7¹ And Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made thee God to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. ² Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. ³ And I will render Pharaoh's heart obdurate, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. ⁴ And Pharaoh will not hearken unto you; and I will lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. ⁵ And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth my hand on Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them. ⁶ And Moses and Aaron did as Jehovah had commanded them: so did they. ⁷ And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Aaron's Rod

⁸ And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ⁹ When Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, Do a miracle for yourselves,—then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy staff and cast [it] before Pharaoh—it will become a serpent. ¹⁰ And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and did so, as Jehovah had commanded; and Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh, and before his bondmen, and it became a serpent. ¹¹ And Pharaoh also called the sages and the sorcerers; and they too, the scribes of Egypt, did so with their enchantments: ¹² they cast down every man his staff, and they became serpents; but Aaron's staff swallowed up their staves. ¹³ And Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had said.

The Plague of Blood

¹⁴ And Jehovah said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened: he refuseth to let the people go. ¹⁵ Go unto Pharaoh in the morning—behold, he will go out unto the water—and take thy stand by the bank of the river in front of him; and take in thy hand the staff that was turned into a serpent. ¹⁶ And say unto him, Jehovah the God of the Hebrews has sent me to thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness; but behold, hitherto thou hast not hearkened. ¹⁷ Thus saith Jehovah: In this shalt thou know that I am Jehovah—behold, I will smite with the staff that is in my hand upon the water which is in the river, and it shall be turned into blood. ¹⁸ And the fish that is in the river shall die; and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink the water out of the river. ¹⁹ And Jehovah said to Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy staff, and stretch out thy hand upon the waters of the Egyptians—upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout the land of Egypt, both in [vessels of] wood and in [vessels of] stone. ²⁰ And Moses and Aaron did so, as Jehovah had commanded; and he lifted up the staff, and smote the waters that were in the river before the eyes of Pharaoh, and before the eyes of his bondmen; and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood. ²¹ And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river; and the blood was throughout the land of Egypt. ²² And the scribes of Egypt did so with their sorceries; and Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, neither did he hearken to them, as Jehovah had said. ²³ And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and took not this to heart either. ²⁴ And all the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.

The Plague of Frogs

²⁵ And seven days were fulfilled, after Jehovah had smitten the river.

8¹ And Jehovah said to Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith Jehovah: Let my people go, that they may serve me. ² And if thou refuse to let [them] go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. ³ And the river shall swarm with frogs, and they shall go up and come into thy house, and into thy bedroom, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy bondmen, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs. ⁴ And the frogs shall come up both upon thee and upon thy people, and upon all thy bondmen. ⁵ And Jehovah said to Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy hand with thy staff over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt. ⁶ And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. ⁷ And the scribes did so with their sorceries, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt. ⁸ And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat Jehovah, that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to Jehovah. ⁹ And Moses said to Pharaoh, Glory over me, for what time shall I intreat for thee, and for thy bondmen, and for thy people, to cut off the frogs from thee and from thy houses; [so that] they shall remain in the river only? ¹⁰ And he said, For to-morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word; that thou mayest know that there is none like Jehovah our God. ¹¹ And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy bondmen, and from thy people: they shall remain in the river only. ¹² And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and Moses cried to Jehovah because of the frogs that he had brought against Pharaoh. ¹³ And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courts, and out of the fields. ¹⁴ And they gathered them in heaps; and the land stank. ¹⁵ And Pharaoh saw that there was respite; and he hardened his heart, and hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had said.

The Plague of Lice

¹⁶ And Jehovah said to Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy staff, and smite the dust of the earth, and it shall become gnats throughout the land of Egypt. ¹⁷ And they did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and smote the dust of the earth, and there arose gnats on man and on beast: all the dust of the land became gnats throughout the land of Egypt. ¹⁸ And the scribes did so with their sorceries, to bring forth gnats; but they could not. And the gnats were on man and on beast. ¹⁹ Then the scribes said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God! But Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had said.

The Plague of Flies

²⁰ And Jehovah said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh—behold, he will go out to the water—and say to him, Thus saith Jehovah, Let my people go, that they may serve me. ²¹ For, if thou do not let my people go, behold, I will send dog-flies upon thee, and upon thy bondmen, and upon thy people, and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of dog-flies, and also the ground on which they are. ²² And I will distinguish in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no dog-flies shall be there; that thou mayest know that I Jehovah am in the midst of the land. ²³ And I will put a separation between my people and thy people; to-morrow shall this sign be. ²⁴ And Jehovah did so; and there came dog-flies in a multitude into the house of Pharaoh, and [into] the houses of his bondmen; and throughout the land of Egypt, the land was corrupted by the dog-flies. ²⁵ And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, Go, sacrifice to your God in the land. ²⁶ And Moses said, It is not proper to do so; for we should sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God: lo, if we sacrificed the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, would they not stone us? ²⁷ We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Jehovah our God, as he shall command us. ²⁸ And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to Jehovah your God in the wilderness; only, go not very far away: intreat for me! ²⁹ And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and will intreat Jehovah; and the dog-flies will depart from Pharaoh, from his bondmen, and from his people, to-morrow; only let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to Jehovah. ³⁰ And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated Jehovah. ³¹ And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the dog-flies from Pharaoh, from his bondmen, and from his people; there remained not one. ³² And Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and would not let the people go.

The Things That Defile

15¹ Then the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem come up to Jesus, saying, ² Why do thy disciples transgress what has been delivered by the ancients? for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. ³ But he answering said to them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God on account of your traditional teaching? ⁴ For God commanded saying, Honour father and mother; and, He that speaks ill of father or mother, let him die the death. ⁵ But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or mother, It is a gift, whatsoever [it be] by which [received] from me thou wouldest be profited: ⁶ and he shall in no wise honour his father or his mother; and ye have made void the commandment of God on account of your traditional teaching. ⁷ Hypocrites! well has Esaias prophesied about you, saying, ⁸ This people honour me with the lips, but their heart is far away from me; ⁹ but in vain do they worship me, teaching [as] teachings commandments of men.

¹⁰ And having called to [him] the crowd, he said to them, Hear and understand: ¹¹ Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man; but what goes forth out of the mouth, this defiles the man. ¹² Then his disciples, coming up, said to him, Dost thou know that the Pharisees, having heard this word, have been offended? ¹³ But he answering said, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. ¹⁴ Leave them alone; they are blind leaders of blind: but if blind lead blind, both will fall into a ditch. ¹⁵ And Peter answering said to him, Expound to us this parable. ¹⁶ But he said, Are ye also still without intelligence? ¹⁷ Do ye not yet apprehend, that everything that enters into the mouth finds its way into the belly, and is cast forth into the draught? ¹⁸ but the things which go forth out of the mouth come out of the heart, and those defile man. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies; ²⁰ these are the things which defile man; but the eating with unwashen hands does not defile man.