Study Desk

So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

"Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us.

So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.

But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said.

Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"

Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him.

They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."

During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.

"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.

Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead."

"You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw.

Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."

So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw.

The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, "Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw."

The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, "You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day."

Moses said to Pharaoh, "I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile."