The Burning Bush

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Moses Returns to Egypt

Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”

And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.

And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

Jethro's Advice

Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.

Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her home,

Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God.

And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,”

Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent.

Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them.

And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.

When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?”

And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God;

when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.”

Moses' father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good.

and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do.

So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said.

Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country.

Laws About Altars

And the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.

Laws About Slaves

“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them.

Laws About Restitution

“When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

Laws About Social Justice

“If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife.

You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice,

nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.

“You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit.

Laws About the Sabbath and Festivals

“For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield,

The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.”