Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people, and took notice of their heavy burdens. He saw an Egyptian beating up a Hebrew, one of his own people.

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

Then Moses told himself, "I'll go over and see this remarkable sight. Why isn't the bush burning up?"

Now pick up that staff with your hand. You'll use it to perform the signs."

So each one threw down his staff and it became a serpent, but Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.

The Nile will swarm with frogs. They'll come up and enter your house, your bedroom, your bed, and your servants' houses. They'll jump on your people, into your ovens, and into your kneading troughs.

Then the LORD told Moses, "Tell Aaron, "Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the Nile River, and over the ponds, and bring up frogs over the land of Egypt.'"

So Aaron stretched his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.

But the magicians did the same thing with their secret arts, and they brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.

They gathered them up into large piles and the land smelled terrible.

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 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.

The LORD told Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt to bring the locusts, and they'll come up over the land of Egypt and eat all the vegetation of the land, everything that the hail left."

The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on all the territory of Egypt in great swarms. There had never been locusts like this before nor would there ever be again.

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.

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.

So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their cloaks on their shoulders.

A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with a very large number of livestock, including sheep and cattle.

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."

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelis looked up, and there were the Egyptians bearing down on them! Extremely frightened, the Israelis cried out to the LORD.

By the breath of your nostrils the waters were piled up, the flowing waters stood up like a hill, the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.

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."

Later that evening quail came up and covered the camp, and then in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.

But the people were thirsty there for water, so they complained against Moses: "Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"

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

Then the LORD told Moses, "Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua: "I'll certainly wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven.'"

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,

And now if you carefully obey me and keep my covenant, you are to be my special possession out of all the nations, because the whole earth belongs to me,

You are to set boundaries for the people all around: "Be very careful that you don't go up on the mountain or touch the side of it. Anyone who touches the mountain is certainly to be put to death.

Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the LORD had come down in fire on it. Smoke went up from it like smoke from a kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently.

When the LORD came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

Moses told the LORD, "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai because you warned us: "Set boundaries around the mountain and consecrate it.'"

The LORD told him, "Go down, and come back up with Aaron, but the priests and the people must not break through to go up to the LORD. Otherwise, he will attack them."

"If people quarrel and one strikes the other with a rock or his fist, and he does not die but ends up in bed,

and the injured person then gets up and walks around outside with the help of his staff, the one who struck him is not liable, except that he is to compensate him for his loss of time and take care of his complete recovery.

Be careful! Be sure to obey him. Don't rebel against him, because he won't forgive your transgression, since my Name is in him.

Indeed, if you carefully obey him and do everything that I say, then I'll be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries,

The LORD told Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance.

Only Moses is to approach the LORD, but the others are not to approach; the people are not to come up with him."

So Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He got up early in the morning and built an altar with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain.

He sent young Israeli men to offer up burnt offerings and sacrifice bulls as peace offerings to the LORD.

He took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They said, "We will put into practice and obey everything that the LORD has decreed."

Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up

Then the LORD told Moses, "Go up to me on the mountain and stay there. I'll give you stone tablets with the instruction and law that I've written to teach the people."

So Moses got up, along with Joshua his servant, and went up on the mountain of God.

When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it.

When Moses went up on the mountain, he went into the center of the cloud and was on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights.

You are to put it under the ledge of the altar, so that the netting extends halfway up the altar.

You are to take all the fat that covers the entrails, the lobe of the liver, the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them and send them up in smoke on the altar.

and send up the whole ram in smoke on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the LORD; it's a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the LORD.

Then you are to take them from their hands and send them up in smoke on the altar on top of the burnt offering for a soothing aroma in the LORD's presence. It is an offering by fire to the LORD.

and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he is to offer it as a continual incense offering in the LORD's presence throughout your generations.

They got up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. Then the people sat down to eat and drink, and then they got up to play.

The next day Moses told the people, "You committed a great sin, and now I'll go up to the LORD, and perhaps I can make atonement for your sin."

The LORD told Moses, "Go up from here, you and the people whom you brought out of Egypt, to the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saying, "I'll give it to your descendants.'

Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I won't go up among you, because you are an obstinate people, and otherwise I might consume you along the way."

The LORD had told Moses, "Say to the Israelis, "You are an obstinate people, and if for one moment I went up among you, I would put an end to you. Now take off your ornaments so I may decide what to do with you.'"

Moses used to take the tent and set it up outside the camp at a distance from the camp, and he called it the Tent of Meeting. When anyone sought the LORD, he would go out to the Tent of Meeting which was outside the camp.

When Moses would go out to the tent, all the people would get up, and each would stand in the doorway of his tent, watching Moses until he entered the tent.

When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the doorway of the tent, all of them would get up and prostrate themselves in worship, each one at the doorway of his tent.

Moses told the LORD, "Look, you have told me, "Bring up this people,' but you haven't let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, "I know you by name,' and also, "You have found favor in my sight.'

Then Moses told the LORD, "If your presence does not go with us, don't bring us up from here.

Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning on Mount Sinai, where you are to present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain.

No one is to come up with you, nor is anyone to be seen anywhere on the mountain. Also, the sheep and cattle are not to graze in front of that mountain."

So Moses carved out two stone tablets like the first ones, got up early in the morning, and climbed Mount Sinai, just as the LORD had commanded him. He took with him the two stone tablets.

Obey what I am commanding you today and I'll drive out from before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

since I'm going to drive out nations before you, and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land, when you go up to appear in the presence of the LORD your God three times a year.

He made a lattice, a netting of bronze, for the altar. It was under its ledge, extending halfway up.

"On the first day of the first month you are to set up the tent of the Tent of Meeting.

You are to bring in the table and properly arrange what goes on it. Then you are to bring in the lamp stand and set up its lamps.

"You are to put the golden altar for incense in front of the Ark of the Testimony and then set up the screen for the doorway to the tent.

You are to set up the court all around, and hang up the screen for the gate of the court.

And so in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, the tent was set up.

Moses set up the tent. He installed its sockets and set its boards in place. He inserted its bars and set up its pillars.

He brought the ark into the tent, set up the curtain, and screened off the Ark of the Testimony, just as the LORD had commanded him.

and set up the lamps in the LORD's presence, just as the LORD had commanded him.

He set up the screen for the doorway of the tent.

He set up the court all around the tent and the altar, and hung up the screen for the gate of the court. And so Moses finished the work.

Whenever the cloud was lifted up from the tent, the Israelis would set out on their journey,

but if the cloud was not lifted up, they would not set out until it was lifted up,