Exodus 3:1-22
3 And Moses was tending the flock for his father-in-law Priest Ithro of Midian; and he drove the flock back of the wilderness, and came to God’s mountain Horeb,
2 and Jehovah’s Angel appeared to him in a blaze of fire out of the middle of a bush; and he saw, there was the bush burning with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3 And Moses thought “I must step up and see this remarkable sight, how it is that the bush does not burn up.”
4 And Jehovah saw that he was stepping up to see, and God called out to him from the middle of the bush “Moses, Moses!” and he said “Here I am,”
5 and he said “Do not come near here; slip your shoes off your feet, because the place you are standing on is sacred soil.”
6 And he said “I am your father’s God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.” And Moses veiled his face, because he was afraid to look on God.
7 And Jehovah said “I have seen my people’s wretched state in Egypt, and have heard their outcry because of their overseers; for I know their pain;
8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the Egyptians’ hands and to bring them up out of that country to a broad and good country, a country that runs milk and honey, the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivvites and the Jebusites.
9 Now the outcry of the sons of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression the Egyptians are inflicting on them.
10 Now come on, I will send you to the Pharaoh; and bring my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt.”
11 And Moses said to God “Who am I to go to the Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”
12 * And he said “Because I am to be with you; and this is the token you are to have that it was I who sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt you shall worship God on this mountain.”
13 And Moses said to God “Suppose I come to the sons of Israel and say to them ‘Your fathers’ God has sent me to you,’ and they say to me ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
14 And God said to Moses “I will be what I will be”; and he said “You are to say to the sons of Israel ‘Will Be has sent me to you.’”
15 And God said to Moses again “You are to say to the sons of Israel ‘Jehovah, your fathers’ God, Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God, Jacob’s God, has sent me to you’; this is my name forever, and this my identification for generation after generation.
16 Go bring together the elders of Israel and say to them ‘Your fathers’ God Jehovah has appeared to me, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with the message “I have taken up your case, and what is being done to you in Egypt;
17 and I have said I will bring you up out of Egyptian wretchedness to the country of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivvites and the Jebusites, to a country that runs milk and honey”’;
18 and they will listen to you. And you and the elders of Israel shall go in to the king of Egypt and say to him ‘Jehovah, the Hebrews’ God, has met us: now let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to our God Jehovah.’
19 And I know the king of Egypt will not give you a chance to go without force;
20 but I will put out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will do among them, and after that he will let you go.
21 * And I will give the people favor in the Egyptians’ eyes, and when you go you shall not go empty-handed,
22 * but each woman shall ask her neighbor and her lodger for articles of gold and silver and clothing, and you shall put them on your children and despoil the Egyptians.”
Footnotes
^ 3:12 The I is unemphatic in the Hebrew; conj. emphatic I instead of Because I
^ 3:21 Lit. put favor to the people in the Egyptians’ eyes
^ 3:22 Or borrow from her neighbor and her lodger articles
