Exodus JE-Source (Everett Fox)

Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.

A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.” So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor; and they built garrison cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the [Egyptians] came to dread the Israelites.

The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, saying, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool: if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives, fearing God, did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, letting the boys live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the midwife can come to them, they have given birth.” And God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and increased greatly. And [God] established households for the midwives, because they feared God. Then Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “Every boy that is born you shall throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

A certain member of the house of Levi went and took [into his household as his wife] a woman of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw how beautiful he was, she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and caulked it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. And his sister stationed herself at a distance, to learn what would befall him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it. When she opened it, she saw that it was a child, a boy crying. She took pity on it and said, “This must be a Hebrew child.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a Hebrew nurse to suckle the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter answered, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who made him her son. She named him Moses, explaining, “I drew him out of the water.”

Some time after that, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his kinsfolk and witnessed their labors. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen. He turned this way and that and, seeing no one about, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, he found two Hebrews fighting; so he said to the offender, “Why do you strike your fellow?” He retorted, “Who made you chief and ruler over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was frightened, and thought: Then the matter is known! When Pharaoh learned of the matter, he sought to kill Moses; but Moses fled from Pharaoh.

He arrived in the land of Midian, and sat down beside a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock; but shepherds came and drove them off. Moses rose to their defense, and he watered their flock. When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come back so soon today?” They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.” He said to his daughters, “Where is he then? Why did you leave the man? Ask him in to break bread.” Moses consented to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah as wife. She bore a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.” A long time after that, the king of Egypt died. {...}.

Now Moshe was shepherding the flock of Yitro his father-in-law, priest of Midyan. He led the flock behind the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, to Horev. And Yhwh’s messenger was seen by him as the flame of a fire out of the midst of a bush. He saw: now here, the bush is burning with fire, but the bush is not consumed! Moshe said: Now let me turn aside that I may see this great sight—for-what-reason does the bush not burn up? YHWH saw that he turned aside to see, so God called to him out of the midst of the bush; he said: Moshe! Moshe! He said: Here I am. He said: Do not come near to here; put off your sandal from your foot, for the place on which you stand—it is holy ground! And he said: I am the God of your father, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzhak, and the God of Yaakov. Moshe concealed his face, for he was afraid to gaze upon God. Now YHWH said: I have seen, yes, seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, their cry I have heard in the face of their slave-drivers; indeed, I have known their sufferings! So I have come down to rescue it from the hand of Egypt, to bring it up from that land to a land, goodly and spacious, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite, of the Amorite and the Perizzite, of the Hivvite and the Yevusite. So-now, here, the cry of the Children of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. So now, go, for I send you to Pharaoh—bring my people, the Children of Israel, out of Egypt! Moshe said to God: Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, that I should bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt? He said: Indeed, I will be with you, and this is the sign for you that I myself have sent you: [when] you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will [all] serve God by this mountain. Moshe said to God: Here, I will come to the Children of Israel and I will say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you, but they will say to me: What is his name?—what shall I say to them? God said to Moshe: Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh/I will be however I will be. And he said: Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel: EHYEH/I-WILL-BE has sent me to you. And God said further to Moshe: Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel: YHWH, the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzhak, and the God of Yaakov, has sent me to you. That is my name for the ages, that is my title [from] generation to generation. Go, gather the elders of Israel and say to them: YHWH, the God of your fathers, has been seen by me, the God of Avraham, of Yitzhak, and of Yaakov, saying: I have taken account, yes, account of you and of what is being done to you in Egypt, and I have declared: I will bring you up from the affliction of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanite and of the Hittite, of the Amorite and of the Perizzite, of the Hivvite and of the Yevusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey. They will hearken to your voice, and you will come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt and say to him: YHWH, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us— so now, pray let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness and let us slaughter (offerings) to YHWH our God! But I, I know that the king of Egypt will not give you leave to go, not [even] under a strong hand. So I will send forth my hand and I will strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in its midst—after that he will send you free! And I will give this people favor in the eyes of Egypt; it will be that when you go, you shall not go empty-handed: each woman shall ask of her neighbor and of the sojourner in her house objects of silver and objects of gold, and clothing; you shall put [them] on your sons and on your daughters—so shall you strip Egypt! Moshe spoke up, he said: But they will not trust me, and will not hearken to my voice, indeed, they will say: YHWH has not been seen by you…! YHWH said to him: What is that in your hand? He said: A staff. He said: Throw it to the earth! He threw it to the earth, and it became a snake, and Moshe fled from its face. YHWH said to Moshe: Send forth your hand! Seize it by its tail! —He sent forth his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his fist— so that they may trust that YHWH, the God of their fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzhak, and the God of Yaakov, has been seen by you. YHWH said further to him: Pray put your hand in your bosom! He put his hand in his bosom, and then he took it out, and here: his hand had tzaraat, like snow! Now he said: Return your hand to your bosom! He returned his hand to his bosom; then he took it out of his bosom, and here, it had returned [to be] like his flesh. So it shall be, if they do not trust you, and do not hearken to the voice of the former sign, that they will put their trust in the voice of the latter sign. And it shall be, if they do not put their trust in even these two signs, and do not hearken to your voice, then take some of the water of the Nile and pour it out on the dry-land, and the water that you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry-land. Moshe said to YHWH: Please, my Lord, no man of words am I, not from yesterday, not from the day-before, not [even] since you have spoken to your servant, for heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue am I! YHWH said to him: Who placed a mouth in human beings or who [is it that] makes one mute or deaf or open-eyed or blind? Is it not I, YHWH? So now, go! I myself will be with your mouth and will instruct you as to what you are to speak. But he said: Please, my Lord, pray send by whose hand you will send! YHWH’S anger flared up against Moshe; he said: Is there not Aharon your brother, the Levite—I know that he can speak, yes, speak, and here, he is even going out to meet you; when he sees you, he will rejoice in his heart. You shall speak to him, you shall put the words in his mouth! I myself will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will instruct you [both] as to what you shall do. He shall speak for you to the people; he, he shall be a mouth for you, and you, you shall be a god for him. And this staff, take in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.

Moshe went and returned to Yitro his father-in-law and said to him: Now pray let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, that I may see whether they are still alive. Yitro said to Moshe: Go in peace! Now YHWH said to Moshe in Midyan: Go, return to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life have died. So Moshe took his wife and his sons and mounted them upon a donkey, to return to the land of Egypt, and Moshe took the staff of God in his hand. YHWH said to Moshe: When you go to return to Egypt, see: all the portents that I have put in your hand, you are to do before Pharaoh, but I will make his heart strong willed, so that he will not send the people free. Then you are to say to Pharaoh: Thus says YHWH: My son, my firstborn, is Israel! I said to you: Send free my son, that he may serve me, but you have refused to send him free, [so] here, I will kill your son, your firstborn!

Now it was on the journey, at the night-camp, that YHWH encountered him and sought to make him die. Tzippora took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin; she touched it to his legs and said: Indeed, a bridegroom of blood are you to me! And he released him. Then she said, “a bridegroom of blood” upon the circumcision-cuttings.

YHWH said to Aharon: Go to meet Moshe in the wilderness! He went, he encountered him at the mountain of God and he kissed him. And Moshe told Aharon all YHWH’S words with which he had sent him and all the signs with which he had charged him.

Moshe and Aharon went; they gathered all the elders of the Children of Israel, and Aharon spoke all the words which YHWH had spoken to Moshe, and did the signs before the people’s eyes. The people trusted; they hearkened that YHWH had taken account of the Children of Israel, that he had seen their affliction. And they did homage and bowed low.

Afterward Moshe and Aharon came and said to Pharaoh: Thus says YHWH, the God of Israel: Send free my people, that they may hold-a-festival to me in the wilderness! Pharaoh said: Who is Yhwh, that I should hearken to his voice to send Israel free? I do not know YHWH, moreover, Israel I will not send free! They said: The God of the Hebrews has met with us; now let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, and let us sacrifice to YHWH our God, lest he confront us with the pestilence or the sword! The king of Egypt said to them: For-what reason, Moshe and Aharon, would you let the people loose from their tasks? Go back to your burdens!

Pharaoh said: Here, too many now are the people of the land, and you would have them cease from their burdens! So that day Pharaoh commanded the slave-drivers of the people and its officers, saying: You are no longer to give straw to the people to make the bricks as yesterday [and the] day-before; let it be them that go and gather straw for themselves! But the [same] measure of bricks that they have been making, yesterday [and the] day-before, you are to impose on them; you are not to subtract from it! For they are lax—therefore they cry out, saying: Let us go, let us sacrifice to our God! Let the servitude weigh-heavily on the men! They shall have to do it, so that they pay no more regard to false words! The slave-drivers of the people and its officers went out and said to the people, saying: Thus says Pharaoh: I will not give you straw: You go, get yourselves straw, wherever you can find [it]; indeed, not one [load] is to be subtracted from your servitude! The people scattered throughout all the land of Egypt, gathering stubble-gatherings for straw. But the slave-drivers pressed them hard, saying: Finish your tasks, each-day’s work-load in its day, as when there was straw! And they were beaten, the officers of the Children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s slave-drivers had set over them; they said [to them]: For-what-reason have you not finished baking your allocation as yesterday [and the] day-before, so yesterday, so today? So the officers of the Children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying: Why do you do thus to your servants? No straw is being given to your servants, and as for bricks—they say to us, Make [them]! Here, your servants are being beaten, and the fault is your people’s! But he said: Lax are you, lax, therefore you say: Let us go, let us sacrifice to YHWH—so-now, go—serve; no straw will be given to you, and the full-measure in bricks you must give back! The officers of the Children of Israel saw that they were in an ill plight, [having] to say: Do not subtract from your bricks each-day’s work-load in its day! They confronted Moshe and Aharon, stationing themselves to meet them when they came out from Pharaoh; they said to them: May YHWH see you and judge, for having made our smell reek in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants, giving a sword into their hand, to kill us! Moshe returned to YHWH and said: My Lord, why have you dealt so ill with this people? Why have you sent me? Since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has dealt only ill with this people, and rescued—you have not rescued your people! YHWH said to Moshe: Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand he will send them free, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.