And these [are] the names of the sons of Israel who came [to] Egypt; with Jacob, they each came with his {family}:

but the Israelites were prolific and increased greatly; they multiplied and became extremely strong, so that the land was filled with them.

He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are too many and too mighty for us [they greatly outnumber us].

Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, lest they become many, and when war happens, they also will join our enemies and will fight against us and go up from the land."

And they appointed commanders of forced labor over them in order to oppress them with their {forced labor}, and they built storage cities for Pharaoh--Pithom and Rameses.

And as he oppressed them, so they became many, and so they spread out, and [the Egyptians] were afraid because of the presence of the {Israelites}.

They worked the Israelites ruthlessly

And they made their lives bitter with hard work with mortar and with bricks and with all [sorts] of work in the field--with all their work in which they ruthlessly enslaved them.

"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."

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 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."

[Now] the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

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 then} during those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the {Israelites} groaned because of the work, and they cried out, and their cry for help because of the work went up to God.

Then the LORD said, "I have surely seen the trouble of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry, which they have of their taskmasters. For I know their sorrow,

He replied, "Surely I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you bring the people out of Egypt, you and they 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 they will listen to your voice, and you will go, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, 'Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews has met with us, and now let us please go [on] a journey of three days into the desert, and let us sacrifice to Yahweh our God.'

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?'"

"so that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, appeared to you, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

"{And} if they do not believe you and they will not listen to the voice of the former sign, [then] they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

{And} if they also do not believe the second of these signs and they will not listen to your voice, [then] you must take water from the Nile and pour [it] onto the dry ground, and the water that you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground."

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 the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, "Return again into Egypt for they are dead which went about to kill thee."

Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him.

And Moses and Aaron went, and they gathered all of the elders of the {Israelites}.

And the people believed when they heard that Yahweh had attended to the {Israelites} and that he had seen their misery, and they knelt down and they worshiped.

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 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."

Ye shall no more give straw unto the people, for making the bricks as heretofore: Let them, go, themselves, so shall they gather for themselves straw:

But the quota of the bricks that they [were] making {before} {you must require of them}. You must not reduce from it, because they [are] lazy. Therefore they [are] crying out, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'

Let the work be heavier on the men so that they will do it and not pay attention to words of deception."

And the slave drivers of the people and their foremen went out, and they spoke to the people, saying, "Thus says Pharaoh, 'I [am] not giving you straw.

And the taskmasters of the sons of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten. And they demanded, Why have you not completed your task in making brick, both yesterday and today, as you did before?

Straw [is] not being given to your servants, but [they are] saying to us, 'Make bricks!' and, look, your servants [are] being beaten, but it is the fault of your people."

And the foremen of the {Israelites} saw they were in trouble {with the saying}, "You will not reduce from your bricks {for each day} on its day."

And they met Moses and Aaron, [who were] waiting to meet them when they [were] going out from Pharaoh.

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."

I let myself be seen by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God, the Ruler of all; but they had no knowledge of my name Yahweh.

And I not only established my covenant with them to give to them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings, in which they dwelt as aliens,

Therefore, tell the Israelites, 'I am the Lord. I will bring you out from your enslavement to the Egyptians, I will rescue you from the hard labor they impose, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.

And Moses spoke thus to the {Israelites}, but they did not listen to Moses, because of {discouragement} and because of hard work.

They [were] those who spoke to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, in order to bring the {Israelites} out from Egypt. [It was] that Moses and Aaron.

And Moses and Aaron did [it]; as Yahweh commanded them, so they did.

(And Moses [was] {eighty years old}, and Aaron [was] {eighty-three years old} when they spoke to Pharaoh.)

And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and they did so, as Yahweh had commanded. And Aaron threw his staff before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a snake.

And Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did likewise with their secret arts.

Each threw down his staff, and they became snakes, and Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.

And you must say to him, 'Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, "Release my people that they may serve me in the desert, and, look, you have not listened until now."

Thus saith the LORD, In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

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 all of [the] Egyptians dug around the Nile [for] water to drink, because they were unable to drink from the water of the Nile.

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 the Nile will swarm with frogs, and they will go up and come into your house and into your {bedroom} and onto your bed and into the house of your servants and among your people and into your ovens and into your kneading troughs.

And the magicians did likewise with their secret arts, and they brought up frogs over 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 the frogs will depart from you and from your house and from your servants. They will be left only in the Nile."

And they piled them [in] countless heaps, and the land stank.

And they did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and smote the dust of the earth, and there arose gnats on man and on beast: all the dust of the land became gnats throughout the land of Egypt.

And the magicians did so with their secret arts to bring out the gnats, but they were not able, and the gnats were on the humans and on the 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, "Release my people so that they may serve me."

But if you are not [about to] release my people, look, I [am about] to send out flies among you and among your servants and among your people and in your houses; and the houses of Egypt will fill up with the flies and also the ground that they are on.

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 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."

then shall they become fine dust, over all the land of Egypt, - and shall become on man and on beast, a burning sore, breaking out in pustules in all the land of Egypt.

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.

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.

And now send [word]; bring into safety your livestock and all that [belongs] to you in the field. The hail will come down on every human and animal that is found in the field and not gathered into the house, and they will die." '"

and they that regarded not the word of the LORD, left their servants and their beasts in the field.

The wheat and the wild grainwere not ruined because they were late crops.)

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.

They'll cover the surface of the land so a person cannot see the ground, and they'll eat what is left for you of the residue from the hail. They'll also eat all your trees that grow in the orchards.

Your houses will be filled, along with the houses of all your officials and the houses of all the Egyptians something that neither your fathers nor your ancestors ever saw from the time they were on earth until now.'" Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh's presence.

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?"

And Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh. And he said to them, Go, serve Jehovah your God. Who are they that shall go?

No! Let the men go and serve the LORD, for that is what you were seeking." Then they were driven out from the presence of Pharaoh.

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."

And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and they settled in all the territory of Egypt, very {severe}. Before it there were not locusts like them, nor will there be after it.

They covered the surface of the entire land so that it was dark. They ate all the vegetation of the land and the fruit from the trees that the hail left. Nothing green was left on the trees or on the vegetation in all the land of Egypt.

And the LORD said unto Moses, "Stretch out thy hand unto heaven, and let there be darkness upon the land of Egypt: even that they may feel the darkness."

No one could see his brother, and {because of it no one could move from where they were} [for] three days, but there was light for the {Israelites} in their dwellings.

So our cattle will have to go with us, not one may be kept back; for they are needed for the worship of the Lord our God; we have no knowledge what offering we have to give till we come to the place.

Speak now in the ears of the people, that they ask every man of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, utensils of silver and utensils of gold.

Tell the entire congregation of Israel, "On the tenth of this month they're each to take a lamb for themselves, according to their ancestors' households, one lamb for each household.

And it shall be to you for a preservation till the fourteenth day of this month; and they shall slaughter it, all the convocation of the assembly of Israel, between the two evenings.

They're to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat the lamb.

That very night they're to eat the meat, roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

you will say, 'It [is] a Passover sacrifice for Yahweh, who passed over the houses of the {Israelites} in Egypt when he struck Egypt; and he delivered our houses.'" And the people knelt down and they worshiped.

And the {Israelites} went, and they did as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron; so they did.

The Egyptian officials urged the people to send them out of the land quickly, because they were saying, "We'll all be dead!"

And the people took the dough before it was soured which they had in store, and bound it in cloths, and put it upon their shoulders.

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

The LORD had given the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that they gave them what they requested. As a result, they plundered the Egyptians.

They baked the dough that they brought out of Egypt into thin cakes of unleavened bread. It had not been leavened because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.

And the period of dwelling of the {Israelites} that they dwelled in Egypt [was] four hundred and thirty years.

All the Israelis did this. They did exactly as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.

"Sanctify unto me all the firstborn that open all manner matrices among the children of Israel, as well of men as of beasts: for they are mine."

then thou shalt appoint unto the LORD all that openeth the matrix, and all the firstborn among the beasts which thou hast if they be males.