Exodus 6

¹ Then Yahweh said to Moses, ‘You will see now how I shall punish Pharaoh. He will be forced to let them go; yes, he will be forced to send them out of his land.’ Another account of the call of Moses

² God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am Yahweh.

³ To Abraham and Isaac and Jacob I appeared as El Shaddai; I did not make myself known to them by my name Yahweh.

⁴ Also, I made my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land they lived in as strangers.

⁵ And I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, enslaved by the Egyptians and have remembered my covenant.

⁶ Say this, then, to the sons of Israel, “I am Yahweh. I will free you of the burdens which the Egyptians lay on you. I will release you from slavery to them, and with my arm outstretched and my strokes of power I will deliver you.

⁷ I will adopt you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that it is I, Yahweh your God, who have freed you from the Egyptians’ burdens.

⁸ Then I will bring you to the land I swore that I would give to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and will give it to you for your own; I, Yahweh, will do this!”‘

⁹ Moses told this to the sons of Israel, but they would not listen to him, so crushed was their spirit and so cruel their slavery.

¹⁰ Yahweh then said to Moses,

¹¹ ‘Go to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and tell him to let the sons of Israel leave his land’.

¹² But Moses answered to Yahweh’s face: ‘Look,’ said he ‘since the sons of Israel have not listened to me, why should Pharaoh listen to me, a man slow of speech?’

¹³ Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron and ordered them both to go to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt. The genealogy of Moses and Aaron

¹⁴ These are the heads of their families: The sons of Reuben, Israel’s first-born: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi: these are the clans of Reuben.

¹⁵ The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, son of the Canaanite woman: these are the clans of Simeon.

¹⁶ These are the names of the sons of Levi with their descendants: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived for a hundred and thirty-seven years.

¹⁷ The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei and their clans.

¹⁸ The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived for a hundred and thirty-three years.

¹⁹ The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of Levi with their descendants.

²⁰ Amram married Jochebed, his aunt, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived for a hundred and thirty-seven years.

²¹ The sons of Izhar were: Korah, Nepheg and Zichri.

²² And the sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.

²³ Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²⁴ The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korahites.

²⁵ Eleazar, son of Aaron, married one of Putiel’s daughters who bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of families of the Levites according to their clans.

²⁶ It was to this same Aaron and Moses that Yahweh had said, ‘Bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt in battle order’.

²⁷ It was they who spoke with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing the sons of Israel out of Egypt. It was the same Moses and Aaron. The narrative of Moses’ call resumed

²⁸ On the day when Yahweh spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,

²⁹ he said this to him, ‘I am Yahweh. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say to you.’

³⁰ But Moses said to Yahweh’s face, ‘I am slow of speech, why should Pharaoh listen to me?’