¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you are going to see what I will do to the king. I will force him to let my people go. In fact, I will force him to drive them out of his land.”

God Calls Moses

²God spoke to Moses and said, “I am the Lord.

³I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as Almighty God, but I did not make myself known to them by my holy name, the Lord.

⁴I also made my covenant with them, promising to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they had lived as foreigners.

⁵Now I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians have enslaved, and I have remembered my covenant.

⁶So tell the Israelites that I say to them, ‘I am the Lord; I will rescue you and set you free from your slavery to the Egyptians. I will raise my mighty arm to bring terrible punishment upon them, and I will save you.

⁷I will make you my own people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God when I set you free from slavery in Egypt.

⁸I will bring you to the land that I solemnly promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as your own possession. I am the Lord.’”

⁹Moses told this to the Israelites, but they would not listen to him, because their spirit had been broken by their cruel slavery.

¹⁰Then the Lord said to Moses,

¹¹“Go and tell the king of Egypt that he must let the Israelites leave his land.”

¹²But Moses replied, “Even the Israelites will not listen to me, so why should the king? I am such a poor speaker.”

¹³The Lord commanded Moses and Aaron: “Tell the Israelites and the king of Egypt that I have ordered you to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.”

The Family Record of Moses and Aaron

¹⁴Reuben, Jacob's first-born, had four sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; they were the ancestors of the clans that bear their names.

¹⁵Simeon had six sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman; they were the ancestors of the clans that bear their names.

¹⁶Levi had three sons: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; they were the ancestors of the clans that bear their names. Levi lived 137 years.

¹⁷Gershon had two sons: Libni and Shimei, and they had many descendants.

¹⁸Kohath had four sons: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years.

¹⁹Merari had two sons: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of Levi with their descendants.

²⁰Amram married his father's sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.

²¹Izhar had three sons: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.

²²Uzziel also had three sons: Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.

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

²⁴Korah had three sons: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph; they were the ancestors of the divisions of the clan of Korah.

²⁵Eleazar, Aaron's son, married one of Putiel's daughters, who bore him Phinehas. These were the heads of the families and the clans of the tribe of Levi.

²⁶Aaron and Moses were the ones to whom the Lord said, “Lead the tribes of Israel out of Egypt.”

²⁷They were the men who told the king of Egypt to free the Israelites.

The Lord's Command to Moses and Aaron

²⁸When the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,

²⁹he said, “I am the Lord. Tell the king of Egypt everything I tell you.”

³⁰But Moses answered, “You know that I am such a poor speaker; why should the king listen to me?”

¹The Lord said, “I am going to make you like God to the king, and your brother Aaron will speak to him as your prophet.

²Tell Aaron everything I command you, and he will tell the king to let the Israelites leave his country.

^3-4But I will make the king stubborn, and he will not listen to you, no matter how many terrifying things I do in Egypt. Then I will bring severe punishment on Egypt and lead the tribes of my people out of the land.

⁵The Egyptians will then know that I am the Lord, when I raise my hand against them and bring the Israelites out of their country.”

⁶Moses and Aaron did what the Lord commanded.

⁷At the time when they spoke to the king, Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three.

Aaron's Walking Stick

⁸The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

⁹“If the king demands that you prove yourselves by performing a miracle, tell Aaron to take his walking stick and throw it down in front of the king, and it will turn into a snake.”

¹⁰So Moses and Aaron went to the king and did as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw his walking stick down in front of the king and his officers, and it turned into a snake.

¹¹Then the king called for his wise men and magicians, and by their magic they did the same thing.

¹²They threw down their walking sticks, and the sticks turned into snakes. But Aaron's stick swallowed theirs.

¹³The king, however, remained stubborn and, just as the Lord had said, the king would not listen to Moses and Aaron.

Blood

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “The king is very stubborn and refuses to let the people go.

¹⁵So go and meet him in the morning when he goes down to the Nile. Take with you the walking stick that was turned into a snake, and wait for him on the riverbank.

¹⁶Then say to the king, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to tell you to let his people go, so that they can worship him in the desert. But until now you have not listened.

¹⁷Now, Your Majesty, the Lord says that you will find out who he is by what he is going to do. Look, I am going to strike the surface of the river with this stick, and the water will be turned into blood.

¹⁸The fish will die, and the river will stink so much that the Egyptians will not be able to drink from it.’”

¹⁹The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron to take his stick and hold it out over all the rivers, canals, and pools in Egypt. The water will become blood, and all over the land there will be blood, even in the wooden tubs and stone jars.”

²⁰Then Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the presence of the king and his officers, Aaron raised his stick and struck the surface of the river, and all the water in it was turned into blood.

²¹The fish in the river died, and it smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink from it. There was blood everywhere in Egypt.

²²Then the king's magicians did the same thing by means of their magic, and the king was as stubborn as ever. Just as the Lord had said, the king refused to listen to Moses and Aaron.

²³Instead, he turned and went back to his palace without paying any attention even to this.

²⁴All the Egyptians dug along the bank of the river for drinking water, because they were not able to drink water from the river.

²⁵Seven days passed after the Lord struck the river.

Cases Requiring Sin Offerings

¹Sin offerings are required in the following cases. If you are officially summoned to give evidence in court and do not give information about something you have seen or heard, you must suffer the consequences.

²If you unintentionally touch anything ritually unclean, such as a dead animal, you are unclean and guilty as soon as you realize what you have done.

³If you unintentionally touch anything of human origin that is unclean, whatever it may be, you are guilty as soon as you realize what you have done.

⁴If you make a careless vow, no matter what it is about, you are guilty as soon as you realize what you have done.

⁵When you are guilty, you must confess the sin,

⁶and as the penalty for your sin you must bring to the Lord a female sheep or goat as an offering. The priest shall offer the sacrifice for your sin.

⁷If you cannot afford a sheep or a goat, you shall bring to the Lord as the payment for your sin two doves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.

⁸You shall bring them to the priest, who will first offer the bird for the sin offering. He will break its neck without pulling off its head

⁹and sprinkle some of its blood against the side of the altar. The rest of the blood will be drained out at the base of the altar. This is an offering to take away sin.

¹⁰Then he shall offer the second bird as a burnt offering, according to the regulations. In this way the priest shall offer the sacrifice for your sin, and you will be forgiven.

¹¹If you cannot afford two doves or two pigeons, you shall bring two pounds of flour as a sin offering. You shall not put any olive oil or any incense on it, because it is a sin offering, not a grain offering.

¹²You shall bring it to the priest, who will take a handful of it as a token that it has all been offered to the Lord, and he will burn it on the altar as a food offering. It is an offering to take away sin.

¹³In this way the priest shall offer the sacrifice for your sin, and you will be forgiven. The rest of the flour belongs to the priest, just as in the case of a grain offering.

Repayment Offerings

¹⁴The Lord gave the following regulations to Moses.

¹⁵If any of you sin unintentionally by failing to hand over the payments that are sacred to the Lord, you shall bring as your repayment offering to the Lord a male sheep or goat without any defects. Its value is to be determined according to the official standard.

¹⁶You must make the payments you have failed to hand over and must pay an additional 20 percent. You shall give it to the priest, and the priest shall offer the animal as a sacrifice for your sin, and you will be forgiven.

¹⁷If any of you sin unintentionally by breaking any of the Lord's commands, you are guilty and must pay the penalty.

¹⁸You must bring to the priest as a repayment offering a male sheep or goat without any defects. Its value is to be determined according to the official standard. The priest shall offer the sacrifice for the sin which you committed unintentionally, and you will be forgiven.

¹⁹It is a repayment offering for the sin you committed against the Lord.

The Supreme Ruler

¹Clap your hands for joy, all peoples! Praise God with loud songs!

²The Lord, the Most High, is to be feared; he is a great king, ruling over all the world.

³He gave us victory over the peoples; he made us rule over the nations.

⁴He chose for us the land where we live, the proud possession of his people, whom he loves.

⁵God goes up to his throne. There are shouts of joy and the blast of trumpets, as the Lord goes up.

⁶Sing praise to God; sing praise to our king!

⁷God is king over all the world; praise him with songs!

⁸God sits on his sacred throne; he rules over the nations.

⁹The rulers of the nations assemble with the people of the God of Abraham. More powerful than all armies is he; he rules supreme.