and he said, "When you help the Hebrews give birth, you will look upon the pairs of testicles; if he [is] a son, you will put him to death, and if she [is] a daughter, she will 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 king of Egypt summoned the midwives, and he said to them, "Why have you done this thing and 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."

And the woman conceived, and she gave birth to a son, and she saw him, that he was a fine baby, and she hid him three months.

And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.

And the daughter of Pharaoh went down to wash at the Nile, [while] her maidservants were walking alongside the Nile, and she saw the basket in the midst of the reeds, and she sent her slave woman [for it] and took it

And his sister said to the daughter of Pharaoh, "Shall I go and call for you a woman from the Hebrews [who is] nursing [so that] she will nurse the boy for you?"

And the daughter of Pharaoh said to her, "Go." And the girl went, and she called the mother of the boy.

And the boy grew, and she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he became her son, and she called his name Moses, and she said, "Because I drew him out from the water."

{And then} in those days when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers, and he saw their {forced labor}, and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, [one of] his brothers.

And he went out on the second day, and there were two Hebrew men fighting, and he said to the guilty [one], "Why do you strike your neighbor?"

And he said, "Who {appointed you as a commander} and a judge over us? [Are] you intending to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?" And Moses was afraid, and he said, "Surely the matter has become known."

And Pharaoh heard this matter, and he sought to kill Moses, and Moses fled from Pharaoh, and he lived in the land of Midian, and he lived at {a certain well}.

[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 the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

And they came to Reuel, their father, and he said, "{Why have you come so quickly} today?"

And he said to his daughters, "Where [is] he? {Why then} have you left the man? {Call him so that he can eat some food}."

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

{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.

And Moses was a shepherd with the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the west [of] the desert, and he came to the mountain of God, to Horeb.

And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush, and he looked, and there was the bush burning with fire, but the bush was not being consumed.

And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, and God called to him from the midst of the bush, and he said, "Moses, Moses." And he said, "Here I [am]."

And he said, "You must not come near to here. Take off your sandals from on your feet, because the place on which you [are] standing, it [is] holy ground."

And I have come down to deliver them from the hand of [the] Egyptians and to bring them up from this land to a good and wide land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

And now, look, the cry of distress of the {Israelites} has come to me, and also I see the oppression [with] which [the] Egyptians [are] oppressing them.

And now come, and I will send you to Pharaoh, and [you must] bring my people, the {Israelites}, out from Egypt."

But Moses said to God, "Who [am] I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the {Israelites} out from Egypt?"

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 God said to Moses, "I am that I am." And he said, "So you must say to the {Israelites}, 'I am sent me to you.'"

And God said again to Moses, "So you must say to the {Israelites}, 'Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, 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 remembrance from generation [to] generation.'

Go and gather the elders of Israel and say to them, 'Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, appeared to me, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, "I have carefully attended to you and what has been done to you in Egypt."

And I said, "I will bring you up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey." '

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.'

But I myself know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go {unless compelled by a strong hand}.

And I will stretch out my hand, and I will strike Egypt with all of my wonders that I will do in its midst, and {afterward} he will release you.

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?'"

And Yahweh said to him, "What [is] this in your hand?" And he said, "A staff."

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and grasp [it] by its tail"--" (And he reached out his hand and grabbed it, and it became a staff in his palm.)--

"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 Yahweh said to him again, "Put your hand into the fold of your garment." And he put his hand into the fold of his garment, and he took it out, and, {to his surprise}, his hand [was] afflicted with a skin disease, like snow.

And he said, "Return your hand to the fold of your garment." And he returned his hand to the fold of his garment, and he took it out from the fold of his garment, and, {to his surprise}, it was restored like the rest of his body.

"{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 said to Yahweh, "Please, Lord, I [am] not a man of words, {neither recently nor in the past nor since your speaking} to your servant, because I [am] heavy of mouth and of tongue."

And Yahweh said to him, "Who gave a mouth to humankind, or who makes mute or deaf or sighted or blind? [Is it] not I, Yahweh?

And he said, "Please, Lord, do send {anyone else whom you wish to send}."

{And Yahweh was angry with} Moses and said, "[Is there] not Aaron your brother the Levite? I know that he certainly can speak, and also there he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will rejoice in his heart.

And you will speak to him, and you will put words in his mouth, and I myself will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you must do.

And he will speak for you to the people, {and then} he will be to you as a mouth, and you will be to him as a god.

And you must take this staff in your hand, with which you will do the signs."

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 Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, "Go, return to Egypt because all the men have died who [were] seeking your life."

And Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on the donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "When you go to return to Egypt, see all of the wonders that I have put in your hand, and do them before Pharaoh, and I myself will harden his heart, and he will not release the people.

And you must say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Israel [is] my son, my firstborn."

And I said to you, "Release my son and let him serve me," but you refused to release him. Look, I [am about] to kill your son, your firstborn.'"

{And} on the way, at the place of overnight lodging, Yahweh encountered him and sought to kill him.

But Zipporah took a flint [knife], and she cut off the foreskin of her son, and she touched his feet, and she said, "Yes, you [are] a bridegroom of blood to me."

And Yahweh said to Aaron, "Go to the desert to meet Moses." And he went and encountered him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

And Aaron spoke all the words that Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and he did the signs before the eyes of the people.

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 Pharaoh said, "Who is Yahweh that I should listen to his voice to release Israel? I do not know Yahweh, and also I will not release Israel."

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."

And the king of Egypt said, "Why, Moses and Aaron, do you take the people from their work? Go to your {forced labor}!"

And Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land [are] now many, and you want to stop them from their {forced labor}."

And on that day Pharaoh commanded the slave drivers over the people and his foremen, saying,

"You must no longer give straw to the people to make the bricks like {before}. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.

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 people spread out in all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for the straw.

And the slave drivers [were] insisting, saying, "Finish your work {for each day} on its day, as {when there was straw}."

And the foremen of the {Israelites} came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, "Why do you treat your servants like this?

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 he said, "You [are] lazy, lazy! Therefore you [are] saying, 'Let us go; let us sacrifice to Yahweh.'

And now go, work, but straw will not be given to you, and you must give the full quota of bricks."

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."

And Moses returned to Yahweh and said, "Lord, why have you brought trouble to this people? Why ever did you send me?

And from the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble to this people, and you have certainly not delivered your people."

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, because with a strong hand he will release them, and with a strong hand he will drive them out from his land."

And God spoke to Moses, and he said to him, "I [am] Yahweh.

And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Shaddai, but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.

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,

but also I myself heard the groaning of the {Israelites}, whom [the] Egyptians [are] making to work, and I remembered my covenant.

Therefore say to the {Israelites}, 'I [am] Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the {forced labor} of Egypt, and I will deliver you from their slavery, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great punishments.

And I will bring you to the land {that I swore} to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you [as] a possession. I [am] Yahweh."

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

And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

"Go, speak to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and let him release the {Israelites} from his land."

And Moses spoke before Yahweh, saying, "Look, the {Israelites} do not listen to me, and how will Pharaoh listen to me, since I [am] {a poor speaker}?"

And Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and he commanded them [to go] to the {Israelites} and to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to bring the {Israelites} out from the land of Egypt.

And these [are] the names of the sons of Levi according to their genealogies: Gershon and Kohath and Merari, and the years of the life of Levi [were] {one hundred and thirty-seven years}.

The sons of Gershon [are] Libni and Shimei according to their clans.

And the sons of Merari [are] Mahli and Mushi. These [are] clans of the Levites according to their genealogies.

And Eleazar the son of Aaron took for himself [one] from the daughters of Putiel as a wife, and she bore for him Phinehas. These [are] the heads of the {families} of the Levites according to their clans.

[It was] that Aaron and Moses to whom Yahweh said, "Bring the {Israelites} out from the land of Egypt according to their divisions."