That is why to this day the Israelites do not eat the sinew which is attached to the socket of the hip, because he struck the socket of Jacob's hip near the attached sinew.

These were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king ruled over the Israelites:

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

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

So they put foremen over the Israelites to oppress them with hard labor. As a result they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread. As a result the Egyptians loathed the Israelites,

and they made the Israelites serve rigorously.

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.

During that long period of time the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry because of their slave labor went up to God.

God saw the Israelites, and God understood.

And now indeed the cry of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.

So now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."

Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

Moses said to God, "If I go to the Israelites and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' -- what should I say to them?"

God said to Moses, "I am that I am." And he said, "You must say this to the Israelites, 'I am has sent me to you.'"

God also said to Moses, "You must say this to the Israelites, 'The Lord -- the God of your fathers, 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 memorial from generation to generation.'

Then Moses and Aaron went and brought together all the Israelite elders.

and the people believed. When they heard that the Lord had attended to the Israelites and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed down close to the ground.

So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said, "Thus says Pharaoh: 'I am not giving you straw.

The Israelite foremen whom Pharaoh's slave masters had set over them were beaten and were asked, "Why did you not complete your requirement for brickmaking as in the past -- both yesterday and today?"

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

The Israelite foremen saw that they were in trouble when they were told, "You must not reduce the daily quota of your bricks."

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

Therefore, tell the Israelites, 'I am the Lord. I will bring you out from your enslavement to the Egyptians, I will rescue you from the hard labor they impose, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.

Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and hard labor.

"Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt that he must release the Israelites from his land."

But Moses replied to the Lord, "If the Israelites did not listen to me, then how will Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with difficulty?"

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge for the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.

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.

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.

Pharaoh will not listen to you. I will reach into Egypt and bring out my regiments, my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.

Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I extend my hand over Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.

But the Lord will distinguish between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, and nothing will die of all that the Israelites have."'"

And the Lord did this on the next day; all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but of the Israelites' livestock not one died.

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

So Pharaoh's heart remained hard, and he did not release the Israelites, as the Lord had predicted through Moses.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not release the Israelites.

No one could see another person, and no one could rise from his place for three days. But the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

But against any of the Israelites not even a dog will bark against either people or animals, so that you may know that the Lord distinguishes between Egypt and Israel.'

So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not release the Israelites from his land.

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,

and the Israelites went away and did exactly as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, "Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested!

Now the Israelites had done as Moses told them -- they had requested from the Egyptians silver and gold items and clothing.

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

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

So all the Israelites did exactly as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

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

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

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."

"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.'

But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he chased after the Israelites. Now the Israelites were going out defiantly.

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,

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

And as for you, lift up your staff and extend your hand toward the sea and divide it, so that the Israelites may go through the middle of the sea on dry ground.

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.

So the Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry ground, the water forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.

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!

But the Israelites walked on dry ground in the middle of the sea, the water forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.

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.

For the horses of Pharaoh came with his chariots and his footmen into the sea, and the Lord brought back the waters of the sea on them, but the Israelites walked on dry land in the middle of the sea."

When they journeyed from Elim, the entire company of Israelites came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their exodus from the land of Egypt.

The entire company of Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron in the desert.

The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this desert to kill this whole assembly with hunger!"

Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you will know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt,

Then Moses said to Aaron, "Tell the whole community of the Israelites, 'Come before the Lord, because he has heard your murmurings.'"

As Aaron spoke to the whole community of the Israelites and they looked toward the desert, there the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud,

"I have heard the murmurings of the Israelites. Tell them, 'During the evening you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be satisfied with bread, so that you may know that I am the Lord your God.'"

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.

The Israelites did so, and they gathered -- some more, some less.

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.

He called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contending of the Israelites and because of their testing the Lord, saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?"

In the third month after the Israelites went out from the land of Egypt, on the very day, they came to the Desert of Sinai.

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."

The Lord said to Moses: "Thus you will tell the Israelites: 'You yourselves have seen that I have spoken with you from heaven.

He sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings to the Lord.

But he did not lay a hand on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, and they ate and they drank.

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

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 command the Israelites that they bring to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, so that the lamps will burn regularly.

In the tent of meeting outside the curtain that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons are to arrange it from evening to morning before the Lord. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for generations to come.

"And you, bring near to you your brother Aaron and his sons with him from among the Israelites, so that they may minister as my priests -- Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons.

"You are to put the Urim and the Thummim into the breastpiece of decision; and they are to be over Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord. Aaron is to bear the decisions of the Israelites over his heart before the Lord continually.

It will be on Aaron's forehead, and Aaron will bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the Israelites are to sanctify by all their holy gifts; it will always be on his forehead, for their acceptance before the Lord.

It is to belong to Aaron and to his sons from the Israelites, by a perpetual ordinance, for it is a contribution. It is to be a contribution from the Israelites from their peace offerings, their contribution to the Lord.

There I will meet with the Israelites, and it will be set apart as holy by my glory.

I will reside among the Israelites, and I will be their God,

"When you take a census of the Israelites according to their number, then each man is to pay a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them.

You are to receive the atonement money from the Israelites and give it for the service of the tent of meeting. It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord, to make atonement for your lives."

And you are to tell the Israelites: 'This is to be my sacred anointing oil throughout your generations.

"Tell the Israelites, 'Surely you must keep my Sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

The Israelites must keep the Sabbath by observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

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.'"

He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.

For the Lord had said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up among you for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments, that I may know what I should do to you.'"

So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments by Mount Horeb.