1 Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the back of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from within a bush. He looked, and though the bush was burning with fire, it was not being consumed.
3 Moses said, "Let me turn aside and look at this great sight; why is the bush not burning up?"
4 When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he answered, "Here I am."
5 "Come no closer," he said. "Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."
6 And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, "I have seen, truly seen, the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them cry out because of their slave drivers; I know what they suffer.
8 I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
9 Now see, the cry of the children of Israel has reached me, and I have also seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them.
10 So come now; I am sending you to Pharaoh, and you are to bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
11 Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
12 "I will be with you," he answered, "and this will be your sign that I am the one who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God on this mountain."
13 Moses said to God, "Look, if I go to the children of Israel and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?"
14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "This is what you are to say to the children of Israel: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
15 God said further to Moses, "Say this to the children 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 for all time, and by this I am to be remembered in every generation.
16 Go, assemble the elders of Israel and tell them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, appeared to me and said: "I have paid close attention to you and to what is being done to you in Egypt,
17 and I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey."'
18 They will heed what you say. Then you and the elders of Israel are to go to the king of Egypt and tell him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now let us go, we ask, three days' journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God.'
19 I know, however, that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless a mighty hand compels him.
20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders I will perform among them; after that he will send you away.
21 And I will make the Egyptians look with favor on this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed.
22 Each woman is to ask her neighbor, and any woman staying in her house, for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. In this way you will strip Egypt of its goods."