¹⁷ “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.^{(A) 18} Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’^{[a](B) 19} He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.^(C)

²⁰ “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.^[b] For three months he was cared for by his family.^{(D) 21} When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.^{(E) 22} Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians^(F) and was powerful in speech and action.

²³ “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. ²⁴ He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. ²⁶ The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’

²⁷ “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?^{(G) 28} Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’^{[c] 29} When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.^(H)

³⁰ “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. ³¹ When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say:^{(I) 32} ‘I am the God of your fathers,^(J) the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’^[d] Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.^(K)

³³ “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.^{(L) 34} I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’^[e](M)

³⁵ “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’^(N) He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ He led them out of Egypt^(O) and performed wonders and signs^(P) in Egypt, at the Red Sea^(Q) and for forty years in the wilderness.^(R)