Beginning

Moses Is Given Special Power

4 Then Moses answered, “What if they will not believe me or listen to me? They might say, ‘The Lord has not shown Himself to you.’” ² The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” Moses said, “A stick.” ³ Then the Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake. And Moses ran from it. ⁴ But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and take it by its tail.” So Moses put out his hand and caught it. And it became a stick in his hand. ⁵ The Lord said, “By seeing this they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has shown Himself to you.”

⁶ The Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your coat.” So Moses put his hand inside his coat. When he took it out, his hand had a bad skin disease and was white as snow. ⁷ Then God said, “Put your hand inside your coat again.” So Moses put his hand inside his coat again. When he took it out of his coat, he saw that it had become like his other flesh. ⁸ God said, “If they will not listen to you or believe you when they are shown the first thing, they may believe when this is shown to them. ⁹ But they might not believe even these two things or listen to what you say. So then take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. And the water you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

¹⁰ Moses said to the Lord, “Lord, I am not a man of words. I have never been. Even now since You spoke to Your servant, I still am not. For I am slow in talking and it is difficult for me to speak.” ¹¹ Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes a man not able to speak or hear? Who makes one blind or able to see? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹² So go now. And I will be with your mouth. I will teach you what to say.”

¹³ But Moses said, “O Lord, I ask of You, send some other person.”

¹⁴ Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses. He said, “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know he can speak well. Also, he is coming to meet you. And when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. ¹⁵ You must speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth and his mouth. I will teach you what you are to do. ¹⁶ He will speak to the people for you. He will be a mouth for you. And you will be as God to him. ¹⁷ You will take this special stick in your hand. And you will use it to make the special things happen for the people to see.”

Moses Returns to Egypt

¹⁸ Then Moses left and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “I ask of you, let me return to my brothers in Egypt to see if they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” ¹⁹ The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Return to Egypt. For all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.” ²⁰ So Moses took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the special stick of God in his hand.

²¹ The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, make sure you show Pharaoh all the works that I have placed in your power. But I will make his heart hard so that he will not let the people go. ²² Then say to Pharaoh, ‘The Lord says this: “Israel is My son, My first-born. ²³ And I say to you, ‘Let My son go. Let him work for Me.’ But if you will not let him go, I will kill your son, your first-born.”’”

²⁴ The Lord met Moses at a resting place on the way and would have put him to death. ²⁵ But Zipporah took a knife and cut off her son’s piece of skin and threw it at Moses’ feet. And she said, “For sure you are a husband of blood to me.” ²⁶ Then the Lord let him alone. Zipporah said, “You are a husband of blood,” because of the religious act of becoming a Jew.

²⁷ The Lord said to Aaron, “Go to meet Moses in the desert.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. ²⁸ Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which He had sent him. And he told him about all the special works that the Lord had told him to do. ²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the leaders of the people of Israel. ³⁰ Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did all the special works for the people to see. ³¹ So the people believed. When they heard that the Lord cared about the people of Israel and had seen their suffering, they bowed to the ground and worshiped.

Moses and Aaron Talk to Pharaoh

5 After this, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says this: ‘Let My people go, that they may have a special supper to honor Me in the desert.’” ² But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord. And I will not let Israel go.” ³ Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. We ask of you, let us travel into the desert three days, to give a gift on an altar in worship to the Lord our God. Or He may send death to us by disease or by the sword.” ⁴ But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Return to your work!” ⁵ Then Pharaoh said, “See, the people of the land are now many. And you would have them stop working!”

⁶ That same day Pharaoh told the men who made the people work, ⁷ “Do not give the people straw for making clay blocks any more. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸ But have them make the same number of clay blocks as before, and no less. They are crying, ‘Let us go and give a gift in worship to our God,’ because they are lazy. ⁹ Let more work be given to the men so they will not have time to listen to lies.”

¹⁰ So the men who made the people work went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you straw. ¹¹ You go and get straw for yourselves where you can find it. But you will not work any less than before.’” ¹² So the people went out through all the land of Egypt to gather what they could use for straw. ¹³ The men who made them work made them hurry, saying, “Finish your full day’s work as you did when there was straw.” ¹⁴ And the Hebrew men who had been made to rule over the people by Pharaoh’s work-leaders were beaten. They were asked, “Why have you not made as many clay blocks yesterday or today as you made before?”

¹⁵ Then the Hebrew men who made the people work went to Pharaoh and cried, “Why do you act this way toward your servants? ¹⁶ There is no straw given to your servants. Yet they still say to us, ‘Make clay blocks!’ See, your servants are being beaten. But your own people are to blame.” ¹⁷ But Pharaoh said, “You are lazy, very lazy. So you say, ‘Let us go and give a gift on an altar in worship to the Lord.’ ¹⁸ Go now and work. You will be given no straw. Yet you must make the same number of clay blocks.” ¹⁹ The Hebrew men who made the people work knew that they were in trouble because they were told, “You must make the same number of clay blocks each day.” ²⁰ When they came from Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who were waiting for them. ²¹ They said to Moses and Aaron, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you. For you have caused us to be hated by Pharaoh and his servants. You have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

God’s Promise to Israel

²² Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have You hurt these people? Why did you ever send me? ²³ For since I went to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has hurt these people. You have not set Your people free at all.”

6 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. For he will be made to let them go because of My strong hand. By My strong hand, he will make them go out of his land.”

God Calls Moses

² God said to Moses, “I am the Lord. ³ I showed Myself as God All-powerful to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I did not make Myself known to them by My name, the Lord. ⁴ I also made My agreement with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land where they were strangers. ⁵ I have heard the crying of the people of Israel, because they are being held by the Egyptians. And I have remembered My agreement. ⁶ So say to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord. I will take you away from the hard work and suffering in Egypt. I will take you away from being their servants. I will make you free by the strength of My arm and by the great things I will do to punish the guilty. ⁷ Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God. And you will know that I am the Lord your God. I will bring you out from under the heavy loads of the Egyptians. ⁸ I will bring you to the land I promised to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I will give it to you for your own. I am the Lord.’” ⁹ So Moses said this to the people of Israel. But they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and how hard they were made to work.

¹⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹¹ “Go and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” ¹² But Moses said to the Lord, “See, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then will Pharaoh listen to me? I am not able to speak well.” ¹³ But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron. He told them to tell the people of Israel and Pharaoh king of Egypt that they were to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

The Family of Moses and Aaron

¹⁴ These are the leaders of their fathers’ families. The sons of Reuben, Israel’s first-born: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the families of Reuben. ¹⁵ The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon. ¹⁶ These are the names of Levi’s sons by their family groups: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived 137 years. ¹⁷ The sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei. ¹⁸ The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years. ¹⁹ The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites by their family groups. ²⁰ Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed. She gave birth to his sons, Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years. ²¹ The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg and Zichri. ²² The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.

²³ Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon. She gave birth to his sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. ²⁴ The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These are the families of the Korahites. ²⁵ Aaron’s son Eleazar married one of the daughters of Putiel. She gave birth to his son Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites by their families.

²⁶ It was the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their family groups.” ²⁷ They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt. It was the same Moses and Aaron.

²⁸ On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, ²⁹ the Lord said to Moses, “I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.” ³⁰ But Moses said to the Lord, “See, I am not able to speak well. How then will Pharaoh listen to me?”