Chapter Overview
Summary
Exodus 7 begins the plague cycle. The staff-to-serpent sign before Pharaoh, the plague of blood, and the frog-plague announcement fill the chapter. LXX Exodus 7 tracks MT closely with one recurrent softening: divine commissioning language that makes Moses 'God' to Pharaoh (MT 7:1) is paraphrased in LXX as Moses representing God's things to Pharaoh. The 'finger of God' moment is reserved for chapter 8 (8:19); chapter 7's key LXX vocabulary is the pharmakoi / epaoidoi doublet for Pharaoh's magicians.
Notable Variants
The LXX's softening of 'I have made you God to Pharaoh' at 7:1; the LXX's pharmakoi ('sorcerers, pharmacists') and epaoidoi ('enchanters, chanters') vocabulary for the Egyptian magicians that supplies NT anti-sorcery polemic (Gal 5:20, Rev 9:21, 18:23, 21:8, 22:15); the 'mighty acts of judgment' (krisesin megalais) formula at 7:4; the Nile-to-blood plague rendered with the same LXX verb haimatizō that appears at Revelation 11:6.
Structural Notes
LXX Exodus 7 preserves MT's 29-verse structure. The Hebrew and English chapter divisions diverge at some later editions (Hebrew 7:26–29 = English 8:1–4), but the LXX follows Hebrew versification as TCR does.
The LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.
Masoretic (WLC)
רְאֵה נְתַתִּיךָ אֱלֹהִים לְפַרְעֹה
I have made you like God to Pharaoh
Septuagint (LXX)
ἰδοὺ δέδωκά σε θεὸν Φαραω
Behold, I have given you as God to Pharaoh
Here the LXX does render MT's bold statement literally — 'I have given you as God (theon) to Pharaoh.' Unlike at 4:16 (where the LXX paraphrased 'you will be to him the things that pertain to God' to soften the claim), the LXX at 7:1 keeps theon as Moses' commissioned identity before Pharaoh.
The inconsistency between 4:16 (softened) and 7:1 (literal) may reflect different LXX translator hands, or a deliberate distinction: the intra-Israelite relationship of Moses and Aaron (4:16) is softened, while the confrontational commissioning against Pharaoh (7:1) is preserved in full.
Aaron becomes Moses' prophētēs — the LXX's standard word for prophet. This is the Pentateuch's single clearest statement that a prophet speaks the words of his commissioner.
You shall speak everything that I command you, and Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to let the sons of Israel go from his land.
The division of labor (Moses speaks to Aaron; Aaron speaks to Pharaoh) tracks MT directly.
But I will harden Pharaoh's heart. I will multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.
Masoretic (WLC)
וַאֲנִי אַקְשֶׁה אֶת־לֵב פַּרְעֹה
I will harden Pharaoh's heart
Septuagint (LXX)
ἐγὼ δὲ σκληρυνῶ τὴν καρδίαν Φαραω
But I will harden Pharaoh's heart
The Hebrew here uses qashah ('to make hard, to make stubborn') — a verb distinct from the chazaq of 4:21 and the kaved (9:7) also rendered. The LXX levels all three Hebrew hardening-verbs to sklēryn-, obscuring the Hebrew's variation.
The repetition of the hardening formula throughout chapters 4–14 (17 occurrences) makes the cumulative effect — divine agency in Pharaoh's resistance — unavoidable. Romans 9:17–18 works from this cumulative LXX picture.
'I will multiply my signs (sēmeia) and wonders (terata)' at the same verse supplies the 'signs and wonders' pair that recurs through the NT (Acts 2:22, 2:43, 4:30, 5:12; 2 Cor 12:12; Heb 2:4) as the standard LXX-shaped description of the deeds of Jesus and the apostles.
Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.
The 'great acts of judgment' (en ekdikēsesi megalais) formula is a standing LXX description of the Exodus plagues that recurs at 6:6. The 'hosts' (dynameis) of Israel vocabulary will reappear at 12:41 ('all the hosts of the LORD went out').
The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand over Egypt and bring the sons of Israel out from among them.
The 'they shall know that I am the LORD' (gnōsontai hoti egō kyrios) is the refrain that runs through Exodus, Ezekiel, and into NT theology (John 17:3). The LXX's egō kyrios formula is the Greek self-identification of God that recurs hundreds of times.
Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the LORD commanded them.
Moses and Aaron's obedience is rendered directly in LXX.
Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
The ages of Moses (80) and Aaron (83) tracks MT. Acts 7:23, 30 reflects Stephen's Mosaic age-schema: forty years in Pharaoh's court, forty in Midian, forty leading Israel — totaling 120 (cf. Deut 34:7).
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
The divine speech formula tracks MT.
"When Pharaoh says to you, 'Perform a wonder,' you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,' and it will become a serpent."
Masoretic (WLC)
תַּנִּין
a serpent
Septuagint (LXX)
δράκων
a dragon
Hebrew tannin ('serpent, sea-monster, dragon') at 7:9 is rendered drakōn in LXX — a stronger Greek term than the ophis ('snake') used at 4:3 for Moses' private sign. The shift from ophis to drakōn for the same creature highlights the public, confrontational scale of this second sign.
Drakōn becomes the NT's word for the Satanic dragon of Revelation 12:9, 'the great drakōn, the ancient serpent (ho ophis ho archaios).' Revelation's drakōn/ophis pair echoes LXX Exodus's own distinction between the terms.
So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD had commanded. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.
Moses and Aaron's execution of the sign before Pharaoh is rendered directly, with the same drakōn vocabulary from v. 9.
Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts.
Masoretic (WLC)
חֲכָמִים וְלַמְכַשְּׁפִים
the wise men and the sorcerers
Septuagint (LXX)
σοφιστὰς καὶ τοὺς φαρμακούς
the sophists and the pharmakoi
The LXX's sophistas and pharmakous is striking vocabulary. Sophistēs is the Greek term for a teacher of rhetoric and wisdom — but by the 3rd c. BCE already associated with manipulative argumentation. Pharmakos denotes a poisoner, sorcerer, or practitioner of drug-magic.
Pharmakoi becomes the NT's standard word for sorcerers in vice-lists: Galatians 5:20 (pharmakeia as a work of the flesh), Revelation 9:21, 18:23, 21:8, 22:15. The LXX Exodus-plague magicians are the typological ancestors of the Revelation pharmakoi excluded from the New Jerusalem.
English 'pharmacy' derives from pharmakeia — an etymological reminder that drug-handling and magic were not cleanly separated in the ancient world.
Each one threw down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.
The magicians' serpents and Aaron's staff swallowing theirs (katepien) tracks MT. The verb katepiō recurs at 1 Corinthians 15:54 (katepothē ho thanatos, 'death is swallowed up in victory' — quoting Isa 25:8 LXX).
Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
Pharaoh's hardening note tracks MT. LXX uses katischusen ('became strong') here — a different verb from the main sklēryn- family.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go.
Pharaoh's heart as 'stubborn' is rendered bebarēmenē ('weighed down') in LXX — the kaved branch of the hardening-verb family.
Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Stand by the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was turned into a serpent.
The morning confrontation at the Nile is rendered directly. 'The staff that was turned into a serpent' refers to 4:3 — though the ophis/drakōn distinction is not maintained.
Say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying: Let My people go, so that they may serve Me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened.
'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews' (ho theos tōn Hebraiōn) recurs — the LXX's consistent designation in the Exodus confrontation narrative.
Thus says the LORD: By this you shall know that I am the LORD — I am about to strike the water in the Nile with the staff in my hand, and it will be turned to blood.
The 'thus says the LORD' formula with the Nile-to-blood threat is rendered directly in LXX.
The fish in the Nile will die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink water from the Nile."
The fish dying and Nile stinking is rendered closely. Revelation 8:9 ('a third of the creatures in the sea that had life died') echoes this Exodus-plague pattern in its final-judgment apocalyptic.
The LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt — over their rivers, their canals, their pools, and every body of water — so that they may become blood. There shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone."
The detailed list of Egyptian waters to be turned to blood tracks MT.
Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded. He raised the staff and struck the water in the Nile in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water in the Nile was turned to blood.
Moses and Aaron's execution of the Nile-strike and its transformation to blood is rendered directly.
The fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank so that the Egyptians could not drink water from it. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
The fish-death and Nile-stench consequences track MT.
But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts, so Pharaoh's heart remained hard, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
The magicians' duplication of the blood-plague 'by their secret arts' (pharmakeia) tracks MT; Pharaoh's hardening recurs.
Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart.
Pharaoh's turning aside and unconcern is rendered directly. The phrase 'did not take this to heart' (ouk epestēsen tēn dianoian autou) becomes a minor LXX idiom for indifference.
All the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, because they could not drink the water of the Nile.
The Egyptians digging for drinkable water tracks MT.
Seven full days passed after the LORD struck the Nile.
The seven-day interval tracks MT. Seven-day cycles recur throughout Exodus as structural markers.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD: Let My people go, so that they may serve Me.
The command to go back to Pharaoh with the 'let my people go' formula tracks MT. English editions number this 8:1; TCR and LXX follow Hebrew 7:26.
If you refuse to let them go, I will strike all your territory with frogs.
The threat of frogs (Hebrew 7:27 = English 8:2) tracks MT.
The Nile shall swarm with frogs, and they shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and onto your bed and into the houses of your servants and on your people and into your ovens and into your kneading bowls.
The enumeration of places the frogs will invade (Pharaoh's bedroom, bed, servants' houses, ovens, kneading bowls) tracks MT closely. The intrusion into royal bedroom and kitchen — spaces of Egyptian cultic purity — is the plague's particular offense against Pharaonic divine kingship.
The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants."
The closing 'frogs upon Pharaoh, his people, his servants' tracks MT. Hebrew 7:29 = English 8:4.