and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all kinds of work in the field, all their work which they made them do was with harshness.
and said, “If, now, I have found favour in Your eyes, O יהוה, I pray, let יהוה go on in our midst, even though we are a stiff-necked people. And forgive our crookedness and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
and shall take you as My people, and I shall be your Elohim. And you shall know that I am יהוה your Elohim who is bringing you out from under the burdens of the Mitsrites.
The message concerning the beasts of the South. Through a land of trouble and distress, from which came the lioness and lion, the adder and fiery flying serpent, they convey their riches on the backs of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people,
which I commanded your fathers in the day when I brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and you shall do according to all that I command you, and you shall be My people, and I be your Elohim,’
in whom also we did obtain an inheritance, being previously ordained according to the purpose of Him working all matters according to the counsel of His desire,
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, so that you know what is the expectation of His calling, and what are the riches of the esteem of His inheritance in the set-apart ones,
for you are a set-apart people to יהוה your Elohim, and יהוה has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a treasured possession above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
“For you are a set-apart people to יהוה your Elohim. יהוה your Elohim has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a treasured possession above all the peoples on the face of the earth.
“And I prayed to יהוה, and said, ‘O Master יהוה, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed in Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Mitsrayim with a strong hand.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people for a possession, that you should proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light,