¹⁵ The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives—the first, whose name was Shiphrah, and the second, whose name was Puah— ¹⁶ “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.” ¹⁷ The midwives, however, feared God^(A) and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them;^(B) they let the boys live. ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”

¹⁹ The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”^(C)

²⁰ So God was good to the midwives,^(D) and the people multiplied and became very numerous. ²¹ Since the midwives feared God, he gave them families.^{(E) 22} Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.”^(F)

Moses’s Birth and Adoption

2 Now a man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman.^{(G) 2} The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son; when she saw that he was beautiful,^[a] she hid him for three months.^{(H) 3} But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with asphalt and pitch. She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. ⁴ Then his sister^(I) stood at a distance in order to see what would happen to him.

⁵ Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it, ⁶ opened it, and saw him, the child—and there he was, a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”

⁷ Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a Hebrew woman who is nursing to nurse the boy for you?”

⁸ “Go,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. So the girl went and called the boy’s mother. ⁹ Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him. ¹⁰ When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses,^[b] “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Moses and the Burning Bush

3 Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,^[a] the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb,^[b] the mountain of God.^{(A) 2} Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush.^(B) As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. ³ So Moses thought, “I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?”

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

“Here I am,” he answered.

⁵ “Do not come closer,” he said. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”^{(C) 6} Then he continued, “I am the God of your father,^[c] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”^(D) Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out^(E) because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey^(F)—the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.^{(G) 9} So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing^(H) them, ¹⁰ therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

¹¹ But Moses asked God, “Who am I^(I) that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

¹² He answered, “I will certainly be with you,^(J) and this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship^[d] God at this mountain.”

¹³ Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?”

¹⁴ God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.^[e](K) This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever;^(L) this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.