Exodus 3:1–4:17

Yahweh’s Plan to Rescue the Israelites

3And Moses was a shepherd with the flock^a of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the west of the desert, and he came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. ²And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush, and he looked, and there was the bush burning with fire, but the bush was not being consumed. ³And Moses said, “Let me turn aside and see this great sight. Why does the bush not burn up?” ⁴And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, and God called to him from the midst of the bush, and he said, “Moses, Moses.” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵And he said, “You must not come near to here. Take off your sandals from on your feet, because the place on which you are standing, it is holy ground.” ⁶And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face because he was afraid of looking at God.

⁷And Yahweh said, “Surely I have seen the misery of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry of distress because of their oppressors, for I know their sufferings. ⁸And I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from this land to a good and wide land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites^b and the Hittites^c and the Amorites^d and the Perizzites^e and the Hivites^f and the Jebusites.^{g 9}And now, look, the cry of distress of the Israelites^h has come to me, and also I see the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰And now come, and I will send you to Pharaoh, and you must bring my people, the Israelites,ⁱ out from Egypt.”

¹¹But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites^j out from Egypt?” ¹²And he said, “Because I am with you, and this will be the sign for you that I myself have sent you: When you bring the people out from Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.” ¹³But Moses said to God, “Look, if I go to the Israelites^k and I say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors^l has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is his name?’ then what shall I say to them?” ¹⁴And God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “So you must say to the Israelites,^m ‘I am sent me to you.’ ”

¹⁵And God said again to Moses, “So you must say to the Israelites,ⁿ ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors,^o the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my remembrance from generation to generation.’ ¹⁶Go and gather the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors,^p appeared to me, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, “I have carefully attended to you and what has been done to you in Egypt.” ¹⁷And I said, “I will bring you up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites^q and the Hittites^r and the Amorites^s and the Perizzites^t and the Hivites^u and the Jebusites,^v to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’ ¹⁸And they will listen to your voice, and you will go, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews has met with us, and now let us please go on a journey of three days into the desert, and let us sacrifice to Yahweh our God.’

¹⁹But I myself know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless compelled by a strong hand.^{w 20}And I will stretch out my hand, and I will strike Egypt with all of my wonders that I will do in its midst, and afterward^x he will release you. ²¹And I will give this people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and then^y when you go, you will not go empty-handed. ²²And a woman will ask from her neighbor and from the woman dwelling as an alien in her house for objects of silver and objects of gold and garments, and you will put them on your sons and on your daughters; and you will plunder Egypt.”

Yahweh Provides Signs and Help for Speaking

4And Moses answered, and he said, “And if they do not believe me and they do not listen to my voice, but they say, ‘Yahweh did not appear to you?’ ” ²And Yahweh said to him, “What is this in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.” ³And he said, “Throw it onto the ground.” And he threw it onto the ground, and it became a snake, and Moses fled from it. ⁴And Yahweh said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—” (And he reached out his hand and grabbed it, and it became a staff in his palm.)—⁵“so that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their ancestors,^a appeared to you, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

⁶And Yahweh said to him again, “Put your hand into the fold of your garment.” And he put his hand into the fold of his garment, and he took it out, and, to his surprise,^b his hand was afflicted with a skin disease, like snow. ⁷And he said, “Return your hand to the fold of your garment.” And he returned his hand to the fold of his garment, and he took it out from the fold of his garment, and, to his surprise,^c it was restored like the rest of his body. ⁸“And^d if they do not believe you and they will not listen to the voice of the former sign, then they will believe the voice of the latter sign. ⁹And^e if they also do not believe the second of these signs and they will not listen to your voice, then you must take water from the Nile and pour it onto the dry ground, and the water that you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

¹⁰And Moses said to Yahweh, “Please, Lord, I am not a man of words, neither recently nor in the past nor since your speaking^f to your servant, because I am heavy of mouth and of tongue.” ¹¹And Yahweh said to him, “Who gave a mouth to humankind, or who makes mute or deaf or sighted or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? ¹²So then go, and I myself will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you must speak.” ¹³And he said, “Please, Lord, do send anyone else whom you wish to send.”^{g 14}And Yahweh was angry with^h Moses and said, “Is there not Aaron your brother the Levite? I know that he certainly can speak, and also there he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will rejoice in his heart. ¹⁵And you will speak to him, and you will put words in his mouth, and I myself will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you must do. ¹⁶And he will speak for you to the people, and thenⁱ he will be to you as a mouth, and you will be to him as a god. ¹⁷And you must take this staff in your hand, with which you will do the signs.”