1. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. I will show him my power, and he will let my people go. I will show him my power, and he will throw them out of his country.”
2. God spoke to Moses, “I am the Lord.
3. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but I didn’t make myself known to them by my name, the Lord.
4. I even made a promise to give them Canaan, the land where they lived as foreigners.
5. Now I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians hold in slavery, and I have remembered my promise.
6. “Tell the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the oppression of the Egyptians, and I will free you from slavery. I will rescue you with my powerful arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
7. Then I will make you my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the forced labor of the Egyptians.
8. I will bring you to the land I solemnly swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your own possession. I am the Lord.’ ”
9. Moses reported this to the Israelites. But they would not listen to him because they were so discouraged by their back–breaking work.