Moses Returns to Egypt
18 Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” 19 And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for qall the men who were seeking your life are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and rhis sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the smiracles that I have put in your power. But tI will harden his heart, so that uhe will not let the people go. 22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, vIsrael is my firstborn son, 23 and I say to you, w“Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, xI will kill your firstborn son.’”
24 yAt a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. 25 Then Zipporah took a zflint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’1 feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at athe mountain of God and kissed him. 28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and bgathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. 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 cbelieved; and when they heard that the Lord had dvisited the people of Israel and that he had eseen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
Making Bricks Without Straw
1 fAfterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, g‘Let my people go, hthat they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, iI will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness jthat we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your kburdens.” 5 And Pharaoh said, “Behold, lthe people of the land are now many,2 and you make them rest from their burdens!” 6 The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, 7 “You shall no longer give the people straw to mmake bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”
10 So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. 11 Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’” 12 So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.” 14 And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”
15 Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this? 16 No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” 17 But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.” 19 The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.” 20 They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; 21 and they said to them, n“The Lord look on you and judge, because you have omade us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
22 Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, pwhy have you done evil to this people? qWhy did you ever send rme? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and syou have not delivered your people at all.”
God Promises Deliverance
1 But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will tdrive them out of his land.”
2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, u“I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as vGod Almighty,3 but wby my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. 4 xI also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the ygroaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as zslaves, and I have aremembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and bI will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of cjudgment. 7 dI will etake you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I fswore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’” 9 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, gbut hthey did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and iharsh slavery.
5 and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: On the day when I cchose Israel, dI swore1 to the offspring of the house of Jacob, making myself known to them in the land of Egypt; I swore to them, saying, I am the Lord your God. 6 On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had esearched out for them, a land fflowing with milk and honey, the most gglorious of all lands. 7 And I said to them, ‘Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’ 8 But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. None of them cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt.
“Then I said I would hpour out my wrath upon them and ispend my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. 9 But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should jnot be kprofaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, lin whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.
