MOSES AND THE BURNING BUSH

3 Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,* the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb,* the mountain of God.k 2 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush.l As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. 3 So Moses thought, “I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?”

4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

“Here I am,” he answered.

5 “Do not come closer,” he said. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”m 6 Then he continued, “I am the God of your father,* the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”n Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying outo because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honeyp—the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.q 9 So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressingr them, 10 therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

11 But Moses asked God, “Who am Is that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

12 He answered, “I will certainly be with you,t and this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worshipG God at this mountain.”

13 Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?”

14 God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.H,u This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”