Let My people go

“Let My people go” is the LORD’s command, delivered through Moses and Aaron, that Pharaoh release Israel from bondage. Repeated as both a demand for freedom and a call to serve the LORD, it frames the conflict in Egypt and becomes part of Israel’s later account of its covenant with God.

Release, Service, and Covenant Memory

The wording joins liberation to worship. Israel is not merely to leave its labor: the stated purpose is to serve the LORD, hold a feast, and offer sacrifice in the wilderness. Pharaoh’s refusal to grant the people’s request, and his repeated efforts to dictate the terms of departure, sharpen the conflict between royal control and the LORD’s claim.

Later, Moses recalled the exodus before Israel entered a covenant with the LORD in the land of Moab. He addressed the whole community—including its leaders, women, children, and resident stranger—and connected the covenant to the oath sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He warned that abandoning it for other gods would bring the curses of the covenant and expulsion from the land, while return to the LORD could bring restoration.

The phrase consequently carries the story of Israel’s release into its later covenant teaching. Moses recalled that the LORD had brought the people out of Egypt, and that account became a ground for covenant obligation and a warning against apostasy. In the same final instructions, Moses entrusted the law to the Levites and ordered it read publicly every seven years so that adults and children would hear and learn it.