The Burning Bush

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

Then Moses departed and returned to his father-in-law Jethro, and said to him, “Please, let me go, that I may return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see if they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

The same law shall apply to the native as to the stranger who resides among you.”

And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.

Jethro, Moses’ Father-in-law

Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard about everything that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.

And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took in Moses’ wife Zipporah, after he had sent her away,

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

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

Then Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and he bowed down and kissed him; and they asked each other about their welfare, and went into the tent.

Moses told his father-in-law everything that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had confronted them on the journey, and how the Lord had rescued them.

Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

Now when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?”

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

When they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I judge between someone and his neighbor and make known the statutes of God and His laws.”

Moses’ father-in-law then said to him, “The thing that you are doing is not good.

then admonish them about the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they are to walk and the work they are to do.

So Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything that he had said.

Then Moses said goodbye to his father-in-law, and Jethro went his way to his own land.

Various Laws

“If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and sleeps with her, he must pay a dowry for her to be his wife.

Various Laws

“You shall not give a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked person to be a malicious witness.

Now the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the Law and the commandments which I have written for their instruction.”

who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”