And God's eyes were turned to the children of Israel and he gave them the knowledge of himself.

Now Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he took the flock to the back of the waste land and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

And when the Lord saw him turning to one side to see, God said his name out of the tree, crying, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

And he said, Do not come near: take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy.

And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows;

And I have come down to take them out of the hands of the Egyptians, guiding them out of that land into a good land and wide, into a land flowing with milk and honey; into the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

For now, truly, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the cruel behaviour of the Egyptians to them.

Come, then, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may take my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

And Moses said to God, Who am I to go to Pharaoh and take the children of Israel out of Egypt?

And he said, Truly I will be with you; and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have taken the children of Israel out of Egypt, you will give worship to God on this mountain.

And Moses said to God, When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you: and they say to me, What is his name? what am I to say to them?

And God said to him, I AM WHAT I AM: and he said, Say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.

And God went on to say to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and this is my sign to all generations.

Go and get together the chiefs of the children of Israel, and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by me, and has said, Truly I have taken up your cause, because of what is done to you in Egypt;

And they will give ear to your voice: and you, with the chiefs of Israel, will go to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God.

But I will put out my hand and overcome Egypt with all the wonders which I will do among them: and after that he will let you go.

And Moses, answering, said, It is certain that they will not have faith in me or give ear to my voice; for they will say, You have not seen the Lord.

And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod.

And the Lord said to Moses, Put out your hand and take it by the tail: (and he put out his hand and took a grip of it and it became a rod in his hand:)

Then the Lord said to him again, Put your hand inside your clothing. And he put his hand inside his robe: and when he took it out it was like the hand of a leper, as white as snow.

And if they do not have faith in you or give ear to the voice of the first sign, they will have faith in the second sign.

And if they have no faith even in these two signs and will not give ear to your voice, then you are to take the water of the Nile and put it on the dry land: and the water you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.

And Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not a man of words; I have never been so, and am not now, even after what you have said to your servant: for talking is hard for me, and I am slow of tongue.

And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? who takes away a man's voice or hearing, or makes him seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

So go now, and I will be with your mouth, teaching you what to say.

And he said, O Lord, send, if you will, by the hand of anyone whom it seems good to you to send.

And the Lord was angry with Moses, and said, Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? To my knowledge he is good at talking. And now he is coming out to you: and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

Let him give ear to your voice, and you will put my words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his, teaching you what you have to do.

And he will do the talking for you to the people: he will be to you as a mouth and you will be to him as God.

And take in your hand this rod with which you will do the signs.

And Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go back now to my relations in Egypt and see if they are still living. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.

And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men are dead who were attempting to take your life.

And Moses took his wife and his sons and put them on an ass and went back to the land of Egypt: and he took the rod of God in his hand.

And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have given you power to do: but I will make his heart hard and he will not let the people go.

And you are to say to Pharaoh, The Lord says, Israel is the first of my sons:

And I said to you, Let my son go, so that he may give me worship; and you did not let him go: so now I will put the first of your sons to death.

Now on the journey, at the night's resting-place, the Lord came in his way and would have put him to death.

Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cutting off the skin of her son's private parts, and touching his feet with it, she said, Truly you are a husband of blood to me.

And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the waste land and you will see Moses. So he went and came across Moses at the mountain of God, and gave him a kiss.

And Moses gave Aaron an account of all the words of the Lord which he had sent him to say, and of all the signs which he had given him orders to do.

And Aaron said to them all the words the Lord had said to Moses, and did the signs before all the people.

And after that, Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and said, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, Let my people go so that they may keep a feast to me in the waste land.

And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, to whose voice I am to give ear and let Israel go? I have no knowledge of the Lord and I will not let Israel go.

And they said, The God of the Hebrews has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God, so that he may not send death on us by disease or the sword.

And the king of Egypt said to them, Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people away from their work? get back to your work.

The same day Pharaoh gave orders to the overseers and those who were responsible for the work, saying,

But see that they make the same number of bricks as before, and no less: for they have no love for work; and so they are crying out and saying, Let us go and make an offering to our God.

Give the men harder work, and see that they do it; let them not give attention to false words.

And the overseers of the people and their responsible men went out and said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will give you no more dry stems.

Go yourselves and get dry stems wherever you are able; for your work is not to be any less.

So the people were sent in all directions through the land of Egypt to get dry grass for stems.

And the overseers went on driving them and saying, Do your full day's work as before when there were dry stems for you.

And the responsible men of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's overseers had put over them, were given blows, and they said to them, Why have you not done your regular work, in making bricks as before?

Then the responsible men of the children of Israel came to Pharaoh, protesting and saying, Why are you acting in this way to your servants?

They give us no dry stems and they say to us, Make bricks: and they give your servants blows; but it is your people who are in the wrong.

But he said, You have no love for work: that is why you say, Let us go and make an offering to the Lord.

Go now, get back to your work; no dry stems will be given to you, but you are to make the full number of bricks.

Then the responsible men of the children of Israel saw that they were purposing evil when they said, The number of bricks which you have to make every day will be no less than before.

And they came face to face with Moses and Aaron, who were in their way when they came out from Pharaoh:

And they said to them, May the Lord take note of you and be your judge; for you have given Pharaoh and his servants a bad opinion of us, putting a sword in their hands for our destruction.

And Moses went back to the Lord and said, Lord, why have you done evil to this people? why have you sent me?

For from the time when I came to Pharaoh to put your words before him, he has done evil to this people, and you have given them no help.

And the Lord said to Moses, Now you will see what I am about to do to Pharaoh; for by a strong hand he will be forced to let them go, driving them out of his land because of my outstretched arm.

And God said to Moses, I am Yahweh:

And I made an agreement with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their wanderings.

And truly my ears are open to the cry of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep under their yoke; and I have kept in mind my agreement.

Say then to the children of Israel, I am Yahweh, and I will take you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, and make you safe from their power, and will make you free by the strength of my arm after great punishments.

And I will take you to be my people and I will be your God; and you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, who takes you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

And I will be your guide into the land which I made an oath to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for your heritage: I am Yahweh.

And Moses said these words to the children of Israel, but they gave no attention to him, because of the grief of their spirit and the cruel weight of their work.

And the Lord said to Moses,

Go in and say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he is to let the children of Israel go out of his land.

And Moses, answering the Lord, said, See, the children of Israel will not give ear to me; how then will Pharaoh give ear to me, whose lips are unclean?

And the word of the Lord came to Moses and Aaron, with orders for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

And Amram took Jochebed, his father's sister, as wife; and she gave birth to Aaron and Moses: and the years of Amram's life were a hundred and thirty-seven.

And Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon; and she gave birth to Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

And Eleazar, Aaron's son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel; and she gave birth to Phinehas. These are the heads of the families of the Levites, in the order of their families.

These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, Take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt in their armies.

These are the men who gave orders to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of Egypt: these are the same Moses and Aaron.

And on the day when the word of the Lord came to Moses in the land of Egypt,

The Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord: say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, everything I am saying to you.

And Moses said to the Lord, My lips are unclean; how is it possible that Pharaoh will give me a hearing?

And the Lord said to Moses, See I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.

Say whatever I give you orders to say: and Aaron your brother will give word to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of his land.

But Pharaoh will not give ear to you, and I will put my hand on Egypt, and take my armies, my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, after great punishments.

And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they gave the Lord's word to Pharaoh.

And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

If Pharaoh says to you, Let me see a wonder: then say to Aaron, Take your rod and put it down on the earth before Pharaoh so that it may become a snake.

Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and they did as the Lord had said: and Aaron put his rod down on the earth before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a snake.

But Pharaoh's heart was made hard, and he did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh's heart is unchanged; he will not let the people go.

Go to Pharaoh in the morning; when he goes out to the water, you will be waiting for him by the edge of the Nile, with the rod which was turned into a snake in your hand;

And say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, Let my people go so that they may give me worship in the waste land; but up to now you have not given ear to his words.

So the Lord says, By this you may be certain that I am the Lord; see, by the touch of this rod in my hand the waters of the Nile will be turned to blood;

And the fish in the Nile will come to destruction, and the river will send up a bad smell, and the Egyptians will not be able, for disgust, to make use of the water of the Nile for drinking.

And the Lord said, Say to Aaron, Let the rod in your hand be stretched out over the waters of Egypt, and over the rivers and the streams and the pools, and over every stretch of water, so that they may be turned to blood; and there will be blood through all the land of Egypt, in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.

And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had said; and when his rod had been lifted up and stretched out over the waters of the Nile before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, all the water in the Nile was turned to blood;

And the fish in the Nile came to destruction, and a bad smell went up from the river, and the Egyptians were not able to make use of the water of the Nile for drinking; and there was blood through all the land of Egypt.

And the wonder-workers of Egypt did the same with their secret arts: but Pharaoh's heart was made hard, and he would not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

Then Pharaoh went into his house, and did not take even this to heart.