So God treated the midwives well, ¹  and the people multiplied and became very strong.

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” ¹ 

The people kept ¹  their distance, but Moses drew near the thick darkness ²  where God was. ³ 

So Moses set out ¹  with ²  Joshua his attendant, and Moses went up the mountain of God.

and you then take ¹  his daughters for your sons, and when his daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will make your sons prostitute themselves to their gods as well.

I will take you to myself for a people, and I will be your God. ¹  Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from your enslavement to ²  the Egyptians.

The Lord ¹  is my strength and my song, ²  and he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, ³  my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

and they will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out from the land of Egypt, so that I may reside among them. I am the Lord their God.

Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought ¹  a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, ²  and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat food ³  with the father-in-law of Moses before God.

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

But as for you ¹  and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear ²  the Lord God.”

¹ Then Pharaoh quickly ²  summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned ³  against the Lord your God and against you!

“I, ¹  the Lord, am your God, ²  who brought you ³  from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. ⁴ 

Moses said ¹  to God, “If ²  I go to the Israelites and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ ³  – what should I say ⁴  to them?”

¹ When Pharaoh released ²  the people, God did not lead them ³  by the way to the land ⁴  of the Philistines, ⁵  although ⁶  that was nearby, for God said, ⁷  “Lest ⁸  the people change their minds ⁹  and return to Egypt when they experience war.”

Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire ¹  of God.

Who is like you, ¹  O Lord, among the gods? ²  Who is like you? – majestic in holiness, fearful in praises, ³  working wonders?

But ¹  the midwives feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. ² 

Moses said ¹  to God, ²  “Who am I, that I should go ³  to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

We must go ¹  on a three-day journey ²  into the desert and sacrifice ³  to the Lord our God, just as he is telling us.” ⁴