Exodus 3 - 4 — Legacy Standard Bible

God Calls Moses at the Burning Bush

3Now Moses was pasturing the flock of ^aJethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the ¹west side of the wilderness and came to ^bHoreb, the ^cmountain of God. ²^aAnd the angel of ¹Yahweh appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of the ^bbush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. ³So Moses said, “¹^,^aI must turn aside now and see this ²marvelous sight. Why is the bush not burned up?” ⁴And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to look, so ^aGod called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵Then He said, “Do not come near here. ^aRemove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶He said also, “^aI am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” ^bThen Moses hid his face, for he was ^cafraid to look at God.

⁷And Yahweh said, “I have surely ^aseen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sufferings. ⁸“So I have come down ^ato deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a ^bgood and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of ^cthe Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. ⁹“So now, behold, ^athe cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰“So now, come and I will send you to Pharaoh, ^aand so you shall bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” ¹¹But Moses said to God, “^aWho am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” ¹²And He said, “Certainly ^aI will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: ^bwhen you have brought the people out of Egypt, ^cyou shall ¹serve God at this mountain.”

¹³Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am about to come to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ And they will say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” ¹⁴And God said to Moses, “¹^,^aI AM WHO ²I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘³I AM has sent me to you.’” ¹⁵And God furthermore said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘^aYahweh, 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 forever, and this is My ^bmemorial-name from generation to generation. ¹⁶“Go and ^agather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘^bYahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “¹^,^cI indeed care about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. ¹⁷“So ^aI said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of ^bthe Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land ^cflowing with milk and honey.”’ ¹⁸“^aAnd they will listen to your voice; and ^byou with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt, and you all will say to him, ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please, let us go a ^cthree days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh our God.’ ¹⁹“But I know that the king of Egypt ^awill not give you permission to go, ^bexcept by a strong hand. ²⁰“So I will stretch out ^aMy hand and strike Egypt with all My ^bwondrous deeds which I shall do in the midst of it; and ^cafter that he will let you go. ²¹“And I will give this people ^afavor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty. ²²“But every woman ^ashall ask of her neighbor and of the woman who lives in her house, for articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and daughters. Thus you will ^bplunder the Egyptians.”

If They Will Not Believe These Signs

4Then Moses answered and said, “What if they will not believe me and will not ^alisten to my voice? For they may say, ‘^bYahweh has not appeared to you.’” ²And Yahweh said to him, “What is this in your hand?” And he said, “^aA staff.” ³Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and ^ait became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. ⁴And Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—so he stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his ¹hand— ⁵“that ^athey may believe that ^bYahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁶And Yahweh furthermore said to him, “Now put your hand into your bosom.” So he put his hand into his bosom; then he took it out, and behold, his hand was ^aleprous like snow. ⁷Then He said, “Return your hand into your bosom.” So he returned his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, ^ait returned to being like the rest of his flesh. ⁸“And so it will be, if they will not believe you or listen to the ¹witness of the first sign, they may believe the ²witness of ³this last sign. ⁹“But if it will be that they will not believe even these two signs and that they will not listen to your voice, then you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land; and the water which you take from the Nile ^awill become blood on the dry land.”

Aaron to Speak for Moses

¹⁰Then Moses said to Yahweh, “Please, Lord, ^aI have never been a man of words, neither ¹recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your slave; for I am one with a ²hard mouth and a ³hard tongue.” ¹¹And Yahweh said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or ^awho makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? ¹²“So now, go, and ^aI, even I, will be with your mouth and will ^binstruct you what you shall speak.” ¹³But he said, “Please, Lord, ¹send now the message by whomever You will.” ¹⁴Then the anger of Yahweh burned against Moses, and He said, “Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that ¹he can certainly speak. And moreover, behold, ^ahe is coming out to meet you. And he will see you and be glad in his heart. ¹⁵“And you are to speak to him and ^aput the words in his mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will instruct ¹you in what you shall do. ¹⁶“Moreover, ^ahe shall speak for you to the people; and he will become as a mouth for you, and you will become as God to him. ¹⁷“And you shall take in your hand ^athis staff, ^bwith which you shall do the signs.”

Moses Returns to Egypt

¹⁸Then Moses went and returned to ¹Jethro ^ahis father-in-law and said to him, “Please, let me go, that I may return to my brothers who are in Egypt and see if they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” ¹⁹And Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt, for ^aall the men who were seeking your life are dead.” ²⁰So Moses took his wife and his ^asons and mounted them on a donkey and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the ^bstaff of God in his hand.

²¹And Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go to return to Egypt, see to it that all ^athe miraculous wonders which I have put in your hand, that you do them before Pharaoh; but as for Me, ^bI will ¹harden his heart with strength so that he will not let the people go. ²²“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “^aIsrael is My son, My firstborn. ²³“So I said to you, ‘^aLet My son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, ^bI will kill your son, your firstborn.”’”

²⁴Now it happened at the lodging place on the way that Yahweh encountered him and ^asought to put him to death. ²⁵Then Zipporah took ^aa flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched ¹his feet with it, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me!” ²⁶So He let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood” with reference to the circumcision.

²⁷^aThen Yahweh said to Aaron, “Go to meet Moses in the wilderness.” So he went and encountered him at the ^bmountain of God and kissed him. ²⁸^aAnd Moses told Aaron all the words of Yahweh with which He had sent him, and ^ball the signs that He had commanded him to do. ²⁹Then Moses and Aaron went and ^agathered all the elders of the sons of Israel; ³⁰and ^aAaron spoke all the words which Yahweh had spoken to Moses. He then did the ^bsigns in the sight of the people. ³¹So ^athe people believed; and they heard that Yahweh ¹^,^bcared about the sons of Israel and that He had seen their affliction. So ^cthey bowed low and worshiped.