God commanded Moses to go to Egypt and deliver his fellow Hebrews from bondage. Pharaoh replied that he did not know their God and would not permit them to go. Eventually Pharaoh let the Hebrews depart after Moses' God sent ten plagues upon the Egyptians. The tenth plague was the slaying of the Egyptian male first-born children, whereupon such terror seized the Egyptians that they ordered the Hebrews to leave. Moses then led his people eastward, beginning the long journey to Canaan.
