Exodus 3:7–16

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 worshipD 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.E,u This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever;v this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.

16 “Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt.w