Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁰ The slave drivers and the overseers left. They said to the people, “Pharaoh says, ‘I won’t give you any more straw. ¹¹ Go and get your own straw anywhere you can find it. But you still have to make the same number of bricks.’ ” ¹² So the people scattered all over Egypt. They went to gather any pieces of straw left in the fields. ¹³ Pharaoh’s slave drivers kept making the people work hard. They said, “Finish the work you are required to do each day. Make the same number of bricks you made when you had straw.” ¹⁴ The slave drivers whipped the Israelite overseers they had appointed. The slave drivers asked, “Why haven’t you made the same number of bricks yesterday or today, just as before?”

¹⁵ Then the Israelite overseers appealed to Pharaoh. They asked, “Why have you treated us like this? ¹⁶ You didn’t give us any straw. But you told us, ‘Make bricks!’ We are being whipped. But it’s the fault of your own people.”

¹⁷ Pharaoh said, “You are lazy! That’s why you keep saying, ‘Let us go. We want to offer sacrifices to the Lord.’ ¹⁸ Now get to work. We won’t give you any straw. But you still have to make the same number of bricks.”

¹⁹ The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble. They knew it when they were told, “Don’t reduce the number of bricks you are required to make each day.” ²⁰ When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them. ²¹ They said to Moses and Aaron, “We want the Lord to look at what you have done! We want him to judge you for it! We are like a very bad smell to Pharaoh and his officials. You have given them an excuse to kill us with their swords.”

The Lord Promises to Save the Israelites

²² Moses returned to talk to the Lord. He said to him, “Why, Lord? Why have you brought trouble on these people? Is this why you sent me? ²³ I went to Pharaoh to speak to him in your name. Ever since then, he has brought nothing but trouble on these people. And you haven’t saved your people at all.”

³⁰ “Forty years passed. Then an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush. This happened in the desert near Mount Sinai. ³¹ When Moses saw the bush, he was amazed. He went over for a closer look. There he heard the Lord say, ³² ‘I am the God of your fathers. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ (Exodus 3:6) Moses shook with fear. He didn’t dare to look.

³³ “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals. You must do this because the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴ I have seen my people beaten down in Egypt. I have heard their groans. I have come down to set them free. Now come. I will send you back to Egypt.’ (Exodus 3:5,7,8,10)