Chapter 1
Exodus 1
A new pharaoh, threatened by a people's growth, answers with forced labour, infanticide orders, and a command to drown Hebrew boys in the Nile.
Exodus — chapter by chapter
All 40 chapters — from the decree to drown Hebrew boys to the glory filling the tabernacle.
Exodus moves in three large arcs. Chapters 1–15 are the deliverance: oppression, Moses's call, the plague contest with Pharaoh, the Passover, and the crossing of the sea. Chapters 16–18 are the wilderness: manna, water from the rock, the battle with Amalek, Jethro's visit and his judicial advice. Chapters 19–40 are Sinai and its aftermath: the theophany, the Decalogue, the Book of the Covenant, the detailed tabernacle instructions, the golden calf disaster, Moses's intercession and the renewal of the covenant, and finally the construction and consecration of the tabernacle so that God can dwell among the people as they travel.
Oppression and deliverance · Ch 1–15
Egypt, the plagues, the Passover, and the crossing of the sea.
Chapter 2
Exodus 2
Moses is born, hidden, saved by Pharaoh's daughter, raised at court, flees to Midian after killing an Egyptian, and marries Zipporah — while Israel's cry rises to God.
Chapter 3
Exodus 3
At Horeb, God appears in a burning bush, reveals the divine name as I Am Who I Am, and commissions the reluctant Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt.
Chapter 4
Exodus 4
Moses, armed with miraculous signs and his brother Aaron as spokesman, makes the dangerous return to Egypt — but God nearly kills him at a roadside inn in a scene that resists explanation.
Chapter 5
Exodus 5
Pharaoh refuses Moses's first request, increases the workload by withholding straw, and the Israelite foremen turn furiously on Moses for making things worse.
Chapter 6
Exodus 6
God answers Moses's despair with seven covenant promises, renews the commission with Aaron as Moses's spokesman, and the Priestly genealogy establishes Moses and Aaron's lineage.
Chapter 7
Exodus 7
Aaron's staff swallows the court magicians' serpents; the Nile turns to blood and the magicians match even this — but Pharaoh walks away unmoved, the hardening begins in earnest.
Chapter 8
Exodus 8
Three plagues: frogs, then gnats the magicians cannot match, then flies that spare Goshen. Pharaoh twice negotiates and twice hardens — establishing the pattern of the whole contest.
Chapter 9
Exodus 9
Disease kills Egyptian livestock but spares Israel's; boils silence the magicians for good; catastrophic hail destroys crops and trees — and Pharaoh's brief repentance dissolves the moment the storm stops.
Chapter 10
Exodus 10
Locusts eat what hail left; palpable darkness covers Egypt for three days; Pharaoh's last offer — leave your animals — is refused, and Moses and Pharaoh part for the last time.
Chapter 11
Exodus 11
Moses announces to Pharaoh the death of every firstborn in Egypt at midnight — from Pharaoh's heir to the slave girl's son — while not a dog will bark at any Israelite.
Chapter 12
Exodus 12
The Passover is instituted in detailed liturgical law; at midnight every Egyptian firstborn dies; Israel leaves Egypt before dawn — six hundred thousand men plus dependants — four hundred and thirty years to the day.
Chapter 13
Exodus 13
Israel consecrates its firstborn to God, takes Joseph's bones from Egypt, and is led into the wilderness by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
Chapter 14
Exodus 14
Pharaoh pursues with six hundred chariots; Moses stretches his staff over the sea; Israel crosses on dry ground; the Egyptian army is drowned in the returning waters and lies dead on the shore.
Chapter 15
Exodus 15
The Song of the Sea celebrates the drowning of Pharaoh's army in some of the oldest surviving Hebrew verse; Miriam leads the women's dance; three days later the wilderness water is bitter and the murmuring begins.
Wilderness journey · Ch 16–18
Manna, water, battle with Amalek, Jethro's visit.
Chapter 16
Exodus 16
Israel murmurs in hunger; quail arrive in the evening and manna each morning — exactly enough for one day, double on the sixth — and the sabbath is instituted through the manna's logic.
Chapter 17
Exodus 17
Moses strikes the rock at Horeb and water flows; Israel's first battle, against Amalek, is decided by whether Moses keeps his arms raised, with Aaron and Hur holding them up until sunset.
Chapter 18
Exodus 18
Jethro brings Zipporah and Moses's sons to the wilderness, hears Moses's account, blesses the Lord, and then advises Moses to delegate judicial work — and Moses implements the entire system before Jethro leaves.
Sinai covenant · Ch 19–24
Theophany, Decalogue, Book of the Covenant, covenant ratification.
Chapter 19
Exodus 19
At Sinai, God offers Israel a covenant as a kingdom of priests and holy nation; the mountain erupts in fire, thunder, and trumpet blasts; Moses alone goes to the summit to receive what follows.
Chapter 20
Exodus 20
The Decalogue: ten utterances from Sinai, beginning with the declaration that the God now speaking is the one who freed them from Egypt, followed by the commands on which all later Western law acknowledges descent.
Chapter 21
Exodus 21
The first law code after Sinai governs slaves, injuries, and liability — law as the shape of a delivered people.
Chapter 22
Exodus 22
From stolen oxen to orphaned widows: the covenant law folds economic and social ethics into the same legal logic.
Chapter 23
Exodus 23
Courts, sabbath years, three annual festivals, and the angel who will go before them into the land — the covenant closes with promise.
Chapter 24
Exodus 24
The covenant between God and Israel is sealed in blood thrown on both altar and people, followed by a meal before God on the mountain.
Tabernacle · Ch 25–40
Instructions, the golden calf, covenant renewal, construction, dedication.
Chapter 25
Exodus 25
God instructs the making of the ark, table, and lampstand — the furnishings of the sanctuary where he will dwell with his people.
Chapter 26
Exodus 26
The tabernacle's curtains, frames, and inner veil divide holy space from most holy space in a portable architecture of divine presence.
Chapter 27
Exodus 27
The bronze altar for burnt offerings and the linen courtyard define the outer perimeter of the sanctuary; oil keeps the lampstand burning night after night.
Chapter 28
Exodus 28
Aaron's high-priestly vestments — ephod, breastpiece, robe, turban — bear the twelve tribal names as he carries Israel before God.
Chapter 29
Exodus 29
Aaron and his sons are washed, robed, anointed with oil, and consecrated with blood over seven days before the daily sacrifice is established.
Chapter 30
Exodus 30
The incense altar, census tax, bronze laver, and the formulas for anointing oil and incense complete the tabernacle's consecrated equipment.
Chapter 31
Exodus 31
God names Bezalel and Oholiab as the spirit-filled artisans who will build the tabernacle, then insists that Sabbath rest interrupts even sacred construction.
Chapter 32
Exodus 32
The golden calf shatters the covenant before it is sealed; Moses argues God back from destruction and offers himself in the people's place.
Chapter 33
Exodus 33
God threatens to withdraw his presence after the golden calf; Moses demands to see God's glory and is shown his back — no one sees God's face and lives.
Chapter 34
Exodus 34
The covenant is renewed on new tablets; God proclaims the thirteen attributes of mercy; Moses descends with his face shining and veiled.
Chapter 35
Exodus 35
Israel brings freewill offerings of gold, linen, and skill for the tabernacle — more than is needed — in a collective act of generosity.
Chapter 36
Exodus 36
Bezalel's craftsmen begin building; the people bring too much, and Moses has to command them to stop giving.
Chapter 37
Exodus 37
Bezalel makes the ark, the mercy seat and cherubim, the table, the lampstand, and the incense altar — all from gold and acacia wood, exactly as commanded.
Chapter 38
Exodus 38
The altar and courtyard are completed; a full inventory of gold, silver, and bronze consumed in construction closes the chapter.
Chapter 39
Exodus 39
Every priestly vestment is made exactly as commanded; Moses inspects the completed work and blesses those who built it.
Chapter 40
Exodus 40
Moses erects the tabernacle, anoints its furnishings, and consecrates the priests; the glory of the Lord fills it so fully he cannot enter.