So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake. Moses ran from the snake, ⁴but the Lord said to him, “Reach out and grab the snake by its tail.” When Moses reached out and took hold of the snake, it again became a stick in his hand. ⁵The Lord said, “This is so that the Israelites will believe that the Lord appeared to you. I am the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your coat.” So Moses put his hand inside his coat. When he took it out, it was white with a skin disease.

⁷Then he said, “Now put your hand inside your coat again.” So Moses put his hand inside his coat again. When he took it out, his hand was healthy again, like the rest of his skin.

⁸Then the Lord said, “If the people do not believe you or pay attention to the first miracle, they may believe you when you show them this second miracle. ⁹After these two miracles, if they still do not believe or listen to you, take some water from the Nile River and pour it on the dry ground. The water will become blood when it touches the ground.”

¹⁰But Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been a skilled speaker. Even now, after talking to you, I cannot speak well. I speak slowly and can’t find the best words.”

¹¹Then the Lord said to him, “Who made a person’s mouth? And who makes someone deaf or not able to speak? Or who gives a person sight or blindness? It is I, the Lord. ¹²Now go! I will help you speak, and I will teach you what to say.”

¹³But Moses said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”

¹⁴The Lord became angry with Moses and said, “Your brother Aaron, from the family of Levi, is a skilled speaker. He is already coming to meet you, and he will be happy when he sees you. ¹⁵You will speak to Aaron and tell him what to say. I will help both of you to speak and will teach you what to do. ¹⁶Aaron will speak to the people for you. You will tell him what God says, and he will speak for you. ¹⁷Take your walking stick with you, and use it to do the miracles.”

Moses Returns to Egypt

¹⁸Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, “Let me go back to my people in Egypt. I want to see if they are still alive.”

Jethro said to Moses, “Go! I wish you well.”

¹⁹While Moses was still in Midian, the Lord said to him, “Go back to Egypt, because the men who wanted to kill you are dead now.”

²⁰So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and started back to Egypt. He took with him the walking stick of God.

²¹The Lord said to Moses, “When you get back to Egypt, do all the miracles I have given you the power to do. Show them to the king of Egypt. But I will make the king very stubborn, and he will not let the people go. ²²Then say to the king, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son. ²³I told you to let my son go so he may worship me. But you refused to let Israel go, so I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”

²⁴As Moses was on his way to Egypt, he stopped at a resting place for the night. The Lord met him there and tried to kill him. ²⁵But Zipporah took a flint knife and circumcised her son. Taking the skin, she touched Moses’ feet with it and said to him, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me.” ²⁶She said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” because she had to circumcise her son. So the Lord let Moses alone.

²⁷Meanwhile the Lord said to Aaron, “Go out into the desert to meet Moses.” When Aaron went, he met Moses at Sinai, the mountain of God, and kissed him. ²⁸Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had said to him when he sent him to Egypt. He also told him about the miracles which the Lord had commanded him to do.

²⁹Moses and Aaron gathered all the elders of the Israelites, ³⁰and Aaron told them everything that the Lord had told Moses. Then Moses did the miracles for all the people to see, ³¹and the Israelites believed. When they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their troubles, they bowed down and worshiped him.

Moses and Aaron Before the King

5After Moses and Aaron talked to the people, they went to the king of Egypt and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go so they may hold a feast for me in the desert.’ ”

²But the king of Egypt said, “Who is the Lord? Why should I obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

³Then Aaron and Moses said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us travel three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don’t do this, he may kill us with a disease or in war.”

⁴But the king said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their work? Go back to your jobs! ⁵There are very many Hebrews, and now you want them to quit working!”

⁶That same day the king gave a command to the slave masters and foremen. ⁷He said, “Don’t give the people straw to make bricks as you used to do. Let them gather their own straw. ⁸But they must still make the same number of bricks as they did before. Do not accept fewer. They have become lazy, and that is why they are asking me, ‘Let us go to offer sacrifices to our God.’ ⁹Make these people work harder and keep them busy; then they will not have time to listen to the lies of Moses.”

¹⁰So the slave masters and foremen went to the Israelites and said, “This is what the king says: I will no longer give you straw. ¹¹Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it. But you must make as many bricks as you made before.” ¹²So the people went everywhere in Egypt looking for dry stalks to use for straw. ¹³The slave masters kept forcing the people to work harder. They said, “You must make just as many bricks as you did when you were given straw.” ¹⁴The king’s slave masters had made the Israelite foremen responsible for the work the people did. The Egyptian slave masters beat these men and asked them, “Why aren’t you making as many bricks as you made in the past?”

¹⁵Then the Israelite foremen went to the king and complained, “Why are you treating us, your servants, this way? ¹⁶You give us no straw, but we are commanded to make bricks. Our slave masters beat us, but it is your own people’s fault.”

¹⁷The king answered, “You are lazy! You don’t want to work! That is why you ask to leave here and make sacrifices to the Lord. ¹⁸Now, go back to work! We will not give you any straw, but you must make just as many bricks as you did before.”

¹⁹The Israelite foremen knew they were in trouble, because the king had told them, “You must make just as many bricks each day as you did before.” ²⁰As they were leaving the meeting with the king, they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them. ²¹So they said to Moses and Aaron, “May the Lord punish you. You caused the king and his officers to hate us. You have given them an excuse to kill us.”

Moses Complains to God

²²Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have you brought this trouble on your people? Is this why you sent me here? ²³I went to the king and said what you told me to say, but ever since that time he has made the people suffer. And you have done nothing to save them.”

6Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to the king of Egypt. I will use my great power against him, and he will let my people go. Because of my power, he will force them out of his country.”

²Then God said to Moses, “I am the Lord. ³I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name God Almighty, but they did not know me by my name, the Lord. ⁴I also made my agreement with them to give them the land of Canaan. They lived in that land, but it was not their own. ⁵Now I have heard the cries of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are treating as slaves, and I remember my agreement. ⁶So tell the people of Israel that I say to them, ‘I am the Lord. I will save you from the hard work the Egyptians force you to do. I will make you free, so you will not be slaves to the Egyptians. I will free you by my great power, and I will punish the Egyptians terribly. ⁷I will make you my own people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God, the One who saves you from the hard work the Egyptians force you to do. ⁸I will lead you to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give you that land to own. I am the Lord.’ ”

⁹So Moses told this to the Israelites, but they would not listen to him. They were discouraged, and their slavery was hard.

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

¹²But Moses answered, “The Israelites will not listen to me, so surely the king will not listen to me either. I am not a good speaker.”

¹³But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them orders about the Israelites and the king of Egypt. He commanded them to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Families of Israel

¹⁴These are the leaders of the families of Israel:

Israel’s first son, Reuben, had four sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the family groups of Reuben.

¹⁵Simeon’s sons were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the family groups of Simeon.

¹⁶Levi lived one hundred thirty-seven years. These are the names of his sons according to their family history: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

¹⁷Gershon had two sons, Libni and Shimei, with their families.

¹⁸Kohath lived one hundred thirty-three years. The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.

¹⁹The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi.

These are the family groups of Levi, according to their family history.

²⁰Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who gave birth to Aaron and…

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