Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹ One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.^{(A) 12} He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting, and he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?”^{(B) 14} He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “Surely the thing is known.”^{(C) 15} When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.

So Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian and sat down by a well.^(D)

²³ After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out. Their cry for help rose up to God from their slavery.^{(A) 24} God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.^{(B) 25} God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.^(C)

Moses at the Burning Bush

3 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb,^[a] the mountain of God.^{(D) 2} There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.^{(E) 3} Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.”^{(F) 4} When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”^{(G) 6} He said further, “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.^(H)

⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings,^{(I) 8} and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.^{(J) 9} The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.^{(K) 10} Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”^{(L) 11} But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” ¹² He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”^(M)

The Divine Name Revealed

¹³ But Moses said to God, “If I come 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 shall I say to them?” ¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”^[b] He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”^{(N) 15} God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,^[c] the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”^[a](A)

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

¹⁸ As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishers.^{(B) 19} And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him.^{(C) 21} As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.