1. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you are going to see what I will do to the king. I will force him to let my people go. In fact, I will force him to drive them out of his land.”
2. God spoke to Moses and said, “I am the Lord.
3. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as Almighty God, but I did not make myself known to them by my holy name, the Lord.
4. I also made my covenant with them, promising to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they had lived as foreigners.
5. Now I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians have enslaved, and I have remembered my covenant.
6. So tell the Israelites that I say to them, ‘I am the Lord; I will rescue you and set you free from your slavery to the Egyptians. I will raise my mighty arm to bring terrible punishment upon them, and I will save you.
7. I will make you my own people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God when I set you free from slavery in Egypt.
8. I will bring you to the land that I solemnly promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as your own possession. I am the Lord.’ ”
9. Moses told this to the Israelites, but they would not listen to him, because their spirit had been broken by their cruel slavery.
10. Then the Lord said to Moses,
11. “Go and tell the king of Egypt that he must let the Israelites leave his land.”
12. But Moses replied, “Even the Israelites will not listen to me, so why should the king? I am such a poor speaker.”