In the third month after the Israelites went out from the land of Egypt, on the very day, they came to the Desert of Sinai.

Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, “Thus you will tell the house of Jacob, and declare to the people of Israel:

and you will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites.”

The Lord said to Moses: “Thus you will tell the Israelites: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken with you from heaven.

But to Moses the Lord said, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from a distance.

But he did not lay a hand on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, and they ate and they drank.

Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in plain view of the people.

“Tell the Israelites to take an offering for me; from every person motivated by a willing heart you are to receive my offering.

“You are to command the Israelites that they bring to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, so that the lamps will burn regularly.

“Now this is what you are to do for them to consecrate them so that they may minister as my priests. Take a young bull and two rams without blemish;

Moses assembled the whole community of the Israelites and said to them, “These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do.

So all the work of the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was completed, and the Israelites did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses – they did it exactly so.

During that long period of time the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry because of their slave labor went up to God.

The Israelite foremen whom Pharaoh’s slave masters had set over them were beaten and were asked, “Why did you not complete your requirement for brickmaking as in the past – both yesterday and today?”

Pharaoh will not listen to you. I will reach into Egypt and bring out my regiments, my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.

But against any of the Israelites not even a dog will bark against either people or animals, so that you may know that the Lord distinguishes between Egypt and Israel.’

I will pass through the land of Egypt in the same night, and I will attack all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of humans and of animals, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord.

Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested!

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.

And as for you, lift up your staff and extend your hand toward the sea and divide it, so that the Israelites may go through the middle of the sea on dry ground.