Exodus 4:22–Exodus 32

²²Then you must tell him that I, the Lord, say, ‘Israel is my firstborn son. ^23*I told you to let my son go, so that he might worship me, but you refused. Now I am going to kill your firstborn son.’ ”

²⁴At a camping place on the way to Egypt, the Lord met Moses and tried to kill him. ^25–26Then Zipporah, his wife, took a sharp stone, cut off the foreskin of her son, and touched Moses’ feet^g with it. Because of the rite of circumcision she said to Moses, “You are a husband of blood to me.” And so the Lord spared Moses’ life.

²⁷Meanwhile the Lord had said to Aaron, “Go into the desert to meet Moses.” So he went to meet him at the holy mountain; and when he met him, he kissed him. ²⁸Then Moses told Aaron everything that the Lord had said when he told him to return to Egypt; he also told him about the miracles which the Lord had ordered him to perform. ²⁹So Moses and Aaron went to Egypt and gathered all the Israelite leaders together. ³⁰Aaron told them everything that the Lord had said to Moses, and then Moses performed all the miracles in front of the people. ³¹They believed, and when they heard that the Lord had come to them and had seen how they were being treated cruelly, they bowed down and worshipped.

Moses and Aaron Before the King of Egypt

5Then Moses and Aaron went to the king of Egypt and said, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Let my people go, so that they can hold a festival in the desert to honour me.’ ”

²“Who is the Lord?” the king demanded. “Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord; and I will not let Israel go.”

³Moses and Aaron replied, “The God of the Hebrews has revealed himself to us. Allow us to travel for three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don’t do so, he will kill us with disease or by war.”

⁴The king said to Moses and Aaron, “What do you mean by making the people neglect their work? Get those slaves back to work! ⁵You people have become more numerous than the Egyptians. And now you want to stop working!”

⁶That same day the king commanded the Egyptian slave-drivers and the Israelite foremen: ⁷“Stop giving the people straw for making bricks. Make them go and find it for themselves. ⁸But still require them to make the same number of bricks as before, not one brick less. They haven’t enough work to do, and that is why they keep asking me to let them go and offer sacrifices to their God! ⁹Make these people work harder and keep them busy, so that they won’t have time to listen to a pack of lies.”

¹⁰The slave-drivers and the Israelite foremen went out and said to the Israelites, “The king has said that he will not supply you with any more straw. ¹¹He says that you must go and get it for yourselves wherever you can find it, but you must still make the same number of bricks.” ¹²So the people went all over Egypt looking for straw. ¹³The slave-drivers kept trying to force them to make the same number of bricks every day as they had made when they were given straw. ¹⁴The Egyptian slave-drivers beat the Israelite foremen, whom they had put in charge of the work. They demanded, “Why aren’t you people making the same number of bricks as you made before?”

¹⁵Then the foremen went to the king and complained, “Why do you do this to us, Your Majesty? ¹⁶We are given no straw, but we are still ordered to make bricks! And now we are being beaten. It is your people that are at fault.”

¹⁷The king answered, “You are lazy and don’t want to work, and that is why you ask me to let you go and offer sacrifices to the Lord. ¹⁸Now get back to work! You will not be given any straw, but you must still make the same number of bricks.” ¹⁹The foremen realized that they were in trouble when they were told that they had to make the same number of bricks every day as they had made before.

²⁰As they were leaving, they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them. ²¹They said to Moses and Aaron, “The Lord has seen what you have done and will punish you for making the king and his officers hate us. You have given them an excuse to kill us.”

Moses Complains to the

²²Then Moses turned to the Lord again and said, “Lord, why do you ill-treat your people? Why did you send me here? ²³Ever since I went to the king to speak for you, he has treated them cruelly. And you have done nothing to help them!”

6Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you are going to see what I will do to the king. I will force him to let my people go. In fact, I will force him to drive them out of his land.”

God Calls Moses

^2*God spoke to Moses and said, “I am the Lord. ^3*I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as Almighty God, but I did not make myself known to them by my holy name, the Lord.^{h 4}I also made my covenant with them, promising to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they had lived as foreigners. ⁵Now I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians have enslaved, and I have remembered my covenant. ⁶So tell the Israelites that I say to them, ‘I am the Lord; I will rescue you and set you free from your slavery to the Egyptians. I will raise my mighty arm to bring terrible punishment upon them, and I will save you. ⁷I will make you my own people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God when I set you free from slavery in Egypt. ⁸I will bring you to the land that I solemnly promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as your own possession. I am the Lord.’ ” ⁹Moses told this to the Israelites, but they would not listen to him, because their spirit had been broken by their cruel slavery.

¹⁰Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹¹“Go and tell the king of Egypt that he must let the Israelites leave his land.”

¹²But Moses replied, “Even the Israelites will not listen to me, so why should the king? I am such a poor speaker.”

¹³The Lord commanded Moses and Aaron: “Tell the Israelites and the king of Egypt that I have ordered you to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.”

The Family Record of Moses and Aaron

¹⁴Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, had four sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; they were the ancestors of the clans that bear their names. ¹⁵Simeon had six sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman; they were the ancestors of the clans that bear their names. ^16*Levi had three sons: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; they were the ancestors of the clans that bear their names. Levi lived 137 years. ^17*Gershon had two sons: Libni and Shimei, and they had many descendants. ^18*Kohath had four sons: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years. ^19*Merari had two sons: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of Levi with their descendants.

²⁰Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years. ²¹Izhar had three sons: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri. ²²Uzziel also had three sons: Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.

²³Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon; she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. ²⁴Korah had three sons: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph; they were the ancestors of the divisions of the clan of Korah. ²⁵Eleazar, Aaron’s son, married one of Putiel’s daughters, who bore him Phinehas. These were the heads of the families and the clans of the tribe of Levi.

²⁶Aaron and Moses were the ones to whom the Lord said, “Lead the tribes of Israel out of Egypt.” ²⁷They were the men who told the king of Egypt to free the Israelites.

The ’s Command to Moses and Aaron

²⁸When the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, ²⁹he said, “I am the Lord. Tell the king of Egypt everything I tell you.”

³⁰But Moses answered, “You know that I am such a poor speaker; why should the king listen to me?”

7The Lord said, “I am going to make you like God to the king, and your brother Aaron will speak to him as your prophet. ²Tell Aaron everything I command you, and he will tell the king to let the Israelites leave his country. ^3–4*But I will make the king stubborn, and he will not listen to you, no matter how many terrifying things I do in Egypt. Then I will bring severe punishment on Egypt and lead the tribes of my people out of the land. ⁵The Egyptians will then know that I am the Lord, when I raise my hand against them and bring the Israelites out of their country.” ⁶Moses and Aaron did what the Lord commanded. ⁷At the time when they spoke to the king, Moses was 80 years old, and Aaron was 83.

Aaron’s Stick

⁸The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹“If the king demands that you prove yourselves by performing a miracle, tell Aaron to take his stick and throw it down in front of the king, and it will turn into a snake.” ¹⁰So Moses and Aaron went to the king and did as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw his stick down in front of the king and his officers, and it turned into a snake. ¹¹Then the king called for his wise men and magicians, and by their magic they did the same thing. ¹²They threw down their sticks, and the sticks turned into snakes. But Aaron’s stick swallowed theirs. ¹³The king, however, remained stubborn and, just as the Lord had said, the king would not listen to Moses and Aaron.

Disasters Strike Egypt

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “The king is very stubborn and refuses to let the people go. ¹⁵So go and meet him in the morning when he goes down to the Nile. Take with you the stick that was turned into a snake, and wait for him on the bank of the river. ¹⁶Then say to the king, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to tell you to let his people go, so that they can worship him in the desert. But until now you have not listened. ^17*Now, Your Majesty, the Lord says that you will find out who he is by what he is going to do. Look, I am going to strike the surface of the river with this stick, and the water will be turned into blood. ¹⁸The fish will die, and the river will stink so much that the Egyptians will not be able to drink from it.’ ”

¹⁹The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron to take his stick and hold it…