and I said to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me,’ but since you have refused to let him go, I will surely kill your son, your firstborn!”’”

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.

The Israelite foremen saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce the daily quota of your bricks.”

I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and hard labor.

But Moses replied to the Lord, “If the Israelites did not listen to me, then how will Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with difficulty?”

These are the heads of their fathers’ households: The sons of Reuben, the firstborn son of Israel, were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were the clans of Reuben.

Now these are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their records: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. (The length of Levi’s life was 137 years.)

It was the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their regiments.”

They were the men who were speaking to Pharaoh king of Egypt, in order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. It was the same Moses and Aaron.

You are to speak everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh that he must release the Israelites from his land.

Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I extend my hand over Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.

And the Lord did this on the next day; all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but of the Israelites’ livestock not one died.

So Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, and he did not release the Israelites, as the Lord had predicted through Moses.

No one could see another person, and no one could rise from his place for three days. But the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

It was a night of vigil for the Lord to bring them out from the land of Egypt, and so on this night all Israel is to keep the vigil to the Lord for generations to come.

So all the Israelites did exactly as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

And on this very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their regiments.

So God brought the people around by the way of the desert to the Red Sea, and the Israelites went up from the land of Egypt prepared for battle.

But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he chased after the Israelites. Now the Israelites were going out defiantly.