1. Afterwards, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may hold a feast for me in the wilderness.”
2. Pharaoh answered, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”
3. They replied, “The God of the Hebrews has come to meet us. Let us go a three days’ journey in the wilderness, that we may offer sacrifice to the Lord, our God, so that he does not strike us with the plague or the sword.”
4. The king of Egypt answered them, “Why, Moses and Aaron, do you make the people neglect their work? Off to your labors!”
5. Pharaoh continued, “Look how they are already more numerous than the people of the land, and yet you would give them rest from their labors!”
6. That very day Pharaoh gave the taskmasters of the people and their foremen this order: