Pharaoh said, “I will release you ¹  so that you may sacrifice ²  to the Lord your God in the desert. Only you must not go very far. ³  Do ⁴  pray for me.”

Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, ¹  that the fear of him ²  may be before you so that you do not ³  sin.”

When the Lord ¹  saw that ²  he had turned aside to look, God called to him from within the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” ³  And Moses ⁴  said, “Here I am.”

Then Moses took ¹  his wife and sons ²  and put them on a donkey and headed back ³  to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

The Lord said ¹  to Aaron, “Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God ²  and greeted him with a kiss. ³ 

The magicians said ¹  to Pharaoh, “It is the finger ²  of God!” But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ³  and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

So God brought the people around by the way of the desert to the Red Sea, ¹  and the Israelites went up from the land of Egypt prepared for battle. ² 

Moses ¹  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 ²  of Israel:

“The first of the firstfruits of your soil you must bring to the house of the Lord your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” ¹ 

He replied, ¹  “Surely I will be with you, ²  and this will be the sign ³  to you that I have sent you: When you bring the people out of Egypt, you and they will serve ⁴  God on this mountain.”

God ¹  said, “Do not approach any closer! ²  Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ³  ground.” ⁴ 

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph ¹  had made the Israelites solemnly swear, ²  “God will surely attend ³  to you, and you will carry ⁴  my bones up from this place with you.”

When they have a dispute, ¹  it comes to me and I decide ²  between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the decrees of God and his laws.” ³ 

¹ During ²  that long period of time ³  the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites ⁴  groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry ⁵  because of their slave labor went up to God.

Now Moses ¹  was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert ²  and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. ³ 

¹ Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, ²  the God of Israel, ‘Release ³  my people so that they may hold a pilgrim feast ⁴  to me in the desert.’”

But you must require ¹  of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. ²  Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. ³  That is why they are crying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our God.’

Tell him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you to say, ¹  “Release my people, that they may serve me ²  in the desert!” But until now ³  you have not listened. ⁴ 

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Release my people that they may serve me!

¹ The Lord said ²  to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, stand ³  before Pharaoh, and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: “Release my people so that they may serve me!