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Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.
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The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.
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The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
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There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.
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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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But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him.
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“And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed.
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Signs for Moses
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
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Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second.
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But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
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The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
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The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
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Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”
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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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Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”
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The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.”
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Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
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I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them.
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Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.
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But Moses said to the Lord, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?”
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he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.
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Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.
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Then say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened.
