Pharaoh sent representatives to investigate, ¹  and indeed, not even one of the livestock of Israel had died. But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ²  and he did not release the people.

For by now I could have stretched out ¹  my hand and struck you and your people with plague, and you would have been destroyed ²  from the earth.

So Pharaoh sent and summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time! ¹  The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty. ² 

Instruct ¹  the people that each man and each woman is to request ²  from his or her neighbor ³  items of silver and gold.” ⁴ 

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 

When Israel saw ¹  the great power ²  that the Lord had exercised ³  over the Egyptians, they ⁴  feared the Lord, and they believed in ⁵  the Lord and in his servant Moses. ⁶ 

¹ The whole community ²  of the Israelites traveled on their journey ³  from the Desert of Sin according to the Lord’s instruction, and they pitched camp in Rephidim. ⁴  Now ⁵  there was no water for the people to drink. ⁶ 

Jethro said, “Blessed ¹  be the Lord who has delivered you from the hand of Egypt, and from the hand of Pharaoh, who has delivered the people from the Egyptians’ control! ² 

You will surely wear out, ¹  both you and these people who are with you, for this is too ²  heavy a burden ³  for you; you are not able to do it by yourself.

Now listen to me, ¹  I will give you advice, and may God be with you: You be a representative for the people to God, ²  and you bring ³  their disputes ⁴  to God;

If you do this thing, and God so commands you, ¹  then you will be able ²  to endure, ³  and all these people ⁴  will be able to go ⁵  home ⁶  satisfied.” ⁷ 

They judged the people under normal circumstances; the difficult cases they would bring ¹  to Moses, but every small case they would judge themselves.

And now, if you will diligently listen to me ¹  and keep ²  my covenant, then you will be my ³  special possession ⁴  out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine,

So Moses came and summoned the elders of Israel. He set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him,

and be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

You must set boundaries ¹  for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed ²  to yourselves not to go up on the mountain nor touch its edge. Whoever touches the mountain will surely be put to death!

The Lord said to Moses, “Go down and solemnly warn ¹  the people, lest they force their way through to the Lord to look, and many of them perish. ² 

If she does not please ¹  her master, who has designated her ²  for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. ³  He has no right ⁴  to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has dealt deceitfully ⁵  with her.

“If you lend money to any of ¹  my people who are needy among you, do not be like a moneylender ²  to him; do not charge ³  him interest. ⁴ 

But in the seventh year ¹  you must let it lie fallow and leave it alone so that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave any animal in the field ²  may eat; you must do likewise with your vineyard and your olive grove.