The Exodus from Egypt

Ideas for titles:Israel leaves Egypt.God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt.The Lord guided his people away from Egypt and provided for them with many miracles.

God [had] commanded Moses, saying, “Order [tell] every household [family] leader to sprinkle [smear] animal’s blood on his house’s door posts.”

That evening, the Israelites quickly ate a meal called “passover.” They were ready to leave from Egypt.

In the middle of that night, the Lord sent a death-spirit [angel] that killed the first-born son in every house that did not have blood on its doorway. He killed rich and poor men’s son. He even killed the King’s firstborn son.

That night, people in every Egyptian house wailed [cried / mourned], because their firstborn son had died.

But no one wailed in Israelite houses. The death-spirit [angel] did not harm Israelite’s firstborn sons, because they had obeyed the Lord by smearing blood on their doorposts.

That same night, the king sent messengers to bring [lead] Moses and Aaron to him.

When they came, the king commanded them, “Lead all the Israelites out of Egypt immediately [now]. Go worship the Lord in the wilderness! Take your livestock [animals] with you. Go!”

Egyptian people urged [begged] the Israelites to leave Egypt, saying, “Leave quickly, because we are afraid that we all may die!”

God said to Moses, “Order [tell] the Israelites to ask their Egyptian neighbors to give them gold, silver and jewels.”

So, the Israelites asked the Egyptians for gold, silver, jewels and clothes. God caused [made] the Egyptians give to the Israelites all that they asked for.

The Israelites began walking out of Egypt. They were 600,000 men with [plus] their wives, children and livestock. Many non-Israelites [people from other nations] also went with them.

The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 430 years. All the twelve Israelite tribes left Egypt on the same day.

Still today, Israelites celebrate that day by eating a meal called passover, to remember how the Lord passed over their houses in Egypt.

Years before, Joseph ordered the Israelites to take his bones with them, when they would one day leave Egypt. So they did as he had ordered them.

The Lord said to Moses, “Do not lead the Israelites near to enemies, lest they [so that they not] be afraid and return to Egypt. Instead, [But] lead them towards the sea [wide waters] called Reed [tall grass] Sea.”

During the day time, the Lord sent a cloud [shaped as a] pillar [column / thick pole] to show the Israelites the way they should go.

During night time, the Lord sent a big fire [shaped as a] pillar to show the Israelites the way they should go. So the Israelites traveled [walked] during the day and the night.

The Lord said to Moses, “I will make Egypt’s king and his army [warriors] pursue [chase after] the Israelites. When they do so, I will show them that I the Lord am the true [living] God.”

So the Lord made Egypt’s king stubborn and bitter [angry]. When he heard that the Israelites had gone from Egypt, he changed his mind [orders].

The King said to this officials, “We have made a mistake by letting the Israelites leave Egypt. Now we will have no one to do hard work for us.”

So the king ordered his army to pursue after the Israelites. He sent 600 men driving war chariots, more soldiers riding horses, and many other soldiers running on foot.

The Israelites walked to the edge of the Reed Sea. There they stopped.

When the Israelites looked behind them, the saw Egypt’s army coming after them. They saw chariots, horses and soldiers.

The Egyptian army frightened the Israelites! The Israelites began crying out, “Lord! Rescue [save] us from the Egyptians [army / warriors]!”

The Israelites were also angry towards Moses. They said to him, “Did you lead us here to die [be killed]? We would rather be slaves in Egypt than to die [here] in the wilderness!”

Moses replied, “Stop being afraid! Stand still and watch the Lord rescue you. The Lord himself will fight for you, today!”

At that moment, the cloud pillar in front of them moved. It went and stood [stayed] between the Israelites and the Egyptian army [warriors].

The Egyptian soldiers could not see through the cloud, so they did not attack the Israelites during the night.

The Lord said to Moses, “Hold out the staff in your hand over the sea [wide waters]!” Moses did so.

Then the Lord sent a strong wind from the East. The wind blew all night long, making a dry path through the sea.

All the Israelites walked along the dry path across [through] the sea. They could see water [stacked up like a wall] on their left side and on their right side.

In the morning, the Egyptian army pursued [chased after] the Israelites. Chariots, horses and soldiers followed the path into the sea. But their chariot wheels got stuck and could not move.

Then the Lord made the Egyptian army to become frightened. The soldiers shouted, “The Lord is fighting against us! Retreat! Flee from the Israelites!”

The Lord said to Moses, “Hold out your staff in your hand over the sea, again!” Moses did so.

The sea water came [flowed] back, covering the path. The Egyptian army tried to flee [get away], but the sea water covered [flowed over] them. All of the Egyptian soldiers drowned [died] in the water.

When the Israelite saw how the Lord had brought them across the sea and had destroyed the Egyptian army, they said, “We will serve the Lord, and we will follow Moses!”

Moses and the Israelites made a song and sang it to the Lord. “O Lord, you are unlike all other gods. We praise you alone, you who perform [do] mighty miracles [work]!”

Moses’ sister [Miriam] sang while other women danced, “We sing to the Lord because of his glorious [great] victory! The Lord drowned men and horses in the sea!”

Leaving the sea, the Israelites traveled [went] for three days into the wilderness. But they found no water to drink.

Next day, they came to some water [on the ground], but that water tasted so bitter that they could [would] not drink it.

The Israelite people grumbled and complained. They came to Moses and said, “We must have water to drink!”

So Moses seriously prayed to the Lord, “What must I do?”

The Lord led Moses to a certain tree, and Moses broke off [took] a branch from that tree. When he threw the branch into the water, the water became sweet [drinkable].

The Israelites left that place and traveled for two months in the wilderness.

When the people had no more food, they complained, saying, “In Egypt, we had meat and bread to eat, but Moses has led us into this wilderness where we will die. It would have been better to die in Egypt!”

So the Lord said to Moses, “I will send down food from the sky to the ground for the Israelites.”

“Each day, they must gather only enough food for that day. Every sixth day, they must gather enough food for two days. They must obey my instructions [command]!”

Moses said to the people, “The Lord has heard your complaints. He wants you to know that it is he who brought you out of Egypt. So, this evening he will give you meat, and in the morning [he will give you] bread.”

That evening, a flock of very many big birds flew low into the Israelites’ camp [tents]. [The people were able to kill and eat the birds.]

The next morning, after the dew [wet ground] had dried, the people found food on the ground. The food bits [pieces] were thin, dry and sweet [as honey].

The Israelites asked each other, “What is this?” So they called that food manna, because in their language, manna means, What is this?

Moses said to the people, “This is the food that the Lord is giving to you. Every morning, you must gather two liters for each person in your household. But do not keep any of it over night!”

But some people disobeyed Moses. When they kept some manna overnight, next morning it stank [smelled] rotten and it had maggots [worms] in it.

From then on, each morning, they would gather only as much as they needed. When the day became hot, the remaining manna would melt away.

Every evening, many big birds would fly into their camp, so that the people could catch birds for food.

Every morning for five days, they would gather manna for that day’s food. But on the sixth morning, they would gather manna for two days, because no manna came on the seventh day.

God commanded Moses, saying, “The Israelite people must not work on the seventh day.” The extra manna that they gathered on the sixth day and kept for the seventh day, did not rot and did not get maggots [worms].

So Moses ordered, “Eat the extra manna on the seventh day, for [because] that is a day to rest. There will be no manna on the ground the seventh morning.”

Some people disobeyed Moses’ order. They went to find manna on the seventh morning, but there was none.

So the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people that they must obey me, by resting on the seventh day. Every sixth morning, I will give them enough manna for the sixth and seventh days.”

Another day, the Lord said to Moses, “Put some manna in a clay [pottery / earthen] jar [with a lid], so that the people’s descendants [children’s children] can see the food [manna] that I gave them to eat in the wilderness.”

The Israelites would live in the wilderness for forty years, eating manna every day. Afterwards, when they came to the country [land] called Canaan, the Lord no longer gave them manna every day.