Bondage in Egypt

Pharaoh, fearful of the Israelites' numbers, orders that all newborn Hebrew (Israelite) boys be thrown into the Nile. A Levite woman saves her baby by setting him adrift on the river in an ark of bulrushes. Pharaoh's daughter finds the child, and names him Moses, and brings him up as her own. But Moses is aware of his Hebrew origins, and one day, when grown, kills an Egyptian overseer who is beating a Hebrew man, and has to flee into Midian. While herding the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro on Mount Horeb, Moses encounters Yahweh in a burning bush, who tells him to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites into Canaan, the land promised to Abraham.

Moses returns to Egypt, and God instructs him to appear before Pharaoh and inform him of God's demand that he let God's people go. Moses and his brother Aaron do so, but Pharaoh refuses. God causes a series of plagues to strike Egypt, but Pharaoh does not relent. God instructs Moses to institute the Passover sacrifice among the Israelites, and kills all the firstborn children and livestock throughout Egypt. Pharaoh then agrees to let the Israelites go. Moses explains the meaning of the Passover: it is for Israel's salvation from Egypt, so that the Israelites will not be required to sacrifice their own sons, but to redeem them.