Exodus 5:1-7:13

Evangelical Heritage Version

Bricks Without Straw

5 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Let my people go so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.”

² Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should listen to his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I certainly will not let Israel go.”

³ They said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness, and let us sacrifice to the Lord, our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or sword.”

⁴ But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their work? Get back to your forced labor!” ⁵ Pharaoh also said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from doing their forced labor.”

⁶ That same day Pharaoh commanded the people’s taskmasters and overseers, ⁷ “Do not give the people straw for making bricks anymore. Let them go and gather their own straw. ⁸ But require them to make the same number of bricks as they made before. Do not reduce it. You see, they are lazy. That is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹ Make the work harder for the people so that they do their work and do not pay attention to lying words.”

¹⁰ So the people’s taskmasters and overseers went out and told the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you straw. ¹¹ Go, get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it. But there will be no reduction at all in your work load.’” ¹² So the people scattered all over the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. ¹³ The taskmasters kept insisting, “Fulfill your daily quota just as you did when straw was provided!” ¹⁴ The overseers, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had placed over the Israelites, were beaten. The taskmasters demanded, “Why have you not fulfilled your quota yesterday and today, as you did previously?”

¹⁵ Then the Israelite overseers came and cried out to Pharaoh, “Why are you doing this to your servants? ¹⁶ No straw is given to your servants, yet they tell us, ‘Make bricks!’ Look, your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”

¹⁷ But he said, “Lazy! You are lazy! That is why you are saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ ¹⁸ Now go! Get to work! Straw will not be provided to you, but you will deliver the same quota of bricks!”

¹⁹ The Israelite overseers realized that they were in trouble when Pharaoh said, “You must not reduce anything from your daily number of bricks!”

²⁰ When they left Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting to meet them. ²¹ They said to Moses and Aaron, “May the Lord look at you and judge you, because you have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword into their hand to kill us.”

²² So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why did you send me? ²³ Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”

6 The Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. Because of a mighty hand^[a] he will send them away, and because of a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land.”

God Promises Deliverance

² Then God spoke to Moses, telling him, “I am the Lord. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name, the Lord, I was not known to them.^{[b] 4} I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land where they were residing as aliens. ⁵ I certainly have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians have enslaved, and I have remembered my covenant.

⁶ “Therefore, tell the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the forced labor of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from being their slaves. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. ⁷ I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God, the one who brought you out from under the forced labor of the Egyptians. ⁸ I will bring you to the land which I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’”

⁹ Moses spoke these words to the Israelites, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and because of the hard labor. ¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Moses: ¹¹ “Go, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the Israelites go from his land.”

¹² But Moses said in the Lord’s presence, “Look, the Israelites have not listened to me. Why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I am a poor speaker?”^[c]

The Family Record of Moses and Aaron

¹³ The Lord again spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He commanded them to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ These were the heads of their fathers’ houses:^[d]

These were the clans of the Levites according to their family records.

These were the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites that had become clans.

²⁶ These were the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring out the Israelites from the land of Egypt according to their divisions.”^{[f] 27} These were the same ones who spoke to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, in order to bring the Israelites out from Egypt. These were that same Moses and Aaron.

²⁸ On the day that the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, ²⁹ the Lord said to him, “I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, everything that I tell you.”

³⁰ But Moses said in the Lord’s presence, “You see, I am a poor speaker. Why would Pharaoh listen to me?”

Moses and Aaron Appear Before Pharaoh

7 The Lord said to Moses, “Look, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet. ² You are to speak everything that I command you, and Aaron your brother is to speak to Pharaoh, so that he will let the Israelites go out from his land. ³ But I will make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn.^[g] I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. ⁴ Pharaoh will not listen to you, so I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my divisions, my people the Israelites, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. ⁵ The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand over Egypt, and I bring out the Israelites from their midst.”

⁶ This is what Moses and Aaron did. Just as the Lord commanded them, that is exactly what they did. ⁷ Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Aaron’s Staff Becomes a Snake

⁸ The Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, ⁹ “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Give us a warning sign,’ then you are to tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.’”

¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh. They did just as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw down his staff in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. ¹¹ But then Pharaoh also called for his wise men and sorcerers. Those magicians^[h] of Egypt did the same thing by their occult practices. ¹² They each threw down their staffs, and those staffs became snakes. However, Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³ But Pharaoh’s heart was hard,^[i] and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.