290 passages · Kingdom
Told of Lot's capture, Abram leads 318 trained men in pursuit, splits his forces by night, defeats the raiders, and recovers Lot and the goods.
Joseph advises Pharaoh to appoint a wise overseer and officials to collect a fifth of the harvest during the good years and store it against the coming famine.
Pharaoh and his officials approve the plan and recognize God's Spirit in Joseph. Pharaoh appoints him second only to himself, gives him a ring, robes, an Egyptian name and a wife.
The seven lean years begin as Joseph foretold. Egyptians turn to Pharaoh, who sends them to Joseph, and people from every nation come to Egypt to buy grain.
With the grain gone, Jacob tells his sons to buy more. Judah pledges personal responsibility for Benjamin, and Jacob agrees, sending gifts and double silver.
As famine drains Egypt's money, Joseph takes livestock, then land and people, in exchange for food. Pharaoh gains ownership, and a fifth of produce is set aside for him.
Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and kills him in secret. When the deed becomes known and Pharaoh seeks his life, Moses flees to Midian.
Moses says he is slow of speech, and God replies that he made the mouth and will help him. When Moses asks him to send someone else, God grows angry and appoints his brother Aaron as spokesman.
Israel's broken spirit keeps them from listening to Moses. The LORD sends him again to Pharaoh, Moses objects that he is unskilled in speech, and God charges Moses and Aaron to lead Israel out.
The text stresses that these are the Moses and Aaron the LORD told to bring Israel out. It repeats the day God told Moses to speak to Pharaoh and Moses' worry that he speaks poorly.
The Amalekites attack, and Joshua leads the fight while Moses, Aaron, and Hur are on the hill. Israel wins while Moses' hands are raised, and Aaron and Hur hold them up when he tires.
Seeing Moses judge the people from morning to evening, Jethro says the work is too heavy. He advises Moses to teach the laws and appoint capable, God-fearing men to judge minor cases.
Moses follows Jethro's advice and chooses capable men to lead over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. They judge minor cases and bring hard ones to Moses, and Jethro goes home.
Seeing the people out of control, Moses calls those on the LORD's side. The Levites gather, carry out his command to strike down those involved, and about three thousand die; Moses says they are ordained for service.
Moses regularly pitches a tent of meeting outside the camp. When he enters, the pillar of cloud descends and the LORD speaks with him face to face like a friend, while the people watch and worship.
Moses says he has not been told who will go with him, and asks to know God's ways. God promises his Presence will go with them, and Moses insists the people would otherwise not be distinct from other nations.
Moses comes down with the tablets, unaware his face is radiant. The people are afraid, so he speaks to them and then puts on a veil, removing it whenever he speaks with the LORD.
A leader who sins unintentionally brings an unblemished male goat. Its blood goes on the altar of burnt offering, its fat is burned, and the priest makes atonement.
Moses is angry that the sin offering goat was burned, not eaten in the holy place. Aaron explains that after what happened to his sons that day, eating it seemed wrong, and Moses accepts this.
At Sinai, in the second year after leaving Egypt, the LORD tells Moses to count every man twenty or older who can serve in the army, with a tribal head helping.
The men who will assist Moses and Aaron are listed tribe by tribe, and are identified as the leaders and clan heads of Israel.
Moses and Aaron gather the whole congregation on the appointed day and register them by family, as the LORD commanded.
When the tabernacle is finished and consecrated, the twelve leaders bring six carts and twelve oxen. Moses gives them to the Gershonites and Merarites, but none to the Kohathites, who carry sacred objects on their shoulders.
On the twentieth day of the second month the cloud lifts. Israel departs Sinai in the appointed order, with Judah first and Dan last, as planned in chapter 2.
Hearing the weeping, Moses is troubled and asks God why He put the burden of all the people on him. He says he cannot carry them alone and asks to die.
God tells Moses to gather seventy elders to share his burden, and promises meat for a whole month to a people who rejected Him. Moses doubts, and God asks if His arm is too short.
God puts His Spirit on seventy elders, who prophesy. Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp, and Moses tells Joshua he wishes all God's people were prophets.
Miriam and Aaron criticize Moses over his Cushite wife and ask if the LORD speaks only through him. The narrator notes that Moses was very humble.
God summons the three to the Tent of Meeting. He says Moses is unique among prophets, faithful and spoken to face to face, and asks why they did not fear to speak against him.
The LORD tells Moses to send one leader from each tribe to explore Canaan. The twelve are named, and Moses renames Hoshea as Joshua.