All the people who were directly descended from Jacob numbered seventy. But Joseph was already in Egypt,

The Israelites, however, were fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, and became extremely strong, so that the land was filled with them.

They made their lives bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous.

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

A man from the household of Levi married a woman who was a descendant of Levi.

The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a healthy child, she hid him for three months.

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.

Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself by the Nile, while her attendants were walking alongside the river, and she saw the basket among the reeds. She sent one of her attendants, took it,

He looked this way and that and saw that no one was there, and then he attacked the Egyptian and concealed the body in the sand.

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?"

The man replied, "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Are you planning to kill me like you killed that Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid, thinking, "Surely what I did has become known."

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.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from within a bush. He looked -- and the bush was ablaze with fire, but it was not being consumed!

He added, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

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!

Pharaoh was thinking, "The people of the land are now many, and you are giving them rest from their labor."

The slave masters were pressuring them, saying, "Complete your work for each day, just like when there was straw!"

I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name 'the Lord' I was not known to them.

Now these are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their records: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. (The length of Levi's life was 137 years.)

The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. (The length of Kohath's life was 133 years.)

Amram married his father's sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. (The length of Amram's life was 137 years.)

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

They were the men who were speaking to Pharaoh king of Egypt, in order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. It was the same Moses and Aaron.

Now Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Go to Pharaoh in the morning when he goes out to the water. Position yourself to meet him by the edge of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was turned into a snake.

Moses and Aaron did so, just as the Lord had commanded. Moses raised the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile right before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood.

When the fish that were in the Nile died, the Nile began to stink, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood everywhere in the land of Egypt!

But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

The Lord did so; a thick swarm of flies came into Pharaoh's house and into the houses of his servants, and throughout the whole land of Egypt the land was ruined because of the swarms of flies.

I am going to cause very severe hail to rain down about this time tomorrow, such hail as has never occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.

Hail fell and fire mingled with the hail; the hail was so severe that there had not been any like it in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was there no hail.

(Now the flax and the barley were struck by the hail, for the barley had ripened and the flax was in bud.

The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and settled down in all the territory of Egypt. It was very severe; there had been no locusts like them before, nor will there be such ever again.

So Moses extended his hand toward heaven, and there was absolute darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to release them.

(Now the Lord granted the people favor with the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, respected by Pharaoh's servants and by the Egyptian people.)

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 got up in the night, along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house in which there was not someone dead.

So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, with their kneading troughs bound up in their clothing on their shoulders.

They baked cakes of bread without yeast using the dough they had brought from Egypt, for it was made without yeast -- because they were thrust out of Egypt and were not able to delay, they could not prepare food for themselves either.

Now the length of time the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years.

It was a night of vigil for the Lord to bring them out from the land of Egypt, and so on this night all Israel is to keep the vigil to the Lord for generations to come.

When Pharaoh released the people, God did not lead them by the way to the land of the Philistines, although that was nearby, for God said, "Lest the people change their minds and return to Egypt when they experience war."

Now the Lord was going before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them in the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel day or night.

When it was reported to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and the king and his servants said, "What in the world have we done? For we have released the people of Israel from serving us!"

The angel of God, who was going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.

It came between the Egyptian camp and the Israelite camp; it was a dark cloud and it lit up the night so that one camp did not come near the other the whole night.

Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the Lord drove the sea apart by a strong east wind all that night, and he made the sea into dry land, and the water was divided.

The water returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh that was coming after the Israelites into the sea -- not so much as one of them survived!

Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic in power, your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy.

Then they came to Marah, but they were not able to drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter. (That is why its name was Marah.)

In the evening the quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning a layer of dew was all around the camp.

When the layer of dew had evaporated, there on the surface of the desert was a thin flaky substance, thin like frost on the earth.

When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" because they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the Lord has given you for food.

But they did not listen to Moses; some kept part of it until morning, and it was full of worms and began to stink, and Moses was angry with them.

The house of Israel called its name "manna." It was like coriander seed and was white, and it tasted like wafers with honey.

Now the Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was inhabited; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

The whole community of the Israelites traveled on their journey from the Desert of Sin according to the Lord's instruction, and they pitched camp in Rephidim. Now there was no water for the people to drink.

for he said, "For a hand was lifted up to the throne of the Lord -- that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation."

and her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom (for Moses had said, "I have been a foreigner in a foreign land"),

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

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 are you sitting by yourself, and all the people stand around you from morning until evening?"

The Lord said to Moses, "Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and make them wash their clothes

On the third day in the morning there was thunder and lightning and a dense cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a very loud horn; all the people who were in the camp trembled.

Now Mount Sinai was completely covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a great furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently.

When the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, Moses was speaking and God was answering him with a voice.

The people kept their distance, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned, and he did not take the necessary precautions, and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death.

If a ransom is set for him, then he must pay the redemption for his life according to whatever amount was set for him.

But if it was stolen from him, he will pay its owner.

If it is torn in pieces, then he will bring it for evidence, and he will not have to pay for what was torn.

"If a man borrows an animal from his neighbor, and it is hurt or dies when its owner was not with it, the man who borrowed it will surely pay.

If its owner was with it, he will not have to pay; if it was hired, what was paid for the hire covers it.

and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear like the sky itself.

Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in plain view of the people.

Moses went into the cloud when he went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

You are to make the altar hollow, out of boards. Just as it was shown you on the mountain, so they must make it.

"You are to present Aaron and his sons at the entrance of the tent of meeting. You are to wash them with water

Then you are to cut the ram into pieces and wash the entrails and its legs and put them on its pieces and on its head

Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that was in the basket at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

They are to eat those things by which atonement was made to consecrate and to set them apart, but no one else may eat them, for they are holy.

and Aaron and his sons must wash their hands and their feet from it.

When they enter the tent of meeting, they must wash with water so that they do not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by burning incense as an offering made by fire to the Lord,

they must wash their hands and their feet so that they do not die. And this will be a perpetual ordinance for them and for their descendants throughout their generations."

It is a sign between me and the Israelites forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'"

Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

Moses said, "You have been consecrated today for the Lord, for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today."

Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, at a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. Anyone seeking the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.

So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Everyone whose heart stirred him to action and everyone whose spirit was willing came and brought the offering for the Lord for the work of the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments.

Every woman who was skilled spun with her hands and brought what she had spun, blue, purple, or scarlet yarn, or fine linen,

The Israelites brought a freewill offering to the Lord, every man and woman whose heart was willing to bring materials for all the work that the Lord through Moses had commanded them to do.

The length of one curtain was forty-two feet, and the width of one curtain was six feet -- the same size for each of the curtains.

He made fifty loops on the first curtain, and he made fifty loops on the end curtain that was in the second set, with the loops opposite one another.

He made fifty gold clasps and joined the curtains together to one another with the clasps, so that the tabernacle was a unit.

The length of one curtain was forty-five feet, and the width of one curtain was six feet -- one size for all eleven curtains.

The length of each frame was fifteen feet, the width of each frame was two and a quarter feet,

Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood; its length was three feet nine inches, its width two feet three inches, and its height two feet three inches.