First Encounter with Pharaoh

5 Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may 1hold aa feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ”

2 And Pharaoh said, b“Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, cnor will I let Israel go.”

3 So they said, d“The God of the Hebrews has emet with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with fpestilence or with the sword.”

4 Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your glabor.” 5 And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are hmany now, and you make them rest from their labor!”

6 So the same day Pharaoh commanded the itaskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, 7 “You shall no longer give the people straw to make jbrick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words.”