Exodus 3:1–12

God Calls Moses

3One day while Moses was taking care of the sheep and goats of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, he led the flock across the desert and came to Sinai, the holy mountain. ^2*There the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a flame coming from the middle of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire but that it was not burning up. ^3*“This is strange,” he thought. “Why isn’t the bush burning up? I will go closer and see.”

^4*When the Lord saw that Moses was coming closer, he called to him from the middle of the bush and said, “Moses! Moses!”

He answered, “Yes, here I am.”

^5*God said, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground. ^6*I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” So Moses covered his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

^7*Then the Lord said, “I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated in Egypt; I have heard them cry out to be rescued from their slave-drivers. I know all about their sufferings, ^8*and so I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of Egypt to a spacious land, one which is rich and fertile and in which the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites now live. ^9*I have indeed heard the cry of my people, and I see how the Egyptians are oppressing them. ^10*Now I am sending you to the king of Egypt so that you can lead my people out of his country.”

¹¹But Moses said to God, “I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

The Promises to Be with His People

¹²God answered, “I will be with you, and when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will worship me on this mountain. That will be the proof that I have sent you.”