Exodus 2-4
English Standard Version
Chapter 2
1Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 6When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews ' children." 7Then his sister said to Pharaoh 's daughter, "Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?" 8And Pharaoh 's daughter said to her, "Go." So the girl went and called the child 's mother. 9And Pharaoh 's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh 's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, "Because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."
11One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.
12He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
13When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, "Why do you strike your companion?"
14He answered, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid, and thought, "Surely the thing is known."
15When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
16Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father 's flock.
17The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock.
18When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, "How is it that you have come home so soon today?"
19They said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock."
20He said to his daughters, "Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread."
21And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.
22She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land."
23During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.
24And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25God saw the people of Israel — and God knew.
Chapter 3
1Now 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. 2And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned." 4When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." 5Then he said, "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." 6And 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, for he was afraid to look at God.
7Then the Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,
8and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
9And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
10Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
11But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
12He said, "But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."
13Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?"
14God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’"
15God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
16Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt,
17and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey."’
18And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days ' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’
19But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.
20So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.
21And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty,
22but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians."
Chapter 4
1Then Moses answered, "But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’" 2The Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff." 3And he said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4But the Lord said to Moses, "Put out your hand and catch it by the tail" — so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand — 5"that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." 6Again, the Lord said to him, "Put your hand inside your cloak." And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7Then God said, "Put your hand back inside your cloak." So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8"If they will not believe you," God said, "or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground."
10But Moses said to the Lord, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue."
11Then the Lord said to him, "Who has made man 's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
12Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."
13But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else."
14Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, "Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
15You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.
16He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.
17And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs."
18Moses 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."
19And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead."
20So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
21And the Lord said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
22Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son,
23and I say to you, "Let my son go that he may serve me." If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’"
24At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death.
25Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son 's foreskin and touched Moses ' feet with it and said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!"
26So he let him alone. It was then that she said, "A bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.
27The Lord said to Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
28And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do.
29Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.
30Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people.
31And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
