Crossing the Red Sea

141 And the Lord said to Moses, 2 Give orders to the children of Israel to go back and put up their tents before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon, opposite to which you are to put up your tents by the sea. 3 And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are wandering without direction, they are shut in by the waste land. 4 And I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, and he will come after them and I will be honoured over Pharaoh and all his army, so that the Egyptians may see that I am the Lord. And they did so. 5 And word came to Pharaoh of the flight of the people: and the feeling of Pharaoh and of his servants about the people was changed, and they said, Why have we let Israel go, so that they will do no more work for us? 6 So he had his war-carriage made ready and took his people with him: 7 And he took six hundred carriages, all the carriages of Egypt, and captains over all of them. 8 And the Lord made the heart of Pharaoh hard, and he went after the children of Israel: for the children of Israel had gone out without fear. 9 But the Egyptians went after them, all the horses and carriages of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them in their tents by the sea, by Pihahiroth, before Baal-zephon.

10 And when Pharaoh came near, the children of Israel, lifting up their eyes, saw the Egyptians coming after them, and were full of fear; and their cry went up to God. 11 And they said to Moses, Was there no resting-place for the dead in Egypt, that you have taken us away to come to our death in the waste land? why have you taken us out of Egypt? 12 Did we not say to you in Egypt, Let us be as we are, working for the Egyptians? for it is better to be the servants of the Egyptians than to come to our death in the waste land. 13 But Moses said, Keep where you are and have no fear; now you will see the salvation of the Lord which he will give you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will make war for you, you have only to keep quiet.

15 And the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me? give the children of Israel the order to go forward. 16 And let your rod be lifted up and your hand stretched out over the sea, and it will be parted in two; and the children of Israel will go through on dry land. 17 And I will make the heart of the Egyptians hard, and they will go in after them: and I will be honoured over Pharaoh and over his army, his war-carriages, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians will see that I am the Lord, when I get honour over Pharaoh and his war-carriages and his horsemen. 19 Then the angel of God, who had been before the tents of Israel, took his place at their back; and the pillar of cloud, moving from before them, came to rest at their back: 20 And it came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel; and there was a dark cloud between them, and they went on through the night; but the one army came no nearer to the other all the night.

21 And when Moses' hand was stretched out over the sea, the Lord with a strong east wind made the sea go back all night, and the waters were parted in two and the sea became dry land. 22 And the children of Israel went through the sea on dry land: and the waters were a wall on their right side and on their left. 23 Then the Egyptians went after them into the middle of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses and his war-carriages and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch, the Lord, looking out on the armies of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud, sent trouble on the army of the Egyptians; 25 And made the wheels of their war-carriages stiff, so that they had hard work driving them: so the Egyptians said, Let us go in flight from before the face of Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians. 26 And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out over the sea, and the waters will come back again on the Egyptians, and on their war-carriages and on their horsemen. 27 And when Moses' hand was stretched out over the sea, at dawn the sea came flowing back, meeting the Egyptians in their flight, and the Lord sent destruction on the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. 28 And the waters came back, covering the war-carriages and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh which went after them into the middle of the sea; not one of them was to be seen. 29 But the children of Israel went through the sea walking on dry land, and the waters were a wall on their right side and on their left. 30 So that day the Lord gave Israel salvation from the hands of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the sea's edge. 31 And Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done against the Egyptians, and the fear of the Lord came on the people and they had faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

The Call of Moses

31 Now Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he took the flock to the back of the waste land and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord was seen by him in a flame of fire coming out of a thorn-tree: and he saw that the tree was on fire, but it was not burned up. 3 And Moses said, I will go and see this strange thing, why the tree is not burned up, 4 And when the Lord saw him turning to one side to see, God said his name out of the tree, crying, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. 5 And he said, Do not come near: take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy. 6 And he said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses kept his face covered for fear of looking on God.

7 And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows; 8 And I have come down to take them out of the hands of the Egyptians, guiding them out of that land into a good land and wide, into a land flowing with milk and honey; into the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 9 For now, truly, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the cruel behaviour of the Egyptians to them. 10 Come, then, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may take my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

11 And Moses said to God, Who am I to go to Pharaoh and take the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12 And he said, Truly I will be with you; and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have taken the children of Israel out of Egypt, you will give worship to God on this mountain. 13 And Moses said to God, When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you: and they say to me, What is his name? what am I to say to them? 14 And God said to him, I AM WHAT I AM: and he said, Say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. 15 And God went on to say to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and this is my sign to all generations.

16 Go and get together the chiefs of the children of Israel, and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by me, and has said, Truly I have taken up your cause, because of what is done to you in Egypt; 17 And I have said, I will take you up out of the sorrows of Egypt into the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, into a land flowing with milk and honey. 18 And they will give ear to your voice: and you, with the chiefs of Israel, will go to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God. 19 And I am certain that the king of Egypt will not let you go without being forced. 20 But I will put out my hand and overcome Egypt with all the wonders which I will do among them: and after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that when you go out you will go out with your hands full. 22 For every woman will get from her neighbour and from the woman living in her house, ornaments of silver and gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and your daughters; you will take the best of their goods from the Egyptians.