Still Moses feared. "O Lord," he cried, "I cannot speak well. My tongue is slow; I have no words."
But the Lord said, "Who hath made thy tongue dumb? Have not I, the Lord? Go; obey my command and I will instruct thee what thou shalt say. Take, too, thy brother Aaron with thee; and I will teach both Aaron and thee what to say."
Then Moses obeyed. Timid was he still; but the Lord gave him strength, and he set out from the house of Jethro to deliver the people of Israel. And as he journeyed towards the city, the Lord spoke, too, to Aaron, and bade him to go out to meet Moses.
Then Aaron and Moses met; and when they met, they fell upon each other's necks and wept.
Then they told each other what the Lord had said to them, and together they went into the presence of Pharaoh and said, "Behold the Lord hath told us to come to thee, and bid thee set free the people of Israel."
But Pharaoh sneered and said, "I know not the Lord of the Israelites, nor shall I set the people free."
Instead, Pharaoh called together his governors and bade them oppress the Israelites more heavily still; to give them more work and less pay; to punish them; and in every way to do those things to them that would make their yoke still harder to bear.
The governor obeyed. Then the poor Israelites blamed Moses and Aaron.
Moses went to God with the great burden of care now upon him. He was now eighty years of age, and the care weighed upon him most heavily.
"All this I do know," the Lord said. "But have trust in me. I have heard the groanings of my people. I remember the covenant that I made with Abraham, and I will bring the people out from Egypt into the land of Canaan."