Exodus 7

This chapter belongs to the account of the departure from Egypt in the early part of Exodus. After God recommissions Moses and the genealogy of Moses and Aaron is given in Exodus 6, this chapter opens the full confrontation with Pharaoh and the beginning of the Ten Plagues.

Outline

• Verses 1–7: The LORD makes Moses "a god to Pharaoh" and appoints Aaron as his prophet (one who speaks on his behalf). He announces in advance that He will harden (make stubborn and obstinate) Pharaoh's heart. At this time Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three.
• Verses 8–13: Aaron casts down his rod before Pharaoh, and it becomes a serpent. The Egyptian magicians do the same, but Aaron's rod swallows up their rods. Even so, Pharaoh does not listen.
• Verses 14–25: In the morning Moses meets Pharaoh at the river's edge. Aaron strikes the river with his rod, and the water turns to blood; the fish die, and the river stinks. When the magicians do likewise, Pharaoh hardens his heart and returns to his house. The Egyptians dig along the river for water to drink, and seven days pass in this way.

Key Verses

• Exodus 7:5: "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD" — this statement identifies the purpose of the plagues as making the LORD known, a theme repeated throughout the plague narrative.
• Exodus 7:12: "But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods" — this demonstrates the superiority of the LORD's power over Egyptian sorcery.
• Exodus 7:20: The river is turned to blood, the first of the Ten Plagues.

People and Places

• Moses, Aaron, Pharaoh
• The Egyptian magicians: The wise men and sorcerers summoned by Pharaoh, who imitate the signs of the rod and the water.
• Egypt
• The river: The Nile, which runs through Egypt. The New Korean Revised Version (Gaeyeok Gaejeong) renders it as "the Nile."

Points for Reflection

• Pharaoh's hardening: The text speaks both of God hardening Pharaoh's heart ("I will harden Pharaoh's heart," v. 3) and of Pharaoh's heart being hardened (vv. 13, 22). The Reformed tradition, linking this passage with Romans 9:18–23, tends to read it with an emphasis on God's sovereignty, while the Wesleyan and Arminian traditions tend to read it as God's response to Pharaoh's own hardening of his heart. For a fuller discussion, see Predestination and Free Will.
• The magicians' power: The text does not explain whether the magicians used trickery or genuine supernatural power, and interpretations differ.
• Later tradition: The magicians' names, "Jannes and Jambres," do not appear in this chapter but are found in 2 Timothy 3:8.
• Connections to the New Testament: The judgment of water turned to blood reappears in the account of the two witnesses in Revelation 11 and in the bowl judgments of Revelation 16.