“The elders (leaders) will listen to you. And then you and the elders (leaders) will go to the king of Egypt. You will tell him that ‘YAHWEH [26] is the God of the Hebrew [27] people. Our God came to us and told us to travel three days into the desert. There we must offer sacrifices [28] to YAHWEH our God.’
God said, “You can do it because I will be with you! This will be the proof that I am sending you: After you lead the people out of Egypt, you will come and worship me on this mountain!”
After Moses and Aaron talked to the people, they went to Pharaoh. They said, “The Lord [41] God of Israel says, ‘Let my people go into the desert so they can have a feast to honor me.’”
Tell him this: ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrew people, sent me to you. The Lord told me to tell you to let his people go worship him in the desert. Until now you have not listened to the Lord.
The Lord says, ‘Israel is my firstborn [35] son. And I am telling you to let my son go and worship me! If you refuse to let Israel go, then I will kill your firstborn son.’”
Then Aaron and Moses said, “The God of the Hebrew [42] people has talked with us. So we beg you to let us travel three days into the desert. There we will offer a sacrifice [43] to the Lord our God. If we don’t do this, he might become angry and destroy us. He might make us die from sickness or war.”
The Lord said to Moses, “Get up in the morning and go to Pharaoh. Pharaoh will go out to the river. Tell him that the Lord says, ‘Let my people go and worship me!