Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

But the midwives feared God and didn't do what the king of Egypt told them. Instead, they let the boys live.

God was pleased with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong.

Because the midwives feared God, he provided families for them.

ThenPharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile River to bathe while her maids walked along the river bank. She saw the container among the reeds and sent a servant girl to get it.

Some shepherds came to drive them away, but Moses got up, came to their rescue, and watered their sheep.

The king of Egypt eventually died, and the Israelis groaned because of the bondage. They cried out, and their cry for deliverance from slavery ascended to God.

God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God watched the Israelis and took notice of them.

Meanwhile, Moses continued tending the sheep that belonged to his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the sheep to the western desert and came to Horeb, God's mountain, where

When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from the center of the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He said, "Here I am."

"Do not come any closer," God said. "Remove your sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground."

Then he said, "I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

so I have come down to deliver them from their domination by the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the territory of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

But Moses told God, "Who am I? How can I go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelis out of Egypt?"

Then God said, "I certainly will be with you. And this will be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will serve God on this mountain."

Moses told God, "Look! When I go to the Israelis and tell them, "The God of your ancestors sent me to you,' they'll say to me, "What is his name?' What should I say to them?"

God replied to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM," and then said, "Tell the Israelis: "I AM sent me to you.'"

God also told Moses, "Tell the Israelis, "The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

"Go and gather the elders of Israel. Tell them, "The LORD God of your ancestors, appeared to me the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and he said, "I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt.

"The elders of Israel will listen to you, and then you and they are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, "The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now, let us take a three-day journey into the desert to sacrifice to the LORD our God.'

Then God said, "Throw it to the ground." He threw it to the ground and it became a snake. Moses ran away from it.

Then God told Moses, "Reach out and grab its tail." So he reached out, grabbed it, and it became a staff in his hand.

God said, "I've done this so that they may believe that the LORD God of their ancestors the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you."

Then God said, "Put your hand back into your bosom." He returned it to his bosom and as soon as he brought it out, it was restored like the rest of his skin.

Then God asked him, "Who gives a person a mouth? Who makes him unable to speak, or deaf, or able to see, or blind, or lame? Is it not I, the LORD?

He is to speak to the people for you as your spokesman and you are to act in the role of God for him.

So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on donkeys, and headed back to the land of Egypt. Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' feet with it, saying while doing so, ""because you are a bridegroom of blood to me."

The LORD told Aaron, "Go meet Moses in the desert." So Aaron went, found him at the mountain of God, and embraced him.

After Moses and Aaron arrived, they told Pharaoh, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "Let my people go so they may make a pilgrimage for me in the desert.'"

Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God so he does not strike us with pestilence or sword."

But you're to impose the previous quota of bricks that they're making. You're not to reduce it! It is because they're lazy that they're crying out, "Let's go offer sacrifices to our God.'

Go get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work quotas won't be reduced at all.'"

The taskmasters pressured them by saying, "Finish your work each day's quota just as when you were given straw."

The Israeli supervisors whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had appointed over them were beaten and told, "Why didn't you, both yesterday and today, fulfill your quota for making bricks as before?"

Now, go! Get to work! And straw won't be given to you, but you are to deliver the same number of bricks!"

The Israeli supervisors realized they were in trouble when he said, "You won't reduce each day's quota of bricks!"

Later, God told Moses, "I am the LORD.

I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, and did I not reveal to them my name "LORD'?

I'll take you for my own people, and I'll be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

The LORD told Moses, "Listen! I've positioned you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

Then say to him, "The LORD God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you. He says, "Let my people go so they may serve me in the desert, but until now you haven't obeyed."'

Moses said, "It will be just as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God. The frogs will leave you, your house, your officials, and your people. They'll remain only in the Nile River."

The magicians told Pharaoh, "It is the finger of God!" But Pharaoh's heart was stubborn and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had predicted.

The LORD told Moses, "Get up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he's going down to the water. You are to say to him, "This is what the LORD says: "Let my people go so they can serve me.

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, offer sacrifices to your God in the land."

"It wouldn't be right to sacrifice in this way," Moses replied, "because if we do, we will sacrifice to the LORD our God what is offensive to the Egyptians. If we offer sacrifices that are offensive to the Egyptians in front of them, they'll stone us, won't they?

We must go a three-day journey into the desert, and we'll offer sacrifices to the LORD our God just as he has told us."

Then Pharaoh said, "I'll let you go so you can offer sacrifices to the LORD your God in the desert. But you must not go very far away. Pray for me."

Then the LORD told Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, "This is what the LORD God of the Hebrews says: "Let my people go so they may serve me.

Then the LORD told Moses, "Get up early in the morning, present yourself to Pharaoh, and say to him, "This is what the LORD God of the Hebrews says: "Let my people go so they may serve me.

Pray to the LORD! There has been enough of God's thunder and hail! I'll let you go, and you need not stay any longer."

But as for you and your officials, I know that you don't yet fear the LORD God."

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, "This is what the LORD God of the Hebrews says: "How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so they may serveme.

Then the officials of Pharaoh told him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go so they may serve the LORD their God! Don't you realize yet that Egypt is about to be destroyed?"

Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh and he told them, "Go, serve the LORD your God. But exactly who will go?"

Pharaoh quickly called Moses and Aaron and said, "I've sinned against the LORD your God and against you.

Now, please forgive my sin only this time, and pray to the LORD your God that he would at least remove this from me."

No one could see anyone else, nor could anyone get up from his place for three days. But there was light for all the Israelis in their dwellings.

Moses said, "You must let us havesacrifices and burnt offerings to offer to the LORD our God.

And even our livestock must go with us. Not a hoof will be left behind because we will use some of them to serve the LORD our God, and until we get there we won't know what we need to serve the LORD."

Then Pharaoh told him, "Get away from me! Watch out that you never see my face again, because on the day you see my face, you will die!"

All these officials of yours will come down to me, prostrate themselves to me, and say, "Get out, you and all the people following you!' After that I'll go out." Then Moses angrily left Pharaoh.

You are to eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day be sure to remove all the leaven from your houses, because any person who eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh will be cut off from Israel.

For seven days leaven is not to be found in your houses. Indeed, any person who eats anything leavened, is to be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native of the land.

Pharaoh got up during the night, he, all his officials, and all the Egyptians, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, because there was not a house without someone dead in it.

Then he summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and told them: "Get up, go out from among my people, both you and the Israelis! Go, serve the LORD as you have said.

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road through the land of the Philistines, even though it was nearer, because God had said, "If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt."

So God led the people the roundabout way of the desert toward the Reed Sea. The Israelis went up from the land of Egypt in military formation.

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, because Joseph had made the Israelis take this solemn oath: "God will certainly take notice of you, and then you must carry my bones up with you from here."

Then the angel of God, who was going in front of the camp of Israel, moved behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front of them and stood behind them,

The LORD is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. This is my God and I'll praise him, the God of my father and I'll exalt him.

There the LORD presented to them a statute and an ordinance, and there he tested them. He said, "If you will carefully obey the LORD your God, do what he sees to be right, listen to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then I won't inflict on you all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians, because I am the LORD your healer."

"I've heard the complaints of the Israelis. Tell them, "At twilight you are to eat meat and in the morning you are to be filled with bread, so you may know that I am the LORD your God.'"

But they did not listen to Moses some people left part of it until morning, and it produced maggots and smelled bad, so Moses got angry at them.

Moses told Joshua, "Choose some men for us and go out to fight against the Amalekites. Tomorrow I'll stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand."

Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.

while the name of the other was Eliezer, because he would say, "My father's God helped me and delivered me from Pharaoh's sword."

Moses' father-in-law Jethro, together with Moses' two sons and his wife, came to Moses in the desert where he was camped at the mountain of God.

Jethro rejoiced over all the good that the LORD had done for Israel in delivering them from the hand of the Egyptians.

Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to dine with Moses' father-in-law in the presence of God.

Moses told his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to seek God's will.

When they have a dispute, it comes to me and I decide between a person and his neighbor, and make known the statutes of God and his instructions."

Moses' father-in-law told him, "What you are doing is not good.

Now listen to me. I'll advise you, and may God be with you. You are to represent the people before God and bring the disputes to God.

You are to look for capable men among the people, men who fear God, men of integrity who hate dishonest gain. You are to set these men over them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

If you do this, and God so commands you, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will also go to their homes in peace."

Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain: "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and declare to the sons of Israel,

Moses brought the people from the camp to meet God, and they stood at the base of the mountain.

As the sound of the ram's horn grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer with thunder.

Then God spoke all these words:

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of slavery.

You are not to bow down to them in worship or serve them, because I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the guilt of parents on children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

"You are not to misuse the name of the LORD your God, because the LORD will not leave unpunished the one who misuses his name.

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You are not to do any work neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your livestock, nor any foreigner who lives among you

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

They told Moses, "You speak to us and we will listen, but don't let God speak with us, or we may die.

Moses told the people, "Don't be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that you may fear him in order that you don't sin."

Then the people stood at a distance, and Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.