") means to pay attention, to take something seriously, to reflect. Pharaoh does not merely refuse the demand — he dismisses the plague entirely. He turns (וַיִּפֶן) and goes into his house, physically turning his back on the devastation. The word גַּם ("even, also") suggests accumulation: this is yet another thing Pharaoh refuses to consider. His hardness is not just theological obstinacy; it is willful blindness to suffering — including the suffering of his own people, who must dig for water.

• וַיַּחְפְּרוּ כָל מִצְרַיִם סְבִיבֹת הַיְאֹר ("all the Egyptians dug around the Nile") — The verb חָפַר ("to dig") describes a desperate search for drinkable water by digging wells near the river, hoping to find water filtered through the ground. This small, vivid detail reveals the human cost of Pharaoh's stubbornness. The people of Egypt bear the consequences of their ruler's refusal. The Nile, source of all their life and prosperity, has become a source of death and revulsion.

• וַיִּמָּלֵא שִׁבְעַת יָמִים ("seven full days were completed") — The number seven (שֶׁבַע) carries significance as a number of completion and divine action throughout Scripture. The plague lasts a full week — a complete cycle of days — before the narrative moves to the next plague. This duration underscores the severity: this is not a momentary demonstration but a sustained catastrophe. It also gives Pharaoh seven days to reconsider, yet he does not.

• The magicians' replication of the plague (v. 22) is paradoxical: if the water was already turned to blood, where did they find water to transform? This suggests either that some water sources remained (perhaps the well-water the Egyptians had dug for), or that the magicians' replication was partial and symbolic rather than comprehensive. In either case, the magicians' ability to replicate the plague only makes things worse — they produce more blood-water, not clean water. They can imitate destruction but cannot reverse it. This pattern will become increasingly significant as the plagues progress: by the third plague (gnats), the magicians will fail entirely and declare "This is the finger of God" (Exodus 8:19).

Interpretations

The first plague has been interpreted through several lenses. As judgment against Egyptian gods: Many interpreters, both ancient and modern, understand the plagues as targeted attacks on the Egyptian pantheon. The Nile plague strikes at Hapi (god of the Nile flood), Khnum (guardian of the Nile's source), and Osiris (whose bloodstream the Nile was thought to represent). Numbers 33:4 explicitly states that God "executed judgments on their gods." As escalating revelation: Others emphasize the didactic purpose — each plague is designed to teach both Egypt and Israel who the LORD is. The plague on the Nile answers Pharaoh's dismissive question, "Who is the LORD?" (Exodus 5:2), by demonstrating God's power over the very element Egypt most depended on. Regarding the magicians' replication: Some interpreters (particularly in the Reformed tradition) view the magicians' power as genuine but demonic — real supernatural abilities operating under satanic influence, which nevertheless prove inferior to God's power. Others (following some medieval Jewish commentators) view the magicians' feats as skilled illusion or trickery (לַהֲטֵיהֶם may suggest "sleight of hand" as much as "sorcery"). Still others take a middle position: the magicians possessed genuine occult knowledge that produced real effects, but these effects were limited in scope and derivative in character — they could only imitate, never originate or reverse.