Exodus 5-6

EasyEnglish Bible

Moses and Aaron speak to Pharaoh

5 After this, Moses and Aaron went to visit Pharaoh. They said to him, ‘Listen to what the Lord says. He is the God of Israel. He says, “Let my people go. Let them prepare a feast in the desert to worship me.” ’

² But Pharaoh said, ‘The Lord is not my god. I do not need to obey him. I do not have to let the Israelites go. I do not know the Lord. I will not let the Israelites go.’

³ Moses and Aaron said, ‘The God of the Israelites has met us. Please let us go. We must go on a journey of three days into the desert. There we must give gifts to the Lord our God. If we do not do this, God may punish us. We may become very ill, or people may attack us in war.’

⁴ But the king of Egypt said, ‘Moses and Aaron, you must not take the people away from their work! Go back to your jobs!’ ⁵ Pharaoh said, ‘Look, there are now many of your people who live in my country. But you are taking them away from their work.’

⁶ On that day, Pharaoh gave a command to the masters of the slaves, and to the leaders of the work. ⁷ This was the command: ‘Do not give the people any more straw to make bricks. Now they must go and find their own straw. ⁸ But they must still make the same number of bricks as they did before. Do not let them make fewer bricks. These people are lazy. That is why they are complaining. They say, “We want to go and offer sacrifices to our God.” ⁹ Make the work more difficult for them to do. They will have to do very hard work. They will be too busy to listen to the lies of their leaders.’^[a]

¹⁰ So the slaves' masters and the leaders of the work went to the Israelite people. They said to them, ‘Pharaoh says, “Now I will not give you straw. ¹¹ You must try to find straw for yourselves. But you will still have to make the same number of bricks.” ’

¹² So the people went everywhere in the land of Egypt, to get straw from the fields. ¹³ The slaves' masters made the Israelites work quickly. They said, ‘Finish all your work for each day, as much as when we gave straw to you.’ ¹⁴ Pharaoh's slave masters hit the Israelite leaders who had authority over the people. They said to them, ‘Why have you not made the complete number of bricks today, as you did before?’

¹⁵ Then the Israelite leaders of the work went to Pharaoh. They asked him, ‘Please sir, why do you do these things to us, your servants? ¹⁶ Our masters no longer give us any straw. But they say “Make bricks!” Then they hit us. But it is your people who are doing wrong things, not us.’

¹⁷ But Pharaoh said, ‘You Israelites are just lazy people! That is why you say, “Let us go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.” ¹⁸ Now go back and do your work. Nobody will give you any straw. But you must make the complete number of bricks.’

¹⁹ The Israelite work leaders heard Pharaoh say, ‘You must still make the same number of bricks as you made before.’ Then they knew that they were in trouble. ²⁰ When they left Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron were waiting for them to return from Pharaoh. ²¹ The work leaders said to Moses and Aaron, ‘We hope that the Lord will punish you! You have made us like a bad smell to Pharaoh and to his officers. You have given them a reason to kill us.’

²² Then Moses returned to the Lord. He said, ‘My Lord, why have you brought trouble to these people? Why did you send me to lead them? ²³ I went to speak to Pharaoh with your authority. But since I spoke to Pharaoh, he has caused these people to have trouble. And you have done nothing to save your people.’

God promises to save the Israelites

6 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. I will use my great power to make him let my people go. With my strong power I will cause him to make them leave his land.’

² And God said to Moses, ‘I am the Lord. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I showed them that I am God Almighty. But I did not let them know me by my special name, the Lord. ⁴ I also made my covenant with them. I promised to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as foreign people. ⁵ I have heard the Israelites when they cry in pain. I know that the Egyptians have caused the Israelites to be their slaves. Now I have thought about my covenant. ⁶ So you must say this to the Israelites: “I am the Lord. I will remove you from the power of the Egyptians. You will not have to do hard work to serve them as their slaves any more. I will use my strength to save you and I will punish the Egyptians. ⁷ I will cause you to be my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord. I am your God who saved you from the power of the Egyptians. ⁸ I will take you to live in another land. That is the land that I promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Yes, I will give it to you and it will belong to you. I am the Lord.” ’

⁹ Moses told the Lord's message to the Israelites. But they refused to listen to him. They were very weak and tired, because their Egyptian masters were so cruel to them.

¹⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹¹ ‘Go and speak to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Tell him that he must let the Israelites go out of his country.’ ¹² But Moses said to the Lord, ‘Look! Even the Israelites have not listened to me. So Pharaoh certainly will not listen to me. You know that I do not speak well.’

¹³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites, and about Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. He commanded Moses and Aaron to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

The ancestors of Moses and Aaron

¹⁴ These were the leaders of their family clans:

Israel's firstborn son was Reuben. Reuben's sons were: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were Reuben's family clans.

¹⁵ The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul. Shaul was the son of a Canaanite woman. These were Simeon's family clans.

¹⁶ These are the names of the sons of Levi, from the oldest to the youngest: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi himself lived for 137 years.

¹⁷ The sons of Gershon and their clans: Libni and Shimei.

¹⁸ The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived for 133 years.

¹⁹ The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi.

These were the family clans of Levi, from the oldest to the youngest.

²⁰ Amram married Jochebed, his father's sister. Aaron and Moses were their sons. Amram lived for 137 years.

²¹ The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg and Zikri.

²² The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.

²³ Aaron married Elisheba. She was the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon. Elisheba's children were: Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²⁴ The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These were Korah's family clans.

²⁵ Aaron's son, Eleazar, married one of Putiel's daughters. Phinehas was their son.

These were the leaders of the Levite family clans.

²⁶ This shows us the ancestors of Aaron and Moses. They were the men to whom the Lord spoke. He said to them, ‘Lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Lead them out in their families and clans, like an army.’ ²⁷ Moses and Aaron were the men who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. They told him that the Israelites would leave Egypt. They were the same Moses and Aaron as we read about in the list of Israelite families.

Aaron will speak on Moses' behalf

²⁸ When the Lord spoke to Moses in the country of Egypt, ²⁹ he said, ‘I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, everything that I say to you.’ ³⁰ But Moses said, ‘You know that I do not speak well. Pharaoh will not listen to me.’