² God spoke to Moses and said to him, ^(A)“I am the Lord. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as ^(B)God Almighty,^[a] but by my name the ^(C)Lord I did not make myself known to them. ^4 (D)I also established my covenant with them ^(E)to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. ⁵ Moreover, ^(F)I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. ⁶ Say therefore to the people of Israel, ^(G)‘I am the Lord, and ^(H)I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and ^(I)I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. ⁷ I ^(J)will take you to be my people, and ^(K)I will be your God, and you shall know that ^(L)I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out ^(M)from under the burdens of the Egyptians. ⁸ I will bring you into ^(N)the land that I ^(O)swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. ^(P)I am the Lord.’” ⁹ Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they ^(Q)did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

¹⁰ So the Lord said to Moses, ¹¹ “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” ¹² But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have ^(R)not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for ^(S)I am of uncircumcised lips?” ¹³ But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh

7 And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like ^(A)God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your ^(B)prophet. ^2 (C)You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. ³ But ^(D)I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I ^(E)multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, ⁴ Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. ⁵ The Egyptians ^(F)shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” ⁶ Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. ⁷ Now Moses was ^(G)eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹ “When Pharaoh says to you, ^(H)‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’” ¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. ¹¹ Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the ^(I)magicians of Egypt, also ^(J)did the same by their secret arts. ¹² For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³ Still ^(K)Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, ^(L)as the Lord had said.