Out of Egypt · c. 1446 BC
Chapter 3
Let My People Go
Afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said to Pharaoh, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”
For parents
When the Israelites cannot make their full number of bricks, Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite foremen (Exodus 5:14). It is told plainly, without detail.
Then and went to with a message. “This is what the , the God of , says,” they told him. “‘Let my people go, so they can hold a feast for me in the wilderness.’”
“Who is the Lord?” said Pharaoh. “Why should I do what he says? Why should I let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and what’s more, I won’t let Israel go.”
They said, “The God of the has met with us. Please let us travel three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God, or he might strike us down with a deadly sickness or with the sword.”
The king of answered them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you keeping the people from their work? Go back to carrying your loads!” Pharaoh went on, “Look how many of these people there are in the land now, and you want them to stop working!”
That same day Pharaoh gave a command to the people’s slave drivers and their officers. “From now on, stop handing out straw for the bricks. The people can go and collect it themselves. But make them produce as many bricks as they made before. Don’t lower the number at all. They have too little to do, and that’s why they keep crying out, ‘Let’s go and sacrifice to our God.’ Pile heavier work on the men and keep them at it. Don’t let them pay any attention to lies.”
The slave drivers and their officers went out to the people and told them, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I won’t give you straw anymore. Go and look for straw yourselves, anywhere you can find it. Your work won’t be cut at all.’”
So the people spread out across the whole land of Egypt to gather stubble, the stalks left in the fields, in place of straw.
The slave drivers kept pushing them. “Finish your full share of work every day, just as you did when you had straw!”
Pharaoh’s slave drivers had put Israelite officers in charge of the people. Now those officers were beaten and asked, “Why haven’t you made your full number of bricks, either yesterday or today, the way you used to?”
Then the Israelite officers came and cried out to Pharaoh. “Why do you treat us this way? No one gives us straw, yet they tell us, ‘Make bricks!’ And look, we’re being beaten! But it’s your own people who are in the wrong.”
“You’re lazy!” Pharaoh said. “Lazy, all of you! That’s why you say, ‘Let’s go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ Now go and get to work. You won’t be given any straw, but you will still hand over the same number of bricks!”
The Israelite officers knew they were in trouble when they were told, “Don’t make even one brick fewer each day.”
As the officers left Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron, who were standing by the road. “May the Lord look at you and judge you!” the officers said. “You have made Pharaoh and his officials hate us, and you have given them a reason to kill us!”
Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have you brought trouble on these people? Why did you send me at all? Since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has made things worse for these people, and you haven’t rescued them at all!”
The Lord answered Moses, “Now you will see what I am going to do to Pharaoh. A strong hand will make him let them go. A strong hand will make him drive them out of his land.”
God spoke to Moses: “I am Yahweh. I appeared to , to and to as , but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.
Yahweh is God’s own name, the name this Story writes as “the Lord.”
God went on, “I also made my with them, to give them the land of , the land where they wandered and lived as foreigners. And now I have heard the Israelites groaning as slaves of the Egyptians, and I have remembered my covenant.
“So tell the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the heavy loads of the Egyptians. I will end your slavery to them. I will redeem you, winning you back with my arm stretched out and with great judgments. I will make you my people. I will be your God, and you will come to know that I am the Lord your God, who brings you out from under the loads the Egyptians make you carry. I will bring you into the land I promised with an oath to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, and I will give it to you to keep. I am the Lord.’”
Moses spoke these words to the Israelites, but they didn’t listen. Their spirits were crushed, and their slavery was too cruel.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go and speak to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Tell him to let the Israelites leave his land.”
But Moses said to the Lord, “Look, the Israelites haven’t listened to me. Why would Pharaoh listen to me, when I don’t speak well?”
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron. He gave them a command for the Israelites and for Pharaoh, king of Egypt: they were to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.
These were the heads of the Israelites’ families. was Jacob’s oldest son, and his sons were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. Those were Reuben’s clans. ’s sons were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, whose mother was a Canaanite woman. Those were Simeon’s clans.
These were the sons of , family by family: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived a hundred and thirty-seven years. Gershon’s sons were Libni and Shimei. Kohath’s sons were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel, and Kohath lived a hundred and thirty-three years. Merari’s sons were Mahli and Mushi. Those were the clans of the .
married , his father’s sister, and she had Aaron and Moses. Amram lived a hundred and thirty-seven years.
Izhar’s sons were , Nepheg and Zichri. Uzziel’s sons were Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.
Aaron married Elisheba. She was Amminadab’s daughter and Nahshon’s sister, and she gave birth to his sons and , and .
Korah’s sons were Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. Those were the clans of Korah. Aaron’s son Eleazar married one of Putiel’s daughters, and she had . These were the heads of the Levites’ families, family by family.
The Lord had told this same Aaron and Moses, “Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt in their ranks, like armies.” They were the two who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, so they could bring the Israelites out of Egypt. Yes, it was this same Moses and Aaron.
This is what the Lord said to Moses on the day he spoke to him in the land of Egypt: “I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I tell you.”
But Moses said to the Lord, “Look, I don’t speak well. Why would Pharaoh listen to me?”
The Lord said to Moses, “Look, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, with your brother Aaron as your . You will say everything I command you, and Aaron will speak to Pharaoh, so that Pharaoh lets the Israelites leave his land.
“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so he will be stubborn, and I will do sign after sign and wonder after wonder in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh won’t listen to you. So I will use my power against Egypt. With great judgments I will bring my people, the Israelites, out of the land of Egypt, marching in their ranks like armies. When I stretch out my hand over Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”
Moses and Aaron did exactly what the Lord commanded them. When they spoke to Pharaoh, Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh asks you for a miracle, tell Aaron to take his staff and throw it to the ground in front of Pharaoh. It will become a snake.”
Moses and Aaron went to see Pharaoh and did what the Lord had told them. Aaron threw down his staff in front of Pharaoh and his servants, and it turned into a snake.
Then Pharaoh sent for his wise men and his sorcerers, people who did magic. These magicians of Egypt did the same thing with their spells. Every one of them threw down his staff, and each staff became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed theirs.
Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. He stayed stubborn and didn’t listen to them, as the Lord had said.