Nile

After two years, Pharaoh saw a dream. He thought himself to be standing above a river,

from which ascended seven cows, exceedingly beautiful and stout. And they pastured in marshy places.

Likewise, another seven emerged from the river, filthy and thoroughly emaciated. And they pastured on the same bank of the river, in green places.

Therefore, Pharaoh explained what he had seen: “I thought myself to be standing on the bank of a river,

and seven cows climbed up from the river, exceedingly beautiful and full of flesh. And they grazed in a pasture of a marshy greenery.

And behold, there followed after these, another seven cows, with such deformity and emaciation as I had never seen in the land of Egypt.

Therefore, Pharaoh instructed all his people, saying: “Whatever will be born of the male sex, cast it into the river; whatever will be born of the female sex, retain it.”

And when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a small basket woven of bulrushes, and she smeared it with pitch as well as tar. And she placed the little infant inside, and she laid him in the sedges by the bank of the river.

Then, behold, the daughter of Pharaoh descended to wash in the river. And her maids walked along the edge of the cove. And when she had seen the small basket among the papyruses, she sent one of her servants for it. And when it was brought,

But if they will not believe even these two signs, and they will not listen to your voice: take from the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land, and whatever you will have drawn from the river will be turned into blood.”

Go to him in the morning; behold, he will go out to the waters. And you will stand to meet him above the bank of the river. And you will take, in your hand, the staff that was turned into a serpent.

Therefore, thus says the Lord: In this you will know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will strike, with the staff that is in my hand, the water of the river, and it will be turned into blood.

Also, the fishes that are in the river will die, and the waters will be polluted, and the Egyptians will be afflicted when they drink the water of the river.’ ”

And Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had instructed. And lifting up the staff, he struck the water of the river in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants. And it was turned into blood.

And the fishes that were in the river died, and the river was polluted, and the Egyptians were not able to drink the water of the river, and there was blood throughout the entire land of Egypt.

Then all the Egyptians dug along the borders of the river for water to drink. For they were not able to drink from the water of the river.

And seven days were completed, after the Lord struck the river.

And the river will seethe with frogs, which will go up and enter into your house, and your bedroom, and upon your bed, and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens, and into the remains of your foods.

And Moses said to Pharaoh: “Appoint for me a time, when I should petition on behalf of you, and your servants, and your people, so that the frogs may be driven away from you, and from your house, and from your servants, and from your people, and so that they may remain only in the river.”

And the frogs will withdraw from you, and from your house, and from your servants, and from your people. And they will remain only in the river.”

And the Lord said to Moses: “Go before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. And take in your hand the staff, with which you struck the river, and advance.

And this shall be in that day: the Lord will call for the fly, which is in the most distant parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the swarm, which is in the land of Assur.

Woe to the land, that winged cymbal, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,

which sends ambassadors by sea and in vessels of papyrus above the waters. Go forth, O swift Angels, to a nation which has been convulsed and torn apart, to a terrible people, after whom there is no other, to a nation apprehensive and downtrodden, whose land the rivers have spoiled.

And the waters of the sea will dry up, and the river will be desolate and dry.

And the rivers will fail. The streams of its banks will diminish and dry up. The reed and the bulrush will wither away.

The channel of the river will be stripped down to its source, and everything irrigated by it will dry up and wither and be no more.

And the fishermen will grieve. And all who cast a hook into the river will mourn. And those who cast a net upon the surface of its waters will languish.

The offspring of the Nile is in the midst of many waters. The harvest of the river is her crop. And she has become the marketplace of the nations.

Cross through your land, as through a river, O daughter of the sea. You no longer have a belt.

Rise up, Rise up! Clothe yourself in strength, O arm of the Lord! Rise up as in the days of antiquity, as in generations long past. Have you not struck the arrogant one and wounded the dragon?

And now what do you want from the way of Egypt, but to drink their turbid water? And what do you want from the way of the Assyrians, but to drink the water of their river?

Who is this, who ascends like a flood, and whose streams swell up, like those of the rivers?

Egypt ascends in the form of a river, and its waves will be moved like those of a river. And he will say: ‘I will ascend and cover the earth! I will perish the city and its inhabitants!’

Speak, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, you great dragon, who rests in the midst of your rivers. And you say: ‘Mine is the river, and I have made myself.’

But I will place a bridle in your jaws. And I will adhere the fish of your rivers to your scales. And I will draw you out of the midst of your rivers, and all your fish will adhere to your scales.

And I will cast you into the desert, with all the fish of your river. You will fall upon the surface of the earth; you will not be taken up, nor gathered together. I have given you to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the air, to be devoured.

And the land of Egypt will be a desert and a wilderness. And they shall know that I am the Lord. For you have said, ‘The river is mine, and I have made it.’

Therefore, behold, I am against you and against your rivers. And I will make the land of Egypt into a wilderness, destroyed by the sword from the tower of Syene all the way to the borders of Ethiopia.

And I will cause the channels of the rivers to dry up. And I will deliver the land into the hand of the most wicked. And by the hands of foreigners, I will utterly destroy the land and its plenitude. I, the Lord, have spoken.

Will not the earth shudder over this, and all its inhabitants mourn, and all rise up like a river, and be cast out, and flow away like the river of Egypt?

And the Lord God of hosts, he touches the earth and it will melt. And all who dwell in it will mourn. And everyone will rise up like a river, and will flow away like the river of Egypt.

Are you better than the populous Alexandria, which dwells along the rivers? Waters encircle it: the sea, with its riches. The waters are its walls.

And he will pass over the narrow passage of the sea, and he will strike the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the river will be confounded, and the arrogance of Assyria will be brought low, and the scepter of Egypt will withdraw.

This one, encompassing our kindred, afflicted our fathers, so that they would expose their infants, lest they be kept alive.