² The Lord asked him, ‘What is that in your hand? ’

‘A staff,’ he replied.

³ ‘Throw it on the ground,’ he said. So Moses threw it on the ground, it became a snake, and he ran from it.

¹⁰ 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 officials, and it became a serpent. ¹¹ But then Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers – the magicians^(A) of Egypt, and they also did the same thing by their occult practices.^{(B) 12} Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs.

⁶ A pronouncement^(A) concerning the animals of the Negev:^[a]