Exodus 3

¹ Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, priest of Midian. He led his flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb,[*a] the mountain of God.

² There the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in the shape of a flame of fire, coming from the middle of a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush blazing but it was not being burnt up.

³ ‘I must go and look at this strange sight,’ Moses said ‘and see why the bush is not burnt.’

⁴ Now Yahweh saw him go forward to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush. ‘Moses, Moses!’ he said. ‘Here I am’ he answered.

⁵ ‘Come no nearer’ he said. ‘Take off your shoes, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.

⁶ I am the God of your father,’ he said ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this Moses covered his face, afraid to look at God. The mission of Moses

⁷ And Yahweh said, ‘I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have heard their appeal to be free of their slave-drivers. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings.

⁸ I mean to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land to a land rich and broad, a land where milk and honey flow, the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.

⁹ And now the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me, and I have witnessed the way in which the Egyptians oppress them,

¹⁰ so come, I send you to Pharaoh to bring the sons of Israel, my people, out of Egypt.’

¹¹ Moses said to God, ‘Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?’

¹² ‘I shall be with you,’ was the answer ‘and this is the sign by which you shall know that it is I who have sent you… After you have led the people out of Egypt, you are to offer worship to God on this mountain.’ The divine name revealed

¹³ Then Moses said to God, ‘I am to go, then, to the sons of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you”. But if they ask me what his name is, what am I to tell them?’

¹⁴ And God said to Moses, ‘I Am who I Am. ‘This’ he added ‘is what you must say to the sons of Israel: “I Am has sent me to you”.’

¹⁵ And God also said to Moses, ‘You are to say to the sons of Israel: “Yahweh,[*b] the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you”. This is my name for all time; by this name I shall be invoked for all generations to come. Moses instructed for his mission

¹⁶ ‘Go and gather the elders of Israel together and tell them, “Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has appeared to me, – the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; and he has said to me: I have visited you and seen all that the Egyptians are doing to you.

¹⁷ And so I have resolved to bring you up out of Egypt where you are oppressed, into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land where milk and honey flow.”

¹⁸ They will listen to your words, and with the elders of Israel you are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, “Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has come to meet us. Give us leave, then, to make a three days’ journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifice to Yahweh our God.”

¹⁹ For myself, knowing that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless he is forced by a mighty hand,

²⁰ I shall show my power and strike Egypt with all the wonders I am going to work there. After this he will let you go. The Egyptians to be plundered

²¹ I will give this people such prestige in the eyes of the Egyptians that when you go, you will not go empty-handed.

²² Every woman will ask her neighbour and the woman who is staying in her house for silver ornaments and gold. With these you will adorn your sons and daughters; you will plunder the Egyptians.’