God talked to Moses from inside a burning bush, and told him to lead his people out of Egypt

1Moses/I was taking care of the sheep that belonged to his/my father-in-law Jethro, the priest of the Midian people. He/I led the flock across the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain that was later called Sinai, the ◄mountain that had been dedicated to God/taboo mountain►.

2One day Yahweh ◄appeared/revealed himself► to him/me, looking like an angel. The angel appeared in a flame of fire in the middle of a bush that was burning. Moses/I looked at it, and he/I was surprised that the bush was burning, but it was not burning up.

3Moses/I thought, “I will go closer and try to see this strange sight! Why is the bush not burning up?”

4When Yahweh saw that he/I had come closer, he called to Moses/me from the middle of the bush, saying, “Moses! Moses!” He/I replied, “Yes, here I am.”

5Yahweh said, “Do not come closer! Because I am God, the ground on which you are standing is holy/taboo. So take off your sandals to show respect to me.”

6Then he said, “I am God, whom your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob worshiped.” So Moses/I covered his/my face, because he/I was afraid that God would kill him/me if he/I looked at him.

7Then Yahweh said, “I have seen how cruelly they are treating my people in Egypt. I have heard them ◄wailing/crying out► for help because of what the slave-drivers are forcing them to do. I know how my people are suffering.

8So I have come down from heaven to rescue them from the Egyptians [SYN]. I have come to bring them up from that land to the highlands in Canaan. I will bring them to a land that is good/fertile and that has plenty of space. It will be very good for raising livestock and growing crops [MTY]. It is the land where the descendants of Canaan, Heth, Amor, Periz, Hiv, and Jebus live.

9Truly I have now heard my Israeli people crying [PRS]. I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them.

10So you go back to Egypt. I am sending you to the king, in order that he may permit you to bring my people, the Israeli people, out of Egypt.”

11But Moses/I replied, “I am not a well-known person [RHQ]! ◄I cannot go to the king and ask him to permit me to bring the Israeli people out of Egypt!/How can I go to the king and ask him to allow me to bring the Israeli people out of Egypt?►” [RHQ]

12God replied, “I will be with you. And when you bring my people out of Egypt, all of you will worship me right here on this mountain. That will prove that I am the one who sent you to them.”

13Moses/I said to God, “If I go to the Israeli people and say to them, ‘God, the one your ancestors worshiped, has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’, what shall I say to them?”

14God replied, “I AM who I AM.” And he said, “Tell the Israeli people that the one who is named ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.”

15God also said to Moses/me, “Say this to the Israeli people: ‘Yahweh God, the one your ancestors worshiped, the one that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob worshiped, has sent me to you.’ This name, Yahweh, will be my name forever. That is the name that people in all future generations must use when they talk about/to me.

16Go to Egypt and gather together the elders/leaders of the Israeli people, and say to them, ‘Yahweh God, the one your ancestors worshiped, the one Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob worshiped, appeared to me. He said to him/me, “I have been watching closely what the Egyptian people have done to you.

17I promise that I will rescue you from being oppressed in Egypt, and I will take you to the land where the descendants of Canaan, Heth, Amor, Periz, Hiv, and Jebus live. It is a land good for raising livestock and growing crops [MTY].”’

18My people will do what you say. Then you and their leaders must go to the king of Egypt, and you must say to him, ‘Yahweh, who is God, the one we Hebrews worship, has revealed himself to us. So now we ask you to allow us to travel for three days to a place in the desert, in order that there we may offer sacrifices to Yahweh, our God.’

19But I know that the king of Egypt will allow you to go only if he realizes I am more powerful [MTY] than he is.

20So I will use my power [MTY] to strike/punish the people of Egypt [MTY] by performing many miracles there. Then he will allow you to leave.

21When that happens, I will cause the people of Egypt to respect you. The result will be that when you leave Egypt, ◄you will not go empty-handed/they will give you many valuable things to take with you►.

22At that time, each Israeli woman will ask her Egyptian neighbors and each Egyptian woman who is living in her (OR, her neighbor’s) house to give her some silver and gold jewelry and some nice clothes. Each Egyptian woman will give them some, and you will put them on your sons and daughters to take with you. In that way you will ◄take away/confiscate► the wealth of the Egyptian people.”