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.

So now, send instructions to gather your livestock and all your possessions in the fields to a safe place. Every person or animal caught in the field and not brought into the house -- the hail will come down on them, and they will die!"'"

Those of Pharaoh's servants who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their servants and livestock into the houses,

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."

When Moses extended his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire fell to the earth; so the Lord caused hail to rain down on the land of Egypt.

The hail struck everything in the open fields, both people and animals, throughout all the land of Egypt. The hail struck everything that grows in the field, and it broke all the trees of the field to pieces.

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.

But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God."

So Moses left Pharaoh, went out of the city, and spread out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain stopped pouring on the earth.

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,

So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and told him, "Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: 'How long do you refuse to humble yourself before me? Release my people so that they may serve me!

But if you refuse to release my people, I am going to bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.

They will cover the surface of the earth, so that you will be unable to see the ground. They will eat the remainder of what escaped -- what is left over for you -- from the hail, and they will eat every tree that grows for you from the field.

They will fill your houses, the houses of your servants, and all the houses of Egypt, such as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen since they have been in the land until this day!'" Then Moses turned and went out from Pharaoh.

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."

So Moses extended his staff over the land of Egypt, and then the Lord brought an east wind on the land all that day and all night. The morning came, and the east wind had brought up the locusts!

So now, forgive my sin this time only, and pray to the Lord your God that he would only take this death away from me."

Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord,

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."

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

Our livestock must also go with us! Not a hoof is to be left behind! For we must take these animals to serve the Lord our God. Until we arrive there, we do not know what we must use to serve the Lord."

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

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!"

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.

Instruct the people that each man and each woman is to request from his or her neighbor items of silver and gold."

and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

All these your servants will come down to me and bow down to me, saying, 'Go, you and all the people who follow you,' and after that I will go out." Then Moses went out from Pharaoh in great anger.

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,

"This month is to be your beginning of months; it will be your first month of the year.

Tell the whole community of Israel, 'In the tenth day of this month they each must take a lamb for themselves according to their families -- a lamb for each household.

If any household is too small for a lamb, the man and his next-door neighbor are to take a lamb according to the number of people -- you will make your count for the lamb according to how much each one can eat.

You must care for it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then the whole community of Israel will kill it around sundown.

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.

Do not eat it raw or boiled in water, but roast it over the fire with its head, its legs, and its entrails.

This is how you are to eat it -- dressed to travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.

The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, so that when I see the blood I will pass over you, and this plague will not fall on you to destroy you when I attack the land of Egypt.

This day will become a memorial for you, and you will celebrate it as a festival to the Lord -- you will celebrate it perpetually as a lasting ordinance.

For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. Surely on the first day you must put away yeast from your houses because anyone who eats bread made with yeast from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off from Israel.

On the first day there will be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there will be a holy convocation for you. You must do no work of any kind on them, only what every person will eat -- that alone may be prepared for you.

So you will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought your regiments out from the land of Egypt, and so you must keep this day perpetually as a lasting ordinance.

In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you will eat bread made without yeast until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.

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.

When your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' --

then you will say, 'It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck Egypt and delivered our households.'" The people bowed down low to the ground,

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.

The Egyptians were urging the people on, in order to send them out of the land quickly, for they were saying, "We are all dead!"

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

The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot, plus their dependants.

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.

At the end of the 430 years, on the very day, all the regiments of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt.

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.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner may share in eating it.

"When a foreigner lives with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, all his males must be circumcised, and then he may approach and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land -- but no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

The same law will apply to the person who is native-born and to the foreigner who lives among you."

And on this very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their regiments.

The Lord spoke to Moses:

"Set apart to me every firstborn male -- the first offspring of every womb among the Israelites, whether human or animal; it is mine."

Moses said to the people, "Remember this day on which you came out from Egypt, from the place where you were enslaved, for the Lord brought you out of there with a mighty hand -- and no bread made with yeast may be eaten.

On this day, in the month of Abib, you are going out.

When the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, then you will keep this ceremony in this month.

For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to the Lord.

You are to tell your son on that day, 'It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.'

So you must keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year.

When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you,

then you must give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. Every firstling of a beast that you have -- the males will be the Lord's.

Every firstling of a donkey you must redeem with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, then you must break its neck. Every firstborn of your sons you must redeem.

In the future, when your son asks you 'What is this?' you are to tell him, 'With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the land of slavery.

When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to release us, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of people to the firstborn of animals. That is why I am sacrificing to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb, but all my firstborn sons I redeem.'

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."

So God brought the people around by the way of the desert to the Red Sea, and the Israelites went up from the land of Egypt prepared for battle.

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the Israelites solemnly swear, "God will surely attend to you, and you will carry my bones up from this place with you."

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.

He did not remove the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people.

The Lord spoke to Moses:

"Tell the Israelites that they must turn and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you are to camp by the sea before Baal Zephon opposite it.

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!"

When Pharaoh got closer, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them, and they were terrified. The Israelites cried out to the Lord,

and they said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert? What in the world have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?

Isn't this what we told you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, because it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!'"

Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord that he will provide for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again.

The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.

And as for me, I am going to harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will come after them, that I may be honored because of Pharaoh and his army and his chariots and his horsemen.

The Lord said to Moses, "Extend your hand toward the sea, so that the waters may flow back on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen!"

So Moses extended his hand toward the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state when the sun began to rise. Now the Egyptians were fleeing before it, but the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the middle of the sea.

So the Lord saved Israel on that day from the power of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea.

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord. They said, "I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.

The depths have covered them, they went down to the bottom like a stone.

By your loyal love you will lead the people whom you have redeemed; you will guide them by your strength to your holy dwelling place.

Miriam sang in response to them, "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea."

Then Moses led Israel to journey away from the Red Sea. They went out to the Desert of Shur, walked for three days into the desert, and found no water.

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.)