Exodus 3

1Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness and came to the mountain of God, Horeb.

2The angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire from within the bush. He looked, and there the bush burned in fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

3Moses said, "Let me turn aside now and see this great sight—why the bush does not burn."

4Yahweh saw that he had turned aside to see, so God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" He said, "Here I am."

5He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand upon it is holy ground."

6He said, "I am your father's God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7Yahweh said, "I have indeed seen my people's suffering in Egypt and heard their outcry on account of their oppressors, for I know their pains."

8I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians' hand 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 place of the Canaanite, Hittite, Amorite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite.

9Now see, the cry of Israel's children has reached me, and I have also seen the oppression that the Egyptians are forcing on them.

10Now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh to bring out my people, the children of Israel, from Egypt.

11Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring out the children of Israel from Egypt?"

12He said, "For I will be with you, this will be the sign for you: that I have sent you, when you bring the people out from Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain."

13Moses said to God, "Look, when I go to the children of Israel and say to them, 'God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?"

14God said to Moses, "I will be who I will be," and he said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel: 'I will be has sent me to you.'"

15God said further to Moses, "Say this to Israel's sons: 'Yahweh, God of your fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and this is my remembrance for all generations."

16Go, gather the elders of Israel, and say to them: "Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, 'I have surely visited you and what has been done to you in Egypt.' "

17And I said, I will bring you up from the oppression of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

18They will heed your voice, and you will come—you and Israel's elders—to Egypt's king and say to him, "Yahweh, God of the Hebrews, has visited us. Now please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to Yahweh our God."

19I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go, not even by a strong hand.

20I will reach out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will do in its midst, and after that he will let you go.

21I will give this people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and it will be that when you go, you will not go empty.

22Every woman shall ask her neighbor and anyone staying in her house for silver articles, gold articles, and clothing; you shall put them on your sons and your daughters, and thus plunder the Egyptians.