He said to his people, "Look at the Israelite people, more numerous and stronger than we are!

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,

Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this and let the boys live?"

The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women -- for the Hebrew women are vigorous; they give birth before the midwife gets to them!"

But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile.

opened it, and saw the child -- a boy, crying! -- and she felt compassion for him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."

Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get a nursing woman for you from the Hebrews, so that she may nurse the child for you?"

Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Yes, do so." So the young girl went and got the child's mother.

Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him.

When he went out the next day, there were two Hebrew men fighting. So he said to the one who was in the wrong, "Why are you attacking your fellow Hebrew?"

They said, "An Egyptian man rescued us from the shepherds, and he actually drew water for us and watered the flock!"

He said to his daughters, "So where is he? Why in the world did you leave the man? Call him, so that he may eat a meal with us."

Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.

When she bore a son, Moses named him Gershom, for he said, "I have become a resident foreigner in a foreign land."

Now Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb.

So Moses thought, "I will turn aside to see this amazing sight. Why does the bush not burn up?"

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him from within the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."

God said, "Do not approach any closer! Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

The Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

Moses said to God, "If I go to the Israelites and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' -- what should I say to them?"

God said to Moses, "I am that I am." And he said, "You must say this to the Israelites, 'I am has sent me to you.'"

God also said to Moses, "You must say this to the Israelites, 'The Lord -- the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob -- has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial from generation to generation.'

The Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff."

The Lord said, "Throw it to the ground." So he threw it to the ground, and it became a snake, and Moses ran from it.

But the Lord said to Moses, "Put out your hand and grab it by the tail" -- so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand --

The Lord also said to him, "Put your hand into your robe." So he put his hand into his robe, and when he brought it out -- there was his hand, leprous like snow!

He said, "Put your hand back into your robe." So he put his hand back into his robe, and when he brought it out from his robe -- there it was, restored like the rest of his skin!

Then Moses said to the Lord, "O my Lord, I am not an eloquent man, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

The Lord said to him, "Who gave a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

But Moses said, "O my Lord, please send anyone else whom you wish to send!"

Then the Lord became angry with Moses, and he said, "What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak very well. Moreover, he is coming to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

So Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, "Let me go, so that I may return to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."

The Lord said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, because all the men who were seeking your life are dead."

The Lord said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put under your control. But I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.

and I said to you, 'Let my son go that he may serve me,' but since you have refused to let him go, I will surely kill your son, your firstborn!"'"

But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses' feet, and said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me."

So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said, "A bridegroom of blood," referring to the circumcision.)

The Lord said to Aaron, "Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and greeted him with a kiss.

Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people,

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Release my people so that they may hold a pilgrim feast to me in the desert.'"

But Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey him by releasing Israel? I do not know the Lord, and I will not release Israel!"

And they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a three-day journey into the desert so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or the sword."

The king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you cause the people to refrain from their work? Return to your labor!"

So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said, "Thus says Pharaoh: 'I am not giving you straw.

The Israelite foremen whom Pharaoh's slave masters had set over them were beaten and were asked, "Why did you not complete your requirement for brickmaking as in the past -- both yesterday and today?"

and they said to them, "May the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the opinion of Pharaoh and his servants, so that you have given them an excuse to kill us!"

Moses returned to the Lord, and said, "Lord, why have you caused trouble for this people? Why did you ever send me?

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for compelled by my strong hand he will release them, and by my strong hand he will drive them out of his land."

God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord.

Then the Lord said to Moses,

It was the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, "Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their regiments."

he said to him, "I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I am telling you."

But Moses said before the Lord, "Since I speak with difficulty, why should Pharaoh listen to me?"

So the Lord said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

The Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is hard; he refuses to release the people.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch out your hand over Egypt's waters -- over their rivers, over their canals, over their ponds, and over all their reservoirs -- so that it becomes blood.' There will be blood everywhere in the land of Egypt, even in wooden and stone containers."

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and tell him, 'Thus says the Lord: "Release my people in order that they may serve me!

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to the Lord that he may take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will release the people that they may sacrifice to the Lord."

Moses said to Pharaoh, "You may have the honor over me -- when shall I pray for you, your servants, and your people, for the frogs to be removed from you and your houses, so that they will be left only in the Nile?"

He said, "Tomorrow." And Moses said, "It will be as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.

The Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Extend your staff and strike the dust of the ground, and it will become gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.'"

The magicians said to Pharaoh, "It is the finger of God!" But Pharaoh's heart remained hard, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

The Lord said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning and position yourself before Pharaoh as he goes out to the water, and tell him, 'Thus says the Lord, "Release my people that they may serve me!

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land."

But Moses said, "That would not be the right thing to do, for the sacrifices we make to the Lord our God would be an abomination to the Egyptians. If we make sacrifices that are an abomination to the Egyptians right before their eyes, will they not stone us?

Pharaoh said, "I will release you so that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the desert. Only you must not go very far. Do pray for me."

Moses said, "I am going to go out from you and pray to the Lord, and the swarms of flies will go away from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow. Only do not let Pharaoh deal falsely again by not releasing the people to sacrifice to the Lord."

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and tell him, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, "Release my people that they may serve me!

The Lord set an appointed time, saying, "Tomorrow the Lord will do this in the land."

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from a furnace, and have Moses throw it into the air while Pharaoh is watching.

So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh, Moses threw it into the air, and it caused festering boils to break out on both people and animals.

The Lord said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh, and tell him, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: "Release my people so that they may serve me!

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Extend your hand toward the sky that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on people and on animals, and on everything that grows in the field in the land of Egypt."

So Pharaoh sent and summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, "I have sinned this time! The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty.

Pray to the Lord, for the mighty thunderings and hail are too much! I will release you and you will stay no longer."

Moses said to him, "When I leave the city I will spread my hands to the Lord, the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to the Lord.

The Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, in order to display these signs of mine before him,

Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long will this man be a menace to us? Release the people so that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not know that Egypt is destroyed?"

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, "Go, serve the Lord your God. Exactly who is going with you?"

Moses said, "We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our sheep and our cattle we will go, because we are to hold a pilgrim feast for the Lord."

He said to them, "The Lord will need to be with you if I release you and your dependents! Watch out! Trouble is right in front of you!

The Lord said to Moses, "Extend your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up over the land of Egypt and eat everything that grows in the ground, everything that the hail has left."

Then Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you!

The Lord said to Moses, "Extend your hand toward heaven so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness so thick it can be felt."

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, "Go, serve the Lord -- only your flocks and herds will be detained. Even your families may go with you."

But Moses said, "Will you also provide us with sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may present them to the Lord our God?

Pharaoh said to him, "Go from me! Watch out for yourself! Do not appear before me again, for when you see my face you will die!"

Moses said, "As you wish! I will not see your face again."

The Lord said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt; after that he will release you from this place. When he releases you, he will drive you out completely from this place.

Moses said, "Thus says the Lord: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt,

The Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt."

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

They will take some of the blood and put it on the two side posts and top of the doorframe of the houses where they will eat it.

Take a branch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply to the top of the doorframe and the two side posts some of the blood that is in the basin. Not one of you is to go out the door of his house until morning.

For the Lord will pass through to strike Egypt, and when he sees the blood on the top of the doorframe and the two side posts, then the Lord will pass over the door, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

When you enter the land that the Lord will give to you, just as he said, you must observe this ceremony.

It happened at midnight -- the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, "Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested!