Study Desk

Moses and Aaron did all these wonders (miracles) before Pharaoh; yet the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the Israelites go out of his land.

'Now if the household is too small for a lamb [to be consumed], let him and his next door neighbor take one according to the number of people [in the households]; according to what each man can eat, you are to divide the lamb.

"You shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch some of the blood to the lintel [above the doorway] and to the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

Now it happened at midnight that the LORD struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry [of heartache and sorrow] in Egypt, for there was no house where there was not someone dead.

"If a stranger living temporarily among you wishes to celebrate the Passover to the LORD, all his males must be circumcised, and then he may participate and celebrate it like one that is born in the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.

"I will harden (make stubborn, defiant) Pharaoh's heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will be glorified and honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians shall know [without any doubt] and acknowledge that I am the LORD." And they did so.

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart toward the people, and they said, "What is this that we have done? We have let Israel go from serving us!"

So Pharaoh harnessed horses to his war-chariots [for battle] and took his army with him;

The Egyptians chased them with all the horses and war-chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them as they camped by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

"As for Me, hear this: I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will go in [the sea] after them; and I will be glorified and honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and his war-chariots and his horsemen.

"And the Egyptians shall know [without any doubt] and acknowledge that I am the LORD, when I am glorified and honored through Pharaoh, through his war-chariots and his charioteers."

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD swept the sea back by a strong east wind all that night and turned the seabed into dry land, and the waters were divided.

Then the Egyptians pursued them into the middle of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his war-chariots and his charioteers.

So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal flow at sunrise; and the Egyptians retreated right into it [being met by the returning water]; so the LORD overthrew the Egyptians and tossed them into the midst of the sea.

When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, they feared the LORD [with reverence and awe-filled respect], and they believed in the LORD, and in His servant Moses.

"The LORD is a warrior; The LORD is His name.

"Pharaoh's chariots and his army He has thrown into the sea; His chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea.

For the horses of Pharaoh went with his war-chariots and his charioteers into the sea, and the LORD brought back the waters of the sea on them, but the sons of Israel walked on dry land in the middle of the sea.

saying, "If you will diligently listen and pay attention to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and listen to His commandments, and keep [foremost in your thoughts and actively obey] all His precepts and statutes, then I will not put on you any of the diseases which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you."