¹ And after that, Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and said, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, Let my people go so that they may keep a feast to me in the waste land.

² And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, to whose voice I am to give ear and let Israel go? I have no knowledge of the Lord and I will not let Israel go.

³ And they said, The God of the Hebrews has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God, so that he may not send death on us by disease or the sword.

⁴ And the king of Egypt said to them, Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people away from their work? get back to your work.

⁵ And Pharaoh said, Truly, the people of the land are increasing in number, and you are keeping them back from their work.

⁶ The same day Pharaoh gave orders to the overseers and those who were responsible for the work, saying,

⁷ Give these men no more dry stems for their brick-making as you have been doing; let them go and get the material for themselves.

⁸ But see that they make the same number of bricks as before, and no less: for they have no love for work; and so they are crying out and saying, Let us go and make an offering to our God.

⁹ Give the men harder work, and see that they do it; let them not give attention to false words.

¹⁰ And the overseers of the people and their responsible men went out and said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will give you no more dry stems.

¹¹ Go yourselves and get dry stems wherever you are able; for your work is not to be any less.

¹² So the people were sent in all directions through the land of Egypt to get dry grass for stems.

¹³ And the overseers went on driving them and saying, Do your full day's work as before when there were dry stems for you.

¹⁴ And the responsible men of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's overseers had put over them, were given blows, and they said to them, Why have you not done your regular work, in making bricks as before?

¹⁵ Then the responsible men of the children of Israel came to Pharaoh, protesting and saying, Why are you acting in this way to your servants?

¹⁶ They give us no dry stems and they say to us, Make bricks: and they give your servants blows; but it is your people who are in the wrong.

¹⁷ But he said, You have no love for work: that is why you say, Let us go and make an offering to the Lord.

¹⁸ Go now, get back to your work; no dry stems will be given to you, but you are to make the full number of bricks.

¹⁹ Then the responsible men of the children of Israel saw that they were purposing evil when they said, The number of bricks which you have to make every day will be no less than before.

²⁰ And they came face to face with Moses and Aaron, who were in their way when they came out from Pharaoh:

²¹ And they said to them, May the Lord take note of you and be your judge; for you have given Pharaoh and his servants a bad opinion of us, putting a sword in their hands for our destruction.

²² And Moses went back to the Lord and said, Lord, why have you done evil to this people? why have you sent me?

²³ For from the time when I came to Pharaoh to put your words before him, he has done evil to this people, and you have given them no help.

¹ The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

² Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them,

³ and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places.

⁴ Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

⁵ I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones around your altars.

⁶ In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

⁷ The slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

⁸ Yet will I leave a remnant, in that you shall have some that escape the sword among the nations, when you shall be scattered through the countries.

⁹ Those of you that escape shall remember me among the nations where they shall be carried captive, how that I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

¹⁰ They shall know that I am Yahweh: I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.

¹¹ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, Alas! because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

¹² He who is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he who is near shall fall by the sword; and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my wrath on them.

¹³ You shall know that I am Yahweh, when their slain men shall be among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols.

¹⁴ I will stretch out my hand on them, and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations: and they shall know that I am Yahweh.