Old/New Testament
Chapter 4
Moses Is Encouraged and Receives the Gift of Working Prodigies.[a] 1 Moses answered, “Behold, they will not believe me nor listen to my voice. They will say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ” 2 The Lord said to him, “What is in your hand?” He answered, “A staff.” 3 The Lord said, “Throw it to the ground.” He threw the staff to the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses retreated away from it. 4 The Lord said to Moses, “Reach out and take it by its tail.” He reached out and took it, and it became a staff again in his hand. 5 “This is so that they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
6 The Lord continued, “Place your hand inside your tunic.” He placed his hand in his tunic and then drew it out. Behold, his hand was covered with leprosy and was white as the snow.[b] 7 The Lord said, “Put your hand back in your tunic.” He put his hand back in the tunic and drew it out again. Behold, it was once again like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you and heed the first sign, then they will believe the message of the second. 9 If they do not believe either of the signs and will not listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on dry ground. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.”
10 Aaron, Spokesman for Moses. Moses said to the Lord, “My Lord, I am not eloquent. I have never been so in the past nor now that you have begun to speak to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” 11 The Lord told him, “Who has made man with a mouth? Who can make him mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go! I will be with your mouth and supervise what you are to say.” 13 Moses said, “Forgive me, my Lord, but please send someone else.” 14 The Lord became angry with Moses and said to him, “Do you not have a brother, Aaron, a Levite. I know that he can speak well. He is now on his way here to meet you. When he sees you, his heart will rejoice.[c] 15 You will speak to him and place the words he is to say in his mouth. I will be with you and with him while you speak and I will tell you what you are to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you. It will be as if he is your mouth and you are his God. 17 Take this staff in your hand and perform the signs with it.”
18 Moses Returns to Egypt.[d] Moses left and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and told him, “Let me leave and return to my brothers who are in Egypt to see if they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” 19 The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt, for those who sought to kill you are dead.” 20 Moses took his wife and his sons, placed them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses held the staff of God in his hand.
21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you do all the signs that I have placed in your hand in the presence of Pharaoh. But I will harden his heart and he will not let my people go. 22 You will say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is my firstborn son. 23 I have told you to let my son go so that he might serve me, but you have refused to let him leave. Therefore, I will kill your firstborn son.” ’ ”
24 [e]On the way, when they were camped for the night, the Lord came and tried to kill Moses. 25 Zipporah took a flint knife and cut the foreskin of her son and with it touched Moses’ feet and said, “You are now my spouse of blood.” 26 Then God let him go. She said “spouse of blood” because of the circumcision.
27 Moses Makes Contact with His People.[f] The Lord said to Aaron, “Go meet Moses in the desert.” He went and met Moses on the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Moses told Aaron all the words that God had sent him to say and about all the signs that he had commanded him to do. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled the elders of the children of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke to the people, telling them all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and performing the signs before the people. 31 The people believed when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and had seen their affliction. They knelt down in worship.
Chapter 5[g]
First Audience of Moses with Pharaoh. 1 Afterward, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and proclaimed to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Let my people go so that they might celebrate a feast in the desert.’ ” 2 Pharaoh answered, “Who is the Lord that I should listen to his voice and let Israel leave? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel leave.” 3 They said, “The God of the Hebrews has appeared to us. Let us leave for a journey of three days into the desert to celebrate a sacrifice to the Lord, our God, lest he punish us with plague or the sword.”
4 The king of Egypt said to them, “Why, Moses and Aaron, do you take the people away from their work? Return to your work.” 5 Pharaoh added, “Behold how numerous the people of the land are. Would you have them rest from their labors?”
6 On that day, Pharaoh gave this order to the taskmasters of the people and to his overseers:[h] 7 “Do not give any more straw[i] for making bricks to the people as you previously have. Let them get their own straw. 8 But you must demand that they make the same number of bricks as before, without any reduction. They are lazy. That is why they are protesting, ‘We wish to leave, we must sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let more work be laid upon them so that they keep busy and not pay attention to lies.”
10 The taskmasters of the people and the overseers went out and spoke to the people: “Pharaoh has ordered, ‘I will not give you straw. 11 You can go and gather it for yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work must not decline.’ ”
12 The people scattered all throughout Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 But the taskmasters urged them on saying, “Finish your work, your daily quota, just as when you were given straw.”
14 Complaint of the Overseers. The overseers of the children of Israel, whom the taskmasters of Pharaoh had placed over them, beat them saying, “Why have you not finished your number of bricks today and yesterday like you did before?”
15 The overseers of the children of Israel came to Pharaoh and appealed to him saying, “Why do you treat your servants like this? 16 You have not given straw to your servants, but you tell them to make bricks. Your servants are beaten and it is the fault of your own people.” 17 He answered, “You are lazy, lazy! This is why you say, ‘We want to leave; we must sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 Now go, work! You will not be given straw, but you will produce the same number of bricks.”
19 The overseers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “Do not lower the daily number of bricks.” 20 Upon leaving Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who were waiting for them. 21 They said, “The Lord look upon you and judge, for you have made us hateful to Pharaoh and his ministers. You placed the sword in their hands to kill us.”
22 Renewal of God’s Promise. Moses turned again to the Lord and said, “My Lord, why have you treated this people so badly? Why did you send me? 23 From the time that I went to Pharaoh to speak to him in your name, he has treated this people harshly and you have not done anything to free your people.”
Chapter 6
1 The Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I am about to do to Pharaoh. With a mighty hand he will let them go. With a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land.”
Another Account of Moses’ Call.[j] 2 God spoke to Moses and told him, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God the all-powerful, but I did not reveal my name, the Lord, to them. 4 I established a covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, that land where they dwelt as aliens.
5 “And now I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel in their bondage to the Egyptians and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Therefore, say to the children of Israel, ‘I am the Lord. I will bring you out from your forced labor to the Egyptians. I will free you from their slavery and liberate you with an outstretched arm[k] and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord, your God, who will bring you out from your forced labor to the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore with an oath I would give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you as an inheritance, for I am the Lord.’ ”
9 Moses said these things to the children of Israel, but they did not listen to him, for they were at the limits of their endurance because of their harsh slavery.[l]
10 The Lord said to Moses: 11 “Go to speak with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, so that he will let the children of Israel leave his land.” 12 But Moses said these things in God’s presence, “Behold, the children of Israel have not listened to me; how could Pharaoh listen to me, for I am a man of unskilled speech?”
13 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them orders for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the children of Israel leave the land of Egypt.
14 Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. These are the heads of their families. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the families of Reuben. 15 The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of the Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon.
16 These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Levi lived to be one hundred and thirty-seven years old.
17 The sons of Gershon, by their clans, were Libni and Shimei.
18 The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Kohath lived to be one hundred and thirty-three years old.
19 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of Levi according to their generations.
20 Amram took Jochebed as his wife. She was his father’s sister. She bore Aaron and Moses and Miriam. Amram lived to be one hundred and thirty-seven years old.
21 The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.
22 The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.
23 Aaron took Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, as his wife. She bore Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
24 The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the families of the Korahites.
25 Eleazar, the son of Aaron, took a daughter of Putiel, as a wife. She bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the ancestral clans of Levi.
26 These are the Aaron and the Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring the children of Israel out from the land of Egypt according to their hosts.”
27 They told Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to let the children of Israel leave Egypt. They are Moses and Aaron.
28 Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. This is what happened when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt. 29 The Lord said to Moses, “I am the Lord! Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, what I say to you.” 30 Moses spoke in the presence of the Lord, “Behold, I am a poor speaker, how will Pharaoh listen to me?”
22 Jesus Walks on the Water.[a] Then Jesus instructed the disciples to get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. 23 After he sent them away, he went by himself up on the mountain to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. 24 Meanwhile, the boat was already some distance from the shore, battered by waves and a strong wind.
25 During the fourth watch[b] of the night, Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the water they were terrified, and they cried out in their fright, “It is a ghost!” 27 But Jesus immediately spoke to them, saying, “Have courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.”
28 Peter answered, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you across the water.” 29 He said, “Come!” Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water toward Jesus. 30 But when he realized the force of the wind, he became frightened. As he began to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught hold of him, saying, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 After they got into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Those in the boat fell to their knees in worship, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”[c]
34 Jesus Heals the Sick at Gennesaret. After they had completed the crossing, they landed at Gennesaret.[d] 35 When the people there recognized him, they sent word of his presence throughout the region. They also brought him all those who were sick 36 and begged him to let them touch only the edge of his cloak. All who touched it were completely healed.
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