It was a night of vigil for the Lord to bring them out from the land of Egypt, ¹  and so ²  on this night all Israel is to keep the vigil ³  to the Lord for generations to come.

When it was reported ¹  to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, ²  the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and the king and his servants said, ³  “What in the world have we done? ⁴  For we have released the people of Israel ⁵  from serving us!”

Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! ¹  Stand firm ²  and see ³  the salvation ⁴  of the Lord that he will provide ⁵  for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again. ⁶ 

But the people were very thirsty ¹  there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, “Why in the world ²  did you bring us up out of Egypt – to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” ³ 

If a man gives his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep, and it dies or is hurt ¹  or is carried away ²  without anyone seeing it, ³ 

¹ The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me to the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets ²  with ³  the law and the commandments that I have written, so that you may teach them.” ⁴ 

Moses said, “You have been consecrated ¹  today for the Lord, for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today.” ² 

¹ The Lord said to Moses, “Cut out ²  two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write ³  on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you smashed.

So Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person ¹  in whom the Lord has put skill ²  and ability ³  to know how ⁴  to do all the work for the service ⁵  of the sanctuary are to do the work ⁶  according to all that the Lord has commanded.”

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?”

“Go and bring together ¹  the elders of Israel and tell them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, ²  appeared ³  to me – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – saying, “I have attended carefully ⁴  to you and to what has been done ⁵  to you in Egypt,

¹ So Moses went back ²  to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Let me go, so that I may return ³  to my relatives ⁴  in Egypt and see ⁵  if they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

And they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a three-day journey ¹  into the desert so that we may sacrifice ²  to the Lord our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or the sword.” ³ 

They will cover ¹  the surface ²  of the earth, so that you ³  will be unable to see the ground. They will eat the remainder of what escaped ⁴  – what is left over ⁵  for you – from the hail, and they will eat every tree that grows for you from the field.

They will fill your houses, the houses of your servants, and all the houses of Egypt, such as ¹  neither ²  your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen since they have been ³  in the land until this day!’” Then Moses ⁴  turned and went out from Pharaoh.

¹ It happened ²  at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

When Pharaoh stubbornly refused ¹  to release us, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of people to the firstborn of animals. ²  That is why I am sacrificing ³  to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb, but all my firstborn sons I redeem.’

The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died ¹  by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by ²  the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, ³  for you have brought us out into this desert to kill ⁴  this whole assembly with hunger!”

When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this ¹  that you are doing for the people? ²  Why are you sitting by yourself, and all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”

“If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, ¹  but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides. ²