EXODUS 1 thru 6
1 THESE ARE THE NAMES of the Israelites who entered Egypt
with Jacob, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and
Judah; Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali, Gad
Asher. There were seventy of them all told, all direct descendents of
Jacob. Joseph was already in Egypt.
In course of time, Joseph died, he and all his brothers and that whole
generation. Now the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they increased in
numbers and became very powerful, so that the country was overrun by
them. Then a new king ascended the throne of Egypt, one who knew
nothing of Joseph. He said to his people, 'These Israelites have become
to many and too strong for us. We must take precautions to see that they
do not increase any further; or we shall find that, if war breaks out, they
will join the enemy and fight against us, and they will become masters of
the country.' So they were made to work in gangs with officers set over
them to break their spirit with heavy labour. This is how Pharaoh's store-
cities, Pithom and Rameses, were built. But the more harshly they were
treated, the more their numbers increased beyond all bounds, until the
Egyptians came to loathe the sight of them. So they treated the Israelite
slaves with ruthless severity, and made life bitter for them with cruel
servitude, setting them to work on clay and brick-making, and all sorts of
work in the fields. In short they made ruthless use of them as slaves in every
kind of hard labour.
Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, whose names
were Shiphrah and Puah. 'When you are attending the Hebrew women in
childbirth,' he told them, 'watch as the child is delivered and if it is a boy,
kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.' But they were God-fearing women. They
did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do, but let the boys live.
So he summoned those Hebrew midwives and asked them why they had
done this and let the boys live. They told Pharaoh that Hebrew women
were not like Egyptian women. When they were in labour they gave birth
before the midwife could get to them. So God made the midwives prosper,
and the people increased in numbers and strength. Because they feared
him, God gave the mid-wives homes and families of their own. Pharaoh
then ordered all his people to throw every new-born Hebrew boy into the
Nile, but to let the girls live.
2 A descendant of Levi married a Levite woman who conceived and bore
a son. When she saw what a fine child he was, she hid him for three months,
but she could conceal him no longer. She got a rush basket for him, made
it watertight with clay and tar, laid him in it, and put it among the reeds
by the bank of the Nile. The child's sister took her stand at a distance to see
what would happen to him. Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the
river, while her ladies-in-waiting walked along the bank. She noticed the
basket among the reeds and sent her slave-girl for it. She took it from her
and when she opened it, she saw the child. It was crying, and she was filled
with pity for it. 'Why,' she said, 'it is a little Hebrew boy.' Thereupon the
sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, 'Shall I go and fetch one of the Hebrew
women as a wet-nurse to suckle the child for you?' Pharaoh's daughter told
her to go; so the girl went and called the baby's mother. Then Pharaoh's
daughter said to her, 'Here is the child, suckle him for me, and I will pay
you for it myself.' So the woman took the child and suckled him. When the
child was old enough, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted
him and called him Moses, 'because,' she said, 'I drew him out of the
water.'
ONE DAY WHEN MOSES WAS GROWN UP, he went out to his own kins-
men and saw them at their heavy labour. He saw an Egyptian strike one
of his fellow Hebrews. He looked this way and that, and, seeing there was
no one about, he struck the Egyptian down and hid the body in the sand.
When he went out next day, two Hebrews were fighting together. He asked
the man who was in the wrong, 'Why are you striking him?' 'Who set you
up as an officer to judge over us?' the man replied. 'Do you mean to
murder me as you have murdered the Egyptian?' Moses was alarmed. 'The
thing must have become known', he said to himself. When Pharaoh heard
of it, he tried to put Moses to death, but Moses made good his escape and
settled in the land of Midian.
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. One day as Moses sat
by a well, they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their
father's sheep. Some shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses
got up, took the girls' part and watered the sheep himself. When the girls
came back to their father Reuel, he asked, 'How is it that you are back so
quickly today?' 'An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,' they
answered; 'and he even drew water for us and watered the sheep.'
'But where is he then?' he said to his daughters. 'Why did you leave him
behind? Go and invite him to eat with us.' So it came about that Moses
agreed to live with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in
marriage. She bore him a son, and Moses called him Gershom, 'because',
he said, 'I have become an alien living in a foreign land.'
YEARS PASSED, and the king of Egypt died, but the Israelites still groaned
in slavery. They cried out, and their appeal for rescue from their slavery
rose up to God. He heard their groaning, and remembered his covenant
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; he saw the plight of Israel, and he took
heed of it.
3 Moses was minding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, priest of Midian.
He led the flock along the side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the
mountain of God. There the angels of the Lord appeared to him in the
flame of a burning bush. Moses noticed that, although the bush was on
fire it was not being burnt up; so he said to himself, 'I must go across to
see this wonderful sight. Why does not the bush burn away?' When the
Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to look, he called to him out of the
bush, 'Moses, Moses.' And Moses answered, 'Yes, I am here.' God said,
'Come no nearer; take off your sandals; the place where you are standing
is holy ground.' The he said, 'I am the God of your forefathers, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.' Moses covered his face
for he was afraid to gaze on God.
The LORD said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.
I have heard their outcry against their slave-masters. I have taken heed of
their sufferings, and have come down to rescue them from the power of
Egypt, and to bring them up out of that country into a fine, broad land; it is
a land flowing with milk and honey, the home of Canaanites, Hittites,
Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. The outcry of the Israelites
has now reached me; yes, I have seen the brutality of the Egyptians towards
them. Come now; I will send you to Pharaoh and you shall bring my people
Israel out of Egypt.' 'But who am I,' Moses said to God, 'that I should go
to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' God
answered, 'I am with you. This shall be proof that it is I who have sent
you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall all worship
God here on this mountain.'
Then Moses said to God, 'If I go to the Israelites and tell them that the
God of their forefathers has sent me to them, and they ask me his name,
what shall I say?' God answered, 'I AM; that is who I am. Tell them that
I AM has sent you to them.' And God said further, 'You must tell the
Israelites this, that it is JEHOVAH the God of their forefathers, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, who has sent you to them.
This is my name for ever; this is my title in every generation. Go and
assemble the elders of Israel and tell them that JEHOVAH the God of their
forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to you
and has said, "I have indeed turned my eyes towards you; I have marked
all that has been done to you in Egypt, and I am resolved to bring you up
out of your misery in Egypt, into the country of the Canaanites, Hittites,
Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and
honey." They will listen to you, and then you and the elders of Israel must
go to the king of Egypt. Tell him, "It has happened that the LORD the
God of the Hebrews met us. So now give us leave to go a three days' jour-
ney into the wilderness to offer sacrifice to the LORD our God." I know well
that the king of Egypt will not give you leave unless he is compelled. I shall
then stretch out my hand and assail the Egyptians with all the miracles I
shall work among them. After that he will send you away. Further, I will
bring this people into such favour with the Egyptians that, when you go,
you will not go empty-handed. Every woman shall ask her neighbor or
any woman who lives in her house for jewellery of silver and gold and for
clothing. Load your sons and daughters with them, and plunder Egypt.'
4 Moses answered, 'But they will never believe me or listen to me; they
will say, "The LORD did not appear to you." ' The LORD said, 'What have
you there in your hand?' 'A staff', Moses answered. The LORD said, 'Throw
it on the ground.' Moses threw it down and it turned into a snake. He ran
away from it, but the LORD said, 'Put your hand out and seize it by the tail.'
He did so and gripped it firmly, and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
'This is to convince the people that the LORD the God of their forefathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has appeared to
you.' Then the LORD said, 'Put your hand inside the fold of your cloak.'
He did so, and when he drew it out the skin was diseased, white as snow.
The LORD said, 'Put it back again', and he did so. When he drew it out this
time it was healthy as the rest of his body. 'Now,' said the LORD, 'if they
do not believe you and do not accept the evidence of the first sign, they
may accept the evidence of the second. But if they are not convinced even
by these two signs, and will not accept what you say, then fetch some water
from the Nile and pour it out on the dry ground, and the water you take
from the Nile will turn to blood on the ground.'
But Moses said, 'O LORD, I have never been a man of ready speech,
never in my life, not even now that Thou hast spoken to me; I am slow and
hesitant of speech.' The LORD said to him, 'Who is it that gives man speech?
Who makes him dumb or deaf? Who makes him clear-sighted or blind?
Is it not I, the LORD? Go now; I will help your speech and tell you what to
say.' But Moses still protested, 'No, Lord, send whom thou wilt.' At this
the LORD grew angry with Moses and said, ' Have you not a brother,
Aaron the Levite? He, I know, will do all the speaking. He is already on
his way out to meet you, and he will be glad indeed to see you. You shall
speak to him and put the words in his mouth; I will help both of you to
speak and tell you both what to do. He will do all the speaking to the people
for you, he will be the mouthpiece, and you will be the god he speaks for.
But take this staff, for with it you are to work the signs.'
At length Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said, 'Let me
return to my kinsfolk in Egypt and see if they are still alive.' Jethro told
him to go and wished him well.
THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSES in Midian and said to him, 'Go back to
Egypt, for all those who wished to kill you are dead.' So Moses took his
wife and children, mounted them on an ass and set out for Egypt with the
staff of God in his hand. The LORD said to Moses, 'While you are on your
way back to Egypt, keep in mind all the portents I have given you power
to show. You shall display these before Pharaoh, but I will make him
obstinate and he will not let the people go. Then tell Pharaoh that these are
the words of the LORD: "Israel is my first-born son. I have told you to let
my son go, so that he may worship me. You have refused to let him go, so
I will kill your first-born son."
During the journey, whole they were encamped for the night, the LORD
met Moses, meaning to kill him, but Zipporah picked up a sharp flint, cut
off her son's foreskin, and touched him with it, saying, 'You are my blood-
bridegroom.' So the LORD let Moses alone. Thus she said, 'Blood-bride-
groom by circumcision.'
Meanwhile the LORD had ordered Aaron to go and meet Moses in the
wilderness. Aaron went and met him at the mountain of God, and he kissed
him. Then Moses told Aaron everything, the words the LORD had sent him
to say and the signs he had commanded him to perform. Moses and Aaron
went and assembled the elders of Israel. Aaron told them everything
that the LORD had said to Moses; he performed the signs before the people,
and they were convinced. They heard that the LORD had shown his concern
for the Israelites and seen their misery; and they bowed themselves to the
ground in worship.
5 After this, Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and said, 'These are the
words of the LORD the God of Israel: "Let my people go so that they may
keep my pilgrim-feast in the wilderness." ' 'Who is the LORD,' asked
Pharaoh, 'that I should obey him and let Israel go? I care nothing for the
LORD: and I tell you I will never let Israel go.' They replied, 'It has happened
that the God of the Hebrews met us. So let us go three days' journey
into the wilderness to offer sacrifice to the LORD our God, else he will
attack us with pestilence or sword.' But the king of Egypt said, 'Moses and
Aaron, what do you mean by distracting the people from their work? Back
to your labours! Your people already outnumber the native Egyptians; yet
you would have them stop working!'
That very day Pharaoh ordered the people's overseer and their foremen
not to supply the people with the straw used in making bricks, as they had
done hitherto. 'Let them go and collect their own straw, but see that they
produce the same tally of bricks as before. On no account reduce it. They
are a lazy people, and that is why they are clamouring to go and offer
sacrifice to their god. Keep the men hard at work; let them attend to that
and take no notice of a pack of lies.' The overseers and foremen went out
and said to the people, 'Pharaoh's orders are that no more straw is to be
supplied. Go and get it for yourselves wherever you can find it; but there
will be no reduction in your daily task.' So the people scattered all over
Egypt to gather stubble for straw, while the overseers kept urging them on,
bidding them complete, day after day, the same quantity as when straw was
supplied. Then the Israelite foremen were flogged because they were held
responsible by Pharaoh's overseers, who asked them, 'Why did you not
complete the usual number of bricks yesterday or today?' So the foremen
came and appealed to Pharaoh: 'Why do you treat your servants like this?'
they said. 'We are given no straw, yet they keep on telling us to make
bricks. Here are we being flogged, but it is your people's fault.' But
Pharaoh replied, 'You are lazy, you are lazy. That is why you talk about
going to offer sacrifice to the LORD. Now go; get on with your work. You
will be given no straw, but you must produce the tally of bricks.' When they
were told they must not let the daily tally of bricks fall short, the Israel-
ite foremen saw that they were in trouble. As they came out from Pharaoh's
presence they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and said, 'May
this bring the LORD's judgement down upon you: you have made us stink
in the nostrils of Pharaoh and his subjects; you have put a sword in their
hands to kill us.'
Moses went back to the LORD, and said, 'Why, O Lord, hast thou brought
misfortune on this people? And why didst thou ever send me? Since I first
went to Pharaoh to speak in thy name he has heaped misfortune on thy
people, and thou hast done nothing at all to rescue them.' The LORD 6
answered, 'Now you shall see what I shall do to Pharaoh. In the end Pharaoh
will let them go with a strong hand, nay, will drive them from his country
with an outstretched arm.'
God spoke to Moses and said, 'I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty. But I did not let myself be known to
them by my name JEHOVAH. Moreover, I made a covenant with them to
give them Canaan, the land where they settled for a time as foreigners. And
now I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, enslaved by the Egyptians,
and I have called my covenant to mind. Say therefore to the Israelites, "I
am the LORD. I will release you from your labours in Egypt. I will rescue
you from slavery there. I will redeem you with arm outstretched and with
mighty acts of judgement. I will adopt you as my people, and I will become
your God. You shall know that I, the LORD, am your God, the God who
releases you from your labours in Egypt. I will lead you to the land which I
swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will
give it you for your possessions. I am the LORD." '
Moses repeated these words to the Israelites, but they did not listen to
him; they had become impatient because of their cruel slavery.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses and said, 'Go and tell Pharaoh king of
Egypt to set the Israelites free to leave his country.' Moses made answer in
the presence of the LORD, 'If the Israelites do not listen to me, how will
Pharaoh listen to such a halting speaker as I am?'
Thus the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them their com-
mission to the Israelites and to Pharaoh, namely that they should bring the
Israelites out of Egypt.
THESE WERE THE HEADS of fathers' families:
Sons of Reuben, Israel's eldest son: Enoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi;
these were the families of Reuben.
Sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Saul, who
was the son of a Canaanite woman; these were the families of Simeon.
These were the names of the sons of Levi in order of seniority: Gershon,
Kohath and Merari. Levi lived to be a hundred and thirty-seven.
Sons of Gershon, family by family: Libni and Shimei.
Sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived to be
a hundred and thirty-three.
Sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi.
These were the families of Levi in order of seniority. Amram married
his father's sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram
lived to be a hundred and thirty-seven.
Sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg and Zichri.
Sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.
Aaron married Elisheba, who was the daughter of Amminadab and the
sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph; these were the Korahite
families.
Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she
bore him Phinehas. These were the heads of the Levite families, family by
family.
It was this Aaron, together with Moses, to whom the LORD said, 'Bring
the Israelites out of Egypt, mustered in their tribal hosts.' These were the
men who told Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites leave Egypt. It was
this same Moses and Aaron.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Mar 27, 2018, 1:45 PM UTC · edited
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