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And the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like 1God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your 2prophet.
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3You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land.
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But 4I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I 5multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,
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Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.
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The Egyptians 6shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them."
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Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the LORD commanded them.
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Now Moses was 7eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
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Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
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"When Pharaoh says to you, 8'Prove yourselves by working a miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.'"
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So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.
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Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the 9magicians of Egypt, also 10did the same by their secret arts.
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For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.
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Still 11Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, 12as the LORD had said.