Exodus Translation
Exodus
Egyptian Oppression
Now these are the names of Israel’s sons who, along with their households, arrived in Egypt with Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. All Jacob’s descendants totaled seventy people. Joseph was already in Egypt.
Joseph died, as well as his brothers and that entire generation. But the Israelites were fruitful, abounded, and multiplied. They increased so prolifically they filled the land.
Then a new king who didn’t know about Joseph rose to power over Egypt. He said to his people, “Look! The Israelite people multiply and increase faster than us. Let’s deal with them shrewdly so they won’t multiply. Otherwise when war breaks out, they’ll join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the land.”
The Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them through forced labor. They built the storage cities of Pithom and Rameses for the pharaoh. But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread out. So the Egyptians detested the Israelites and forced them to work arduously. They made their lives bitter through hard labor making mortar and bricks and working in the fields. They made them work arduously at all their labor.
Then the king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, watch during the delivery. If he’s a son, kill him! If she’s a daughter, let her live.”
But the midwives feared God and didn’t do what the king of Egypt said. Instead, they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives. “Why have you done this? Why do you let the boys live?”
“Hebrew women aren’t like Egyptian women. They are lively, and before a midwife arrives, they have already given birth.”
So God treated the midwives well, and the people multiplied and increased prolifically. Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
Then the pharaoh commanded all his people, “Throw into the Nile every son who is born! But let every daughter live.”
The Birth of Moses
Now a Levite man had married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and gave birth to a son. She saw that he was good, so she hid him for three months. When she couldn’t hide him any longer, she took a papyrus basket and sealed it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child inside it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
While his sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him, the pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe. Her attendants walked beside the river. When she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her servant to retrieve it. She opened it and saw the child—a baby crying!—and she pitied him. “This is a Hebrew child!”
Then his sister asked the pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for you?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
So the girl went to call the baby’s mother. Then the pharaoh’s daughter told her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me. I’ll pay your wages.”
The woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child had grown older, the pharaoh’s daughter took him, and he became her son. She named him Moses and said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Moses in Midian
After Moses grew up, he went out to his people and watched them being forced to work. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. He looked around and saw no one. So he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
He went out again the next day. This time two Hebrews were fighting! He asked the one who started it, “Why would you hit your companion?”
The man replied, “Who made you our ruler and judge? Do you intend to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?”
Then Moses was afraid because he realized people knew what he’d done. When the pharaoh heard about it, he sentenced Moses to death. But Moses fled from him.
Now Moses settled in the land of Midian. One day he sat down by a well. The priest of Midian had seven daughters, who came, drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. But then shepherds came and drove them away, so Moses stood up, protected them, and watered their flock.
The girls returned to Reuel, their father. “Why are you home so early today?” he asked.
“An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock!”
“So where is he?” Reuel asked. “Why’d you leave the man behind? Go invite him to come share a meal.”
Then Moses agreed to live with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah in marriage to Moses. She gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom because “I became a foreigner in a foreign land.”
A long time passed, and during that time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites moaned because of their labor, and they cried out for relief. Their cry because of their labor ascended to God. God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the Israelites and understood.
Moses’s Call
Meanwhile, Moses tended the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. As he guided the flock to the far side of the wilderness, he came to Horeb, God’s mountain. Yahweh’s messenger appeared to him there as a flame burning in the middle of a bush. Moses saw the bush was on fire—yet it didn’t burn up! So Moses thought, “I must turn from the path to see this incredible sight. Why isn’t the bush burning?”
When Yahweh saw Moses had turned from the path to look, he called out from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
“Yes? I’m here.”
“Don’t come any closer. Take off your sandals because you’re standing on holy ground.” Then Yahweh continued, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” So Moses covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Yahweh said, “I’ve certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I’ve heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I understand how they suffer. So I’ve come to rescue them from Egypt’s power and to bring them out from that land to a good and spacious land, a land that flows with milk and honey, the territory of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
“Now listen! The Israelites’ cry has reached me, and I’ve also seen how cruelly the Egyptians are oppressing them. Now go! I’m sending you to the pharaoh. Bring my people, the Israelites, out from Egypt.”
But Moses replied to God, “Who am I to go to the pharaoh and bring the Israelites out from Egypt?”
“I am with you,” God answered. “This will be the sign to show you I sent you: when you’ve brought the people out from Egypt, you’ll serve God on this mountain.”
“Suppose I go to the Israelites,” Moses replied. “I’ll say to them, ‘The God of your fathers sent me to you.’ Then they’ll ask, ‘What’s his name?’ What would I tell them?”
“I am who I am,” God answered Moses. “Tell the Israelites this: ‘I am sent me to you.’”
God continued, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—sent me to you. This is my name forever. This is how you’re to remember me from generation to generation.’
“Go gather the elders of Israel and say, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—appeared to me and said, ‘I’ve come to demand an accounting for you and for what’s been done to you in Egypt! I promised to bring you back from affliction in Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, a land that flows with milk and honey.’
“They’ll obey you, so take the elders of Israel with you to the king of Egypt and say to him, “Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews met with us. Now, please, we must go a three-day distance into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to Yahweh, our God.’
“But I know the king of Egypt won’t allow you to go. No strong power will convince him. So with my power I’ll strike Egypt by performing all my wonders in their midst. After that, he’ll send you away. I’ll cause the Egyptians to deal generously with this people so you won’t leave empty-handed. Every woman will ask her neighbor and any woman living in her home for clothing and objects of silver and gold. You’ll clothe your sons and daughters with them. In this way, you’ll plunder the Egyptians.”
Moses replied, “Look! They won’t believe me or obey me! They’ll say, ‘Yahweh didn’t appear to you.’”
“What’s that in your hand?” Yahweh asked him.
“A staff.”
“Throw it on the ground,” Yahweh said.
So Moses threw it on the ground. It changed into a snake, and Moses drew back from it.
Then Yahweh told Moses, “Reach out and grab its tail”—he reached out and grabbed it, and it changed back into a staff in his hand—“so they’ll believe Yahweh, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—appeared to you.”
Yahweh continued, “Please put your hand in your cloak.”
Moses put his hand in his cloak. When he took it out, his skin was diseased! It looked like snow!
“Put your hand back in your cloak.”
So he put his hand back in his cloak. When he took it out, his flesh had been restored!
Then Yahweh said, “If they don’t believe you or obey the first sign, they’ll believe the second sign. But if they don’t believe either of these two signs and they still won’t obey you, take some water from the Nile and pour it out on dry ground. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.”
Moses responded, “Forgive me, my Lord! I’m not an eloquent man. I never have been, and I’m still not since you’ve spoken to your servant. My speech is difficult and my language foreign.”
“Who gave humanity a mouth?” Yahweh asked. “Who makes a person mute or deaf? Seeing or blind? Don’t I, Yahweh? Now go! I’ll be with your mouth and teach you what to say.”
But Moses said, “Forgive me, my Lord! Please send the one you’re going to send!”
So Yahweh grew angry with Moses. “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak. Look! He’s even coming to meet you. When he sees you, his heart will rejoice. You’ll tell him what to say, and I’ll be with your mouth and his. I’ll teach you what to do. He’ll speak to the people for you. He’ll be like a mouth to you, and you’ll be like a god to him. Also take this staff in your hand with which you will perform the signs.”
The Journey to Egypt
Moses returned to Jethro, his father-in-law. “Please let me return to my family in Egypt to see if they’re still alive.”
“Go in peace,” Jethro replied.
Then Yahweh told Moses in Midian, “Return to Egypt. Everyone who wanted to kill you has died.”
So Moses took his wife and sons, who rode on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also carried the staff of God in his hand.
Yahweh told Moses, “When you return to Egypt, perform all the wonders I’ve empowered you to do before the pharaoh. But I’ll make him obstinate so he won’t send the people away. Then tell the pharaoh, ‘This is what Yahweh says: “Israel is my firstborn son. I told you to send my son away so he can serve me. Since you refused to send him away, I am about to kill your firstborn son!”’”
Now at a place they stayed while they traveled, Yahweh confronted him and sought to kill him. So Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched his feet with it. “You are a bridegroom of bloodshed to me!” Yahweh released him at the time she said “bridegroom of bloodshed” because of the circumcision.
Yahweh told Aaron to meet Moses in the wilderness. He encountered him at God’s mountain and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron about all the words Yahweh sent him to say and all the signs he commanded him to perform.