¹ 主はモーセに言われた、

² 「イスラエルの人々に告げ、引き返して、ミグドルと海との間にあるピハヒロテの前、バアルゼポンの前に宿営させなさい。あなたがたはそれにむかって、海のかたわらに宿営しなければならない。

³ パロはイスラエルの人々について、『彼らはその地で迷っている。荒野は彼らを閉じ込めてしまった』と言うであろう。

⁴ わたしがパロの心をかたくなにするから、パロは彼らのあとを追うであろう。わたしはパロとそのすべての軍勢を破って誉を得、エジプトびとにわたしが主であることを知らせるであろう」。彼らはそのようにした。

⁵ 民の逃げ去ったことが、エジプトの王に伝えられたので、パロとその家来たちとは、民に対する考えを変えて言った、「われわれはなぜこのようにイスラエルを去らせて、われわれに仕えさせないようにしたのであろう」。

⁶ それでパロは戦車を整え、みずからその民を率い、

⁷ また、えり抜きの戦車六百と、エジプトのすべての戦車およびすべての指揮者たちを率いた。

⁸ 主がエジプトの王パロの心をかたくなにされたので、彼はイスラエルの人々のあとを追った。イスラエルの人々は意気揚々と出たのである。

⁹ エジプトびとは彼らのあとを追い、パロのすべての馬と戦車およびその騎兵と軍勢とは、バアルゼポンの前にあるピハヒロテのあたりで、海のかたわらに宿営している彼らに追いついた。

¹⁰ パロが近寄った時、イスラエルの人々は目を上げてエジプトびとが彼らのあとに進んできているのを見て、非常に恐れた。そしてイスラエルの人々は主にむかって叫び、

¹¹ かつモーセに言った、「エジプトに墓がないので、荒野で死なせるために、わたしたちを携え出したのですか。なぜわたしたちをエジプトから導き出して、こんなにするのですか。

¹² わたしたちがエジプトであなたに告げて、『わたしたちを捨てておいて、エジプトびとに仕えさせてください』と言ったのは、このことではありませんか。荒野で死ぬよりもエジプトびとに仕える方が、わたしたちにはよかったのです」。

¹³ モーセは民に言った、「あなたがたは恐れてはならない。かたく立って、主がきょう、あなたがたのためになされる救を見なさい。きょう、あなたがたはエジプトびとを見るが、もはや永久に、二度と彼らを見ないであろう。

¹⁴ 主があなたがたのために戦われるから、あなたがたは黙していなさい」。

¹⁵ 主はモーセに言われた、「あなたは、なぜわたしにむかって叫ぶのか。イスラエルの人々に語って彼らを進み行かせなさい。

¹⁶ あなたはつえを上げ、手を海の上にさし伸べてそれを分け、イスラエルの人々に海の中のかわいた地を行かせなさい。

¹⁷ わたしがエジプトびとの心をかたくなにするから、彼らはそのあとを追ってはいるであろう。こうしてわたしはパロとそのすべての軍勢および戦車と騎兵とを打ち破って誉を得よう。

¹⁸ わたしがパロとその戦車とその騎兵とを打ち破って誉を得るとき、エジプトびとはわたしが主であることを知るであろう」。

¹⁹ このとき、イスラエルの部隊の前に行く神の使は移って彼らのうしろに行った。雲の柱も彼らの前から移って彼らのうしろに立ち、

²⁰ エジプトびとの部隊とイスラエルびとの部隊との間にきたので、そこに雲とやみがあり夜もすがら、かれとこれと近づくことなく、夜がすぎた。

²¹ モーセが手を海の上にさし伸べたので、主は夜もすがら強い東風をもって海を退かせ、海を陸地とされ、水は分かれた。

²² イスラエルの人々は海の中のかわいた地を行ったが、水は彼らの右と左に、かきとなった。

²³ エジプトびとは追ってきて、パロのすべての馬と戦車と騎兵とは、彼らのあとについて海の中にはいった。

²⁴ 暁の更に、主は火と雲の柱のうちからエジプトびとの軍勢を見おろして、エジプトびとの軍勢を乱し、

²⁵ その戦車の輪をきしらせて、進むのに重くされたので、エジプトびとは言った、「われわれはイスラエルを離れて逃げよう。主が彼らのためにエジプトびとと戦う」。

²⁶ そのとき主はモーセに言われた、「あなたの手を海の上にさし伸べて、水をエジプトびとと、その戦車と騎兵との上に流れ返らせなさい」。

²⁷ モーセが手を海の上にさし伸べると、夜明けになって海はいつもの流れに返り、エジプトびとはこれにむかって逃げたが、主はエジプトびとを海の中に投げ込まれた。

²⁸ 水は流れ返り、イスラエルのあとを追って海にはいった戦車と騎兵およびパロのすべての軍勢をおおい、ひとりも残らなかった。

²⁹ しかし、イスラエルの人々は海の中のかわいた地を行ったが、水は彼らの右と左に、かきとなった。

³⁰ このように、主はこの日イスラエルをエジプトびとの手から救われた。イスラエルはエジプトびとが海べに死んでいるのを見た。

³¹ イスラエルはまた、主がエジプトびとに行われた大いなるみわざを見た。それで民は主を恐れ、主とそのしもべモーセとを信じた。

¹ All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

² All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness!

³ Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: wouldn't it be better for us to return into Egypt?"

⁴ They said one to another, "Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt."

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

⁶ Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out the land, tore their clothes:

⁷ and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, "The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.

⁸ If Yahweh delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk and honey.

⁹ Only don't rebel against Yahweh, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is removed from over them, and Yahweh is with us. Don't fear them."

¹⁰ But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones. The glory of Yahweh appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel.

¹¹ Yahweh said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?

¹² I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."

¹³ Moses said to Yahweh, "Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them;

¹⁴ and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are in the midst of this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵ Now if you killed this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,

¹⁶ 'Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.'

¹⁷ Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,

¹⁸ 'Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.'

¹⁹ Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

²⁰ Yahweh said, "I have pardoned according to your word:

²¹ but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh;

²² because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;

²³ surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it:

²⁴ but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it.

²⁵ Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn, and go into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea."

²⁶ Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²⁷ "How long [shall I bear] with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

²⁸ Tell them, 'As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:

²⁹ your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,

³⁰ surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

³¹ But your little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.

³² But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

³³ Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.

³⁴ After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation.'

³⁵ I, Yahweh, have spoken, surely this will I do to all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die."

³⁶ The men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,

³⁷ even those men who did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Yahweh.

³⁸ But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.

³⁹ Moses told these words to all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

⁴⁰ They rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which Yahweh has promised: for we have sinned."

⁴¹ Moses said, "Why now do you disobey the commandment of Yahweh, since it shall not prosper?

⁴² Don't go up, for Yahweh isn't among you; that you not be struck down before your enemies.

⁴³ For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you shall fall by the sword: because you are turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be with you."

⁴⁴ But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and Moses, didn't depart out of the camp.

⁴⁵ Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat them down, even to Hormah.