Beginning
Moses Is Given Miraculous Signs
4 But Moses responded, “What if they do not believe me and do not listen to my voice, but instead they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’?”
2 So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
He said, “A staff.”
3 He said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, so he ran away from it.
4 The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and take it by the tail.”
He stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.
5 The Lord said, “This sign is being given to you so that the Israelites will believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
6 The Lord also said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous,[a] as white as snow.
7 Then the Lord said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.
8 The Lord said, “If they do not believe you or do not respond to the first sign, they might believe because of the second sign. 9 If they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you are to take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry land.”
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, either in the past or more recently or even since you started speaking to your servant, for my mouth and tongue are slow and clumsy.”[b]
11 So the Lord said to him, “Who made a mouth for people? Or who makes someone mute or deaf, able to see or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you will speak.”
13 But he said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”
14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses, and the Lord said, “What about Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Look, he is already coming out to meet you. He will be very glad to see you. 15 You will speak to him and put the words into his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his, and I will teach you what you are to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you so that it will be as if he were your mouth, and you were God to him. 17 You will also take this staff in your hand, the one with which you will perform the signs.”
Moses Returns to Egypt
18 Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Let me go and return to my own people, who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.”
Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19 The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt, for everyone who wanted to kill you is dead.”
20 So Moses took his wife and his sons, placed them on a donkey, and set out to return to the land of Egypt. Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, make sure that you perform in the presence of Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put into your hand. However, I will make his heart hard,[c] and he will not let the people go. 22 You will then say to Pharaoh, ‘The Lord says: Israel is my son, my firstborn, 23 and I have said to you, “Let my son go to serve me,” but you have refused to let him go. Watch out. I will kill your son, your firstborn.’”
24 At a lodging place along the way, the Lord confronted him and sought to kill him.[d] 25 Then Zipporah took a flint blade, cut off her son’s foreskin, and cast it at his feet. Then she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”
26 So the Lord left him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)
Reunion of Moses and Aaron
27 The Lord had said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.”
So he went, met Moses at the mountain of God, and kissed him. 28 Moses told Aaron all the words that the Lord had sent him to speak and all the signs he had commanded him to perform. 29 Moses and Aaron then went and gathered together every elder of the people of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses and performed the signs in the sight of the people. 31 The people believed. When they heard that the Lord had paid attention to the Israelites and that he had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshipped.
Bricks Without Straw
5 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Let my people go so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.”
2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should listen to his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I certainly will not let Israel go.”
3 They said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness, and let us sacrifice to the Lord, our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or sword.”
4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their work? Get back to your forced labor!” 5 Pharaoh also said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from doing their forced labor.”
6 That same day Pharaoh commanded the people’s taskmasters and overseers, 7 “Do not give the people straw for making bricks anymore. Let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as they made before. Do not reduce it. You see, they are lazy. That is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Make the work harder for the people so that they do their work and do not pay attention to lying words.”
10 So the people’s taskmasters and overseers went out and told the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you straw. 11 Go, get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it. But there will be no reduction at all in your work load.’” 12 So the people scattered all over the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters kept insisting, “Fulfill your daily quota just as you did when straw was provided!” 14 The overseers, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had placed over the Israelites, were beaten. The taskmasters demanded, “Why have you not fulfilled your quota yesterday and today, as you did previously?”
15 Then the Israelite overseers came and cried out to Pharaoh, “Why are you doing this to your servants? 16 No straw is given to your servants, yet they tell us, ‘Make bricks!’ Look, your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”
17 But he said, “Lazy! You are lazy! That is why you are saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 Now go! Get to work! Straw will not be provided to you, but you will deliver the same quota of bricks!”
19 The Israelite overseers realized that they were in trouble when Pharaoh said, “You must not reduce anything from your daily number of bricks!”
20 When they left Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting to meet them. 21 They said to Moses and Aaron, “May the Lord look at you and judge you, because you have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword into their hand to kill us.”
22 So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why did you send me? 23 Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
6 The Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. Because of a mighty hand[e] he will send them away, and because of a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land.”
God Promises Deliverance
2 Then God spoke to Moses, telling him, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name, the Lord, I was not known to them.[f] 4 I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land where they were residing as aliens. 5 I certainly have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians have enslaved, and I have remembered my covenant.
6 “Therefore, tell the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the forced labor of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from being their slaves. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God, the one who brought you out from under the forced labor of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you to the land which I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’”
9 Moses spoke these words to the Israelites, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and because of the hard labor. 10 The Lord spoke to Moses: 11 “Go, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the Israelites go from his land.”
12 But Moses said in the Lord’s presence, “Look, the Israelites have not listened to me. Why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I am a poor speaker?”[g]
The Family Record of Moses and Aaron
13 The Lord again spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He commanded them to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.
14 These were the heads of their fathers’ houses:[h]
The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, were Hanoch and
Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were the founders of the clans
of Reuben.
15 The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar,
and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the
founders of the clans of Simeon.
16 These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their family records: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Levi lived 137 years.
17 The sons of Gershon were Libni and Shimei. They were founders of clans.
18 The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years.
19 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi.
These were the clans of the Levites according to their family records.
20 Amram[i] married Jochebed, his father’s sister, and she gave birth
to Aaron and Moses for him. Amram lived 137 years.
21 The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.
22 The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.
23 Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the
sister of Nahshon, and she gave birth to Nadab and Abihu,
Eleazar and Ithamar for him.
24 The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These
were the founders of the clans of the Korahites.
25 Eleazar, the son of Aaron, married one of the daughters of Putiel,
and she gave birth to Phinehas for him.
These were the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites that had become clans.
26 These were the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring out the Israelites from the land of Egypt according to their divisions.”[j] 27 These were the same ones who spoke to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, in order to bring the Israelites out from Egypt. These were that same Moses and Aaron.
28 On the day that the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, 29 the Lord said to him, “I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, everything that I tell you.”
30 But Moses said in the Lord’s presence, “You see, I am a poor speaker. Why would Pharaoh listen to me?”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.