3 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back or west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb or Sinai, the mountain of God.
2 The [a]Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, yet was not consumed.
3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.
4 And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here am I.
5 God said, Do not come near; put your shoes off your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.
6 Also 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, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters and oppressors; for I know their sorrows and sufferings and trials.
8 And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand and power of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a land good and large, a land flowing with milk and honey [a land of plenty]—to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
9 Now behold, the cry of the Israelites has come to Me, and I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.
10 Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
11 And Moses said to God, [b]Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?
12 God said, I will surely be with you; and this shall be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain [Horeb, or Sinai].
13 And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come to the Israelites and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is His name? What shall I say to them?
14 And God said to Moses, I Am Who I Am and What I Am, and I Will Be What I Will Be; and He said, You shall say this to the Israelites: I Am has sent me to you!
15 God said also to Moses, This shall you say to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your fathers, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you! This is My [c]name forever, and by this name I am to be remembered to all generations.
16 Go, gather the elders of Israel together [the mature teachers and tribal leaders], and say to them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you and seen that which is done to you in Egypt;
17 And I have declared that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.
18 And [the elders] shall believe and obey your voice; and you shall go, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt and you shall say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now let us go, we beseech you, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.
19 And I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go [unless forced to do so], no, not by a mighty hand.
20 So I will stretch out My hand and smite Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in it; and after that he will let you go.
21 And I will give this people favor and respect in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you shall not go empty-handed.
22 But every woman shall [insistently] solicit of her neighbor and of her that may be residing at her house jewels and articles of silver and gold, and garments, which you shall put on your sons and daughters; and you shall strip the Egyptians [of belongings due to you].
Footnotes
- Exodus 3:2 In this report of Moses and the burning bush, “the Angel of the Lord” is identified as the Lord Himself. See especially Exod. 3:4, 6. See also the footnote on Gen. 16:7.
- Exodus 3:11 “There was something more than humility here; there was a tone of self-depreciation which was inconsistent with a true faith in God’s selection and appointment. Surely it is God’s business to choose His special instruments; and when we are persuaded that we are in the line of His purpose, we have no right to question the wisdom of His appointment. To do so is to depreciate His wisdom or to doubt His power and willingness to become all that is necessary to complete our need” (F. B. Meyer, Moses, the Servant of God).
- Exodus 3:15 To know the name of God is to witness the manifestation of those attributes and apprehend that character which the name denotes (Exod. 6:3; I Kings 8:33ff.; Ps. 91:14; Isa. 52:6; 64:2; Jer. 16:21) (John D. Davis, A Dictionary of the Bible). God’s name is His self-revelation (Charles Ellicott, A Bible Commentary). The name signifies the active presence of the person in the fullness of the revealed character (J.D. Douglas et al., eds., The New Bible Dictionary).