Read the Bible

¹ Praise the Lord
    and pray in his name!
    Tell everyone
    what he has done.
² Sing praises to the Lord!
    Tell about his miracles.
³ Celebrate and worship
his holy name
    with all your heart.

⁴ Trust the Lord
    and his mighty power.
⁵ Remember his miracles
and all his wonders
    and his fair decisions.
⁶ You belong to the family
    of Abraham, his servant;
    you are his chosen ones,
    the descendants of Jacob.

⁷ The Lord is our God,
    bringing justice
    everywhere on earth.
⁸ He will never forget
his agreement or his promises,
    not in thousands of years.
⁹ God made an eternal promise
¹⁰     to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
¹¹     when he said, "I'll give you
    the land of Canaan."

¹² At the time there were
only a few of us,
    and we were homeless.
¹³ We wandered from nation
to nation,
    from one country
    to another.
¹⁴ God did not let anyone
    mistreat our people.
Instead he protected us
    by punishing rulers
¹⁵     and telling them,
"Don't touch my chosen leaders
    or harm my prophets!"

¹⁶ God kept crops from growing
    until food was scarce
    everywhere in the land.
¹⁷ But he had already sent Joseph,
    sold as a slave into Egypt,
¹⁸     with chains of iron
    around his legs and neck.

¹⁹ Joseph remained a slave
until his own words
    had come true,
    and the Lord had finished
    testing him.
²⁰ Then the king of Egypt
    set Joseph free
²¹     and put him in charge
    of everything he owned.
²² Joseph was in command
    of the officials,
    and he taught the leaders
    how to use wisdom.

²³ Jacob and his family
came
    and settled in Egypt
    as foreigners.
²⁴ They were the Lord's people,
    so he let them grow stronger
    than their enemies.
²⁵ They served the Lord,
and he made the Egyptians plan
    hateful things against them.
²⁶ God sent his servant Moses.
He also chose and sent Aaron
²⁷     to his people in Egypt,
    and they worked miracles
    and wonders there.
²⁸ Moses and Aaron obeyed God,
    and he sent darkness
    to cover Egypt.
²⁹ God turned their rivers
into streams of blood,
    and the fish all died.
³⁰ Frogs were everywhere,
    even in the royal palace.
³¹ When God gave the command,
    flies and gnats
    swarmed all around.

³² In place of rain,
God sent hailstones
    and flashes of lightning.
³³ He destroyed their grapevines
    and their fig trees,
    and he made splinters
    of all the other trees.
³⁴ God gave the command,
and more grasshoppers came
    than could be counted.
³⁵ They ate every green plant
    and all the crops that grew
    in the land of Egypt.
³⁶ Then God took the life
    of every first-born son.

³⁷ When God led Israel from Egypt,
    they took silver and gold,
    and no one was left behind.
³⁸ The Egyptians were afraid
    and gladly let them go.
³⁹ God hid them under a cloud
    and guided them by fire
    during the night.

⁴⁰ When they asked for food,
    he sent more birds
    than they could eat.
⁴¹ God even split open a rock,
    and streams of water
    gushed into the desert.
⁴² God never forgot
his sacred promise
    to his servant Abraham.

⁴³ When the Lord rescued
his chosen people from Egypt,
    they celebrated with songs.
⁴⁴ The Lord gave them the land
    and everything else
    the nations had worked for.
⁴⁵ He did this so that his people
    would obey all of his laws.
    Shout praises to the Lord!