Exodus 5:22-6:13

Living Bible

²² Then Moses went back to the Lord. “Lord,” he protested, “how can you mistreat your own people like this? Why did you ever send me if you were going to do this to them? ²³ Ever since I gave Pharaoh your message, he has only been more and more brutal to them, and you have not delivered them at all!”

6 “Now you will see what I shall do to Pharaoh,” the Lord told Moses. “For he must be forced to let my people go; he will not only let them go, but will drive them out of his land! ^2-3 I am Jehovah, the Almighty God who appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—though I did not reveal my name, Jehovah, to them. ⁴ And I entered into a solemn covenant with them; under its terms I promised to give them and their descendants the land of Canaan where they were living. ⁵ And now I have heard the groanings of the people of Israel, in slavery now to the Egyptians, and I remember my promise.

⁶ “Therefore tell the descendants of Israel that I will use my mighty power and perform great miracles to deliver them from slavery and make them free. ⁷ And I will accept them as my people and be their God. And they shall know that I am Jehovah their God who has rescued them from the Egyptians. ^8-9 I will bring them into the land I promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It shall belong to my people.”

So Moses told the people what God had said, but they wouldn’t listen anymore because they were too dispirited after the tragic consequence of what he had said before.^[a]

¹⁰ Now the Lord spoke to Moses again and told him, ¹¹ “Go back again to Pharaoh and tell him that he must let the people of Israel go.”

¹² “But look,” Moses objected, “my own people won’t even listen to me anymore; how can I expect Pharaoh to? I’m no orator!”

¹³ Then the Lord ordered Moses and Aaron to return to the people of Israel and to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, demanding that the people be permitted to leave.