1When Jacob ⁿ went to Egypt, he took his sons, and each son took his own family with him. These are the names of the sons of Israel: ²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, ³Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, ⁴Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. ⁵There was a total of seventy people who were descendants of Jacob. Jacob’s son Joseph was already in Egypt.

⁶Some time later, Joseph and his brothers died, along with all the people who had lived at that same time. ⁷But the people of Israel had many children, and their number grew greatly. They became very strong, and the country of Egypt was filled with them.

Trouble for the People of Israel

⁸Then a new king began to rule Egypt, who did not know who Joseph was. ⁹This king said to his people, “Look! The people of Israel are too many and too strong for us to handle! ¹⁰If we don’t make plans against them, the number of their people will grow even more. Then if there is a war, they might join our enemies and fight us and escape from the country!”

¹¹So the Egyptians made life hard for the Israelites. They put slave masters over them, who forced the Israelites to build the cities Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. ¹²But the harder the Egyptians forced the Israelites to work, the more the Israelites grew in number and spread out. So the Egyptians became very afraid of them ¹³and demanded even more of them. ¹⁴They made their lives bitter. They forced the Israelites to work hard to make bricks and mortar and to do all kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians were not merciful to them in all their painful work.

¹⁵Two Hebrew nurses, named Shiphrah and Puah, helped the Israelite women give birth to their babies. The king of Egypt said to the nurses, ¹⁶“When you are helping the Hebrew women give birth to their babies, watch! If the baby is a girl, let her live, but if it is a boy, kill him!” ¹⁷But the nurses feared God, so they did not do as the king told them; they let all the boy babies live. ¹⁸Then the king of Egypt sent for the nurses and said, “Why did you do this? Why did you let the boys live?”

¹⁹The nurses said to him, “The Hebrew women are much stronger than the Egyptian women. They give birth to their babies before we can get there.” ²⁰God was good to the nurses. And the Hebrew people continued to grow in number, so they became even stronger. ²¹Because the nurses feared God, he gave them families of their own.

²²So the king commanded all his people, “Every time a boy is born to the Hebrews, you must throw him into the Nile River, but let all the girl babies live.”

Baby Moses

2Now a man from the family of Levi married a woman who was also from the family of Levi. ²She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw how wonderful the baby was, she hid him for three months. ³But after three months she was not able to hide the baby any longer, so she got a basket made of reeds and covered it with tar so that it would float. She put the baby in the basket. Then she put the basket among the tall stalks of grass at the edge of the Nile River. ⁴The baby’s sister stood a short distance away to see what would happen to him.

⁵Then the daughter of the king of Egypt came to the river to take a bath, and her servant girls were walking beside the river. When she saw the basket in the tall grass, she sent her slave girl to get it. ⁶The king’s daughter opened the basket and saw the baby boy. He was crying, so she felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew babies.”

⁷Then the baby’s sister asked the king’s daughter, “Would you like me to go and find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for you?”

⁸The king’s daughter said, “Go!” So the girl went and got the baby’s own mother.

⁹The king’s daughter said to the woman, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took her baby and nursed him. ¹⁰When the child grew older, the woman took him to the king’s daughter, and she adopted the baby as her own son. The king’s daughter named him Moses, ⁿ because she had pulled him out of the water.

Moses Tries to Help

¹¹Moses grew and became a man. One day he visited his people and saw that they were forced to work very hard. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew man, one of Moses’ own people. ¹²Moses looked all around and saw that no one was watching, so he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.

¹³The next day Moses returned and saw two Hebrew men fighting each other. He said to the one that was in the wrong, “Why are you hitting one of your own people?”

¹⁴The man answered, “Who made you our ruler and judge? Are you going to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”

Moses was afraid and thought, “Now everyone knows what I did.”

¹⁵When the king heard what Moses had done, he tried to kill him. But Moses ran away from the king and went to live in the land of Midian. There he sat down near a well.

Moses in Midian

¹⁶There was a priest in Midian who had seven daughters. His daughters went to that well to get water to fill the water troughs for their father’s flock. ¹⁷Some shepherds came and chased the girls away, but Moses defended the girls and watered their flock.

¹⁸When they went back to their father Reuel, ⁿ he asked them, “Why have you come home early today?”

¹⁹The girls answered, “The shepherds chased us away, but an Egyptian defended us. He got water for us and watered our flock.”

²⁰He asked his daughters, “Where is this man? Why did you leave him? Invite him to eat with us.”

²¹Moses agreed to stay with Jethro, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses to be his wife. ²²Zipporah gave birth to a son. Moses named him Gershom, ⁿ because Moses was a stranger in a land that was not his own.

²³After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The people of Israel groaned, because they were forced to work very hard. When they cried for help, God heard them. ²⁴God heard their cries, and he remembered the agreement he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ²⁵He saw the troubles of the people of Israel, and he was concerned about them.

The Burning Bush

3One day Moses was taking care of Jethro’s flock. (Jethro was the priest of Midian and also Moses’ father-in-law.) When Moses led the flock to the west side of the desert, he came to Sinai, the mountain of God. ²There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire coming out of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but it was not burning up. ³So he said, “I will go closer to this strange thing. How can a bush continue burning without burning up?”

⁴When the Lord saw Moses was coming to look at the bush, God called to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

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

⁷The Lord said, “I have seen the troubles my people have suffered in Egypt, and I have heard their cries when the Egyptian slave masters hurt them. I am concerned about their pain, ⁸and I have come down to save them from the Egyptians. I will bring them out of that land and lead them to a good land with lots of room—a fertile land. It is the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ⁹I have heard the cries of the people of Israel, and I have seen the way the Egyptians have made life hard for them. ¹⁰So now I am sending you to the king of Egypt. Go! Bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt!”

¹¹But Moses said to God, “I am not a great man! How can I go to the king and lead the Israelites out of Egypt?”

¹²God said, “I will be with you. This will be the proof that I am sending you: After you lead the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship me on this mountain.”

¹³Moses said to God, “When I go to the Israelites, I will say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors sent me to you.’ What if the people say, ‘What is his name?’ What should I tell them?”

¹⁴Then God said to Moses, “I am who I am. ⁿ When you go to the people of Israel, tell them, ‘I am sent me to you.’ ”

¹⁵God also said to Moses, “This is what you should tell the people: ‘The Lord is the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He sent me to you.’ This will always be my name, by which people from now on will know me.

¹⁶“Go and gather the elders and tell them this: ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me. He said, I care about you, and I have seen what has happened to you in Egypt. ¹⁷I promised I would take you out of your troubles in Egypt. I will lead you to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a fertile land.’

¹⁸“The elders will listen to you. And then you and the elders of Israel will go to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, appeared to us. Let us travel three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’

¹⁹“But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go. Only a great power will force him to let you go, ²⁰so I will use my great power against Egypt. I will strike Egypt with all the miracles that will happen in that land. After I do that, he will let you go. ²¹I will cause the Egyptians to think well of the Israelites. So when you leave, they will give gifts to your people. ²²Each woman should ask her Egyptian neighbor and any Egyptian woman living in her house for gifts—silver, gold, and clothing. You should put those gifts on your children when you leave Egypt. In this way you will take with you the riches of the Egyptians.”

Proof for Moses

4Then Moses answered, “What if the people of Israel do not believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

²The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

Moses answered, “It is my walking stick.”

³The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”

So Moses threw it on the ground, and…

Read in Logos

This passage has been shortened. Keep reading Exodus 1–15 in Logos

Footnotes

nJacob Also called Israel.
nMoses The name “Moses” sounds like the Hebrew word for “to pull out.”
nReuel He was also called Jethro.
nGershom This name sounds like the Hebrew word meaning “a stranger there.”
nI … I am The Hebrew words are like the name “Yahweh.” This Hebrew name for God, usually called “Lord,” shows that God always lives and is always with his people.