Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁷ When the time of the promise drew near (which God had sworn to Abraham), the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, ¹⁸ till another king arose who did not know of Joseph. ¹⁹ This king dealt treacherously with our kindred, and ill-treated our fathers, and compelled them to cast out their young children so that they would not remain alive. ²⁰ At this time Moses was born, and was loved by God. He was nursed in his father’s house for three months. ²¹ When he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and reared him as her own son. ²² And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was strong in deeds and in words.

²³ And when he was fully forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. ²⁴ And when he saw one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged the quarrel of him who had the harm done to him, and killed the Egyptian. ²⁵ For he supposed his brethren would understand that God by his hands would save them. But they did not understand.

²⁶ And the next day, he appeared to them as they were fighting, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, you are brethren; why do you hurt one another? ²⁷ But the man who was doing his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge among us? ²⁸ What, will you kill me like you did the Egyptian yesterday?

²⁹ Then at those words, Moses fled, and was a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.

³⁰ And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord, in a flame of fire in a bush. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. And as he drew near to look, the voice of the Lord came to him: ³² I am the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses trembled and dared not look. ³³ Then said the Lord to him, Put off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. ³⁴ I have well seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and have come down to deliver them. And now, come, and I will send you into Egypt.

³⁵ This Moses – whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? – is the one God sent both a ruler and deliverer by the hands of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ And this Moses brought them out, showing wonders and signs in Egypt and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. ³⁷ This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you must hear.

³⁸ This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel, who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers. This man received the word of life to give to us – ³⁹ to whom our fathers could not pay heed, but cast it from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, ⁴⁰ saying to Aaron, Make us gods to go before us! As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.