Yahweh’s Plan to Rescue the Israelites

3 And Moses was a shepherd with the flock^[a] of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the west of the desert, and he came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. ² And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush, and he looked, and there was the bush burning with fire, but the bush was not being consumed. ³ And Moses said, “Let me turn aside and see this great sight. Why does the bush not burn up?” ⁴ And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, and God called to him from the midst of the bush, and he said, “Moses, Moses.” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ And he said, “You must not come near to here. Take off your sandals from on your feet, because the place on which you are standing, it is holy ground.” ⁶ And 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 because he was afraid of looking at God.

⁷ And Yahweh said, “Surely I have seen the misery of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry of distress because of their oppressors, for I know their sufferings. ⁸ And I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from this land to a good and wide land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites^[b] and the Hittites^[c] and the Amorites^[d] and the Perizzites^[e] and the Hivites^[f] and the Jebusites.^{[g] 9} And now, look, the cry of distress of the Israelites^[h] has come to me, and also I see the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ And now come, and I will send you to Pharaoh, and you must bring my people, the Israelites,^[i] out from Egypt.”

¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites^[j] out from Egypt?” ¹² And he said, “Because I am with you, and this will be the sign for you that I myself have sent you: When you bring the people out from Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.” ¹³ But Moses said to God, “Look, if I go to the Israelites^[k] and I say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors^[l] has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is his name?’ then what shall I say to them?” ¹⁴ And God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “So you must say to the Israelites,^[m] ‘I am sent me to you.’”

¹⁵ And God said again to Moses, “So you must say to the Israelites,^[n] ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors,^[o] 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 remembrance from generation to generation.’ ¹⁶ Go and gather the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors,^[p] appeared to me, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, “I have carefully attended to you and what has been done to you in Egypt.” ¹⁷ And I said, “I will bring you up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites^[q] and the Hittites^[r] and the Amorites^[s] and the Perizzites^[t] and the Hivites^[u] and the Jebusites,^[v] to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ ¹⁸ And they will listen to your voice, and you will go, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews has met with us, and now let us please go on a journey of three days into the desert, and let us sacrifice to Yahweh our God.’

¹⁹ But I myself know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless compelled by a strong hand.^{[w] 20} And I will stretch out my hand, and I will strike Egypt with all of my wonders that I will do in its midst, and afterward^[x] he will release you. ²¹ And I will give this people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and then^[y] when you go, you will not go empty-handed. ²² And a woman will ask from her neighbor and from the woman dwelling as an alien in her house for objects of silver and objects of gold and garments, and you will put them on your sons and on your daughters; and you will plunder Egypt.”