But the people were very thirsty ¹  there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, “Why in the world ²  did you bring us up out of Egypt – to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” ³ 

¹ Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard about all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, that ²  the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. ³ 

and they will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out from the land of Egypt, so that I may reside among them. I am the Lord their God.

He accepted the gold ¹  from them, ²  fashioned ³  it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf. ⁴  Then they said, “These are your gods, ⁵  O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

But Moses sought the favor ¹  of the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

They said to me, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this fellow Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

“You must keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days ¹  you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you; do this ²  at the appointed time of the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.

You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you have been living, ¹  and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan into which I am about to bring you; ²  you must not ³  walk in their statutes.

The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so ¹  you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

You must have honest balances, ¹  honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. ²  I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt.

so that your future generations may know that I made the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”

I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, ¹  and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright. ² 

I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors ¹  whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

¹ Now the Lord ²  spoke ³  to Moses in the tent of meeting ⁴  in the wilderness ⁵  of Sinai ⁶  on the first day of the second month of the second year after ⁷  the Israelites ⁸  departed from the land of Egypt. ⁹  He said:

¹ The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out ²  of the land of Egypt:

And all the Israelites murmured ¹  against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died ²  in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished ³  in this wilderness!

Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?”

For all the people have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tempted ¹  me now these ten times, ²  and have not obeyed me, ³ 

Why ¹  have you brought us up from Egypt only to bring us to ²  this dreadful place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink!”

So when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent a messenger, ¹  and has brought us up out of Egypt. Now ²  we are here in Kadesh, a town on the edge of your country. ³