When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he asked, "Who are these?"

Joseph said to his father, "They are the sons God has given me in this place." His father said, "Bring them to me so I may bless them."

Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, outstanding in dignity, outstanding in power.

You are destructive like water and will not excel, for you got on your father's bed, then you defiled it -- he got on my couch!

Simeon and Levi are brothers, weapons of violence are their knives!

You are a lion's cub, Judah, from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches and lies down like a lion; like a lioness -- who will rouse him?

The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of the eternal mountains or the desirable things of the age-old hills. They will be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

These are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He gave each of them an appropriate blessing.

Then his brothers also came and threw themselves down before him; they said, "Here we are; we are your slaves."

These are the names of the sons of Israel who entered Egypt -- each man with his household entered with Jacob:

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

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!"

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "All sons that are born you must throw into the river, but all daughters you may let live."

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."

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.

"So you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And as for me, I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what you must do.

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."

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."

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

But you must require of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. That is why they are crying, 'Let us go sacrifice to our God.'

The Israelite foremen went and cried out to Pharaoh, "Why are you treating your servants this way?

No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, 'Make bricks!' Your servants are even being beaten, but the fault is with your people."

But Pharaoh replied, "You are slackers! Slackers! That is why you are saying, 'Let us go sacrifice to the Lord.'

I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

These are the heads of their fathers' households: The sons of Reuben, the firstborn son of Israel, were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were the clans of Reuben.

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.)

Now Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers' households of Levi according to their clans.

You are to speak everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh that he must release the Israelites from his land.

But on that day I will mark off the land of Goshen, where my people are staying, so that no swarms of flies will be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of this 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?

You are still exalting yourself against my people by not releasing them.

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."

But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are later crops.)

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."

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.

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.

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!"

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

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.'

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.

"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.

Pharaoh will think regarding the Israelites, 'They are wandering around confused in the land -- the desert has closed in on them.'

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?

and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your murmurings against the Lord. As for us, what are we, that you should murmur against us?"

Moses said, "You will know this when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and bread in the morning to satisfy you, because the Lord has heard your murmurings that you are murmuring against him. As for us, what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord."

Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the area.

See, because the Lord has given you the Sabbath, that is why he is giving you food for two days on the sixth day. Each of you stay where you are; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day."

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?"

Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good!

You will surely wear out, both you and these people who are with you, for this is too heavy a burden for you; you are not able to do it by yourself.

and you will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites."

Moses said to the Lord, "The people are not able to come up to Mount Sinai, because you solemnly warned us, 'Set boundaries for the mountain and set it apart.'"

"These are the decisions that you will set before them:

"If you lend money to any of my people who are needy among you, do not be like a moneylender to him; do not charge him interest.

"For six years you are to sow your land and gather in its produce.

For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, in order that your ox and your donkey may rest and that your female servant's son and any hired help may refresh themselves.

You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for at that time you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before me empty-handed.

"You are also to observe the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you have sown in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year when you have gathered in your harvest out of the field.

Moses came and told the people all the Lord's words and all the decisions. All the people answered together, "We are willing to do all the words that the Lord has said,"

He took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people, and they said, "We are willing to do and obey all that the Lord has spoken."

He told the elders, "Wait for us in this place until we return to you. Here are Aaron and Hur with you. Whoever has any matters of dispute can approach them."

"Tell the Israelites to take an offering for me; from every person motivated by a willing heart you are to receive my offering.

This is the offering you are to accept from them: gold, silver, bronze,

"They are to make an ark of acacia wood -- its length is to be three feet nine inches, its width two feet three inches, and its height two feet three inches.

You are to overlay it with pure gold -- both inside and outside you must overlay it, and you are to make a surrounding border of gold over it.

You are to cast four gold rings for it and put them on its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other side.

You are to make poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold,

You are to put into the ark the testimony that I will give to you.

"You are to make an atonement lid of pure gold; its length is to be three feet nine inches, and its width is to be two feet three inches.

You are to make two cherubim of gold; you are to make them of hammered metal on the two ends of the atonement lid.

Make one cherub on one end and one cherub on the other end; from the atonement lid you are to make the cherubim on the two ends.

The cherubim are to be spreading their wings upward, overshadowing the atonement lid with their wings, and the cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the atonement lid.

You are to put the atonement lid on top of the ark, and in the ark you are to put the testimony I am giving you.

I will meet with you there, and from above the atonement lid, from between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will command you for the Israelites.

"You are to make a table of acacia wood; its length is to be three feet, its width one foot six inches, and its height two feet three inches.

You are to overlay it with pure gold, and you are to make a surrounding border of gold for it.

You are to make a surrounding frame for it about three inches broad, and you are to make a surrounding border of gold for its frame.

You are to make four rings of gold for it and attach the rings at the four corners where its four legs are.

The rings are to be close to the frame to provide places for the poles to carry the table.

You are to make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that the table may be carried with them.

You are to make its plates, its ladles, its pitchers, and its bowls, to be used in pouring out offerings; you are to make them of pure gold.

You are to set the Bread of the Presence on the table before me continually.

"You are to make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand is to be made of hammered metal; its base and its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its blossoms are to be from the same piece.

Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand, three branches of the lampstand from one side of it and three branches of the lampstand from the other side of it.

Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, and three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on the next branch, and the same for the six branches extending from the lampstand.

On the lampstand there are to be four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms,

"You are to make its seven lamps, and then set its lamps up on it, so that it will give light to the area in front of it.

Its trimmers and its trays are to be of pure gold.

"The tabernacle itself you are to make with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet; you are to make them with cherubim that are the work of an artistic designer.

Five curtains are to be joined, one to another, and the other five curtains are to be joined, one to another.

You are to make loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and in the same way you are to make loops in the outer edge of the end curtain in the second set.

You are to make fifty loops on the one curtain, and you are to make fifty loops on the end curtain which is on the second set, so that the loops are opposite one to another.

You are to make fifty gold clasps and join the curtains together with the clasps, so that the tabernacle is a unit.

"You are to make curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the tabernacle; you are to make eleven curtains.

You are to join five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves. You are to double over the sixth curtain at the front of the tent.