Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him.

Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.

The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.”

Family Record of Moses and Aaron

Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country.

Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them.

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake.

Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood.

The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs.

The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.’”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’”

But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

We must take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, as he commands us.”

The Plague on the Firstborn

Now the Lord had said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.

All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will leave.” Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.

Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.

Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.

For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel.

The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.