Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, for in the thing in which they dealt proudly against them he has destroyed them.”

Moses saw that the people were running wild, for Aaron had let them get completely out of control, causing derision from their enemies.

For you must not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women – for the Hebrew women are vigorous; they give birth before the midwife gets to them!”

Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

and the people believed. When they heard that the Lord had attended to the Israelites and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed down close to the ground.

“If a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

Take heed because of him, and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him.

They must not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.”

For if you refuse to release them and continue holding them,

(Now the flax and the barley were struck by the hail, for the barley had ripened and the flax was in bud.

But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are later crops.)

for it is his only covering – it is his garment for his body. What else can he sleep in? And when he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

And because the midwives feared God, he made households for them.

The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a healthy child, she hid him for three months.

He looked this way and that and saw that no one was there, and then he attacked the Egyptian and concealed the body in the sand.

When she bore a son, Moses named him Gershom, for he said, “I have become a resident foreigner in a foreign land.”

But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, not even under force.

You go get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’”