In three days, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword ¹  and went to the unsuspecting city ²  and slaughtered every male.

While Israel was living in that land, Reuben had sexual relations with ¹  Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, ¹  “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” ²  So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

Then Reuben said to his father, “You may ¹  put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care ²  and I will bring him back to you.”

But Jacob ¹  replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. ²  If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair ³  in sorrow to the grave.” ⁴ 

When Joseph looked up ¹  and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, he said, “Is this your youngest brother, whom you told me about?” Then he said, “May God be gracious to you, my son.” ² 

Then Jacob started out ¹  from Beer Sheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little children, and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent along to transport him.

But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude ¹  of nations.”

¹ During ²  that long period of time ³  the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites ⁴  groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry ⁵  because of their slave labor went up to God.

Moses said ¹  to God, “If ²  I go to the Israelites and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ ³  – what should I say ⁴  to them?”

God also said to Moses, “You must say this to the Israelites, ‘The Lord ¹  – the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you. This is my name ²  forever, and this is my memorial from generation to generation.’ ³ 

The Israelite foremen whom Pharaoh’s slave masters had set over them were beaten and were asked, ¹  “Why did you not complete your requirement for brickmaking as in the past – both yesterday and today?” ² 

Pharaoh will not listen to you. ¹  I will reach into ²  Egypt and bring out my regiments, ³  my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.

But against any of the Israelites not even a dog will bark ¹  against either people or animals, ²  so that you may know that the Lord distinguishes ³  between Egypt and Israel.’

So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not release the Israelites from his land.

then you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice ¹  of the Lord’s Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck ²  Egypt and delivered our households.’” The people bowed down low ³  to the ground,

Pharaoh ¹  summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out ²  from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested! ³ 

When Pharaoh stubbornly refused ¹  to release us, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of people to the firstborn of animals. ²  That is why I am sacrificing ³  to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb, but all my firstborn sons I redeem.’

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph ¹  had made the Israelites solemnly swear, ²  “God will surely attend ³  to you, and you will carry ⁴  my bones up from this place with you.”

“Tell the Israelites that they must turn and camp ¹  before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you are to camp by the sea before Baal Zephon opposite it. ²