Israel Oppressed in Egypt

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his family:^(A)

⁵ The total number of Jacob’s descendants^[a] was seventy;^[b](B) Joseph was already in Egypt.

⁶ Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation eventually died.^{(C) 7} But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous^(D) so that the land was filled with them.

⁸ A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. ⁹ He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are.^{(E) 10} Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”^{(F) 11} So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor.^(G) They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities^(H) for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread^[c] the Israelites. ¹³ They worked the Israelites ruthlessly^{(I) 14} and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.^(J)

¹⁵ The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives—the first, whose name was Shiphrah, and the second, whose name was Puah— ¹⁶ “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.” ¹⁷ The midwives, however, feared God^(K) and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them;^(L) they let the boys live. ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”

¹⁹ The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”^(M)

²⁰ So God was good to the midwives,^(N) and the people multiplied and became very numerous. ²¹ Since the midwives feared God, he gave them families.^{(O) 22} Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.”^(P)

Moses’s Birth and Adoption

2 Now a man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman.^{(Q) 2} The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son; when she saw that he was beautiful,^[d] she hid him for three months.^{(R) 3} But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with asphalt and pitch. She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. ⁴ Then his sister^(S) stood at a distance in order to see what would happen to him.

⁵ Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it, ⁶ opened it, and saw him, the child—and there he was, a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”

⁷ Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a Hebrew woman who is nursing to nurse the boy for you?”

⁸ “Go,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. So the girl went and called the boy’s mother. ⁹ Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him. ¹⁰ When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses,^[e] “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Moses in Midian

¹¹ Years later,^[f] after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people^[g] and observed their forced labor.^(T) He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his people. ¹² Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand. ¹³ The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your neighbor?” ^[h]

¹⁴ “Who made you a commander and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”

Then Moses became afraid and thought, “What I did is certainly known.”

¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian,^(U) and sat down by a well.^(V)

¹⁶ Now the priest of Midian^(W) had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷ Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away, but Moses came to their rescue and watered their flock. ¹⁸ When they returned to their father Reuel,^[i](X) he asked, “Why have you come back so quickly today?”

¹⁹ They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

²⁰ “So where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why then did you leave the man behind? Invite him to eat dinner.”

²¹ Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah^(Y) to Moses in marriage. ²² She gave birth to a son whom he named Gershom,^[j] for he said, “I have been a resident alien^(Z) in a foreign land.”

²³ After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, they cried out,^(AA) and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning, and God remembered^(AB) his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.^{(AC) 25} God saw the Israelites, and God knew.^(AD)

The Leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees

16 The Pharisees and Sadducees approached,^(A) and tested him, asking him to show them a sign from heaven.^{(B) 2} He replied, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be good weather because the sky is red.’ ³ And in the morning, ‘Today will be stormy because the sky is red and threatening.’ You^[a] know how to read the appearance of the sky, but you can’t read the signs of the times.^{[b] 4} An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of^[c] Jonah.”^(C) Then he left them and went away.

⁵ The disciples reached the other shore,^[d] and they had forgotten to take bread. ⁶ Then Jesus told them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven^[e] of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”^(D)

⁷ They were discussing among themselves, “We didn’t bring any bread.”

⁸ Aware of this, Jesus said, “You of little faith,^(E) why are you discussing among yourselves that you do not have bread? ⁹ Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand and how many baskets you collected? ¹⁰ Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and how many large baskets you collected?^{(F) 11} Why is it you don’t understand that when I told you, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,’ it wasn’t about bread?”^{(G) 12} Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the leaven in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.^(H)

Peter’s Confession of the Messiah

¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi,^[f](I) he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”^[g]

¹⁴ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”^(J)

¹⁵ “But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”^(K)

¹⁷ Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah,^[h](L) because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven.^{(M) 18} And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,^(N) and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,^(O) and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound^[i] in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed^[j] in heaven.” ²⁰ Then he gave the disciples orders to tell no one that he was^[k] the Messiah.^(P)

His Death and Resurrection Predicted

²¹ From^(Q) then on Jesus began to point out to his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.^{(R) 22} Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “Oh no,^[l] Lord! This will never happen to you!”

²³ Jesus turned and told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns^[m] but human concerns.”^(S)

Take Up Your Cross

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.^{(T) 25} For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.^{(U) 26} For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life?^{(V) 27} For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father,^(W) and then he will reward each according to what he has done. ²⁸ Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”^(X)

Psalm 16

Confidence in the Lord

A Miktam of David.^(A)