Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the best products of the land in your bags, and take a gift down to the man – a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.

Tell him, ‘Your servants have taken care of cattle ¹  from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of Goshen, ²  for everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting ³  to the Egyptians.”

When that year was over, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We cannot hide from our ¹  lord that the money is used up and the livestock and the animals belong to our lord. Nothing remains before our lord except our bodies and our land.

But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died – to my sorrow ¹  – in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem). ² 

‘My father made me swear an oath. He said, ¹  “I am about to die. Bury me ²  in my tomb that I dug for myself there in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go and bury my father; then I will return.’”

When the Canaanites who lived in the land saw them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a very sad occasion ¹  for the Egyptians.” That is why its name was called ²  Abel Mizraim, ³  which is beyond the Jordan.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over Egypt’s waters – over their rivers, over their canals, ¹  over their ponds, and over all their reservoirs ²  – so that it becomes ³  blood.’ There will be blood everywhere in ⁴  the land of Egypt, even in wooden and stone containers.”

They will fill your houses, the houses of your servants, and all the houses of Egypt, such as ¹  neither ²  your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen since they have been ³  in the land until this day!’” Then Moses ⁴  turned and went out from Pharaoh.

They covered ¹  the surface ²  of all the ground, so that the ground became dark with them, ³  and they ate all the vegetation of the ground and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green remained on the trees or on anything that grew in the fields throughout the whole land of Egypt.

and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh ¹  who sits on his throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, so that when I see ¹  the blood I will pass over you, ²  and this plague ³  will not fall on you to destroy you ⁴  when I attack ⁵  the land of Egypt. ⁶ 

¹ It happened ²  at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

“When a foreigner lives ¹  with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, all his males must be circumcised, ²  and then he may approach and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land ³  – but no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

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.’

The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died ¹  by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by ²  the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, ³  for you have brought us out into this desert to kill ⁴  this whole assembly with hunger!”

Moses said, “This is what ¹  the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it to be kept ²  for generations to come, ³  so that they may see ⁴  the food I fed you in the desert when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.’”

I will set ¹  your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, ²  for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.

¹ When the people saw that Moses delayed ²  in coming down ³  from the mountain, they ⁴  gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Get up, ⁵  make us gods ⁶  that will go before us. As for this fellow Moses, ⁷  the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what ⁸  has become of him!”

They have quickly turned aside ¹  from the way that I commanded them – they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants ¹  like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about ²  I will give to your descendants, ³  and they will inherit it forever.’”