<p class="bodytext">&#8220;Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the <sc>Lordsc><n id="1" /> alone must be utterly destroyed.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">But Pharaoh replied,<n id="1" /> &#8220;You are slackers! Slackers!<n id="2" /> That is why you are saying, &#8216;Let us go sacrifice to the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8217;

<p class="bodytext">Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, &#8220;Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.&#8221;<n id="1" />

We must go<n id="1" /> on a three-day journey<n id="2" /> into the desert and sacrifice<n id="3" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> our God, just as he is telling us.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;You must not offer<n id="1" /> the blood of my sacrifice with bread containing yeast; the fat of my festal sacrifice must not remain until morning.<n id="2" />

He sent young Israelite men,<n id="1" /> and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings<n id="2" /> to the <sc>Lordsc>.

But Moses said, &#8220;That would not be the right thing to do,<n id="1" /> for the sacrifices we make<n id="2" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> our God would be an abomination<n id="3" /> to the Egyptians.<n id="4" /> If we make sacrifices that are an abomination to the Egyptians right before their eyes,<n id="5" /> will they not stone us?<n id="6" />

<p class="bodytext">Then Pharaoh summoned<n id="1" /> Moses and Aaron and said, &#8220;Pray<n id="2" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> that he may take the frogs away<n id="3" /> from me and my people, and I will release<n id="4" /> the people that they may sacrifice<n id="5" /> to the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">Pharaoh said, &#8220;I will release you<n id="1" /> so that you may sacrifice<n id="2" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> your God in the desert. Only you must not go very far.<n id="3" /> Do<n id="4" /> pray for me.&#8221;p>

Be careful<n id="1" /> not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when<n id="2" /> they prostitute themselves<n id="3" /> to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you,<n id="4" /> you will eat from his sacrifice;

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;The elders<n id="1" /> will listen<n id="2" /> to you, and then you and the elders of Israel must go to the king of Egypt and tell him, &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc>, the God of the Hebrews, has met<n id="3" /> with us. So now, let us go<n id="4" /> three days&#8217; journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice<n id="5" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> our God.&#8217;

And they said, &#8220;The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a three-day journey<n id="1" /> into the desert so that we may sacrifice<n id="2" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or the sword.&#8221;<n id="3" />

But you must require<n id="1" /> of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before.<n id="2" /> Do not reduce it, for they are slackers.<n id="3" /> That is why they are crying, &#8216;Let us go sacrifice to our God.&#8217;

<p class="bodytext">Moses said, &#8220;I am going to go out<n id="1" /> from you and pray to the <sc>Lordsc>, and the swarms of flies will go away from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow. Only do not let Pharaoh deal falsely again<n id="2" /> by not releasing<n id="3" /> the people to sacrifice to the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8221;

When Pharaoh stubbornly refused<n id="1" /> to release us, the <sc>Lordsc> killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of people to the firstborn of animals.<n id="2" /> That is why I am sacrificing<n id="3" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> the first male offspring of every womb, but all my firstborn sons I redeem.&#8217;

<p class="bodytext">&#8216;You must make for me an altar made of earth,<n id="1" /> and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings,<n id="2" /> your sheep and your cattle. In every place<n id="3" /> where I cause my name to be honored<n id="4" /> I will come to you and I will bless you.

They have quickly turned aside<n id="1" /> from the way that I commanded them &#8211; they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, &#8216;These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.&#8217;&#8221;p>