¹ And Moses, answering, said, It is certain that they will not have faith in me or give ear to my voice; for they will say, You have not seen the Lord.

² And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod.

³ And he said, Put it down on the earth. And he Put it down on the earth and it became a snake; and Moses went running from it.

⁴ And the Lord said to Moses, Put out your hand and take it by the tail: (and he Put out his hand and took a grip of it and it became a rod in his hand:)

⁵ So that they may be certain that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by you.

⁶ Then the Lord said to him again, Put your hand inside your clothing. And he Put his hand inside his robe: and when he took it out it was like the hand of a leper, as white as snow.

⁷ And he said, Put your hand inside your robe again. (And he Put his hand into his robe again, and when he took it out he saw that it had become like his other flesh.)

⁸ And if they do not have faith in you or give ear to the voice of the first sign, they will have faith in the second sign.

⁹ And if they have no faith even in these two signs and will not give ear to your voice, then you are to take the water of the Nile and put it on the dry land: and the water you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.

¹⁰ And Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not a man of words; I have never been so, and am not now, even after what you have said to your servant: for talking is hard for me, and I am slow of tongue.

¹¹ And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? who takes away a man's voice or hearing, or makes him seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

¹² So go now, and I will be with your mouth, teaching you what to say.

¹³ And he said, O Lord, send, if you will, by the hand of anyone whom it seems good to you to send.

¹⁴ And the Lord was angry with Moses, and said, Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? To my knowledge he is good at talking. And now he is coming out to you: and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

¹⁵ Let him give ear to your voice, and you will put my words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his, teaching you what you have to do.

¹⁶ And he will do the talking for you to the people: he will be to you as a mouth and you will be to him as God.

¹⁷ And take in your hand this rod with which you will do the signs.

¹⁸ And Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go back now to my relations in Egypt and see if they are still living. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.

¹⁹ And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men are dead who were attempting to take your life.

²⁰ And Moses took his wife and his sons and put them on an ass and went back to the land of Egypt: and he took the rod of God in his hand.

²¹ And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have given you power to do: but I will make his heart hard and he will not let the people go.

²² And you are to say to Pharaoh, The Lord says, Israel is the first of my sons:

²³ And I said to you, Let my son go, so that he may give me worship; and you did not let him go: so now I will put the first of your sons to death.

²⁴ Now on the journey, at the night's resting-place, the Lord came in his way and would have put him to death.

²⁵ Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cutting off the skin of her son's private parts, and touching his feet with it, she said, Truly you are a husband of blood to me.

²⁶ So he let him go. Then she said, You are a husband of blood because of the circumcision.

²⁷ And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the waste land and you will see Moses. So he went and came across Moses at the mountain of God, and gave him a kiss.

²⁸ And Moses gave Aaron an account of all the words of the Lord which he had sent him to say, and of all the signs which he had given him orders to do.

²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron went and got together all the chiefs of the children of Israel:

³⁰ And Aaron said to them all the words the Lord had said to Moses, and did the signs before all the people.

³¹ And the people had faith in them; and hearing that the Lord had taken up the cause of the children of Israel and had seen their troubles, with bent heads they gave him worship.

¹ Now when Solomon's prayers were ended, fire came down from heaven, burning up all the offerings; and the house was full of the glory of the Lord.

² And the priests were not able to go into the house of the Lord, for the Lord's house was full of the glory of the Lord.

³ And all the children of Israel were looking on when the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord was on the house; and they went down on their knees, with their faces to the earth, worshipping and praising the Lord, and saying, He is good; for his mercy is unchanging for ever.

⁴ Then the king and all the people made offerings before the Lord.

⁵ King Solomon made an offering of twenty-two thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people kept the feast of the opening of the house of God.

⁶ And the priests were in their places, and the Levites with their instruments of music for the Lord's song, which David the king had made for the praise of the Lord whose mercy is unchanging for ever, when David gave praise by their hand; and the priests were sounding horns before them; and all Israel were on their feet.

⁷ Then Solomon made holy the middle of the open square in front of the house of the Lord, offering the burned offerings there, and the fat of the peace-offerings; for there was not room on the brass altar which Solomon had made for all the burned offerings and the meal offerings and the fat.

⁸ So Solomon kept the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great meeting, for the people had come together from the way into Hamath and from as far as the river of Egypt.

⁹ And on the eighth day they had a holy meeting; the offerings for making the altar holy went on for seven days, and the feast for seven days.

¹⁰ And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents, full of joy and glad in their hearts, because of all the good which the Lord had done to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people.

¹¹ So Solomon came to the end of building the house of the Lord and the king's house; and everything which it was in his mind to make in the house of the Lord and for himself had been well done.

¹² Now the Lord came to Solomon in a vision by night, and said to him, I have given ear to your prayer, and have taken this place for myself as a house where offerings are to be made.

¹³ If, at my word, heaven is shut up, so that there is no rain, or if I send locusts on the land for its destruction, or if I send disease on my people;

¹⁴ If my people, on whom my name is named, make themselves low and come to me in prayer, searching for me and turning from their evil ways; then I will give ear from heaven, overlooking their sin, and will give life again to their land.

¹⁵ Now my eyes will be open and my ears awake to the prayers made in this place.

¹⁶ For I have taken this house for myself and made it holy, so that my name may be there for ever; and my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

¹⁷ And as for you, if you will go on your way before me as David your father did, doing whatever I have given you orders to do and keeping my laws and my decisions:

¹⁸ Then I will make strong the seat of your kingdom, as I gave my word to David your father, saying, You will never be without a man to be ruler in Israel.

¹⁹ But if you are turned away from me, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods, giving them worship:

²⁰ Then I will have this people uprooted out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will put away from before my eyes, and make it an example and a word of shame among all peoples.

²¹ And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder, and will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land and to this house?

²² And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord, the God of their fathers, who took them out of the land of Egypt, and took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why he has sent all this evil on them.