Study Desk

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews says: "Let My people go, so that they may serve Me.

"For this time I am going to send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, so that they may serve Me.

"So now, please forgive my sin only this once, and plead with the LORD your God, that He would only remove this death from me."

Then Pharaoh said to him, "Get away from me! Be careful, do not see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you shall die!"

"And all these servants of yours will come down to me and bow themselves before me, saying, 'Go out, you and all the people who follow you,' and after that I will go out." And he left Pharaoh in the heat of anger.

"Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also."

"Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the firstborn of every womb among the sons of Israel, among people and animals alike; it belongs to Me."

"And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, 'It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.

"And as for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.

He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians each said, "Let me flee from Israel, for the LORD is fighting for them against the Egyptians."

So the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water so that we may drink!" And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?"

So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "What am I to do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!"

And the other was named Eliezer, for he said, "The God of my father was my help, and saved me from the sword of Pharaoh."

Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to inquire of God.

"When they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I judge between someone and his neighbor and make known the statutes of God and His laws."

"Now listen to me: I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You be the people's representative before God, and you bring the disputes to God,

and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel."

"You shall have no other gods before Me.