Jacob Leaves for Egypt

46 Israel set out with all that he had and came to Beer-sheba,^(A) and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. ² That night God spoke to Israel in a vision:^(B) “Jacob, Jacob!” he said.

And Jacob replied, “Here I am.”

³ God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.^{(C) 4} I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back.^(D) Joseph will close your eyes when you die.”^[a](E)

⁵ Jacob left Beer-sheba. The sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him,^(F) along with their dependents and their wives. ⁶ They also took their cattle and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Then Jacob and all his offspring with him came to Egypt.^{(G) 7} His sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters, indeed all his offspring, he brought with him to Egypt.

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

⁶ Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation eventually died.^{(B) 7} But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous^(C) 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.^{(D) 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.”^{(E) 11} So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor.^(F) They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities^(G) 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.

⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out^(A) because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey^(B)—the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.^{(C) 9} So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing^(D) them, ¹⁰ therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

¹¹ But Moses asked God, “Who am I^(E) that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

¹⁰ But Moses replied to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent—either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant—because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish.”^[a](A)

¹¹ The Lord said to him, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?^{(B) 12} Now go! I will help you speak^[b] and I will teach you what to say.”^(C)

¹³ Moses said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”^[c]

¹⁴ Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Isn’t Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, he is on his way now to meet you. He will rejoice when he sees you. ¹⁵ You will speak with him and tell him what to say.^(D) I will help both you and him to speak^[d] and will teach you both what to do. ¹⁶ He will speak to the people for you. He will serve as a mouth for you, and you will serve as God to him. ¹⁷ And take this staff in your hand that you will perform the signs with.”^(E)

²⁶ It was this Aaron and Moses whom the Lord told, “Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt according to their military divisions.”^(A)

²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal.^{(A) 22} Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood^(B) that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. ²³ When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, he will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you.^(C)

The Exodus

²⁹ Now at midnight the Lord struck every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock.^{(A) 30} During the night Pharaoh got up, he along with all his officials and all the Egyptians, and there was a loud wailing^(B) throughout Egypt because there wasn’t a house without someone dead. ³¹ He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get out immediately from among my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, worship the Lord as you have said. ³² Take even your flocks and your herds as you asked and leave, and also bless me.”

³³ Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!” ^{(C) 34} So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders.

³⁵ The Israelites acted on Moses’s word and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold items and for clothing.^{(D) 36} And the Lord gave the people such favor with the Egyptians that they gave them what they requested. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.

⁴⁰ The time that the Israelites lived in Egypt^[a] was 430 years.^{(A) 41} At the end of 430 years, on that same day, all the Lord’s military divisions went out from the land of Egypt.