Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh

7 And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like ^(A)God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your ^(B)prophet. ^2 (C)You 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. ³ But ^(D)I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I ^(E)multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, ⁴ 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. ⁵ The Egyptians ^(F)shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” ⁶ Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. ⁷ Now Moses was ^(G)eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹ “When Pharaoh says to you, ^(H)‘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.’” ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the ^(I)magicians of Egypt, also ^(J)did the same by their secret arts. ¹² For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³ Still ^(K)Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, ^(L)as the Lord had said.

The First Plague: Water Turned to Blood

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. ^15 (M)Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand ^(N)the staff that turned into a ^(O)serpent. ¹⁶ And you shall say to him, ‘The ^(P)Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, ^(Q)that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. ¹⁷ Thus says the Lord, “By this ^(R)you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and ^(S)it shall turn into blood. ¹⁸ The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will ^(T)grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.”’” ¹⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and ^(U)stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’”

²⁰ Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he ^(V)lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the ^(W)water in the Nile turned into blood. ²¹ And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians ^(X)could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. ²² But ^(Y)the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So ^(Z)Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as ^(AA)the Lord had said. ²³ Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. ²⁴ And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.

²⁵ Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile.

My Soul Thirsts for You

A Psalm of David, ^(A)when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

Greeting

1 Paul, ^(A)called ^(B)by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

² To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those ^(C)sanctified in Christ Jesus, ^(D)called to be saints together with all those who in every place ^(E)call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

^3 (F)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving

⁴ I ^(G)give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵ that in every way ^(H)you were enriched in him in all ^(I)speech and all knowledge— ⁶ even as ^(J)the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you ^(K)wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^8 (L)who will sustain you to the end, ^(M)guiltless ^(N)in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ^9 (O)God is faithful, by whom you were called into the ^(P)fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Divisions in the Church

¹⁰ I appeal to you, brothers,^[a] by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no ^(Q)divisions among you, but that you be united ^(R)in the same mind and the same judgment. ¹¹ For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is ^(S)quarreling among you, my brothers. ¹² What I mean is that ^(T)each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow ^(U)Apollos,” or “I follow ^(V)Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” ^13 (W)Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you ^(X)baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I thank God that I baptized none of you except ^(Y)Crispus and ^(Z)Gaius, ¹⁵ so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶ (I did baptize also ^(AA)the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and ^(AB)not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Christ the Wisdom and Power of God

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is ^(AC)folly to ^(AD)those who are perishing, but to us ^(AE)who are being saved it is ^(AF)the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written,

^20 (AH)Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? ^(AI)Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach^[b] to save those who believe. ²² For ^(AJ)Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ ^(AK)crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ ^(AL)the power of God and ^(AM)the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

²⁶ For consider your calling, brothers: ^(AN)not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,^[c] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But ^(AO)God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; ^(AP)God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even ^(AQ)things that are not, to ^(AR)bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so ^(AS)that no human being^[d] might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ And because of him^[e] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us ^(AT)wisdom from God, ^(AU)righteousness and ^(AV)sanctification and ^(AW)redemption, ³¹ so that, as it is written, ^(AX)“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

2 And I, when I came to you, brothers,^{[f] (AY)}did not come proclaiming to you ^(AZ)the testimony^[g] of God with lofty speech or wisdom. ² For I decided to know nothing among you except ^(BA)Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ And ^(BB)I was with you ^(BC)in weakness and in fear and much trembling, ⁴ and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of ^(BD)the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men^[h] but ^(BE)in the power of God.

Wisdom from the Spirit

⁶ Yet among ^(BF)the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not ^(BG)a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, ^(BH)who are doomed to pass away. ⁷ But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, ^(BI)which God decreed before the ages for our glory. ⁸ None of ^(BJ)the rulers of this age understood this, for ^(BK)if they had, they would not have crucified ^(BL)the Lord of glory. ⁹ But, as it is written,

¹⁰ these things ^(BP)God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even ^(BQ)the depths of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person's thoughts ^(BR)except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now ^(BS)we have received not ^(BT)the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. ¹³ And we impart this ^(BU)in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, ^(BV)interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.^[i]

¹⁴ The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are ^(BW)folly to him, and ^(BX)he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ The ^(BY)spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ^16 (BZ)“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But ^(CA)we have the mind of Christ.

Divisions in the Church

3 But I, brothers,^[j] could not address you as ^(CB)spiritual people, but as ^(CC)people of the flesh, as ^(CD)infants in Christ. ^2 (CE)I fed you with milk, not solid food, for ^(CF)you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, ³ for you are still of the flesh. For while there is ^(CG)jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? ⁴ For ^(CH)when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” ^(CI)are you not being merely human?

⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? ^(CJ)Servants through whom you believed, ^(CK)as the Lord assigned to each. ^6 (CL)I planted, ^(CM)Apollos watered, ^(CN)but God gave the growth. ⁷ So ^(CO)neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. ⁸ He who plants and he who waters are one, and each ^(CP)will receive his wages according to his labor. ⁹ For we are ^(CQ)God's fellow workers. You are God's field, ^(CR)God's building.

^10 (CS)According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled^[k] master builder I laid a ^(CT)foundation, and ^(CU)someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. ¹¹ For no one can lay a ^(CV)foundation other ^(CW)than that which is laid, ^(CX)which is Jesus Christ. ¹² Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— ^13 (CY)each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed ^(CZ)by fire, and ^(DA)the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. ¹⁴ If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, ^(DB)he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, ^(DC)but only as through fire.

^16 (DD)Do you not know that you^[l] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For ^(DE)God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

^18 (DF)Let no one deceive himself. ^(DG)If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For ^(DH)the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, ^(DI)“He catches the wise in their craftiness,” ²⁰ and again, ^(DJ)“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” ²¹ So ^(DK)let no one boast in men. For ^(DL)all things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and ^(DM)you are Christ's, and ^(DN)Christ is God's.