Making Bricks Without Straw

5 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold ^(A)a feast to me in the wilderness.’” ² But Pharaoh said, ^(B)“Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, ^(C)I will not let Israel go.” ³ Then they said, “The ^(D)God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” ⁴ But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your ^(E)burdens.”

² God spoke to Moses and said to him, ^(A)“I am the Lord. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as ^(B)God Almighty,^[a] but by my name the ^(C)Lord I did not make myself known to them. ^4 (D)I also established my covenant with them ^(E)to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. ⁵ Moreover, ^(F)I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. ⁶ Say therefore to the people of Israel, ^(G)‘I am the Lord, and ^(H)I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and ^(I)I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. ⁷ I ^(J)will take you to be my people, and ^(K)I will be your God, and you shall know that ^(L)I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out ^(M)from under the burdens of the Egyptians. ⁸ I will bring you into ^(N)the land that I ^(O)swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. ^(P)I am the Lord.’” ⁹ Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they ^(Q)did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.