Beginning
Israel's family go to Egypt
1 Here are the names of the Israelites who went to Egypt with Jacob.[a] Each one went there with his family.
2 Jacob's sons were Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin, 4 Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 Jacob himself had 70 descendants. His other son, Joseph, was already in Egypt.
6 After some time, Joseph died. Joseph's brothers and all his generation also died. 7 But the Israelites had many children, so they grew into a very large family. They became very powerful. They were everywhere in the whole country.
8 Later, a new king began to rule in Egypt. He did not know anything about Joseph.[b] 9 He said to his people, ‘Look! The Israelites have become too many for us. They are more powerful than we are. 10 We must find a clever way to stop them. If we do nothing, their families will become even bigger. Then, if there is a war, they will join our enemies and they will fight against us. That will give the Israelites a chance to leave our country.’
11 So the Egyptians made the Israelites work as their slaves. The Egyptian masters made the Israelites do very hard work. They had to build cities for the king, Pharaoh, where he could store food for his people. The names of the cities were Pithom and Rameses.
12 The Egyptians made the Israelites work more and more. But the Israelites still became more in number. They had many children and they lived in every part of the country. Because of this, the Egyptians began to be afraid of them. 13 So the Egyptians made the Israelites work without any rest. 14 The Israelites became very upset because of all the difficult work. They had to build houses with bricks and mortar.[c] They also did many different kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians made the Israelites do all this difficult work.
15 There were two Israelite women who helped the other women when they were giving birth. These two women were called Shiphrah and Puah. The king of Egypt said to them, 16 ‘When you help the Israelite women at the birth of their children, this is what you must do. If she gives birth to a son, kill him. But if the child is a daughter, you may let her live.’
17 But the two women respected God. So they did not do what the king of Egypt had told them. They obeyed God and they let the boys live.
18 Then the king of Egypt called the two women to come to him. He asked them, ‘Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?’ 19 The two women said to Pharaoh, ‘Israelite women are not like Egyptian women. Israelite women are very strong. They give birth to their babies very quickly, before we arrive at the house.’
20 Because the two women respected God, he was kind to them. The Israelite people continued to grow in number. They became very strong. 21 Because the two women obeyed God, he gave them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh spoke to all the Egyptian people. He said, ‘When an Israelite boy is born, you must throw him in the river Nile. But you can let the baby girls live.’
The birth of Moses
2 At this time, there was an Israelite man who belonged to the family of Levi. He married a woman who was also a descendant of Levi. 2 The woman became pregnant and she gave birth to a son. She saw that he was a beautiful boy. So she hid him for three months. 3 Then she could not continue to hide him. So she took a basket that was made from river grass. She painted the basket with tar, to keep the water out of it. Then she put her baby in the basket. She put the basket among the reeds at the edge of the river.[d]
4 The baby's sister stood not very far away. She wanted to see what would happen to the baby.
5 Soon, Pharaoh's daughter came to wash herself in the river. Her servant girls were walking near the edge of the river. Pharaoh's daughter saw the basket among the river grasses. So she sent one of her servant girls to fetch it for her. 6 When she opened the basket, she saw the baby boy. He was crying. She was sorry for him and she said, ‘This is one of the Israelite children.’
7 Then the baby's sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, ‘Do you want me to fetch one of the Israelite mothers? She can take care of this baby and she can feed him for you.’ 8 Pharaoh's daughter said, ‘Yes, please do that.’
So the girl went and she fetched the baby's own mother. 9 Pharaoh's daughter said to the baby's mother, ‘Please take this baby to your house. You can take care of him for me. I will pay you to do this.’ So the woman took the baby home and she took care of him.
10 When the baby was older, his mother took him to Pharaoh's daughter. He now became her son. She gave him the name ‘Moses’. She said, ‘I will call him Moses because I pulled him out of the water.’[e]
Moses runs away to Midian
11 Many years later, Moses grew to become a man. At that time, he went out to visit his own people, the Israelites. He saw that they had to do very hard work without any rest. He saw an Egyptian man. He was attacking an Israelite man. The Egyptian was hitting someone from Moses' own country! 12 Moses looked in every direction. He saw that nobody was near. So Moses killed the Egyptian. He buried his body in the sand to hide it.
13 The next day, Moses went out again to visit his people. He saw that two Israelite men were fighting each other. Moses said to the guilty man, ‘Why are you attacking your friend, who is an Israelite like you?’[f]
14 The man answered, ‘You do not have authority over us! You cannot judge us! Do you want to kill me, as you killed that Egyptian man?’ Then Moses was afraid. He said to himself, ‘People must know what I have done!’
15 Pharaoh heard about what had happened. He wanted to kill Moses. So Moses ran away from Pharaoh. He went from Egypt to the country called Midian and he lived there.[g]
One day, Moses sat down by a well which was near where he lived.
16 There was a priest in Midian who had seven daughters. Those seven young women came to get water out of the well. They used the water to fill the places where the animals drink. Then their father's sheep and goats could drink there. 17 But some shepherds then arrived at the well. They made the girls go away. So Moses stood up and he went to help the young women. He gave water to their animals.[h]
18 Then the girls went back home to Reuel, their father. He asked them, ‘Why have you come home so soon today?’ 19 They answered, ‘An Egyptian man saved us from the shepherds. He even took water from the well and he gave it to our animals.’ 20 Reuel said to his daughters, ‘So where is the man? You should not have left him there. Ask him to come here so that he can eat a meal with us.’
21 Moses agreed to stay with Reuel. Reuel gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses as his wife. 22 Later, Zipporah gave birth to a son for Moses. Moses gave the boy the name ‘Gershom’. He called him that because he said, ‘I am living as a stranger in a foreign country.’[i]
23 After a long time had passed, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites were still slaves of the Egyptians. That made them very sad and they complained loudly. God heard them when they cried for help. 24 He thought about his promise to take care of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants. 25 God saw what was happening to the Israelites. He knew that he must help them.[j]
Moses and the burning bush
3 Moses worked as a shepherd and he took care of Jethro's sheep. Jethro was his wife's father and he was the priest of Midian.[k] Moses led the sheep to the far side of the desert. He came to Sinai, the mountain of God.
2 The angel of the Lord appeared to Moses there.[l] The angel looked like a fire that was burning in the middle of a bush. Moses looked at the bush. He saw that it was on fire, but the fire still did not destroy it. 3 Moses said to himself, ‘I will go nearer and see this strange thing. I want to see why the bush is not completely burned.’
4 The Lord saw that Moses came near to look at the bush. God spoke to Moses from inside the bush. He said, ‘Moses! Moses!’ Moses answered, ‘Here I am.’
5 God said to Moses, ‘Do not come nearer! Remove your shoes from your feet. The ground that you are standing on is holy.’ 6 Then God said, ‘I am the God that your father worshipped. I am also the God of your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Then Moses covered his face. He was afraid to look at God.[m]
7 The Lord said, ‘I have certainly seen the troubles of my people in Egypt. I have heard them when they cry for help because of their cruel masters. I know that they are very sad. 8 So now I have come down to save them from the power of the Egyptians. I will bring them out from Egypt to go to another land. That will be a good land and a big land. The land will give them plenty of good food and drink, enough for everyone. These are the nations who live there now: the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. 9 Yes, I have heard that my Israelite people are crying for help. I have seen that the Egyptians do bad things to hurt them. 10 So now you must go! I will send you to speak to Pharaoh. You will lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’
11 But Moses said to God, ‘I am not an important person. I cannot go to Pharaoh. I cannot lead the Israelites out of Egypt!’
12 God said to Moses, ‘Be sure of this: I will be with you. After you have led the people out of Egypt you will all worship me here, on this mountain. That will show you that I myself have sent you to do this.’[n]
13 Then Moses said to God, ‘If I go to the Israelites, they may not believe me. I will say, “The God that your ancestors worshipped has sent me to you.” But then they will ask me, “What is his name?” Then what will I say to them?’
14 God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am! Say this to the Israelite people: “I AM has sent me to you.” ’[o]
15 God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the Israelite people: “It is the Lord God who has sent me to you.[p] He is the God that your ancestors worshipped. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” That is my name for all time. All generations of my people must call me by that name.
16 Go and call the leaders of Israel to meet together. Say to them, “The Lord God has appeared to me. He is the God that your ancestors worshipped. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He said to me, ‘I have been carefully watching my people in Egypt. I have seen the bad things that the Egyptians have done to you. 17 I promise that I will bring you out of your troubles in Egypt. I will lead you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. It is a land that will give you plenty of good food and drink, enough for everyone.’ ”
18 When you say that, the leaders of the Israelites will listen to you. Then you must go with them to the king of Egypt. Say to him, “The Lord God has met with us. He is the God that we, the Israelite people, worship. So let us go on a journey into the wilderness. That will be a journey of three days. We must offer sacrifices to the Lord our God there.” 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go. Only some great power will make him agree. 20 So I will show him my power! I will do powerful miracles to punish the Egyptians. When they see that, Pharaoh will let you go free.
21 More than that, I will cause the Egyptians to think well of you, my own people. So when you leave Egypt, they will give you many gifts. 22 All the Israelite women will ask their Egyptian friends to give them things. They will ask the women who live near them and those who live with them in their houses. They will ask for silver things, gold things and beautiful clothes. Then you will take those things and you will dress your sons and your daughters with them. In that way, you will take many valuable things away from the Egyptians.’
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