The book Of The Bible Exodus

The book of Exodus tells the central Story Of the OT. It narrates how God freed the Israelites from oppression in Egypt and led them miraculously across the Red Sea into the desert to form them into an independent people. Moses is the main character in this story and is the one through whom God leads the people out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai, where God gives the Ten Commandments (ch. 20) and establishes the covenant relationship with the Israelites.

Exodus has four main sections: the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt (1.1-13.22); the exodus from Egypt and the journey to Sinai (14.1-18.27); the covenant at Mt. Sinai and the Ten Commandments (19.1-24.18); the tabernacle and the gold en calf (25.1-40.38). The story from Exodus about the Passover meal (12.1-8, 11-14) is read every year at Mass on Holy Thursday. Also, the story about the crossing of the Red Sea is read at the Easter Vigil (14.15-15.1). The theophany of God at Mt. Sinai is offered as an optional reading every year at the Vigil of Pentecost (19.3-8, 16-20). Exodus is also read as the First Reading at Mass during Year I of the weekday calendar from Monday of the Fifteenth Week through Thursday of the Seventeenth Week.