Exodus 5-8

Exodus 5

¹And after that, Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and said, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, Let my people go so that they may keep a feast to me in the waste land.

²And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, to whose voice I am to give ear and let Israel go? I have no knowledge of the Lord and I will not let Israel go.

³And they said, The God of the Hebrews has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God, so that he may not send death on us by disease or the sword.

⁴And the king of Egypt said to them, Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people away from their work? get back to your work.

⁵And Pharaoh said, Truly, the people of the land are increasing in number, and you are keeping them back from their work.

⁶The same day Pharaoh gave orders to the overseers and those who were responsible for the work, saying,

⁷Give these men no more dry stems for their brick-making as you have been doing; let them go and get the material for themselves.

⁸But see that they make the same number of bricks as before, and no less: for they have no love for work; and so they are crying out and saying, Let us go and make an offering to our God.

⁹Give the men harder work, and see that they do it; let them not give attention to false words.

¹⁰And the overseers of the people and their responsible men went out and said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will give you no more dry stems.

¹¹Go yourselves and get dry stems wherever you are able; for your work is not to be any less.

¹²So the people were sent in all directions through the land of Egypt to get dry grass for stems.

¹³And the overseers went on driving them and saying, Do your full day's work as before when there were dry stems for you.

¹⁴And the responsible men of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's overseers had put over them, were given blows, and they said to them, Why have you not done your regular work, in making bricks as before?

¹⁵Then the responsible men of the children of Israel came to Pharaoh, protesting and saying, Why are you acting in this way to your servants?

¹⁶They give us no dry stems and they say to us, Make bricks: and they give your servants blows; but it is your people who are in the wrong.

¹⁷But he said, You have no love for work: that is why you say, Let us go and make an offering to the Lord.

¹⁸Go now, get back to your work; no dry stems will be given to you, but you are to make the full number of bricks.

¹⁹Then the responsible men of the children of Israel saw that they were purposing evil when they said, The number of bricks which you have to make every day will be no less than before.

²⁰And they came face to face with Moses and Aaron, who were in their way when they came out from Pharaoh:

²¹And they said to them, May the Lord take note of you and be your judge; for you have given Pharaoh and his servants a bad opinion of us, putting a sword in their hands for our destruction.

²²And Moses went back to the Lord and said, Lord, why have you done evil to this people? why have you sent me?

²³For from the time when I came to Pharaoh to put your words before him, he has done evil to this people, and you have given them no help.

Exodus 6

¹And the Lord said to Moses, Now you will see what I am about to do to Pharaoh; for by a strong hand he will be forced to let them go, driving them out of his land because of my outstretched arm.

²And God said to Moses, I am Yahweh:

³I let myself be seen by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God, the Ruler of all; but they had no knowledge of my name Yahweh.

⁴And I made an agreement with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their wanderings.

⁵And truly my ears are open to the cry of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep under their yoke; and I have kept in mind my agreement.

⁶Say then to the children of Israel, I am Yahweh, and I will take you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, and make you safe from their power, and will make you free by the strength of my arm after great punishments.

⁷And I will take you to be my people and I will be your God; and you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, who takes you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

⁸And I will be your guide into the land which I made an oath to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for your heritage: I am Yahweh.

⁹And Moses said these words to the children of Israel, but they gave no attention to him, because of the grief of their spirit and the cruel weight of their work.

¹⁰And the Lord said to Moses,

¹¹Go in and say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he is to let the children of Israel go out of his land.

¹²And Moses, answering the Lord, said, See, the children of Israel will not give ear to me; how then will Pharaoh give ear to me, whose lips are unclean?

¹³And the word of the Lord came to Moses and Aaron, with orders for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴These are the heads of their fathers' families: the sons of Reuben the oldest son of Israel: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi: these are the families of Reuben.

¹⁵And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul, the son of a woman of Canaan: these are the families of Simeon.

¹⁶And these are the names of the sons of Levi in the order of their generations: Gershon and Kohath and Merari: and the years of Levi's life were a hundred and thirty-seven.

¹⁷The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, in the order of their families.

¹⁸And the sons of Kohath: Amram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel: and the years of Kohath's life were a hundred and thirty-three.

¹⁹And the sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi: these are the families of the Levites, in the order of their generations.

²⁰And Amram took Jochebed, his father's sister, as wife; and she gave birth to Aaron and Moses: and the years of Amram's life were a hundred and thirty-seven.

²¹And the sons of Izhar: Korah and Nepheg and Zichri.

²²And the sons of Uzziel: Mishael and Elzaphan and Sithri.

²³And Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon; and she gave birth to Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²⁴And the sons of Korah: Assir and Elkanah and Abiasaph: these are the families of the Korahites.

²⁵And Eleazar, Aaron's son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel; and she gave birth to Phinehas. These are the heads of the families of the Levites, in the order of their families.

²⁶These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, Take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt in their armies.

²⁷These are the men who gave orders to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of Egypt: these are the same Moses and Aaron.

²⁸And on the day when the word of the Lord came to Moses in the land of Egypt,

²⁹The Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord: say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, everything I am saying to you.

³⁰And Moses said to the Lord, My lips are unclean; how is it possible that Pharaoh will give me a hearing?

Exodus 7

¹And the Lord said to Moses, See I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.

²Say whatever I give you orders to say: and Aaron your brother will give word to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of his land.

³And I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, and my signs and wonders will be increased in the land of Egypt.

⁴But Pharaoh will not give ear to you, and I will put my hand on Egypt, and take my armies, my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, after great punishments.

⁵And the Egyptians will see that I am the Lord, when my hand is stretched out over Egypt, and I take the children of Israel out from among them.

⁶And Moses and Aaron did so: as the Lord gave them orders, so they did.

⁷And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they gave the Lord's word to Pharaoh.

⁸And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

⁹If Pharaoh says to you, Let me see a wonder: then say to Aaron, Take your rod and put it down on the earth before Pharaoh so that it may become a snake.

¹⁰Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and they did as the Lord had said: and Aaron put his rod down on the earth before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a snake.

¹¹Then Pharaoh sent for the wise men and the wonder-workers, and they, the wonder-workers of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts.

¹²For every one of them put down his rod on the earth, and they became snakes: but Aaron's rod made a meal of their rods.

¹³But Pharaoh's heart was made hard, and he did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

¹⁴And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh's heart is unchanged; he will not let the people go.

¹⁵Go to Pharaoh in the morning; when he goes out to the water, you will be waiting for him by the edge of the Nile, with the rod which was turned into a snake in your hand;

¹⁶And say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, Let my people go so that they may give me worship in the waste land; but up to now you have not given ear to his words.

¹⁷So the Lord says, By this you may be certain that I am the Lord; see, by the touch of this rod in my hand the waters of the Nile will be turned to blood;

¹⁸And the fish in the Nile will come to destruction, and the river will send up a bad smell, and the Egyptians will not be able, for disgust, to make use of the water of the Nile for drinking.

¹⁹And the Lord said, Say to Aaron, Let the rod in your hand be stretched out over the waters of Egypt, and over the rivers and the streams and the pools, and over every stretch of water, so that they may be turned to blood; and there will be blood through all the land of Egypt, in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.

²⁰And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had said; and when his rod had been lifted up and stretched out over the waters of the Nile before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, all the water in the Nile was turned to blood;

²¹And the fish in the Nile came to destruction, and a bad smell went up from the river, and the Egyptians were not able to make use of the water of the Nile for drinking; and there was blood through all the land of Egypt.

²²And the wonder-workers of Egypt did the same with their secret arts: but Pharaoh's heart was made hard, and he would not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

²³Then Pharaoh went into his house, and did not take even this to heart.

²⁴And all the Egyptians made holes round about the Nile to get drinking-water, for they were not able to make use of the Nile water.

²⁵And seven days went past, after the Lord had put his hand on the Nile.

Exodus 8

¹And this is what the Lord said to Moses: Go to Pharaoh and say to him, The Lord says, Let my people go so that they may give me worship.

²And if you will not let them go, see, I will send frogs into every part of your land:

³The Nile will be full of frogs, and they will come up into your house and into your bedrooms and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and into your bread-basins.

⁴The frogs will come up over you and your people and all your servants.

⁵And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Let the rod in your hand be stretched out over the streams and the waterways and the pools, causing frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.

⁶And when Aaron put out his hand over the waters of Egypt, the frogs came up and all the land of Egypt was covered with them.

⁷And the wonder-workers did the same with their secret arts, making frogs come up over the land of Egypt.

⁸Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said, Make prayer to the Lord that he will take away these frogs from me and my people; and I will let the people go and make their offering to the Lord.

⁹And Moses said, I will let you have the honour of saying when I am to make prayer for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs may be sent away from you and your houses, and be only in the Nile.

¹⁰And he said, By tomorrow. And he said, Let it be as you say: so that you may see that there is no other like the Lord our God.

¹¹And the frogs will be gone from you and from your houses and from your servants and from your people and will be only in the Nile.

¹²Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and Moses made prayer to the Lord about the frogs which he had sent on Pharaoh.

¹³And the Lord did as Moses said; and there was an end of all the frogs in the houses and in the open spaces and in the fields.

¹⁴And they put them together in masses, and a bad smell went up from the land.

¹⁵But when Pharaoh saw that there was peace for a time, he made his heart hard and did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Let your rod be stretched out over the dust of the earth so that it may become insects through all the land of Egypt.

¹⁷And they did so; and Aaron, stretching out the rod in his hand, gave a touch to the dust of the earth, and insects came on man and on beast; all the dust of the earth was changed into insects through all the land of Egypt.

¹⁸And the wonder-workers with their secret arts, attempting to make insects, were unable to do so: and there were insects on man and on beast.

¹⁹Then the wonder-workers said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: but Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

²⁰And the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the morning and take your place before Pharaoh when he comes out to the water; and say to him, This is what the Lord says: Let my people go to give me worship.

²¹For if you do not let my people go, see, I will send clouds of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and into their houses; and the houses of the Egyptians and the land where they are will be full of flies.

²²And at that time I will make a division between your land and the land of Goshen where my people are, and no flies will be there; so that you may see that I am the Lord over all the earth.

²³And I will put a division between my people and your people; tomorrow this sign will be seen.

²⁴And the Lord did so; and great clouds of flies came into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses, and all the land of Egypt was made waste because of the flies.

²⁵And Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said, Go and make your offering to your God here in the land.

²⁶And Moses said, It is not right to do so; for we make our offerings of that to which the Egyptians give worship; and if we do so before their eyes, certainly we will be stoned.

²⁷But we will go three days' journey into the waste land and make an offering to the Lord our God as he may give us orders.

²⁸Then Pharaoh said, I will let you go to make an offering to the Lord your God in the waste land; but do not go very far away, and make prayer for me.

²⁹And Moses said, When I go out from you I will make prayer to the Lord that the cloud of flies may go away from Pharaoh and from his people and from his servants tomorrow: only let Pharaoh no longer by deceit keep back the people from making their offering to the Lord.

³⁰Then Moses went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to the Lord.

³¹And the Lord did as Moses said, and took away the cloud of flies from Pharaoh and from his servants and from his people; not one was to be seen.

³²But again Pharaoh made his heart hard and did not let the people go.