Exodus 4-6

Complete Jewish Bible

4 Moshe replied, “But I’m certain they won’t believe me, and they won’t listen to what I say, because they’ll say, ‘Adonai did not appear to you.’” ² Adonai answered him, “What is that in your hand?” and he said, “A staff.” ³ He said, “Throw it on the ground!” and he threw it on the ground. It turned into a snake, and Moshe recoiled from it. ⁴ Then Adonai said to Moshe, “Put your hand out and take it by the tail.” He reached out with his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand. ⁵ “This is so that they will believe that Adonai, the God of their fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov, has appeared to you!”

⁶ Furthermore Adonai said to him, “Now put your hand inside your coat.” He put his hand in his coat; and when he took it out his hand was leprous, as white as snow. ⁷ Then God said, “Now put your hand back in your coat.” He put his hand back in his coat; and when he took it out, it was as healthy as the rest of his body. ⁸ “If they won’t believe you or heed the evidence of the first sign, they will be convinced by the second. ⁹ But if they aren’t persuaded even by both these signs and still won’t listen to what you say, then take some water from the river, and pour it on the ground. The water you take from the river will turn into blood on the dry land.”

¹⁰ Moshe said to Adonai, “Oh, Adonai, I’m a terrible speaker. I always have been, and I’m no better now, even after you’ve spoken to your servant! My words come slowly, my tongue moves slowly.” ¹¹ Adonai answered him, “Who gives a person a mouth? Who makes a person dumb or deaf, keen-sighted or blind? Isn’t it I, Adonai? ¹² Now, therefore, go; and I will be with your mouth and will teach you what to say.”

¹³ But he replied, “Please, Lord, send someone else — anyone you want!” ¹⁴ At this, Adonai’s anger blazed up against Moshe; he said, “Don’t you have a brother, Aharon the Levi? I know that he’s a good speaker. In fact, here he is now, coming out to meet you; and he’ll be happy to see you. ¹⁵ You will speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and his, teaching you both what to do. ¹⁶ Thus he will be your spokesman to the people, in effect; for you, he will be a mouth; and for him, you will be like God. ¹⁷ Now take this staff in your hand, because you need it to perform the signs.”

(vi) ¹⁸ Moshe left, returned to Yitro his father-in-law and said to him, “I beg you to let me go and return to my kinsmen in Egypt, to see if they are still alive.” Yitro said to Moshe, “Go in peace.” ¹⁹ Adonai said to Moshe in Midyan, “Go on back to Egypt, because all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.” ²⁰ So Moshe took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and started out for Egypt. Moshe took God’s staff in his hand. ²¹ Adonai said to Moshe, “When you get back to Egypt, make sure that you do before Pharaoh every one of the wonders I have enabled you to do. Nevertheless, I am going to make him hardhearted, and he will refuse to let the people go. ²² Then you are to tell Pharaoh: ‘Adonai says, “Isra’el is my firstborn son. ²³ I have told you to let my son go in order to worship me, but you have refused to let him go. Well, then, I will kill your firstborn son!”’”

²⁴ At a lodging-place on the way, Adonai met Moshe and would have killed him, ²⁵ had not Tzipporah taken a flintstone and cut off the foreskin of her son. She threw it at his feet, saying, “What a bloody bridegroom you are for me!” ²⁶ But then, God let Moshe be. She added, “A bloody bridegroom because of the circumcision!”

²⁷ Adonai said to Aharon, “Go into the desert to meet Moshe.” He went, met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. ²⁸ Moshe told him everything Adonai had said in sending him, including all the signs he had ordered him to perform. ²⁹ Then Moshe and Aharon went and gathered together all the leaders of the people of Isra’el. ³⁰ Aharon said everything Adonai had told Moshe, who then performed the signs for the people to see. ³¹ The people believed; when they heard that Adonai had remembered the people of Isra’el and seen how they were oppressed, they bowed their heads and worshipped.

5 (vii) After that, Moshe and Aharon came and said to Pharaoh, “Here is what Adonai, the God of Isra’el, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they can celebrate a festival in the desert to honor me.’” ² But Pharaoh replied, “Who is Adonai, that I should obey when he says to let Isra’el go? I don’t know Adonai, and I also won’t let Isra’el go.” ³ They said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days’ journey into the desert, so that we can sacrifice to Adonai our God. Otherwise, he may strike us with a plague or with the sword.” ⁴ The king of Egypt answered them, “Moshe and Aharon, what do you mean by taking the people away from their work? Get back to your labor! ⁵ Look!” Pharaoh added, “the population of the land has grown, yet you are trying to have them stop working!”

⁶ That same day Pharaoh ordered the slavemasters and the people’s foremen, ⁷ “You are no longer to provide straw for the bricks the people are making, as you did before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸ But you will require them to produce the same quantity of bricks as before, don’t reduce it, because they’re lazing around. This is why they’re crying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹ Give these people harder work to do. That will keep them too busy to pay attention to speeches full of lies.”

¹⁰ The people’s slavemasters went out, their foremen too, and said to the people, “Here is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will no longer give you straw. ¹¹ You go, yourselves, and get straw wherever you can find it. But your output is not to be reduced.’” ¹² So the people were dispersed throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. ¹³ The slavemasters kept pressing them. “Keep working! Make your daily quota, just as when straw was provided.” ¹⁴ The foremen of the people of Isra’el, whom Pharaoh’s slavemasters had appointed to be over them, were flogged and asked, “Why haven’t you fulfilled your quota of bricks yesterday and today, as you did formerly?”

¹⁵ Then the foremen of the people of Isra’el came and complained to Pharaoh: “Why are you treating your servants this way? ¹⁶ No straw is given to your servants, yet they keep telling us to make bricks. And now your servants are being flogged, but the fault lies with your own people.” ¹⁷ “Lazy!” he retorted, “You’re just lazy! That’s why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to Adonai.’ ¹⁸ Get going now, and get back to work! No straw will be given to you, and you will still deliver the full amount of bricks.” ¹⁹ When they said, “You are not to reduce your daily production quota of bricks,” the foremen of the people of Isra’el could see that they were in deep trouble.

²⁰ As they were leaving Pharaoh, they encountered Moshe and Aharon standing by the road; ²¹ and they said to them, “May Adonai look at you and judge accordingly, because you have made us utterly abhorrent in the view of Pharaoh and his servants, and you have put a sword in their hands to kill us!” (Maftir) ²² Moshe returned to Adonai and said, “Adonai, why have you treated this people so terribly? What has been the value of sending me? ²³ For ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has dealt terribly with this people! And you haven’t rescued your people at all!”

6 Adonai said to Moshe, “Now you will see what I am going to do to Pharaoh. With a mighty hand he will send them off; with force he will drive them from the land!”

Haftarah Sh’mot: Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) 27:6–28:13; 29:22–23 (A); Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 1:1–2:3 (S)

B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Sh’mot: Mattityahu (Matthew) 22:23–33; 41–46; Mark 12:18–27; 35–37; Luke 20:27–44; Acts 3:12–15; 5:27–32; 7:17–36; 22:12–16; 24:14–16; Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 11:23–26

Parashah 14: Va’era (I appeared) 6:2–9:35

² God spoke to Moshe; he said to him, “I am Adonai. ³ I appeared to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov as El Shaddai, although I did not make myself known to them by my name, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [Adonai]. ⁴ Also with them I established my covenant to give them the land of Kena‘an, the land where they wandered about and lived as foreigners. ⁵ Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Isra’el, whom the Egyptians are keeping in slavery; and I have remembered my covenant.

⁶ “Therefore, say to the people of Isra’el: ‘I am Adonai. I will free you from the forced labor of the Egyptians, rescue you from their oppression, and redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. ⁷ I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am Adonai your God, who freed you from the forced labor of the Egyptians. ⁸ I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov — I will give it to you as your inheritance. I am Adonai.’”

⁹ Moshe said this to the people of Isra’el. But they wouldn’t listen to him, because they were so discouraged, and their slavery was so cruel.

¹⁰ Adonai said to Moshe, ¹¹ “Go in; and tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Isra’el leave his land.” ¹² Moshe said to Adonai, “Look, the people of Isra’el haven’t listened to me; so how will Pharaoh listen to me, poor speaker that I am?” ¹³ But Adonai spoke to Moshe and Aharon and gave them orders concerning both the people of Isra’el and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the people of Isra’el out of the land of Egypt.

(ii) ¹⁴ These were the heads of their families: the sons of Re’uven the firstborn of Isra’el were Hanokh, Pallu, Hetzron and Karmi. These were the families of Re’uven.

¹⁵ The sons of Shim‘on were Y’mu’el, Yamin, Ohad, Yakhin, Tzochar and Sha’ul the son of a Kena‘ani woman. These were the families of Shim‘on.

¹⁶ These are the names of the sons of Levi with their descendants: Gershon, K’hat and M’rari. Levi lived to be 137 years old. ¹⁷ The sons of Gershon were Livni and Shim‘i, with their families. ¹⁸ The sons of K’hat were ‘Amram, Yitz’har, Hevron and ‘Uzi’el. K’hat lived to be 133 years old. ¹⁹ The sons of M’rari were Machli and Mushi. These were the families of Levi with their descendants.

²⁰ ‘Amram married Yokheved his father’s sister, and she bore him Aharon and Moshe. ‘Amram lived to be 137 years old. ²¹ The sons of Yitz’har were Korach, Nefeg and Zikhri. ²² The sons of ‘Uzi’el were Misha’el, Eltzafan and Sitri. ²³ Aharon married Elisheva daughter of ‘Amminadav and sister of Nachshon, and she bore him Nadav, Avihu, El‘azar and Itamar. ²⁴ The sons of Korach were Asir, Elkanah and Avi’asaf. These were the Korchi families. ²⁵ El‘azar the son of Aharon married one of the daughters of Puti’el, and she bore him Pinchas. These were the heads of the families of Levi, family by family.

²⁶ These are the Aharon and Moshe to whom Adonai said, “Bring the people of Isra’el out of the land of Egypt, division by division,” ²⁷ and who told Pharaoh king of Egypt, to let the people of Isra’el leave Egypt. These are the same Moshe and Aharon.

²⁸ On the day when Adonai spoke to Moshe in the land of Egypt, (iii) ²⁹ he said, “I am Adonai. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, everything I say to you.”

³⁰ Moshe answered Adonai, “Look, I’m such a poor speaker that Pharaoh won’t listen to me.”