The Song of Moses
15 Then Moses and the people of Israel hsang this song to the Lord, saying,
“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider1 he has thrown into the sea.
2 iThe Lord is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation;
jthis is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3 The Lord is a kman of war;
lthe Lord is his name.
4 m“Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea,
and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
5 The floods covered them;
they went down into the depths nlike a stone.
6 Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power,
your right hand, O Lord, oshatters the enemy.
7 In the greatness of your pmajesty you overthrow your adversaries;
you send out your fury; qit consumes them like stubble.
8 rAt the sblast of your nostrils the waters piled up;
the floods stood up in a theap;
the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them.
I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’
10 You blew with your wind; uthe sea covered them;
they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11 v“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, wmajestic in holiness,
awesome in glorious deeds, doing xwonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand;
the earth swallowed them.
13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have yredeemed;
zyou have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.
14 aThe peoples have heard; they tremble;
pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed;
btrembling seizes the leaders of Moab;
call the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
16 Terror and dread fall upon them;
because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone,
till your people, O Lord, pass by,
till the people pass by whom you have dpurchased.
17 You will bring them in and eplant them on your own mountain,
the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode,
the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.
18 fThe Lord will reign forever and ever.”
19 For gwhen the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, hthe Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with itambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them:
“Sing to the Lord, jfor he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”
Bitter Water Made Sweet
22 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went kinto the lwilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found mno water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah.2 24 And the people ngrumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log,3 and he othrew it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the Lord4 made for them a statute and a rule, and there he ptested them, 26 saying, q“If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, rI will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your shealer.”
27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.
Bread from Heaven
16 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, ton the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel ugrumbled vagainst Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, w“Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, xwhen we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
4 yThen the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain zbread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather aa day’s portion every day, that I may btest them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be ctwice as much as they gather daily.” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord dwho brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the eglory of the Lord, because fhe has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For gwhat are we, that you grumble against us?” 8 And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is hnot against us but against the Lord.”
9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’” 10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11 And the Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall ieat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”
13 In the evening jquail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 14 And kwhen the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?”1 For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer,2 according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’” 17 And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, lwhoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. 19 And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” 20 mBut they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. 21 Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23 he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy nSabbath to the Lord; obake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” 24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 pSix days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”
27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. 28 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
31 Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was qlike coriander seed, white, and rthe taste of it was like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” 33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and splace it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.” 34 As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. 35 tThe people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. uThey ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. 36 (An omer is the tenth part of an ephah.)3
Water from the Rock
17 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was vno water for the people to drink. 2 wTherefore the people xquarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to ydrink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you ztest the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people agrumbled against Moses and said, b“Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready cto stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff dwith which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 eBehold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and fwater shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah1 and Meribah,2 because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Israel Defeats Amalek
8 gThen Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill hwith the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that iI will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses jbuilt an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, 16 saying, “A hand upon the throne3 of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
Jethro’s Advice
18 Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how kthe Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2 Now Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her home, 3 along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, l“I have been a sojourner1 in a foreign land”), 4 and the name of the other, Eliezer2 (for he said, “The God of my father was my mhelp, and ndelivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). 5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at othe mountain of God. 6 And when he sent word to Moses, “I,3 your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” 7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and pbowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. 8 Then Moses told his father-in-law qall that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, rall the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. 9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
10 Jethro said, s“Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is tgreater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.”4 12 And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
13 uThe next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? vWhy do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is wtoo heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. 19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! xYou shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, ylook for able men from all the people, zmen who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as achiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. bEvery great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
24 So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. 25 Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 26 And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. 27 Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and che went away to his own country.
Israel at Mount Sinai
19 dOn the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before ethe mountain, 3 while Moses fwent up to God. gThe Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 h‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I ibore you jon eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my ktreasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a lkingdom of priests and a mholy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, n“All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you oin a thick cloud, that pthe people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”
When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, 10 the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and qconsecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them rwash their garments 11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day sthe Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 And tyou shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. uWhoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. 13 No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot;1 whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet vsounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” 14 So Moses wwent down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. 15 And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; xdo not go near a woman.”
16 yOn the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then zMoses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had adescended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and bthe whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, clest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. 22 Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord dbreak out against them.” 23 And Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’” 24 And the Lord said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.” 25 So Moses went down to the people and told them.
