The Living Bible (23 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go back again and make your demand upon Pharaoh; but I have hardened him and his officials, so that I can do more miracles demonstrating my power.
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What stories you can tell your children and grandchildren about the incredible things I am doing in Egypt! Tell them what fools I made of the Egyptians, and how I proved to you that I am Jehovah.”
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So Moses and Aaron requested another audience with Pharaoh and told him: “Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, asks, ‘How long will you refuse to submit to me? Let my people go so they can worship me.
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If you refuse, tomorrow I will cover the entire nation with a thick layer of locusts so that you won’t even be able to see the ground, and they will finish destroying everything that escaped the hail.
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They will fill your palace, and the homes of your officials, and all the houses of Egypt. Never in the history of Egypt has there been a plague like this will be!’” Then Moses stalked out.
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The court officials now came to Pharaoh and asked him, “Are you going to destroy us completely? Don’t you know even yet that all Egypt lies in ruins? Let the
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go and serve Jehovah their God!”
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So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “All right, go and serve Jehovah your God!” he said. “But just who is it you want to go?”
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“We will go with our sons and daughters, flocks and herds,” Moses replied. “We will take everything with us; for we must all join in the holy pilgrimage.”
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“In the name of God I will not let you take your little ones!” Pharaoh retorted. “I can see your plot!
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Never! You that are men, go and serve Jehovah, for that is what you asked for.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
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Then the Lord said to Moses, “Hold out your hand over the land of Egypt to bring locusts—they will cover the land and eat everything the hail has left.”
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So Moses lifted his rod and Jehovah caused an east wind to blow all that day and night; and when it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts.
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And the locusts covered the land of Egypt from border to border; it was the worst locust plague in all Egyptian history; and there will never again be another like it.
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For the locusts covered the face of the earth and blotted out the sun so that the land was darkened; and they ate every bit of vegetation the hail had left; there remained not one green thing—not a tree, not a plant throughout all the land of Egypt.
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Then Pharaoh sent an urgent call for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I confess my sin against Jehovah your God and against you.
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Forgive my sin only this once, and beg Jehovah your God to take away this deadly plague. I solemnly promise that I will let you go as soon as the locusts are gone.”
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So Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord,
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and he sent a very strong west wind that blew the locusts out into the Red Sea, so that there remained not one locust in all the land of Egypt!
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But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not let the people go.
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Then Jehovah said to Moses, “Lift your hands to heaven, and darkness without a ray of light will descend upon the land of Egypt.”
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So Moses did, and there was thick darkness over all the land for three days.
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During all that time the people scarcely moved—but all the people of Israel had light as usual.
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Then Pharaoh called for Moses and said, “Go and worship Jehovah—but let your flocks and herds stay here; you can even take your children with you.”
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“No,” Moses said, “we must take our flocks and herds for sacrifices and burnt offerings to Jehovah our God.
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Not a hoof shall be left behind; for we must have sacrifices for the Lord our God, and we do not know what he will choose until we get there.”
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So the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not let them go.
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“Get out of here and don’t let me ever see you again,” Pharaoh shouted at Moses. “The day you do, you shall die.”
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“Very well,” Moses replied. “I will never see you again.”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will send just one more disaster on Pharaoh and his land, and after that he will let you go; in fact, he will be so anxious to get rid of you that he will practically throw you out of the country.
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Tell all the men and women of Israel to ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold and silver jewelry.”
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(For God caused the Egyptians to be very favorable to the people of Israel, and Moses was a very great man in the land of Egypt and was revered by Pharaoh’s officials and the Egyptian people alike.)
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Now Moses announced to Pharaoh,
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“Jehovah says, ‘About midnight I will pass through Egypt.
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And all the oldest sons shall die in every family in Egypt, from the oldest child of Pharaoh, heir to his throne, to the oldest child of his lowliest slave; and even the firstborn of the animals.
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The wail of death will resound throughout the entire land of Egypt; never before has there been such anguish, and it will never be again.
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“‘But not a dog shall move his tongue against any of the people of Israel, nor shall any of their animals die. Then you will know that Jehovah makes a distinction between Egyptians and Israelis.’
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All these officials of yours will come running to me, bowing low and begging, ‘Please leave at once, and take all your people with you.’ Only then will I go!” Then, red-faced with anger, Moses stomped from the palace.
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The Lord had told Moses, “Pharaoh won’t listen, and this will give me the opportunity of doing mighty miracles to demonstrate my power.”
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So, although Moses and Aaron did these miracles right before Pharaoh’s eyes, the Lord hardened his heart so that he wouldn’t let the people leave the land.
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
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“From now on, this month will be the first and most important of the entire year.
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Annually, on the tenth day of this month (announce this to all the people of Israel) each family shall get a lamb
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(or, if a family is small, let it share the lamb with another small family in the neighborhood; whether to share in this way depends on the size of the families).
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This animal shall be a year-old male, either a sheep or a goat, without any defects.
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“On the evening of the fourteenth day of this month, all these lambs shall be killed,
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and their blood shall be placed on the two side-frames of the door of every home and on the panel above the door. Use the blood of the lamb eaten in that home.
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Everyone shall eat roast lamb that night, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
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The meat must not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted, including the head, legs, heart, and liver.
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Don’t eat any of it the next day; if all is not eaten that night, burn what is left.
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“Eat it with your traveling clothes on, prepared for a long journey, wearing your walking shoes and carrying your walking sticks in your hands; eat it hurriedly. This observance shall be called the Lord’s Passover.
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For I will pass through the land of Egypt tonight and kill all the oldest sons and firstborn male animals in all the land of Egypt, and execute judgment upon all the gods of Egypt—for I am Jehovah.
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The blood you have placed on the doorposts will be proof that you obey me, and when I see the blood I will pass over you and I will not destroy your firstborn children when I smite the land of Egypt.
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“You shall celebrate this event each year (this is a permanent law) to remind you of this fatal night.
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The celebration shall last seven days. For that entire period you are to eat only bread made without yeast. Anyone who disobeys this rule at any time during the seven days of the celebration shall be excommunicated from Israel.
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On the first day of the celebration, and again on the seventh day, there will be special religious services for the entire congregation, and no work of any kind may be done on those days except the preparation of food.
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“This annual ‘Celebration with Unleavened Bread’ will cause you always to remember today as the day when I brought you out of the land of Egypt; so it is a law that you must celebrate this day annually, generation after generation.
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Only bread without yeast may be eaten from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month.
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For these seven days there must be no trace of yeast in your homes; during that time anyone who eats anything that has yeast in it shall be excommunicated from the congregation of Israel. These same rules apply to foreigners who are living among you just as much as to those born in the land.
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Again I repeat, during those days you must not eat anything made with yeast; serve only yeastless bread.”
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Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and get lambs from your flocks, a lamb for one or more families depending upon the number of persons in the families, and kill the lamb so that God will pass over you and not destroy you.
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Drain the lamb’s blood into a basin, and then take a cluster of hyssop branches and dip them into the lamb’s blood, and strike the hyssop against the lintel above the door and against the two side panels, so that there will be blood upon them, and none of you shall go outside all night.
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“For Jehovah will pass through the land and kill the Egyptians; but when he sees the blood upon the panel at the top of the door and on the two side pieces, he will pass over
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that home and not permit the Destroyer to enter and kill your firstborn.
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And remember, this is a permanent law for you and your posterity.
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And when you come into the land that the Lord will give you, just as he promised, and when you are celebrating the Passover,
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and your children ask, ‘What does all this mean? What is this ceremony about?’
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you will reply, ‘It is the celebration of Jehovah’s passing over us, for he passed over the homes of the people of Israel, though he killed the Egyptians; he passed over our houses and did not come in to destroy us.’” And all the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
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So the people of Israel did as Moses and Aaron had commanded.
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And that night, at midnight, Jehovah killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from Pharaoh’s oldest son to the oldest son of the captive in the dungeon; also all the firstborn of the cattle.
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Then Pharaoh and his officials and all the people of Egypt got up in the night; and there was bitter crying throughout all the land of Egypt, for there was not a house where someone had not died.
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And Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Leave us; please go away, all of you; go and serve Jehovah as you said.
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Take your flocks and herds and be gone; and oh, give me a blessing as you go.”
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And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people of Israel, to get them out of the land as quickly as possible. For they said, “We are as good as dead.”
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The Israelis took with them their bread dough without yeast, and bound their kneading troughs into their spare clothes, and carried them on their shoulders.
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And the people of Israel did as Moses said and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing.
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And the Lord gave the Israelis favor with the Egyptians, so that they gave them whatever they wanted. And the Egyptians were practically stripped of everything they owned!
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That night the people of Israel left Rameses and started for Succoth; there were six hundred thousand of them, besides all the women and children, going on foot.
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People of various sorts
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went with them; and there were flocks and herds—a vast exodus of cattle.
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When they stopped to eat, they baked bread from the yeastless dough they had brought along. It was yeastless because the people were pushed out of Egypt and didn’t have time to wait for bread to rise to take with them on the trip.
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The sons of Jacob and their descendants had lived in Egypt 430 years, and it was on the last day of the 430th year that all of Jehovah’s people left the land.
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This night was selected by the Lord to bring his people out from the land of Egypt; so the same night was selected as the date of the annual celebration of God’s deliverance.
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Then Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the rules concerning the observance of the Passover. No foreigners shall eat the lamb,
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but any slave who has been purchased may eat it if he has been circumcised.
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A hired servant or a visiting foreigner may not eat of it.
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You shall, all of you who eat each lamb, eat it together in one house, and not carry it outside; and you shall not break any of its bones.
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All the congregation of Israel shall observe this memorial at the same time.
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“As to foreigners, if they are living with you and want to observe the Passover with you, let all the males be circumcised, and then they may come and celebrate with you—then they shall be just as though they had been born among you; but no uncircumcised person shall ever eat the lamb.
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The same law applies to those born in Israel and to foreigners living among you.”
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So the people of Israel followed all of Jehovah’s instructions to Moses and Aaron.
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That very day the Lord brought out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt, wave after wave of them crossing the border.
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