The Pillar of Light

¹Your holy ones, however, saw a bright light;

the Egyptians heard their voices but could not see them.

They realized that your holy ones were happy because they did not suffer the same things.

²They were thankful that your people did not repay them for past injuries.

They asked forgiveness for past conflicts.

³Therefore, you sent a flaming pillar of fire

to guide your people on an unknown journey.

It acted as a harmless sun for their celebrated wandering.

⁴The Egyptians deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned in darkness,

for they had imprisoned your children,

through whom the unfading light of the law would be given to the world.

The Plague upon the Firstborn

⁵When the Egyptians decided to kill the infants of your holy ones,

one child, Moses, was abandoned and then rescued.

You punished them by taking away many of their children.

Then you destroyed them all at once in a mighty flood.

⁶You had warned our ancestors ahead of time about that night,

so they might rejoice and know that your promise could be trusted.

⁷Your people expected to see

the salvation of the righteous and the destruction of their enemies.

⁸You used this event to punish our adversaries

and also call us to yourself and bring us glory.

⁹For during this time, the holy children of good people secretly offered sacrifices

and unanimously agreed upon this divine institution of Passover.

In this way they would share in good things and dangers alike

while already singing the praises of the ancestors.

¹⁰But the discordant cry of their enemies echoed back,

and a mournful lament for their children sounded throughout the land.

¹¹The slave suffered the same punishment as the master,

and commoners experienced the same loss as the king.

¹²By the death of the firstborn, they all

had countless dead.

There were not enough living to bury the dead,

for in one moment their most favored children were destroyed.

¹³Earlier, they would not have believed this could happen,

for they trusted in their magic arts.

But when their firstborn were destroyed,

they acknowledged your people to be God’s child.

¹⁴While all things were wrapped in utter silence

and the night was halfway through its swift course,

¹⁵your almighty word leaped down from your royal throne in heaven

and entered the doomed land like a fierce warrior.

¹⁶Carrying the sharp sword of your unchanging command,

it stood and spread death everywhere.

While standing on earth it reached to heaven.

¹⁷Apparitions in horrible dreams terrified the people,

and unexpected fears came over them.

¹⁸As people everywhere were hurled to the ground half dead,

they testified as to the reason they were dying.

¹⁹For their nightmares had forewarned them about this,

so that they would not die without knowing why they suffered.

God Punished His People

²⁰But even the righteous experienced death.

In the desert you struck the people with a plague.

But your wrath did not continue long,

²¹for Aaron, a blameless man, hurried to the people’s defense.

Bringing forth the shield of his ministry—

prayer and incense that satisfies you—

he withstood your wrath and put an end to the disaster.

This showed that he was your servant.

²²He overcame the destruction,[#18:22 Greek crowd.]

but not by physical strength or force of arms;

with a word he subdued the one who punished them,

invoking the oaths and covenants given to our ancestors.

²³After the dead had fallen on one another in heaps,

Aaron intervened and stopped the wrath,

cutting off its access to the living.

²⁴On his long robe the whole world was depicted,

and the glories of the ancestors were engraved on the four rows of stones on his ephod.

Your majesty was written on the diadem, the turban on his head.

²⁵To these the destroyer yielded for he feared them.

This single test of wrath was enough.