Exodus 2:1–4:31
2 Now a man of the tribe of Levic married a Levite woman,d 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a finee child, she hid him for three months.f 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrusg basketa for him and coated it with tar and pitch.h Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reedsi along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sisterj stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank.k She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She namedl him Moses,b saying, “I drewm him out of the water.”
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own peoplen were and watched them at their hard labor.o He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”p
14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?q Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to killr Moses, but Moses fleds from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian,t where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midianu had seven daughters, and they came to draw waterv and fill the troughsw to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescuex and watered their flock.y
18 When the girls returned to Reuelz their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”a
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporahb to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,c c saying, “I have become a foreignerd in a foreign land.”
23 During that long period,e the king of Egypt died.f The Israelites groaned in their slaveryg and cried out, and their cryh for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he rememberedi his covenantj with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concernedk about them.
3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethrol his father-in-law, the priest of Midian,m and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb,n the mountaino of God. 2 There the angel of the Lordp appeared to him in flames of fireq from within a bush.r Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God calleds to him from within the bush,t “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”u
5 “Do not come any closer,”v God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”w 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father,a the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”x At this, Moses hidy his face, because he was afraid to look at God.z
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seena the miseryb of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concernedc about their suffering.d 8 So I have come downe to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land,f a land flowing with milk and honeyg—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivitesh and Jebusites.i 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressingj them. 10 So now, go. I am sendingk you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”l
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am Im that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you.n And this will be the signo to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, youb will worship God on this mountain.p”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’q Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.c This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I amr has sent me to you.’ ”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,d the God of your fatherss—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacobt—has sent me to you.’
“This is my nameu forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.v
16 “Go, assemble the eldersw of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacobx—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seeny what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egyptz into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’a
18 “The elders of Israel will listenb to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews,c has metd with us. Let us take a three-day journeye into the wilderness to offer sacrificesf to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty handg compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my handh and strike the Egyptians with all the wondersi that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.j
21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposedk toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed.l 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silverm and goldn and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plundero the Egyptians.”p
4 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listenq to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
2 Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,”r he replied.
3 The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake,s and he ran from it. 4 Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believet that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
6 Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprousa—it had become as white as snow.u
7 “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored,v like the rest of his flesh.
8 Then the Lord said, “If they do not believew you or pay attention to the first sign,x they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become bloody on the ground.”
10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”z
11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute?a Who gives them sight or makes them blind?b Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go;c I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”d
13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”e
14 Then the Lord’s anger burnedf against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meetg you, and he will be glad to see you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth;h I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouthi and as if you were God to him.j 17 But take this staffk in your handl so you can perform the signsm with it.”
18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”
Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
19 Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to killn you are dead.o” 20 So Moses took his wife and sons,p put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staffq of God in his hand.
21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wondersr I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his hearts so that he will not let the people go.t 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son,u 23 and I told you, “Let my son go,v so he may worshipw me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”x