And he said to his people, "Look, the people of the {Israelites} [are] greater and more numerous than us.

And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives--of whom the name of the one [was] Shiphrah and the name of the second [was] Puah--

and he said, "When you help the Hebrews give birth, you will look upon the pairs of testicles; if he [is] a son, you will put him to death, and if she [is] a daughter, she will live."

But the midwives feared God, and they did not do as the king of Egypt had said to them. They let the boys live.

And the king of Egypt summoned the midwives, and he said to them, "Why have you done this thing and let the boys live?"

And the midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew [women are] not like the Egyptian women, because they [are] vigorous; before the midwife comes to them, they have given birth."

and opened [it] and saw him--the boy--and it was a lad weeping, and she had compassion for him and said, "This [must be] from the boys of the Hebrews."

And his sister said to the daughter of Pharaoh, "Shall I go and call for you a woman from the Hebrews [who is] nursing [so that] she will nurse the boy for you?"

And the daughter of Pharaoh said to her, "Go." And the girl went, and she called the mother of the boy.

And the daughter of Pharaoh said, "Take this boy and nurse him for me, and I myself will give you wages, and the woman took the boy, and she nursed him.

And the boy grew, and she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he became her son, and she called his name Moses, and she said, "Because I drew him out from the water."

And he went out on the second day, and there were two Hebrew men fighting, and he said to the guilty [one], "Why do you strike your neighbor?"

And he said, "Who {appointed you as a commander} and a judge over us? [Are] you intending to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?" And Moses was afraid, and he said, "Surely the matter has become known."

And they came to Reuel, their father, and he said, "{Why have you come so quickly} today?"

And they said, "An Egyptian man delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he even drew [water] for us and watered the flock."

And he said to his daughters, "Where [is] he? {Why then} have you left the man? {Call him so that he can eat some food}."

And Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses.

And she bore a son, and he called his name Gershom because he said, "I am an alien in a foreign land."

And Moses said, "Let me turn aside and see this great sight. Why does the bush not burn up?"

And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, and God called to him from the midst of the bush, and he said, "Moses, Moses." And he said, "Here I [am]."

And he said, "You must not come near to here. Take off your sandals from on your feet, because the place on which you [are] standing, it [is] holy ground."

And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face because he was afraid of looking at God.

And Yahweh said, "Surely I have seen the misery of my people who [are] in Egypt, and I have heard their cry of distress because of their oppressors, for I know their sufferings.

But Moses said to God, "Who [am] I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the {Israelites} out from Egypt?"

And he said, "Because I am with you, and this [will be] the sign for you that I myself have sent you: When you bring the people out from Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain."

But Moses said to God, "Look, [if] I go to the {Israelites} and I say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What [is] his name?' [then] what shall I say to them?"

And God said to Moses, "I am that I am." And he said, "So you must say to the {Israelites}, 'I am sent me to you.'"

And God said again to Moses, "So you must say to the {Israelites}, 'Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This [is] my name forever, and this [is] my remembrance from generation [to] generation.'

And I said, "I will bring you up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey." '

And Moses answered, and he said, "And if they do not believe me and they do not listen to my voice, but they say, 'Yahweh did not appear to you?'"

And Yahweh said to him, "What [is] this in your hand?" And he said, "A staff."

And he said, "Throw it onto the ground." And he threw it onto the ground, and it became a snake, and Moses fled from it.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and grasp [it] by its tail"--" (And he reached out his hand and grabbed it, and it became a staff in his palm.)--

And Yahweh said to him again, "Put your hand into the fold of your garment." And he put his hand into the fold of his garment, and he took it out, and, {to his surprise}, his hand [was] afflicted with a skin disease, like snow.

And he said, "Return your hand to the fold of your garment." And he returned his hand to the fold of his garment, and he took it out from the fold of his garment, and, {to his surprise}, it was restored like the rest of his body.

And Moses said to Yahweh, "Please, Lord, I [am] not a man of words, {neither recently nor in the past nor since your speaking} to your servant, because I [am] heavy of mouth and of tongue."

And Yahweh said to him, "Who gave a mouth to humankind, or who makes mute or deaf or sighted or blind? [Is it] not I, Yahweh?

And he said, "Please, Lord, do send {anyone else whom you wish to send}."

{And Yahweh was angry with} Moses and said, "[Is there] not Aaron your brother the Levite? I know that he certainly can speak, and also there he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will rejoice in his heart.

And Moses went, and he returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and he said to him, "Please let me go, and let me return to my brothers who [are] in Egypt, and let me see whether they [are] yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."

And Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, "Go, return to Egypt because all the men have died who [were] seeking your life."

And Yahweh said to Moses, "When you go to return to Egypt, see all of the wonders that I have put in your hand, and do them before Pharaoh, and I myself will harden his heart, and he will not release the people.

And I said to you, "Release my son and let him serve me," but you refused to release him. Look, I [am about] to kill your son, your firstborn.'"

But Zipporah took a flint [knife], and she cut off the foreskin of her son, and she touched his feet, and she said, "Yes, you [are] a bridegroom of blood to me."

And he left him alone. At that time she said, "A bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.

And Yahweh said to Aaron, "Go to the desert to meet Moses." And he went and encountered him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

And afterward, Moses and Aaron went, and they said to Pharaoh, "Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, 'Release my people so that they may hold a festival for me in the desert.'"

And Pharaoh said, "Who is Yahweh that I should listen to his voice to release Israel? I do not know Yahweh, and also I will not release Israel."

And they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go [on] a three-day journey into the desert, and let us sacrifice to Yahweh our God, lest he strike us with plague or with sword."

And the king of Egypt said, "Why, Moses and Aaron, do you take the people from their work? Go to your {forced labor}!"

And Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land [are] now many, and you want to stop them from their {forced labor}."

And he said, "You [are] lazy, lazy! Therefore you [are] saying, 'Let us go; let us sacrifice to Yahweh.'

And they said to them, "May Yahweh look upon you and judge because you have caused our fragrance to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants [so as] to put a sword into their hand to kill us."

And Moses returned to Yahweh and said, "Lord, why have you brought trouble to this people? Why ever did you send me?

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, because with a strong hand he will release them, and with a strong hand he will drive them out from his land."

And God spoke to Moses, and he said to him, "I [am] Yahweh.

[It was] that Aaron and Moses to whom Yahweh said, "Bring the {Israelites} out from the land of Egypt according to their divisions."

And Moses said before Yahweh, "Look, I [am] {a poor speaker}. And how will Pharaoh listen to me?"

And Yahweh said to Moses, "See, I have made you [as] a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.

And Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

And Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he did not listen to them, as Yahweh had said.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart [is] {insensitive}; he refuses to release the people.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch your hand out over the waters of Egypt and over their rivers, over their canals, and over their pools and over all of their reservoirs of water, so that they become blood,' and blood will be in all the land of Egypt and in [vessels of] wood and of stone."

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, and say to him, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Release my people so that they may serve me."

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals, and over the pools, and bring up the frogs on the land of Egypt.'"

And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to Yahweh, and let him remove the frogs from me and from my people, and let me release the people so that they can sacrifice to Yahweh."

And Moses said to Pharaoh, "{I leave to you the honor} over me. When shall I pray for you and for your servants and for your people to cut off the frogs from you and from your houses? They will be left only in the Nile."

And he said, "Tomorrow." And he said, "[Let it be] according to your word so that you will know that there is no one like Yahweh our God.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the land, and it will become gnats in all the land of Egypt.'"

And the magicians said to Pharaoh, "It is the finger of God." But the heart of Pharaoh was hard, and he did not listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Start early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh. Look, [he is] going out to the water, and you must say to him, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Release my people so that they may serve me."

And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and he said, "Go, sacrifice to your God in the land."

And Moses said, "To do so [is] not right, because we will sacrifice to Yahweh our God a thing detestable to the Egyptians. Look, [if] we sacrifice before their eyes the thing detestable to the Egyptians, will they not stone us?

And Pharaoh said, "I myself will release you, and you will sacrifice to Yahweh your God in the desert. Only surely you must not go far. Pray for me."

And Moses said, "Look, I [am] going out from you, and I will pray to Yahweh so that the flies depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh again deceive [us] by not releasing the people to sacrifice to Yahweh."

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, "Release my people so that they may serve me."

And Yahweh set an appointed time, saying, "Tomorrow Yahweh will do this thing in the land."

And Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron, "Take for yourselves full handfuls of soot from a smelting furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heavens before the eyes of Pharaoh.

And they took the soot of the smelting furnace, and they stood before Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled it toward the heavens, and it became skin sores sprouting blisters on humans and on animals.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Start early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh. Look, [he is] going out to the water, and you must say to him, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, "Release my people so that they may serve me.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand to the heavens, and let there be hail in all the land of Egypt, on human and on animal and on all the vegetation of the field in the land of Egypt."

And Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, "I have sinned this time. Yahweh [is] the righteous [one], and I and my people [are] the wicked [ones].

Pray to Yahweh. The thunder of God and hail {are enough}, and I will release you, and {you will no longer have to stay}."

And Moses said to him, "At my leaving the city, I will spread out my hands to Yahweh. The thunder will stop, and the hail will be no more, so that you will know that the earth [belongs] to Yahweh.

And Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he did not release the {Israelites}, as Yahweh had said {by the agency of Moses}.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart {insensitive} and the heart of his servants in order to put these signs of mine in his midst,

And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and they said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, 'Until when will you refuse to submit before me? Release my people so that they may serve me.

And the servants of Pharaoh said to him, "Until when will this be a snare for us? Release the men so that they may serve Yahweh their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?"

And Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, "Serve Yahweh your God. {Who are the ones going}?

And Moses said, "With our young and with our old we will go; with our sons and with our daughters, with our sheep and goats and with our cattle we will go because [it is] the feast of Yahweh for us."

And he said to them, "Let Yahweh be thus with you [as soon] as I release you and your dependents. See that evil is before your faces.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt with the locusts so that they may come up over the land of Egypt, and let them eat all the vegetation of the land, all that the hail left behind."

And Pharaoh hurried to call Moses and Aaron, and he said, "I have sinned against Yahweh your God and against you.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the heavens so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt and so that [a person can] feel darkness."

And Pharaoh called Moses and said, "Go, serve Yahweh. Only your sheep and goats and your cattle must be left behind. Your dependents may also go with you."

And Moses said, "Even [if] you yourself put into our hand sacrifices and burnt offerings and we offer [them] to Yahweh our God,

And Pharaoh said to him, "Go from me. {Be careful} not to see my face again, because on the day of your seeing my face you will die."

And Moses said, "{That is right}. {I will not again see your face}."

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Still one plague I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; afterward he will release you from here. At the moment of his releasing, he will certainly drive you completely out from here.

And Moses said, "Thus says Yahweh, 'About the middle of the night I [will] go out through the midst of Egypt,