Moses

Let’s start at the actual beginning. Before anything, there’s God. Then God creates the heavens and the earth. It’s dark and empty, deep water everywhere, and God’s Spirit is hovering over the surface.

And God says, “Let there be light.” And there’s light. That’s all it takes.

The first week, short version: 1. Light. 2. Sky. 3. Land, seas, and everything green. 4. Sun and moon. “He made the stars as well.” Every star there is, in half a sentence. 5. Fish and birds. 6. Animals. Then people. 7. Rest.

Day six is the one that matters for us. God makes people in his own image. Male and female. Then he looks at everything he’s made, and it isn’t just good this time. It’s very good.

Both of them naked, and neither of them ashamed. Remember that. It doesn’t last.

Enter the serpent, the craftiest animal God made. Watch how it opens. With a question. Did God really say they can’t eat from any tree in the garden?

Then God speaks to the serpent, and keep hold of this one. From now on it’s hostility between it and the woman, and between its offspring and hers. He’ll crush its head, and it’ll strike his heel.

They’re sent out of the garden. East of Eden, God puts cherubim and a flaming sword that flashes every way, to guard the road to the tree of life.

Cain brings the LORD some of his crops. Abel brings the best of the firstborn from his flock. God is pleased with Abel and his offering, but not with Cain’s, and Cain is furious. It’s all over his face.

Replying to @moses

God talks to him first. Tells him sin is crouching at his door and it wants him. He has to master it.

Then Cain asks his brother to come out to the field with him. And out there, he attacks Abel and kills him. The first death in the world is a murder, and it’s a brother.

Replying to @cain

That’s what he said when the LORD asked him where Abel was. And God told him his brother’s blood is crying out to him from the ground.

Cain’s family, quickly: a city, the first people to live in tents with herds, the first to play the harp and flute, the first to forge bronze and iron.

And around then, people start praying to the LORD by name.

Adam’s family tree, Adam to Noah, ten generations. Entry after entry ends “and then he died.” Except one. Enoch walked with God, and then he wasn’t there, because God took him.

Replying to @moses

Also, Enoch’s son Methuselah: 969. Nobody has beaten it.

This is a strange passage, and I’m not going to pretend it isn’t. “The sons of God” see that human women are beautiful, and marry whoever they choose. The Nephilim are on the earth in those days, the famous heroes of long ago. And the LORD says people will live 120 years.

One of the saddest lines I have to write. The LORD sees that every thought in people’s hearts is evil, all the time. He’s sorry he ever made them, and it breaks his heart. He says he’ll wipe them off the face of the earth.

But the LORD is pleased with Noah.

Replying to @noah

And Noah does everything God tells him. That’s the whole verse. That’s the whole man.

But God remembers Noah.

Then God makes a covenant, which means he binds himself to a promise. Never again will a flood destroy all life on the earth. And the sign is his rainbow in the clouds. Whenever it shows up, he says, he’ll see it and remember.

Chapter ten is the map: every nation from Noah’s three sons. One name to remember: Nimrod, a mighty hunter in the LORD’s sight. People still say “like Nimrod” about a great hunter. He builds Babylon’s cities, and Nineveh.

And the LORD comes down to see the tower. Comes down. He mixes up their language so they can’t understand each other, and they stop building and scatter all over the earth, which is exactly what they didn’t want. That’s Babel. It sounds like their word for confused.

A builder at Babel@builder.babel · ShinarA city, and a tower right up to the sky. We make a name for ourselves, and nobody gets scattered all over the earth. Honestly can’t see a downside.

Shem’s line, ten generations, down to a man called Terah. His son Abram marries Sarai. And one line on its own: Sarai can’t have children.

Then this. The LORD tells Abram to leave his country, his relatives and his father’s house, and go to a land he’ll show him. He’ll make him into a great nation, and every family on earth will be blessed through him.

Famine in Canaan, so Abram takes everyone down to Egypt. Just before they get there, he asks Sarai to tell people she’s his sister. She’s beautiful, and he’s sure the Egyptians would kill him to get her.

Replying to @lot

Worth knowing: the men of Sodom were wicked, and their sins against the LORD were huge.

Abram believes the LORD, and the LORD counts that as making him right with God. One sentence. People are still quoting it.

Abraham@abrahamHe said Eliezer won’t be my heir. My own son will. Then he took me outside and told me to look up and count the stars, if I could. That’s how many my descendants will be.

An Egyptian servant girl, on the run, and she’s the one who gives God a name. The well is still called Beer-lahai-roi, the well of the Living One who sees me.

Hagar@hagar · Beer-lahai-roiYou are the God who sees me.

Not enough people talk about this. Abraham is ninety-nine. Hottest part of the day. Three strangers turn up at his tent, and he runs. Bows to the ground. Offers them “a bit of bread”. Then serves fresh bread, a whole calf, curds and milk.

They ask where his wife is. In the tent, he says. Then one of them, and this is the LORD himself, says that this time next year Sarah will have a son. Sarah is listening at the tent door behind him.

Replying to @abraham

He said for ten, he won’t destroy it.

That evening two of the visitors, angels, reach Sodom. Lot is sitting at the city gate, and he insists they stay at his house. Before morning they tell him to get every bit of family he has out of the city. The LORD is about to destroy it.

“Run for your lives. Don’t look back.” Then the LORD rains down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole plain. Lot’s wife looks back. She becomes a pillar of salt.

Replying to @abraham

God remembered Abraham, and got Lot out.

And here we go again. In Gerar, Abraham says Sarah is his sister, and King Abimelech takes her.

And the LORD does exactly what he promised Sarah.

This is the hardest thing I have to tell you about Abraham. God tests him. Tells him to take his son, his only son, Isaac, the one he loves, up to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering.

At the place, Abraham builds an altar, lays the wood on it, ties up his son and lays him on top. He takes the knife.

Then the angel of the LORD shouts his name from heaven, twice. Don’t touch the boy. Now he knows Abraham fears God. Abraham looks up. Behind him, a ram, caught by its horns in a bush. He offers the ram instead of his son.

Replying to @abraham

People still say it: on the LORD’s mountain, it’ll be provided.

And God swears an oath on himself: descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the beach, and every nation on earth blessed through them. All because Abraham did what he said.

That’s how haggling goes when the other side calls it a gift. Abraham weighs out all four hundred in front of everyone at the gate. After all those promises of land, the first piece of it Abraham owns is a grave.

Ephron the Hittite@ephron · HebronI informed Abraham that the field is worth four hundred shekels of silver. What is that between friends? Do go ahead and bury your dead.

Replying to @rebekah

Three words, and she gets on a camel and goes.

After Abraham dies, Isaac settles near Beer-lahai-roi. Hagar’s well. The well of the God who sees.

Moses@mosesAn Egyptian servant girl, on the run, and she’s the one who gives God a name. The well is still called Beer-lahai-roi, the well of the Living One who sees me.

Replying to @jacob

The birthright was the firstborn’s double share and his place as head of the family. Esau eats, drinks, gets up and goes. That’s how little he thinks of it.

Another famine, and Isaac moves the family to Gerar. When the men there ask about Rebekah, he tells them she’s his sister. He’s scared they’ll kill him for her. His father did exactly the same thing. Twice.

Rebekah has been listening at the tent. The minute Esau goes off to hunt, she tells Jacob the plan: fetch two young goats, she’ll cook them the way his father likes, and he takes the food in and gets the blessing. Jacob’s worried. Esau is hairy and he isn’t, and if Dad touches him he’ll get a curse, not a blessing. She says let the curse fall on her.

Replying to @moses

So in goes Jacob, in Esau’s clothes, with goatskins on his hands and neck. Isaac can barely see. He feels him and says the voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s. Asks, are you really my son Esau? Jacob says he is. And Isaac blesses him.

Replying to @isaac

Esau breaks down and sobs out loud.

Replying to @rebekah

What she isn’t saying: Esau has been muttering that once their father is gone, he’ll kill Jacob. Someone passed it on to her, and she told Jacob to go and stay with Laban till his brother calms down.

Replying to @jacob

Then Jacob makes a vow, and it’s very Jacob. If God stays with me, feeds me, clothes me and gets me home safe, then the LORD will be my God. And he’ll get a tenth.

The man who pretended to be the firstborn gets handed the firstborn.

Jacob@jacob · HaranSeven years. The wedding feast. And in the morning: it’s Leah.

Replying to @leah

It’s a contest now. Between the two sisters and their two servants, Jacob has ten sons and a daughter, Dinah. None of them Rachel’s.

Replying to @jacob

So Jacob gets to work at the water troughs. Fresh branches with white stripes peeled into them, set in front of the strongest animals when they breed. The strong ones are born speckled and spotted, and they’re his. The weak ones go to Laban. Jacob gets very rich.

Laban is away shearing his sheep. Jacob puts his wives and children on camels and leaves without a word. What nobody knows, Jacob included: Rachel has taken her father’s household gods.

Replying to @jacob

Jacob has no idea Rachel took them. Laban searches every tent. Rachel has hidden them in her camel saddle and is sitting on them. She tells her dad not to be angry, she can’t get up, it’s her period. He finds nothing.

In the end they pile up stones as a witness and make an agreement, and Laban says may the LORD keep watch between them when they can’t see each other. Sounds sweet. It’s really two men who don’t trust each other.

Replying to @jacob

The first time we’re told her name is the day she dies.

Replying to @esau

Esau moves to the hill country of Seir, and his family becomes Edom. There’s a whole chapter of their chiefs, if you want it.

Replying to @moses

One thing from that chapter, though. A man called Anah found hot springs out in the desert while he was minding his father Zibeon’s donkeys. Thought you should know.

Joseph is seventeen, and he brings his father a bad report about his brothers. Jacob loves Joseph more than all his other sons, because he had him in his old age, and makes him a special robe. His brothers see it, and hate him. They can’t say a kind word to him.

Replying to @jacob

His brothers are jealous. But his father keeps it in mind.

Jacob sends Joseph out to check on his brothers, who are away with the flocks. They see him coming from a long way off, and before he reaches them they’ve made a plan. Here comes the dreamer. Kill him, throw him in a pit, say a wild animal ate him. Then see what becomes of his dreams.

They strip him of the robe first. Then, with him in the pit, they sit down to eat.

They wanted to kill him. Reuben talks them into throwing him in a pit instead. He means to come back later and get him out. When he does come back, the pit is empty.

Replying to @moses

What Reuben missed: while he was away, Judah asked what they’d gain by killing their own brother. So they sold him to traders heading for Egypt. Twenty pieces of silver.

Replying to @potiphars.wife

Potiphar is furious, and Joseph goes to prison. And even there, the LORD is with him.

Ten of Jacob’s sons go down to Egypt to buy grain. Benjamin stays at home. The man in charge of the grain is Joseph. He knows them instantly. They have no idea it’s him.

They bow down to him with their faces to the ground. And Joseph remembers his dreams.

Joseph@joseph.son.of.jacob · CanaanOkay, so I had the strangest dream. We were out binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf stood up straight, and all your sheaves gathered round and bowed down to mine.

Replying to @reuben

They have no idea Joseph understands every word. He’s been using an interpreter. He turns away from them and cries.

Then Joseph sees Benjamin, his own mother’s son. “God bless you, son.” And he has to hurry out, because he’s about to cry. He goes into his room and cries. Then he washes his face, comes back out, and says, “Serve the food.”

Before the brothers leave, Joseph gives his steward orders. Fill their sacks, put each man’s silver back in, and put Joseph’s own silver cup in the youngest one’s sack.

Twenty-odd years ago, Judah was the one who said, let’s sell him. Now he’s asking to be a slave so the boy can go home.

Judah@judah · EgyptI told the man: keep me as your slave instead of the boy. How could I go back to my father without him? I couldn’t watch that happen to him.

He throws his arms round Benjamin and sobs, and Benjamin cries on his shoulder. He kisses all his brothers, in tears. And after that, his brothers talk with him.

And in Goshen, Israel’s family gets land, has children and grows. And grows.

Replying to @joseph.son.of.jacob

Isaac before Ishmael, Jacob before Esau, and now Ephraim before Manasseh.

Jacob’s last words to his twelve sons, and some of them are hard to hear. Reuben loses first place. Simeon and Levi get a curse on their anger, for their violence.

Joseph dies, aged 110. They embalm him and lay him in a coffin in Egypt. That’s where the first book ends: a family in Egypt, a coffin waiting to go home, and a promise.

Where we left off: Jacob’s family, seventy of them, in Egypt. That generation dies. The family doesn’t stop growing. Soon the land is full of them.

He’d never heard of Joseph.

Pharaoh, the new king@newkingofegyptThese Israelites have become far too numerous. Should war break out, they will join our enemies. We must deal with them shrewdly.

Then the king tries something quieter. He calls in two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, and gives them an order: when you deliver a Hebrew baby, if it’s a boy, kill him. They don’t. They fear God more than they fear him.

Replying to @moses

He calls them back in. Why are the boys still alive? Their answer: Hebrew women aren’t like Egyptian women. They’re strong. The baby’s out before the midwife even gets there.

This part I only know because my family told me. My mother hid me for three months. Then she couldn’t any more. Papyrus basket, sealed with tar, set in the reeds by the Nile. The same river.

I grew up in the palace as the princess’s son. One day, grown up, I went out to see my own people at their hard labour, and saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. I looked this way and that. Nobody around. I killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

So people knew. Then Pharaoh heard, and wanted me dead. I ran. All the way to Midian.

A Hebrew man in a fight@hebrew.fightingNext day the palace boy, Moses, tries to break up my fight with another Hebrew. Who made you our ruler and judge, mate? Going to kill me like you killed the Egyptian? Yeah. People know about that.

We had a son. I called him Gershom. A foreigner in a foreign land.

The Israelites cry out under their slavery. God hears them. He remembers his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He sees them.

Out with the sheep near Horeb. There’s a bush on fire, and it isn’t burning up.

Replying to @moses

God called my name from inside it. Told me to take off my sandals, because the ground I was standing on was holy. I hid my face. I was afraid to look at God.

He said he’s seen his people suffering. He’s heard them. He’s come down to rescue them. So go, he’s sending me to Pharaoh. Me.

Replying to @moses

I asked, who am I? He didn’t answer that. He said, “I will be with you.”

God’s name: I AM WHO I AM. Every time you read “the LORD” in this book, that’s the name.

He turned my staff into a snake. I ran. Yes, I ran.

Told him I’ve never been good with words. He said, “Who made the human mouth?”

Then I actually said it. “Please, Lord. Send someone else.”

Replying to @moses

God was angry with me. Fair.

Replying to @moses

Then he said my brother Aaron is a good speaker. Aaron will do the talking. He’s already on his way to meet me.

That was his first answer.

Pharaoh@pharaoh · Pharaoh’s courtWho is this LORD, and why exactly should I obey him? I am not acquainted with him. And I will not be letting Israel go.

Went back to the LORD. Why did you send me? It’s only got worse, and you haven’t rescued them.

An Israelite foreman@israelite.foremanTold Moses and Aaron straight: may the LORD judge you for this. You’ve made us stink to Pharaoh and his officials. You’ve put a sword in their hands to kill us.

God said he’ll bring them out. Free them. Take them as his own people, and be their God.

People ask. I was eighty when we stood in front of Pharaoh. Aaron was eighty-three.

Replying to @aaron

He still wouldn’t listen.

Replying to @egypt.neighbour

Pharaoh just went back into his palace like nothing happened.

Pharaoh asked me to pray the frogs away. I said name the time. He said: tomorrow.

The moment he got some relief, he dug his heels in again and wouldn’t listen. You’ll notice a pattern.

Plague six. Soot thrown into the air, and boils break out all over Egypt.

Replying to @moses

And the LORD made Pharaoh stubborn, just as he’d told me.

Replying to @pharaoh

Like I told you: I’ll pray, and the hail will stop. And I know you still don’t fear the LORD.

The hail stopped. So did the apology.

Pharaoh@pharaohVery well. This time I have sinned. The LORD is in the right, and my people and I are in the wrong. Enough thunder and hail. They may go.

Plague nine: darkness you could feel. Three days. Nobody could see anyone else.

Pharaoh’s offers, in order. 1. Sacrifice here in Egypt. 2. The desert, but not far. 3. Men only. 4. Everyone, but the animals stay.

Replying to @moses

My answer to number four: not a hoof left behind.

Last thing he said to me: never let me see your face again. I said: fine. You won’t.

Nine so far. Blood. Frogs. Gnats. Flies. Livestock. Boils. Hail. Locusts. Darkness. One more to come.

What I told Pharaoh. At midnight the LORD will go through Egypt, and every firstborn son will die, from Pharaoh’s own son to the son of the slave girl at the hand mill. Then I walked out, furious.

Every household: a lamb. Its blood on the doorframe. Eat it that night with sandals on and staff in hand, ready to leave. It’s the LORD’s Passover.

God said when he sees the blood, he’ll pass over you.

Moses@mosesEvery household: a lamb. Its blood on the doorframe. Eat it that night with sandals on and staff in hand, ready to leave. It’s the LORD’s Passover.

When your children ask what this meal means, tell them. The LORD passed over our houses in Egypt.

Midnight. The LORD strikes down every firstborn in Egypt, from Pharaoh’s son to the prisoner’s son in the dungeon. There isn’t a house without someone dead.

Four hundred and thirty years in Egypt. To the very day. And we walk out.

Replying to @moses

About 600,000 men on foot, plus women and children, plus a mixed crowd who came with us, plus the animals.

God told Abraham this, the night of the firepot and the torch. His descendants would be slaves in a land that wasn’t theirs, and then they’d come out. Here we are. Coming out.

Abraham@abrahamHe told me my descendants would be slaves in a land that isn’t theirs for 400 years, and then come out. After dark, a smoking firepot and a blazing torch passed between the pieces. Only the fire went through.

We took Joseph’s bones with us. He made his family swear to it, centuries ago. We kept it.

Joseph@joseph.son.of.jacob · EgyptI’m about to die. But God will definitely come for you and take you up out of this land, to the land he promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When he does, carry my bones up from here.

God didn’t take us the short way, past the Philistines. He said if they saw war, they might turn back to Egypt.

A pillar of cloud ahead of us by day. A pillar of fire by night. It never left.

Don’t be afraid. Stand firm. The LORD will fight for you. You only need to be still.

I stretched out my hand over the sea. All night the LORD drove it back with an east wind. We walked through on dry ground. A wall of water on our right, a wall of water on our left.

At daybreak the sea came back. It covered the chariots and riders, Pharaoh’s whole army. Not one survived.

I’ll sing to the LORD. He’s thrown horse and rider into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song.

Who’s like you, LORD? Holy and majestic. Fearsome. You do wonders.

Three days past the sea. No water. Then water at Marah, and it’s bitter.

Replying to @theisraelites

The LORD showed me a piece of wood. I threw it in. Sweet water.

At Marah God told us who he is for us. The LORD, who heals you.

Replying to @theisraelites

Who are we? You’re not grumbling against Aaron and me. You’re grumbling against the LORD.

Replying to @israelite.manna

It’s the bread the LORD has given you to eat.

Replying to @israelite.manna

I told you not to.

Seventh day, the Sabbath, there’s none on the ground. Some people went out looking anyway.

Replying to @israelite.manna

They ate it for forty years.

Asked the LORD what I’m supposed to do with these people. A little more and they’ll stone me.

The Israelites@theisraelites · RephidimDid you bring us out of Egypt just to kill us, our kids and our animals with thirst?

He told me to strike the rock at Horeb, and water would come out of it. I did.

Replying to @jethro

I listened. Did everything you said.

At Sinai the LORD reminded us how he carried us on eagles’ wings and brought us to himself. Said if we keep his agreement, out of all the nations we’ll be his own treasure.

Before any rule, God says who he is. He’s the LORD their God, the one who got them out of Egypt, out of slavery.

The Ten Commandments, short version. 1. No other gods. 2. No idols. 3. Don’t misuse his name. 4. Keep the Sabbath. 5. Honour your parents. 6. Don’t murder. 7. Don’t commit adultery. 8. Don’t steal. 9. Don’t lie about your neighbour. 10. Don’t set your heart on anything that’s your neighbour’s.

Replying to @theisraelites

Don’t be afraid. God has come to test you, so you’ll fear him and not do wrong.

They stayed at a distance. I went towards the thick darkness where God was.

Three chapters of everyday law. Servants, oxen, fires, loans. The one people remember: eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

Don’t oppress a foreigner. You were foreigners in Egypt.

Took a poor man’s cloak as security? Give it back by sunset. God asks what else he’s meant to sleep in. If he cries out, God will hear him, because he’s compassionate.

God said that. About a coat.

Moses@mosesTook a poor man’s cloak as security? Give it back by sunset. God asks what else he’s meant to sleep in. If he cries out, God will hear him, because he’s compassionate.

Don’t follow the crowd in doing wrong.

See the donkey of someone who hates you collapsed under its load? Help him.

Read them the covenant, God’s agreement with them. They said they’d do it all. I sprinkled the blood on them and told them this is the blood of the agreement.

Seven chapters about a tent. Gold, linen, colours, measurements. It comes down to one line: God wants a holy place made for him, so he can live among them.

The ark, a chest covered in gold, with two gold cherubim, winged figures, on the lid. God said that’s where he’ll meet with me, between the cherubim.

Half a shekel each. The rich don’t give more. The poor don’t give less.

Two stone tablets, written by the finger of God.

Up on the mountain the LORD told me to leave him alone so his anger could burn them up. He’d make a great nation out of me instead.

I begged him. They’re your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel. And the LORD held back.

Replying to @joshua

Not winning. Not losing. Singing.

Came down the mountain and saw it for myself. The calf. The dancing. I threw the tablets down and smashed them.

An Israelite in the camp@israelite.campOfferings in the morning, then eating and drinking, then the whole camp went wild.

Burned the calf, ground it to powder, put it in the water, and made them drink it.

“Out came this calf.”

Aaron@aaronLook. You know what these people are like, always set on doing wrong. They said make us gods. I said anyone with gold, take it off and hand it over. So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!

Please forgive them. And if you won’t, wipe my name out of the book you’ve written.

The LORD sent a plague on the people, because of the calf Aaron made.

In the tent where God met us, the LORD spoke with me face to face, the way you talk to a friend.

If your Presence doesn’t go with us, don’t send us up from here.

Replying to @moses

He said yes.

Please. Show me your glory.

Replying to @moses

No one can see his face and live. So he put me in a gap in the rock, covered me with his hand as he passed, and let me see his back.

The LORD passed in front of me, calling out his own name. Compassionate and gracious. Slow to get angry. Overflowing with love that doesn’t quit, and faithfulness. Forgives wrongdoing, but never lets the guilty off.

Another forty days. No bread. No water.

Gold earrings again. This time for the LORD’s tent.

An Israelite in the camp@israelite.campAaron asked for everyone’s gold earrings. Now there’s a calf. He’s built an altar in front of it and says tomorrow is a festival to the LORD.

The priests’ bronze basin was made from mirrors, given by the women who served at the tent’s entrance.

The tent is finished. Put up on the first day of our second year out of Egypt.

Then the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tent. I couldn’t go in.

“So I can live among them.” He did.

Moses@mosesSeven chapters about a tent. Gold, linen, colours, measurements. It comes down to one line: God wants a holy place made for him, so he can live among them.

The tent’s up. First thing, the LORD calls me in and starts talking about offerings. Fair warning: it gets detailed from here.

Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu offered fire the LORD hadn’t asked for. Fire came out from the LORD and burned them up. They died there, in front of the LORD.

Replying to @moses

I told my brother what the LORD had said: anyone who comes near him will see that he’s holy. Aaron didn’t say a word.

Why all of it? The LORD: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

After Nadab and Abihu, the LORD said: Aaron can’t just go behind the curtain whenever he likes, or he’ll die. Once a year.

If you only take one part of all this home with you, take the part that starts with the LORD telling us to be holy, because he’s holy.

Same part, from the LORD: no revenge, no grudges. Love your neighbour as yourself. And he signs it “I am the LORD.”

Replying to @israelite.at.the.tent

The LORD answered that one himself. The sixth year will grow enough for three.

Replying to @eleazar

Why it always goes back: the land belongs to the LORD. He says we’re foreigners and guests living with him.

The LORD says he’ll walk among us and be our God, and we’ll be his people. He broke the yoke we wore as slaves so we could walk with our heads up.

But even in the land of their enemies, the LORD says, he won’t reject them or break his promise.

That’s the book. Everything the LORD gave me for Israel at Mount Sinai. Fat and blood and skin and calendars, and under all of it one thing: God living in the middle of his people, and showing us how to live with him there.

When I go into the tent, I hear the voice. It speaks to me from between the two cherubim above the ark.

Asked my brother-in-law Hobab to come with us. He said no, he’s going home. I asked again. You know this desert. Be our eyes.

Every time the ark set off: “Rise up, LORD! Scatter your enemies.”

Replying to @the.rabble

The manna’s on the ground every morning with the dew. Grind it, boil it, bake it into cakes. Tastes like pastry made with olive oil.

Every family in the camp crying at their tent doors, and the LORD is angry. So I asked him today: did I give birth to these people? Why do I have to carry them like a nurse carries a baby?

I can’t carry them all on my own. It’s too heavy. If this is how it’s going to be, please, just kill me now.

His answer: seventy elders to share the load. And the people get their meat: a whole month of it, until it comes out of their noses. Because they rejected the LORD, who was right there among them.

I said: meat for 600,000 men for a month? The LORD said: “Is the LORD’s arm too short?”

Replying to @joshua

Are you jealous on my behalf? I wish all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that he’d put his Spirit on every one of them.

Awkward to write about yourself, but here goes: Moses was a very humble man. More humble than anyone on earth.

Miriam@miriam · HazerothLook, Aaron and I have been asking it. Does the LORD only speak through Moses? Hasn’t he spoken through us too?

Replying to @miriam

My whole prayer: “God, please heal her.”

Replying to @crowd.kadesh

They started talking about stoning Joshua and Caleb. Then the LORD’s glory appeared at the tent, in front of everyone.

The LORD said he’d strike them down and make a greater nation out of me. I begged him. You’re slow to get angry and full of faithful love. Forgive them, like you have all the way from Egypt.

He said: “I have forgiven them, as you asked.” But not one of the men who saw his glory and still tested him ten times will see the land.

Replying to @theisraelites

I told them not to. The LORD wasn’t with them. They went anyway, and got chased all the way back to Hormah.

Very angry today. I told the LORD not to accept their offering. I’ve never taken so much as a donkey off them. Never hurt a single one of them.

I told everyone: if these men die a normal death, the LORD didn’t send me. If the ground opens and swallows them, you’ll know.

Replying to @inthecamp.desert

Then fire came out from the LORD and burned up the 250 men offering the incense.

The LORD said: take the staff, and speak to the rock.

I said: listen, you rebels, do we have to get water out of this rock for you? Then I hit it. Twice.

The LORD said Aaron and I didn’t trust him enough to show his holiness in front of them. So we won’t be the ones to bring them into the land. He said speak. I hit it.

Asked the king of Edom nicely. We’re family. Let us pass, we’ll stay on the King’s Highway. His answer: no, and if we try it he’ll meet us with swords.

Replying to @theisraelites

Then the LORD sent venomous snakes, and a lot of people died. They came to me: we sinned, pray for us. I prayed. The LORD said: make a snake and put it on a pole. Anyone bitten who looks at it will live.

The Moab situation: 1. A king hires a man to curse us. 2. A donkey talks. 3. Three hilltops, seven altars on each. 4. Not one curse. Blessings, every time.

Balaam couldn’t curse us. We did the damage ourselves. At Shittim the men started sleeping with Moabite women, went along to their gods’ sacrifices and bowed down. Israel joined in worshipping Baal of Peor, and the LORD was furious with us.

Replying to @zelophehads.daughters

I took it to the LORD. His answer: “Zelophehad’s daughters are right.”

The LORD told me to climb the mountain and look at the land. Then I die, like Aaron. Because of Meribah.

All I asked: give them someone to lead them. Don’t let them be like sheep without a shepherd.

Replying to @gad.reuben

Deal. Build pens for your animals and towns for your kids here, then go in front of everyone and fight until every tribe has its land. Do that, and this land is yours. Don’t, and you can be sure your sin will catch up with you.

The LORD had me write down every camp since Egypt. Over forty of them. Last stop: the plains of Moab.

That’s Numbers. We’re on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan, across from Jericho. The land is right there, just over the river.

Fortieth year since Egypt. We’re camped on the plains of Moab with the Jordan in front of us. Before anyone crosses that river, I’ve got some things to say. It’ll take a while.

It’s an eleven-day walk from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea. It took us forty years.

Remember Kadesh? You sat grumbling in your tents, saying the LORD hates us, and the walls go up to the sky.

In the desert, the LORD your God carried you the way a father carries his son, all the way here.

Then you marched up without him, and the Amorites chased you like a swarm of bees.

Forty years, and you never went without a thing.

Og, king of Bashan, was the last of the giants. His bed was iron and about four metres long.

Replying to @theisraelites

Still in Rabbah, with the Ammonites. Go and look.

I begged him to let me cross and see it. He told me that was enough, and not to bring it up again.

Replying to @moses

So I get to see it from the top of Pisgah. That’s all.

What other nation has a god as near to them as the LORD our God is to us, every time we call on him?

Don’t forget what you saw with your own eyes. Tell your kids. Tell your grandkids.

At the mountain you heard words. You saw no shape. There was only a voice.

Even after you’ve been scattered, if you look for the LORD your God with all your heart and soul, you’ll find him.

The Ten Commandments again, for everyone who was a kid at the mountain: 1. No other gods. 2. No idols. 3. Don’t misuse his name. 4. Keep the Sabbath. 5. Honour your father and mother. 6. Don’t murder. 7. Don’t commit adultery. 8. Don’t steal. 9. Don’t lie about anyone. 10. Don’t want what’s someone else’s.

Notice who gets the Sabbath off: your servants, your animals and the foreigner. You were slaves once.

Moses@mosesThe Ten Commandments again, for everyone who was a kid at the mountain: 1. No other gods. 2. No idols. 3. Don’t misuse his name. 4. Keep the Sabbath. 5. Honour your father and mother. 6. Don’t murder. 7. Don’t commit adultery. 8. Don’t steal. 9. Don’t lie about anyone. 10. Don’t want what’s someone else’s.

Replying to @theisraelites

The LORD heard you. He said you were right. And he said he wished you’d always have a heart like that.

Listen, Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.

Replying to @moses

Talk about it at home and on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write it on your doorposts.

Towns you didn’t build. Wells you didn’t dig. Vineyards you didn’t plant. And when you’re full, that’s when you forget him.

He didn’t choose you because there were loads of you. You were the smallest nation there was. He chose you because he loved you.

People don’t live on bread alone. They live on every word that comes from the LORD’s mouth.

Forty years. Your clothes didn’t wear out. Your feet didn’t swell.

Watch out for this sentence: “I made all this myself.” It’s the LORD who gives you the strength to do it.

It isn’t because you’re good. You’re a stubborn people. Just so we’re clear.

Forty days on the mountain, no food, no water. Two stone tablets, written by the finger of God. I came down and there was a metal calf. I smashed the tablets in front of you.

Replying to @moses

Then another forty days face down before the LORD, praying for you. And for Aaron.

So what does the LORD your God actually ask of you? To be in awe of him, live his way, love him, and serve him with all your heart and soul.

He loves the foreigner and gives him food and clothes. So love the foreigner. You were foreigners in Egypt.

Over there you won’t water your fields by foot like in Egypt. The land drinks the rain from the sky, and the LORD watches over it all year.

Tithe too far to carry? Sell it, take the money, and when you get there spend it on whatever you like. Beef, lamb, wine. Then feast with your family in front of the LORD.

Replying to @theisraelites

It is. And don’t forget the Levites in your town. They’ve got no land of their own.

Don’t check how close the year of cancelled debts is before you lend to someone poor.

There will always be poor people in the land. So open your hand wide.

Justice, and only justice. Chase after it.

Rules for a future king: 1. Not too many horses. 2. Not too many wives. 3. Not too much silver and gold. 4. Write out his own copy of this law, and read it every day.

One day the LORD your God will send you a prophet like me, one of your own. Listen to him.

What counts as an accident: you’re chopping wood, the axe head flies off the handle and kills your friend.

Before a battle, the officers ask: 1. Built a house and not moved in? Go home. 2. Planted a vineyard and not eaten from it? Go home. 3. Engaged and not married? Go home. 4. Scared? Go home, before you scare everyone else.

In a siege, leave the fruit trees alone. Are the trees your enemy?

New house? Put a railing round the roof.

Found a bird’s nest? Take the eggs. Let the mother go.

Walking through your neighbour’s vineyard? Eat all the grapes you want. Just don’t bring a basket.

Just married? No war for a year. Stay home and make your wife happy.

Pay a poor worker before the sun goes down. He’s counting on it.

Forgot a sheaf out in the field? Leave it. It’s for the foreigner, the orphan and the widow.

Don’t muzzle an ox while it’s treading out the grain.

Won’t marry your dead brother’s widow to carry on his name? She pulls off your sandal in front of the elders and spits in your face, and your family is known as the house of the man with no sandal.

Over there, the Levites will call these out, and everyone answers: A curse on anyone who moves their neighbour’s boundary stone. A curse on anyone who sends a blind man the wrong way. A curse on anyone who cheats the foreigner, the orphan or the widow out of justice.

Listen to the LORD, and good things will chase you down. In town and in the country. Coming in and going out. He’ll bless all of it.

And if you won’t listen, the curses come after you instead. Scattered to the ends of the earth, scared day and night. You’ll wake up wishing it was evening, and in the evening you’ll wish it was morning.

This agreement isn’t only with you standing here today. It’s with those who aren’t here today as well.

Some things only the LORD our God knows, and those are his. What he’s shown us is ours, and our kids’, for good.

It isn’t too hard for you, and it isn’t out of reach. It’s not up in the sky or across the sea. It’s right here. In your mouth and in your heart.

I’ve set life and death in front of you, blessing and curse. So choose life, so that you and your children can live.

I’m a hundred and twenty. I can’t get around like I used to. And the LORD has told me I’m not crossing the Jordan.

Be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid. The LORD your God goes with you. He will never leave you or abandon you.

Replying to @joshua

Meant every word. The LORD goes ahead of you. He’ll never leave you on your own.

Every seven years, the whole law gets read out loud to everyone. Men, women, kids, foreigners. Everyone.

The LORD told me: after I’m gone, they’ll turn to other gods. So he gave me a song to teach them, for when that day comes.

He is the Rock. Everything he does is perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong.

He was like an eagle with its young. Stirs up the nest, hovers over them, then spreads its wings, catches them and carries them.

But Jeshurun got fat and kicked. That’s us. Full and comfortable, and we walked away from the God who made us.

The LORD says getting even is his job, and he’ll repay. And that he’s the one who wounds and the one who heals.

The LORD says: climb Mount Nebo and look at the land. Then die there, like Aaron did. Because of Meribah. I’ll see it. I won’t go in.

The eternal God is your home, and his arms are under you. For ever.

Before the mountains were born, from for ever to for ever, you're God. A thousand years to you are like yesterday once it's gone.

Replying to @moses

We get seventy years. Eighty if we're strong. Then they're gone, and we fly away. So teach us to count our days, and give us wise hearts.

When I grew up, I refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. I chose to be mistreated along with God’s people rather than enjoy sin for a little while.

Moses@mosesI grew up in the palace as the princess’s son. One day, grown up, I went out to see my own people at their hard labour, and saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. I looked this way and that. Nobody around. I killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

Replying to @moses

I left Egypt, and I kept going, like someone who could see the one nobody can see.

I kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so the destroyer of the firstborn wouldn’t touch Israel’s firstborn.

Moses@mosesGod said when he sees the blood, he’ll pass over you.

There are people everywhere now, and the world is full of violence. God looks at it and sees it’s rotten. Everyone’s way of living has gone bad.

Still the hardest line in the book to write. The LORD is sorry he ever made people. It breaks his heart.

Moses@mosesOne of the saddest lines I have to write. The LORD sees that every thought in people’s hearts is evil, all the time. He’s sorry he ever made them, and it breaks his heart. He says he’ll wipe them off the face of the earth.

One man is different. Noah. He’s right with God, blameless among the people of his day. He walks with God.

So Noah does it. All of it. Exactly the way God told him.

Again. Everything.

Moses@mosesSo Noah does it. All of it. Exactly the way God told him.

Noah’s six hundredth year, the seventeenth day of the second month. Remember the date.

The water keeps rising until every high mountain under the whole sky is covered. Fifteen cubits over the tops. About seven metres.

Everything on dry land that breathes dies, people and animals alike. Only Noah is left, and those with him in the ark.

And the water stays over the earth for 150 days.

The whole story turns on this line. God remembers Noah, and every animal in the ark with him.

Moses@mosesBut God remembers Noah.

Replying to @noah

The water under the ground stops. The floodgates of the sky close. The rain holds off. Slowly, steadily, the water goes down.

Replying to @ham

The mountains of Ararat. Seventeenth day of the seventh month. Five months to the day since the rain started.

First day of the tenth month. The tops of the mountains can be seen.

Replying to @noah

It keeps that up until the earth is dry.

Noah’s six hundred and first year, the first day of the first month.

Twenty-seventh day of the second month. The earth is completely dry.

The LORD smells the offering and is pleased. He says to himself: I’m never going to curse the ground because of people again, even though they lean towards evil from childhood. And I’ll never again wipe out every living thing like this.

Replying to @moses

As long as the earth lasts: planting and harvest. Cold and heat. Summer and winter. Day and night. They won’t stop.

The last word God gives Noah on it: this is the sign of the promise between me and every creature on the earth.

New here? Meet Jacob’s family. Twelve sons, and everyone knows which one is the favourite. Joseph. Rachel’s boy, born when Jacob was already old. He’s seventeen, out minding the flocks with his older brothers.

Replying to @joseph.son.of.jacob

His brothers are jealous. But his father doesn’t forget what he said.

His brothers see him coming from a long way off. Before he even reaches them they’ve made a plan. Here comes that dreamer. Kill him, throw him in one of the pits, say a wild animal got him. Then see what becomes of his dreams.

Joseph@joseph.son.of.jacobHad the strangest dream. We were out in the field tying up sheaves of grain, and my sheaf stood up straight, and all of yours gathered round and bowed down to mine.

Replying to @moses

Reuben, the eldest, stops them. Don’t kill him. No blood. Throw him in this pit out here, but don’t touch him.

Joseph gets to them. They strip the robe off him, the one with all the colours, and throw him into the pit. It’s dry. No water in it.

Replying to @moses

Then they sit down to eat.

Replying to @gilead.road.trader

What the traders didn’t hear. When the brothers saw the caravan, Judah asked what they’d gain by killing their own brother and covering it up. Sell him, he said. Don’t hurt him. He’s our brother, our own flesh and blood. And they agreed.

Reuben comes back to the pit, and it’s empty. He tears his clothes and goes back to the others. The boy is gone. What am I going to do?

Replying to @moses

That was Reuben’s plan all along. Talk them into the pit, come back for Joseph later, and take him home to their father. He was away when the traders came.

They kill a young goat and dip Joseph’s robe in its blood. Then they send the robe to their father.

Joseph is well built and good-looking, and Potiphar’s wife has noticed. Day after day she keeps on at him. Day after day he says no. His master has trusted him with everything in the house except her, because she’s his wife. How could he do something that wicked, and sin against God?

One day nobody else is in the house. She grabs him by his cloak. He leaves it in her hand and runs outside.

Replying to @potiphar

And even there, the LORD is with him.

The cupbearer doesn’t remember Joseph. He forgets all about him.

Seventeen when his brothers sold him. Thirty now, standing in front of Pharaoh.

A trader on the Gilead road@gilead.road.traderOn the road from Gilead down to Egypt with spices, balm and myrrh. Passing Dothan today, some shepherds pulled a boy up out of a dry pit and sold him to us. Twenty pieces of silver. He’s coming to Egypt with the rest of the load.

The man they’re bowing to is Joseph. He knows them the moment he sees them. They have no idea it’s him. And he remembers his dreams.

Joseph@joseph.son.of.jacobHad the strangest dream. We were out in the field tying up sheaves of grain, and my sheaf stood up straight, and all of yours gathered round and bowed down to mine.

Replying to @governors.interpreter

One is gone. He’s the man they’re talking to.

Then he sees Benjamin. His own mother’s son. Is this your youngest brother? God bless you, son. And he has to get out of the room, fast, because he’s about to cry. He goes to his own room and cries. Then he washes his face, comes back out, holds it together and says: serve the food.

All of them. The last time one of Rachel’s sons went to Egypt as a slave, they were the ones who sold him.

Joseph’s brothers@josephs.brothersWe tore our clothes, loaded the donkeys and went back to the city. All of us.

Judah. That day at Dothan, he’s the one who said sell him. Today he’s asking to be the slave, so the boy can go home.

Moses@mosesWhat the traders didn’t hear. When the brothers saw the caravan, Judah asked what they’d gain by killing their own brother and covering it up. Sell him, he said. Don’t hurt him. He’s our brother, our own flesh and blood. And they agreed.

Nine plagues, and Pharaoh’s still saying no. The LORD says there’s one more. After this one he won’t just let us go. He’ll drive us out.

Replying to @moses

What I told Pharaoh before I walked out. Around midnight the LORD will go through Egypt, and every firstborn son will die. From the firstborn of Pharaoh on his throne to the son of the servant girl at the hand mill. The firstborn of the animals too.

Replying to @moses

Then I left. I was furious.

Replying to @moses

He won’t listen. The LORD told me he wouldn’t.

New calendar. The LORD says this month is the first month of our year from now on.

People keep asking why the blood. The LORD said when he sees it, he’ll pass over that house and won’t let the destroyer in. That’s why tonight is called the Passover.

Replying to @moses

He’ll pass through Egypt tonight and strike down every firstborn. He says it’s his judgement on all the gods of Egypt.

One day your kids will ask what this meal is about. Tell them it’s the LORD’s Passover. He passed over our houses in Egypt and spared us.

And we keep this night every year from now on. For good.

Midnight. The LORD struck down every firstborn in Egypt. From Pharaoh’s own firstborn to the son of the prisoner in the dungeon.

The LORD made the Egyptians generous to us. Whatever we asked for, they gave. That’s how we plundered Egypt. We asked.

And not a hoof was.

Moses@mosesMy answer to number four: not a hoof left behind.

Four hundred and thirty years in Egypt. To the very day. And we walk out.

Replying to @moses

The LORD kept watch all night to bring us out. So every year, on this night, we keep watch for him.

We’ve got Joseph’s bones with us. He made his family swear to it before he died. We kept it.

Joseph@joseph.son.of.jacob · EgyptI’m about to die. But God will definitely come for you and take you up out of this land, to the land he promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When he does, carry my bones up from here.

Remember this day. The day you came out of Egypt, out of slavery. The LORD brought you out with his own strong hand.

Replying to @moses

Every year, seven days of bread with no yeast. And when your son asks why, you tell him: because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.

From now on every firstborn son among us belongs to the LORD. We buy each one back.

Replying to @justthetwoofus

Philistine country. God said if they run into a war, they might change their minds and go back to Egypt.

Cloud by day, fire by night. It hasn’t left the front of the column once.

New instruction from the LORD. Turn back and camp by the sea, at Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the water.

Replying to @moses

God says Pharaoh will think we’re lost and the desert has us boxed in. He’ll come after us. And Egypt will find out who the LORD is.

Replying to @israelite.redsea

Don’t be afraid. Stand firm, and watch the LORD save you today. Those Egyptians you can see? You’ll never see them again.

Replying to @israelite.redsea

The LORD will fight for you. You just need to be still.

Told everyone to be still. Then I cried out to the LORD myself. He said: why are you crying out to me? Tell them to move.

Replying to @moses

Lift your staff, he said. Stretch your hand out over the sea and split it, and they’ll walk through on dry ground.

Stretched my hand out over the sea.

The LORD told me to stretch my hand out over the sea again. I did. At daybreak the water went back to where it belongs. They were trying to turn round.

Replying to @moses

The water covered the chariots and the horsemen, the whole army that followed us in. Not one of them survived.

He did.

Moses@mosesThe LORD will fight for you. You just need to be still.