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So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
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“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”
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His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
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Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.
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So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
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“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
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So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
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Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.
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Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
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But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”
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Moses Returns to Egypt
Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
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So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
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Bricks Without Straw
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 to me in the wilderness.’”
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Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
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Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”
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“You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw.
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Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw.
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Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’”
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So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw.
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The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.”
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Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”
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Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”
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And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”
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Aaron’s Staff Becomes a Snake
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
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“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”
