⁴ Moses answered again, “And if they do not believe me or pay attention to me, but say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’?” ² The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” ³ The Lord said, “Throw it to the ground.” So he threw it to the ground, and it became a snake, and Moses ran from it. ⁴ But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and grab it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— ⁵ “that 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 appeared to you.”

⁶ The Lord also said to him, “Put your hand into your robe.” So he put his hand into his robe, and when he brought it out—there was his hand, leprous like snow! ⁷ He said, “Put your hand back into your robe.” So he put his hand back into his robe, and when he brought it out from his robe—there it was, restored like the rest of his skin! ⁸ “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the former sign, then they may believe the latter sign. ⁹ And if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to you, then take some water from the Nile and pour it out on the dry ground. The water you take out of the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

¹⁰ Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not an eloquent man, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

¹¹ The Lord said to him, “Who gave a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹² So now go, and I will be with your mouth and will teach you what you must say.”

¹³ But Moses said, “O my Lord, please send anyone else whom you wish to send!”

¹⁴ Then the Lord became angry with Moses, and he said, “What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak very well. Moreover, he is coming to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

¹⁵ “So you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And as for me, I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what you must do. ¹⁶ He will speak for you to the people, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were his God. ¹⁷ You will also take in your hand this staff, with which you will do the signs.”

¹⁸ So Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Let me go, so that I may return to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” ¹⁹ The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, because all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” ²⁰ Then Moses took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey and headed back to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand. ²¹ The Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put under your control. But I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go. ²² You must say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord has said, “Israel is my son, my firstborn, ²³ and I said to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me,’ but since you have refused to let him go, I will surely kill your son, your firstborn!”’”

²⁴ Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him. ²⁵ But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” ²⁶ So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.)

²⁷ The Lord said to Aaron, “Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and greeted him with a kiss. ²⁸ Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him and all the signs that he had commanded him. ²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron went and brought together all the Israelite elders. ³⁰ Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people, ³¹ and the people believed. When they heard that the Lord had attended to the Israelites and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed down close to the ground.

⁵ Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said, ‘Release my people so that they may hold a pilgrim feast to me in the wilderness.’” ² But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey him by releasing Israel? I do not know the Lord, and I will not release Israel!” ³ And they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a three-day journey into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or the sword.” ⁴ The king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you cause the people to refrain from their work? Return to your labor!” ⁵ Pharaoh was thinking, “The people of the land are now many, and you are giving them rest from their labor.”

⁶ That same day Pharaoh commanded the slave masters and foremen who were over the people: ⁷ “You must no longer give straw to the people for making bricks as before. Let them go and collect straw for themselves. ⁸ But you must require of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. That is why they are crying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹ Make the work harder for the men so they will keep at it and pay no attention to lying words!”

¹⁰ So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said, “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I am not giving you straw. ¹¹ You go get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’” ¹² So the people spread out through all the land of Egypt to collect stubble for straw. ¹³ The slave masters were pressuring them, saying, “Complete your work for each day, just like when there was straw!” ¹⁴ The Israelite foremen whom Pharaoh’s slave masters had set over them were beaten and were asked, “Why did you not complete your requirement for brickmaking as in the past—both yesterday and today?”

¹⁵ The Israelite foremen went and cried out to Pharaoh, “Why are you treating your servants this way? ¹⁶ No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are even being beaten, but the fault is with your people.”

¹⁷ But Pharaoh replied, “You are slackers! Slackers! That is why you are saying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to the Lord.’ ¹⁸ So now, get back to work! You will not be given straw, but you must still produce your quota of bricks!” ¹⁹ The Israelite foremen saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce the daily quota of your bricks.”

²⁰ When they went out from Pharaoh, they encountered Moses and Aaron standing there to meet them, ²¹ and they said to them, “May the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the opinion of Pharaoh and his servants, so that you have given them an excuse to kill us!”

²² Moses returned to the Lord, and said, “Lord, why have you caused trouble for this people? Why did you ever send me? ²³ From the time I went to speak to Pharaoh in your name, he has caused trouble for this people, and you have certainly not rescued them!”

⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for compelled by my strong hand he will release them, and by my strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

² God spoke to Moses and said to 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. ⁴ I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as resident foreigners. ⁵ I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. ⁶ Therefore, tell the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord. I will bring you out from your enslavement to the Egyptians, I will rescue you from the hard labor they impose, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. ⁷ I will take you to myself for a people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from your enslavement to the Egyptians. ⁸ I will bring you to the land I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob—and I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’”

⁹ Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and hard labor. ¹⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹¹ “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt that he must release the Israelites from his land.” ¹² But Moses replied to the Lord, “If the Israelites did not listen to me, then how will Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with difficulty?”

¹³ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge for the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ These were the heads of their fathers’ households:

The sons of Reuben, the firstborn son of Israel, were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were the clans of Reuben.

¹⁵ The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon.

¹⁶ Now these were the names of the sons of Levi, according to their records: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. (The length of Levi’s life was 137 years.)

¹⁷ The sons of Gershon, by their families, were Libni and Shimei.

¹⁸ The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. (The length of Kohath’s life was 133 years.)

¹⁹ The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These were the clans of Levi, according to their records.

²⁰ Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. (The length of Amram’s life was 137 years.)

²¹ The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg, and Zikri.

²² The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.

²³ Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²⁴ The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These were the Korahite clans.

²⁵ Now Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas.

These were the heads of the fathers’ households of Levi according to their clans.

²⁶ It was the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their regiments.” ²⁷ They were the men who were speaking to Pharaoh king of Egypt, in order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. It was the same Moses and Aaron.

²⁸ When the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, ²⁹ he said to him, “I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I am telling you.” ³⁰ But Moses said before the Lord, “Since I speak with difficulty, why should Pharaoh listen to me?”

¹⁸ For the music director, by the Lord’s servant David, who sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord rescued him from the power of all his enemies, including Saul.

He said:

“I love you, Lord, my source of strength!

² The Lord is my high ridge, my stronghold, my deliverer.

My God is my rocky summit where I take shelter,

my shield, the horn that saves me, and my refuge.

³ I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,

and I was delivered from my enemies.

⁴ The waves of death engulfed me,

the currents of chaos overwhelmed me.

⁵ The ropes of Sheol tightened around me,

the snares of death trapped me.

⁶ In my distress I called to the Lord;

I cried out to my God.

From his heavenly temple he heard my voice;

he listened to my cry for help.

⁷ The earth heaved and shook.

The roots of the mountains trembled;

they heaved because he was angry.

⁸ Smoke ascended from his nose;

fire devoured as it came from his mouth.

He hurled down fiery coals.

⁹ He made the sky sink as he descended;

a thick cloud was under his feet.

¹⁰ He mounted a winged angel and flew;

he glided on the wings of the wind.

¹¹ He shrouded himself in darkness,

in thick rain clouds.

¹² From the brightness in front of him came

hail and fiery coals.

¹³ The Lord thundered in the sky;

the Most High shouted.

¹⁴ He shot his arrows and scattered them,

many lightning bolts and routed them.

¹⁵ The depths of the sea were exposed;

the inner regions of the world were uncovered

by your battle cry, Lord,

by the powerful breath from your nose.

¹⁶ He reached down from above and took hold of me;

he pulled me from the surging water.

¹⁷ He rescued me from my strong enemy,

from those who hate me,

for they were too strong for me.

¹⁸ They confronted me in my day of calamity,

but the Lord helped me.

¹⁹ He brought me out into a wide open place;

he delivered me because he was pleased with me.

²⁰ The Lord repaid me for my godly deeds;

he rewarded my blameless behavior.

²¹ For I have obeyed the Lord’s commands;

I have not rebelled against my God.

²² For I am aware of all his regulations,

and I do not reject his rules.

²³ I was innocent before him,

and kept myself from sinning.

²⁴ The Lord rewarded me for my godly deeds;

he took notice of my blameless behavior.

²⁵ You prove to be loyal to one who is faithful;

you prove to be trustworthy to one who is innocent.

²⁶ You prove to be reliable to one who is blameless,

but you prove to be deceptive to one who is perverse.

²⁷ For you deliver oppressed people,

but you bring down those who have a proud look.

²⁸ Indeed, you light my lamp, Lord.

My God illuminates the darkness around me.

²⁹ Indeed, with your help I can charge against an army;

by my God’s power I can jump over a wall.

³⁰ The one true God acts in a faithful manner;

the Lord’s promise is reliable.

He is a shield to all who take shelter in him.

³¹ Indeed, who is God besides the Lord?

Who is a protector besides our God?

³² The one true God gives me strength;

he removes the obstacles in my way.

³³ He gives me the agility of a deer;

he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain.

³⁴ He trains my hands for battle;

my arms can bend even the strongest bow.

³⁵ You give me your protective shield;

your right hand supports me.

Your willingness to help enables me to prevail.

³⁶ You widen my path;

my feet do not slip.

³⁷ I chase my enemies and catch them;

I do not turn back until I wipe them out.

³⁸ I beat them to death;

they fall at my feet.

³⁹ You give me strength for battle;

you make my foes kneel before me.

⁴⁰ You make my enemies retreat;

I destroy those who hate me.

⁴¹ They cry out, but there is no one to help them;

they cry out to the Lord, but he does not answer them.

⁴² I grind them as fine windblown dust;

I beat them underfoot like clay in the streets.

⁴³ You rescue me from a hostile army.

You make me a leader of nations;

people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects.

⁴⁴ When they hear of my exploits, they submit to me.

Foreigners are powerless before me.

⁴⁵ Foreigners lose their courage;

they shake with fear as they leave their strongholds.

⁴⁶ The Lord is alive!

My Protector is praiseworthy.

The God who delivers me is exalted as king.

⁴⁷ The one true God completely vindicates me;

he makes nations submit to me.

⁴⁸ He delivers me from my enemies.

You snatch me away from those who attack me;

you rescue me from violent men.

⁴⁹ So I will give you thanks before the nations, O Lord.

I will sing praises to you.

⁵⁰ He gives his king magnificent victories;

he is faithful to his chosen ruler,

to David and his descendants forever.”