So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.

“When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.”

The Hebrew midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

“Who made you a leader and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”

Then Moses became afraid and thought: What I did is certainly known.

Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed.

Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what should I tell them?”

Each woman will ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry, and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.”

He will speak to the people for you. He will be your spokesman, and you will serve as God to him.

That day Pharaoh commanded the overseers of the people as well as their foremen:

“Don’t continue to supply the people with straw for making bricks, as before. They must go and gather straw for themselves.

But require the same quota of bricks from them as they were making before; do not reduce it. For they are slackers—that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’

The overseers insisted, “Finish your assigned work each day, just as you did when straw was provided.”

Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s slave drivers had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why haven’t you finished making your prescribed number of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?”

I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but I did not reveal My name Yahweh to them.

I also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land they lived in as foreigners.

Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are forcing to work as slaves, and I have remembered My covenant.

I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am Yahweh your God, who delivered you from the forced labor of the Egyptians.

I will bring you to the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am Yahweh.”

So Moses and Aaron did this; they did just as the Lord commanded them.

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.

However, Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded; in the sight of Pharaoh and his officials, he raised the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile was turned to blood.

But the magicians of Egypt did the same thing by their occult practices. So Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Ask Yahweh to remove the frogs from me and my people. Then I will let the people go and they can sacrifice to Yahweh.”

Moses said to Pharaoh, “You make the choice rather than me. When should I ask on behalf of you, your officials, and your people, that the frogs be taken away from you and your houses, and remain only in the Nile?”

“Tomorrow,” he answered.

Moses replied, “As you have said, so you may know there is no one like Yahweh our God,

The Lord did as Moses had said: the frogs in the houses, courtyards, and fields died.

But when Pharaoh saw there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

“This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

We must go a distance of three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as He instructs us.”

“As soon as I leave you,” Moses said, “I will appeal to the Lord, and tomorrow the swarms of flies will depart from Pharaoh, his officials, and his people. But Pharaoh must not act deceptively again by refusing to let the people go and sacrifice to the Lord.”

The Lord did as Moses had said: He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, his officials, and his people; not one was left.

The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians as well as on all the Egyptians.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had told Moses.

But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear Yahweh our God.”

So Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he did not let the Israelites go, as the Lord had said through Moses.

“As you have said,” Moses replied, “I will never see your face again.”

Now announce to the people that both men and women should ask their neighbors for silver and gold jewelry.”

and every firstborn male in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the servant girl who is behind the millstones, as well as every firstborn of the livestock.

Then there will be a great cry of anguish through all the land of Egypt such as never was before, or ever will be again.

Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over fire—its head as well as its legs and inner organs.

“This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute.

“You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute.

“Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants.

When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, you are to observe this ritual.

When your children ask you, ‘What does this ritual mean to you?’

Then the Israelites went and did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, worship Yahweh as you have asked.

Take even your flocks and your herds as you asked and leave, and also bless me.”

Then all the Israelites did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

Let it serve as a sign for you on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the Lord’s instruction may be in your mouth; for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with a strong hand.

“When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you,

The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his horsemen, and his army—chased after them and caught up with them as they camped by the sea beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians coming after them. Then the Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord for help.

As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.

and terror and dread will fall on them.
They will be as still as a stone
because of Your powerful arm
until Your people pass by, Lord,
until the people whom You purchased pass by.

On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.”

As Aaron was speaking to the entire Israelite community, they turned toward the wilderness, and there in a cloud the Lord’s glory appeared.

When the layer of dew evaporated, there were fine flakes on the desert surface, as fine as frost on the ground.

This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather as much of it as each person needs to eat. You may take two quarts per individual, according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.’”

When they measured it by quarts, the person who gathered a lot had no surplus, and the person who gathered a little had no shortage. Each gathered as much as he needed to eat.

They gathered it every morning. Each gathered as much as he needed to eat, but when the sun grew hot, it melted.

On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, four quarts apiece, and all the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses.

So they set it aside until morning as Moses commanded, and it didn’t smell or have any maggots in it.

As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron placed it before the testimony to be preserved.

Joshua did as Moses had told him, and fought against Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

The Lord then said to Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua: I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek under heaven.”

When Moses’ father-in-law saw everything he was doing for them he asked, “What is this thing you’re doing for the people? Why are you alone sitting as judge, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”

But you should select from all the people able men, God-fearing, trustworthy, and hating bribes. Place them over the people as commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

So Moses chose able men from all Israel and made them leaders over the people as commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.

And the people remained standing at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

“You must make an earthen altar for Me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats, as well as your cattle. I will come to you and bless you in every place where I cause My name to be remembered.

“When you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for six years; then in the seventh he is to leave as a free man without paying anything.

“But if the slave declares: ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I do not want to leave as a free man,’

“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she is not to leave as the male slaves do.

“When men get in a fight and hit a pregnant woman so that her children are born prematurely but there is no injury, the one who hit her must be fined as the woman’s husband demands from him, and he must pay according to judicial assessment.

If it was actually torn apart by a wild animal, he is to bring it as evidence; he does not have to make restitution for the torn carcass.

“If you ever take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him before sunset.

“Do your work for six days but rest on the seventh day so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave as well as the foreign resident may be refreshed.

Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before Me empty-handed.

Then he sent out young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord.

and they saw the God of Israel. Beneath His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire stone, as clear as the sky itself.

Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.

You must make it according to all that I show you—the pattern of the tabernacle as well as the pattern of all its furnishings.

The rings should be next to the frame as holders for the poles to carry the table.

You are also to make its plates and cups, as well as its pitchers and bowls for pouring drink offerings. Make them out of pure gold.

As for the flap that is left over from the tent curtains, the leftover half curtain is to hang down over the back of the tabernacle.

Make the planks for the tabernacle as follows: 20 planks for the south side,

They are to be paired at the bottom, and joined together at the top in a single ring. So it should be for both of them; they will serve as the two corners.

Then overlay the planks with gold, and make their rings of gold as the holders for the crossbars. Also overlay the crossbars with gold.

Construct the altar with boards so that it is hollow. They are to make it just as it was shown to you on the mountain.

All the tools of the tabernacle for every use and all its tent pegs as well as all the tent pegs of the courtyard are to be made of bronze.

“Have your brother Aaron, with his sons, come to you from the Israelites to serve Me as priest—Aaron, his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

You are to instruct all the skilled craftsmen, whom I have filled with a spirit of wisdom, to make Aaron’s garments for consecrating him to serve Me as priest.

These are the garments that they must make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a specially woven tunic, a turban, and a sash. They are to make holy garments for your brother Aaron and his sons so that they may serve Me as priests.

Engrave the two stones with the names of Israel’s sons as a gem cutter engraves a seal. Mount them, surrounded with gold filigree settings.

Fasten both stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the Israelites. Aaron will carry their names on his two shoulders before the Lord as a reminder.

“You are to make an embroidered breastpiece for making decisions. Make it with the same workmanship as the ephod; make it of gold, of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and of finely spun linen.

“Whenever he enters the sanctuary, Aaron is to carry the names of Israel’s sons over his heart on the breastpiece for decisions, as a continual reminder before the Lord.