Exodus

Chapter 3

¹Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock beyond the wilderness, he came to the mountain of God, Horeb. ²There the angel of the Lord appeared to him as fire flaming out of a bush. When he looked, although the bush was on fire, it was not being consumed. ³So Moses decided, “I must turn aside to look at this remarkable sight. Why does the bush not burn up?” ⁴When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called out to him from the bush: Moses! Moses! He answered, “Here I am.” ⁵God said: Do not come near! Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. ⁶I am the God of your father, he continued, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The Call and Commission of Moses. ⁷But the Lord said: I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters, so I know well what they are suffering. ⁸Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them up from that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. ⁹Now indeed the outcry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰Now, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.

¹¹But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” ¹²God answered: I will be with you; and this will be your sign that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God at this mountain. ¹³“But,” said Moses to God, “if I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?” ¹⁴God replied to Moses: I am who I am. Then he added: This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.

¹⁵God spoke further to Moses: This is what you will say to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.

¹⁶Go and gather the elders of the Israelites, and tell them, The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I have observed you and what is being done to you in Egypt; ¹⁷so I have decided to lead you up out of your affliction in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁸They will listen to you. Then you and the elders of Israel will go to the king of Egypt and say to him: The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has come to meet us. So now, let us go a three days’ journey in the wilderness to offer sacrifice to the Lord, our God. ¹⁹Yet I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless his hand is forced. ²⁰So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wondrous deeds I will do in its midst. After that he will let you go. ²¹I will even make the Egyptians so well-disposed toward this people that, when you go, you will not go empty-handed. ²²Every woman will ask her neighbor and the resident alien in her house for silver and gold articles and for clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.

Chapter 4

¹“But,” objected Moses, “suppose they do not believe me or listen to me? For they may say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” ²The Lord said to him: What is in your hand? “A staff,” he answered. ³God said: Throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and Moses backed away from it. ⁴Then the Lord said to Moses: Now stretch out your hand and take hold of its tail. So he stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand. ⁵That is so they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did appear to you.

⁶Again the Lord said to him: Put your hand into the fold of your garment. So he put his hand into the fold of his garment, and when he drew it out, there was his hand covered with scales, like snowflakes. ⁷Then God said: Put your hand back into the fold of your garment. So he put his hand back into the fold of his garment, and when he drew it out, there it was again like his own flesh. ⁸If they do not believe you or pay attention to the message of the first sign, they should believe the message of the second sign. ⁹And if they do not believe even these two signs and do not listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry land.

Aaron’s Office as Assistant. ¹⁰Moses, however, said to the Lord, “If you please, my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue.” ¹¹The Lord said to him: Who gives one person speech? Who makes another mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹²Now go, I will assist you in speaking and teach you what you are to say. ¹³But he said, “If you please, my Lord, send someone else!” ¹⁴Then the Lord became angry with Moses and said: I know there is your brother, Aaron the Levite, who is a good speaker; even now he is on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he will truly be glad. ¹⁵You will speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will assist both you and him in speaking and teach you both what you are to do. ¹⁶He will speak to the people for you: he will be your spokesman, and you will be as God to him. ¹⁷Take this staff in your hand; with it you are to perform the signs.

Moses’ Return to Egypt. ¹⁸After this Moses returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my kindred in Egypt, to see whether they are still living.” Jethro replied to Moses, “Go in peace.” ¹⁹Then the Lord said to Moses in Midian: Return to Egypt, for all those who sought your life are dead. ²⁰So Moses took his wife and his sons, mounted them on the donkey, and started back to the land of Egypt. Moses took the staff of God with him. ²¹The Lord said to Moses: On your return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go. ²²So you will say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord: Israel is my son, my firstborn. ²³I said to you: Let my son go, that he may serve me. Since you refused to let him go, I will kill your son, your firstborn.

²⁴On the journey, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord came upon Moses and sought to put him to death. ²⁵But Zipporah took a piece of flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and, touching his feet, she said, “Surely you are a spouse of blood to me.” ²⁶So God let Moses alone. At that time she said, “A spouse of blood,” in regard to the circumcision.

²⁷The Lord said to Aaron: Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went; when meeting him at the mountain of God, he kissed him. ²⁸Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and all the signs he had commanded him to do. ²⁹Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the Israelites. ³⁰Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses, and he performed the signs before the people. ³¹The people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had observed the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they knelt and bowed down.

Chapter 11

Tenth Plague: The Death of the Firstborn. ¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses: One more plague I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. After that he will let you depart. In fact, when he finally lets you go, he will drive you away. ²Instruct the people that every man is to ask his neighbor, and every woman her neighbor, for silver and gold articles and for clothing. ³The Lord indeed made the Egyptians well-disposed toward the people; Moses himself was very highly regarded by Pharaoh’s servants and the people in the land of Egypt.

⁴Moses then said, “Thus says the Lord: About midnight I will go forth through Egypt. ⁵Every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the slave-girl who is at the handmill, as well as all the firstborn of the animals. ⁶Then there will be loud wailing throughout the land of Egypt, such as has never been, nor will ever be again. ⁷But among all the Israelites, among human beings and animals alike, not even a dog will growl, so that you may know that the Lord distinguishes between Egypt and Israel. ⁸All these servants of yours will then come down to me and bow down before me, saying: Leave, you and all your followers! Then I will depart.” With that he left Pharaoh’s presence in hot anger.

⁹The Lord said to Moses: Pharaoh will not listen to you so that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. ¹⁰Thus, although Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders in Pharaoh’s presence, the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go from his land.

Chapter 14

¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ²Speak to the Israelites: Let them turn about and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. Camp in front of Baal-zephon, just opposite, by the sea. ³Pharaoh will then say, “The Israelites are wandering about aimlessly in the land. The wilderness has closed in on them.” ⁴I will so harden Pharaoh’s heart that he will pursue them. Thus I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.

This the Israelites did. ⁵When it was reported to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart about the people. “What in the world have we done!” they said. “We have released Israel from our service!” ⁶So Pharaoh harnessed his chariots and took his army with him. ⁷He took six hundred select chariots and all the chariots of Egypt, with officers on all of them. ⁸The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites while they were going out in triumph. ⁹The Egyptians pursued them—all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, his horsemen, and his army—and caught up with them as they lay encamped by the sea, at Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

Crossing the Red Sea. ¹⁰Now Pharaoh was near when the Israelites looked up and saw that the Egyptians had set out after them. Greatly frightened, the Israelites cried out to the Lord. ¹¹To Moses they said, “Were there no burial places in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? ¹²Did we not tell you this in Egypt, when we said, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? Far better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” ¹³But Moses answered the people, “Do not fear! Stand your ground and see the victory the Lord will win for you today. For these Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. ¹⁴The Lord will fight for you; you have only to keep still.”

¹⁵Then the Lord said to Moses: Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to set out. ¹⁶And you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea, and split it in two, that the Israelites may pass through the sea on dry land. ¹⁷But I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots and his horsemen. ¹⁸The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I receive glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.

¹⁹The angel of God, who had been leading Israel’s army, now moved and went around behind them. And the column of cloud, moving from in front of them, took up its place behind them, ²⁰so that it came between the Egyptian army and that of Israel. And when it became dark, the cloud illumined the night; and so the rival camps did not come any closer together all night long. ²¹Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord drove back the sea with a strong east wind all night long and turned the sea into dry ground. The waters were split, ²²so that the Israelites entered into the midst of the sea on dry land, with the water as a wall to their right and to their left.

Rout of the Egyptians. ²³The Egyptians followed in pursuit after them—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen—into the midst of the sea. ²⁴But during the watch just before dawn, the Lord looked down from a column of fiery cloud upon the Egyptian army and threw it into a panic; ²⁵and he so clogged their chariot wheels that they could drive only with difficulty. With that the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from Israel, because the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

²⁶Then the Lord spoke to Moses: Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may flow back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and their horsemen. ²⁷So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal flow. The Egyptians were fleeing head on toward it when the Lord cast the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. ²⁸As the water flowed back, it covered the chariots and the horsemen. Of all Pharaoh’s army which had followed the Israelites into the sea, not even one escaped. ²⁹But the Israelites had walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, with the water as a wall to their right and to their left. ³⁰Thus the Lord saved Israel on that day from the power of Egypt. When Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore ³¹and saw the great power that the Lord had shown against Egypt, the people feared the Lord. They believed in the Lord and in Moses his servant.

Chapter 15

¹Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

¹⁹When Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen entered the sea, the Lord made the waters of the sea flow back upon them, though the Israelites walked on dry land through the midst of the sea. ²⁰Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, while all the women went out after her with tambourines, dancing; ²¹and she responded to them:

V. The Journey in the Wilderness to Sinai

At Marah and Elim. ²²Then Moses led Israel forward from the Red Sea, and they marched out to the wilderness of Shur. After traveling for three days through the wilderness without finding water, ²³they arrived at Marah, where they could not drink its water, because it was too bitter. Hence this place was called Marah. ²⁴As the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” ²⁵he cried out to the Lord, who pointed out to him a piece of wood. When he threw it into the water, the water became fresh.

It was here that God, in making statutes and ordinances for them, put them to the test. ²⁶He said: If you listen closely to the voice of the Lord, your God, and do what is right in his eyes: if you heed his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not afflict you with any of the diseases with which I afflicted the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer.

²⁷Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

For footnotes and cross references see BibleGateway.com or United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)