"When you help the Hebrew women give birth," he said, "watch them as they deliver. If it's a son, kill him; but if it's a daughter, let her live."

After the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, because she said, "I drew him out of the water."

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.

The LORD said, "I have certainly seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry caused by their slave masters. I really do understand their pain,

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."

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

"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.

I have said that I will bring you out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites to a land flowing with milk and honey."'

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

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.

Moses said, "Please, LORD, send somebody else."

Then the LORD was angry with Moses and said, "There's your brother Aaron, a descendant of Levi, isn't there? I know that he certainly is eloquent. Right now he's coming to meet you and he will be pleased to see you.

Then the LORD withdrew from him, and she said, ""a bridegroom of blood because of circumcision."

Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD that I should listen to him and let Israel go? I don't know about the LORD, nor will I let Israel go!"

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."

Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people in the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working."

Then Pharaoh said, "You are lazy, lazy! That's why you're saying, "Let's go offer sacrifices to the LORD.'

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

Then Moses said right in front of the LORD, "Look, the Israelis didn't listen to me, so how will Pharaoh? I'm not a persuasive speaker."

This is the same Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, "Bring the Israelis out of the land of Egypt by their tribal divisions."

Moses said in the presence of the LORD, "Look, I'm not a persuasive speaker, so how will Pharaoh listen to me?"

Yet Pharaoh's heart was stubborn and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had said would happen.

But the Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their secret arts. Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.

Then Pharaoh called to Moses and Aaron and said, "Plead with the LORD so that he may remove the frogs from me and my people. I'll let the people go so they can offer sacrifices to the LORD."

Pharaoh said, "Tomorrow."

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."

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

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."

Moses said, "Right now I'm going to leave you, and I'll pray to the LORD that the swarms of insects may depart from Pharaoh, from his officials, and from his people tomorrow. But Pharaoh, don't continue lying by not letting the people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD."

Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, and he did not let the Israelis go, just as the LORD had said through Moses.

Moses said, "We will go with our young and with our old. We will go with our sons and our daughters, with our sheep and our cattle, because it's a festival to the LORD for us."

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

Pharaoh called Moses and said, "Go serve the LORD, but your flocks and your cattle are to remain. Even your little ones can go with you!"

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

Moses said, "Just as you have said, I won't see your face again!"

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.

Meanwhile, the Israelis had done as Moses said; they had asked the Egyptians for objects of silver and objects of gold, and for clothes.

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."

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the minds of Pharaoh and his officials changed toward the people, and they said, "What have we done in releasing Israel from serving us?"

Is this not what we told you in Egypt, when we said, "Leave us alone!' and "Let us serve the Egyptians!'? Indeed, it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

He made the wheels of their chariots wobble so that they drove them with difficulty. The Egyptians said, "Let's flee from Israel because the LORD is fighting for them and against us."

"The enemy said, "I'll pursue them, I'll overtake them, I'll divide the spoil. I'll satisfy my anger on them, I'll draw my sword, and my hand will bring them to ruin.'

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."

Moses also said, "When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread in the morning to satisfy you, the LORD will hear your complaints directed against him. Who are we? Your complaints aren't against us, but rather against the LORD."

and he told them, "This is what the LORD said: "Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and put aside whatever remains to be kept for yourselves until morning.'"

Moses said, "Eat it today, since today is a Sabbath to the LORD, and today you won't find it in the field.

Moses said, "This is what the LORD has commanded: "Set aside one omer of it for future generations, so that they may see the food with which I fed you in the desert when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.'"

"Because," he said, "a fist has been raised in defiance against the throne of the LORD, the LORD will wage war against Amalek from generation to generation."

Jethro said, "Blessed be the LORD, who delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, and who delivered the people from the oppression of the Egyptians.

When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, "What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, with all the people standing around you from morning until evening?"

Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.

All the people answered together: "We'll do everything that the LORD has said!"

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."

Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD made with you based on all these words."

He took them from them and, using a tool, fashioned them into a molten calf. The people said, "This, Israel, is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt."

They have been quick to turn aside from the way I commanded them, and they have made for themselves a molten calf. They have bowed down to it in worship, they have offered sacrifices to it, and they have said, "This, Israel, is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt.'"

So the LORD changed his mind about the calamity he had said he would bring on his people.

Moses said, "It is not the sound of a victory shout, and it's not the sound of a shout of defeat, but it's the sound of singing that I hear."

Aaron said, "Sir, don't be angry. You know the people that they're intent on evil.

Moses said, "You have been ordained to serve the LORD today, and you have brought a blessing on yourselves today because every man opposed his son or brother."

Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Please, LORD, this people committed a great sin by making a god of gold for themselves.

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.'

He said, "My presence will go with you, and I'll give you rest."

The LORD told Moses, "I'll do the very thing that you have said, because you have found favor in my sight and I know you by name."

Then Moses said, "Please show me your glory."

God said, "I'll cause all my goodness to pass before you, and I'll proclaim the name "the LORD' before you. I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and I'll show compassion on whom I'll show compassion.

But," he said, "You cannot see my face, because a man cannot see me and live."

The LORD said, "Look, there is a place near me where you can stand on the rock;

He said, "If I've found favor in your sight, Lord, please, Lord, walk among us. Certainly this is an obstinate people, but pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your own inheritance."

Then the LORD said, "I'm now going to make a covenant. I'll do miraculous deeds in full view of your people that haven't been done in all the earth or in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the LORD, because it's an awesome thing that I'll do with you.