<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said to Moses, &#8220;Extend your hand toward the sea, so that the waters may flow<n id="1" /> back on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen!&#8221;

The water returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh that was coming after the Israelites into the sea<n id="1" /> &#8211; not so much as one of them survived!<n id="2" />

<t /><n id="1" /><p class="bodytext">Then Moses led Israel to journey<n id="2" /> away from the Red Sea. They went out to the Desert of Shur, walked for three days<n id="3" /> into the desert, and found no water.

Then they came to Marah,<n id="1" /> but they were not able to drink<n id="2" /> the waters of Marah, because<n id="3" /> they were bitter.<n id="4" /> (That is<n id="5" /> why its name was<n id="6" /> Marah.)p>

<t /><n id="1" /><p class="bodytext">The whole community<n id="2" /> of the Israelites traveled on their journey<n id="3" /> from the Desert of Sin according to the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s instruction, and they pitched camp in Rephidim.<n id="4" /> Now<n id="5" /> there was no water for the people to drink.<n id="6" />

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;You shall not make for yourself a carved image<n id="1" /> or any likeness<n id="2" /> of anything<n id="3" /> that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below.<n id="4" />

&#8220;You are also to make a large bronze<n id="1" /> basin with a bronze stand<n id="2" /> for washing. You are to put it between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it,<n id="3" />

When they enter<n id="1" /> the tent of meeting, they must wash with<n id="2" /> water so that they do not die.<n id="3" /> Also, when they approach<n id="4" /> the altar to minister by burning incense<n id="5" /> as an offering made by fire<n id="6" /> to the <sc>Lordsc>,

Then the <sc>Lordsc> said to Moses, &#8220;Tell Aaron, &#8216;Take your staff and stretch out your hand over Egypt&#8217;s waters &#8211; over their rivers, over their canals,<n id="1" /> over their ponds, and over all their reservoirs<n id="2" /> &#8211; so that it becomes<n id="3" /> blood.&#8217; There will be blood everywhere in<n id="4" /> the land of Egypt, even in wooden and stone containers.&#8221;

Thus says the <sc>Lordsc>: &#8220;By this you will know that I am the <sc>Lordsc>: I am going to strike<n id="1" /> the water of the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned into blood.<n id="2" />

<t /><n id="1" /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc><n id="2" /> said to Moses, &#8220;Get up early in the morning and position yourself before Pharaoh as he goes out to the water, and tell him, &#8216;Thus says the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;Release my people that they may serve me!

Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the <sc>Lordsc> drove the sea apart<n id="1" /> by a strong east wind all that night, and he made the sea into dry land, and the water was divided.

<p class="poetry">For the horses of Pharaoh came with his chariots and his footmen into the sea,p> <p class="poetry">and the <sc>Lordsc> brought back the waters of the sea on them,p> <p class="poetry">but the Israelites walked on dry land in the middle of the sea.&#8221;p>

So the people contended<n id="1" /> with Moses, and they said, &#8220;Give us water to drink!&#8221;<n id="2" /> Moses said to them, &#8220;Why do you contend<n id="3" /> with me? Why do you test<n id="4" /> the <sc>Lordsc>?&#8221;

But the people were very thirsty<n id="1" /> there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, &#8220;Why in the world<n id="2" /> did you bring us up out of Egypt &#8211; to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

I will be standing<n id="1" /> before you there on<n id="2" /> the rock in Horeb, and you will strike<n id="3" /> the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink.&#8221;<n id="4" /> And Moses did so in plain view<n id="5" /> of the elders of Israel.p>

He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it<n id="1" /> to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.<n id="2" />p>

So he was there with the <sc>Lordsc> forty days and forty nights;<n id="1" /> he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.<n id="2" />p>