Moses and Aaron Face Pharaoh

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh with a message from the God of Israel: let my people go, so they may hold a feast to him in the wilderness. Pharaoh answered that he did not know the LORD and would not let Israel go. When they spoke again about going to sacrifice in the wilderness, Pharaoh sent them back to their burdens.

That same day Pharaoh made the work harsher. The people would no longer be given straw for bricks, but they still had to make the same number as before. So the people scattered through Egypt to gather stubble for straw, while the taskmasters pressed them to finish their daily quota.

The Israelite officers placed over the workers were beaten and challenged about the brick quota. They cried out to Pharaoh, but he called them idle and refused to change his order. As they left, they met Moses and Aaron and blamed them for making Pharaoh and his servants hate them and threaten their lives.

Moses turned back to the LORD and asked why this trouble had come on the people. Since he had spoken in God's name, things had only become worse, and the people had not been rescued. The LORD answered that Moses would now see what God would do. God said he had heard Israel's groaning and would bring them out of bondage and make them his people.

The people were too crushed by anguish and cruel bondage to listen to Moses. But God told Moses to speak again to Pharaoh king of Egypt. Moses worried that Pharaoh would not listen, yet God commanded Moses and Aaron and said that Aaron would speak for Moses. Pharaoh would not listen, and God would act with great judgments so that Egypt would know he is the LORD.

Moses and Aaron obeyed the LORD. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Pharaoh's wise men, sorcerers, and magicians did the same by their enchantments, but Aaron's staff swallowed up theirs. Still, Pharaoh's heart was hardened, just as the LORD had said.