Moses and Aaron finally stand in front of Pharaoh, and the chapter sets the terms for everything that follows. Moses is made a god to Pharaoh and Aaron his prophet; the events ahead are labelled signs and wonders rather than disasters; and the staff becomes not a snake but a monster, which Egypt’s own magicians duplicate before Aaron’s swallows theirs. Then the first blow lands on the Nile. No Egyptian record describes any of it.