Afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go, so that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness.’”

But Moses said, “It is not right [or even possible] to do that, for we will sacrifice to the Lord our God what is repulsive and unacceptable to the Egyptians [that is, animals that the Egyptians consider sacred]. If we sacrifice what is repulsive and unacceptable to the Egyptians, will they not riot and stone us?

But if you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them,

Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds [all of us and all that we have], for we must hold a feast to the Lord.”

On the first day [of the feast] you shall have a holy and solemn assembly, and on the seventh day there shall be another holy and solemn assembly; no work of any kind shall be done on those days, except for the preparation of food which every person must eat—only that may be done by you.

The Lord will fight for you while you [only need to] keep silent and remain calm.”

“The peoples have heard [about You], they tremble;
Anguish and fear has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia.

“Then the [tribal] chiefs of Edom were dismayed and horrified;
The [mighty] leaders of Moab, trembling grips them;
All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away [in despair]—

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, irreverently, in false affirmations or in ways that impugn the character of God]; for the Lord will not hold guiltless nor leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain [disregarding its reverence and its power].

You shall overlay the boards with gold and make their rings of gold to hold the bars. You shall overlay the bars with gold.

It shall not be poured on anyone’s body, nor shall you make any like it in the same composition. It is holy, and it shall be sacred to you.