Exodus 4–12

Yahweh Provides Signs and Help for Speaking

4And Moses answered, and he said, “And if they do not believe me and they do not listen to my voice, but they say, ‘Yahweh did not appear to you?’ ” ²And Yahweh said to him, “What is this in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.” ³And he said, “Throw it onto the ground.” And he threw it onto the ground, and it became a snake, and Moses fled from it. ⁴And Yahweh said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—” (And he reached out his hand and grabbed it, and it became a staff in his palm.)—⁵“so that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their ancestors,^a appeared to you, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

⁶And Yahweh said to him again, “Put your hand into the fold of your garment.” And he put his hand into the fold of his garment, and he took it out, and, to his surprise,^b his hand was afflicted with a skin disease, like snow. ⁷And he said, “Return your hand to the fold of your garment.” And he returned his hand to the fold of his garment, and he took it out from the fold of his garment, and, to his surprise,^c it was restored like the rest of his body. ⁸“And^d if they do not believe you and they will not listen to the voice of the former sign, then they will believe the voice of the latter sign. ⁹And^e if they also do not believe the second of these signs and they will not listen to your voice, then you must take water from the Nile and pour it onto the dry ground, and the water that you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

¹⁰And Moses said to Yahweh, “Please, Lord, I am not a man of words, neither recently nor in the past nor since your speaking^f to your servant, because I am heavy of mouth and of tongue.” ¹¹And Yahweh said to him, “Who gave a mouth to humankind, or who makes mute or deaf or sighted or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? ¹²So then go, and I myself will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you must speak.” ¹³And he said, “Please, Lord, do send anyone else whom you wish to send.”^{g 14}And Yahweh was angry with^h Moses and said, “Is there not Aaron your brother the Levite? I know that he certainly can speak, and also there he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will rejoice in his heart. ¹⁵And you will speak to him, and you will put words in his mouth, and I myself will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you must do. ¹⁶And he will speak for you to the people, and thenⁱ he will be to you as a mouth, and you will be to him as a god. ¹⁷And you must take this staff in your hand, with which you will do the signs.”

Moses Leaves Midian and Returns to Egypt

¹⁸And Moses went, and he returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and he said to him, “Please let me go, and let me return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and let me see whether they are yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” ¹⁹And Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt because all the men have died who were seeking your life.”

²⁰And Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on the donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand. ²¹And Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go to return to Egypt, see all of the wonders that I have put in your hand, and do them before Pharaoh, and I myself will harden his heart, and he will not release the people. ²²And you must say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Israel is my son, my firstborn.” ²³And I said to you, “Release my son and let him serve me,” but you refused to release him. Look, I am about to kill your son, your firstborn.’ ”

²⁴And^j on the way, at the place of overnight lodging, Yahweh encountered him and sought to kill him. ²⁵But Zipporah took a flint knife, and she cut off the foreskin of her son, and she touched his feet, and she said, “Yes, you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” ²⁶And he left him alone. At that time she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.^k

²⁷And Yahweh said to Aaron, “Go to the desert to meet Moses.” And he went and encountered him at the mountain of God and kissed him. ²⁸And Moses told Aaron all the words of Yahweh, who had sent him—and all the signs that he had commanded him.

²⁹And Moses and Aaron went, and they gathered all of the elders of the Israelites.^{l 30}And Aaron spoke all the words that Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and he did the signs before the eyes of the people. ³¹And the people believed when they heard that Yahweh had attended to the Israelites^m and that he had seen their misery, and they knelt down and they worshiped.

Pharaoh Rejects Yahweh’s Authority and Makes Israel’s Troubles Worse

5And afterward, Moses and Aaron went, and they said to Pharaoh, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘Release my people so that they may hold a festival for me in the desert.’ ” ²And Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahweh that I should listen to his voice to release Israel? I do not know Yahweh, and also I will not release Israel.”

³And they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day journey into the desert, and let us sacrifice to Yahweh our God, lest he strike us with plague or with sword.” ⁴And the king of Egypt said, “Why, Moses and Aaron, do you take^a the people from their work? Go to your forced labor!”^{b 5}And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now many, and you want to stop them from their forced labor.”^c

⁶And on that day Pharaoh commanded the slave drivers over the people and his foremen, saying, ⁷“You must no longer give straw to the people to make the bricks like before.^d Let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸But the quota of the bricks that they were making before^e you must require of them.^f You must not reduce from it, because they are lazy. Therefore they are crying out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹Let the work be heavier on the men so that they will do it and not pay attention to words of deception.”

¹⁰And the slave drivers of the people and their foremen went out, and they spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I am not giving you straw. ¹¹You go, get straw for yourselves from whatever you find because not a thing is being reduced from your work.’ ” ¹²And the people spread out in all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for the straw. ¹³And the slave drivers were insisting, saying, “Finish your work for each day^g on its day, as when there was straw.”^{h 14}And the foremen of the Israelites,ⁱ whom Pharaoh’s slave drivers had appointed over them, were beaten by men who were saying, “Why have you not completed your portion of brickmaking as before, both yesterday and today?”^j

The Foremen Complain to Pharaoh and Moses, and Moses Complains to Yahweh

¹⁵And the foremen of the Israelites^k came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why do you treat your servants like this? ¹⁶Straw is not being given to your servants, but they are saying to us, ‘Make bricks!’ and, look, your servants are being beaten, but it is the fault of^l your people.” ¹⁷And he said, “You are lazy, lazy! Therefore you are saying, ‘Let us go; let us sacrifice to Yahweh.’ ¹⁸And now go, work, but straw will not be given to you, and you must give the full quota of bricks.”

¹⁹And the foremen of the Israelites^m saw they were in trouble with the saying,ⁿ “You will not reduce from your bricks for each day^o on its day.” ²⁰And they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting to meet them when they were going out from Pharaoh. ²¹And they said to them, “May Yahweh look upon you and judge because you have caused our fragrance to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants so as to put a sword into their hand to kill us.” ²²And Moses returned to Yahweh and said, “Lord, why have you brought trouble to this people? Why ever did you send me? ²³And from the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble to this people, and you have certainly not delivered your people.”

Yahweh Discusses His Name and Israel’s Future

6And Yahweh said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, because with a strong hand he will release them, and with a strong hand he will drive them out from his land.”

²And God spoke to Moses, and he said to him, “I am Yahweh. ³And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Shaddai,^a but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them. ⁴And I not only established my covenant with them to give to them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings, in which they dwelt as aliens, ⁵but also I myself heard the groaning of the Israelites,^b whom the Egyptians are making to work, and I remembered my covenant. ⁶Therefore say to the Israelites,^c ‘I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the forced labor^d of Egypt, and I will deliver you from their slavery, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great punishments. ⁷And I will take you as my people,^e and I will be your God,^f and you will know that I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from under the forced labor^g of Egypt. ⁸And I will bring you to the land that I swore^h to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am Yahweh.”

⁹And Moses spoke thus to the Israelites,ⁱ but they did not listen to Moses, because of discouragement^j and because of hard work.

¹⁰And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹¹“Go, speak to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and let him release the Israelites^k from his land.” ¹²And Moses spoke before Yahweh, saying, “Look, the Israelites^l do not listen to me, and how will Pharaoh listen to me, since I am a poor speaker?”^{m 13}And Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and he commanded them to go to the Israelitesⁿ and to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to bring the Israelites^o out from the land of Egypt.

The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron

¹⁴These are the heads of their families.^p

The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, are Enoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These are the clans of Reuben.

¹⁵…