Exodus 3-4

EasyEnglish Bible

Moses and the burning bush

3 Moses worked as a shepherd and he took care of Jethro's sheep. Jethro was his wife's father and he was the priest of Midian.^[a] Moses led the sheep to the far side of the desert. He came to Sinai, the mountain of God.

² The angel of the Lord appeared to Moses there.^[b] The angel looked like a fire that was burning in the middle of a bush. Moses looked at the bush. He saw that it was on fire, but the fire still did not destroy it. ³ Moses said to himself, ‘I will go nearer and see this strange thing. I want to see why the bush is not completely burned.’

⁴ The Lord saw that Moses came near to look at the bush. God spoke to Moses from inside the bush. He said, ‘Moses! Moses!’ Moses answered, ‘Here I am.’

⁵ God said to Moses, ‘Do not come nearer! Remove your shoes from your feet. The ground that you are standing on is holy.’ ⁶ Then God said, ‘I am the God that your father worshipped. I am also the God of your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Then Moses covered his face. He was afraid to look at God.^[c]

⁷ The Lord said, ‘I have certainly seen the troubles of my people in Egypt. I have heard them when they cry for help because of their cruel masters. I know that they are very sad. ⁸ So now I have come down to save them from the power of the Egyptians. I will bring them out from Egypt to go to another land. That will be a good land and a big land. The land will give them plenty of good food and drink, enough for everyone. These are the nations who live there now: the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. ⁹ Yes, I have heard that my Israelite people are crying for help. I have seen that the Egyptians do bad things to hurt them. ¹⁰ So now you must go! I will send you to speak to Pharaoh. You will lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’

¹¹ But Moses said to God, ‘I am not an important person. I cannot go to Pharaoh. I cannot lead the Israelites out of Egypt!’

¹² God said to Moses, ‘Be sure of this: I will be with you. After you have led the people out of Egypt you will all worship me here, on this mountain. That will show you that I myself have sent you to do this.’^[d]

¹³ Then Moses said to God, ‘If I go to the Israelites, they may not believe me. I will say, “The God that your ancestors worshipped has sent me to you.” But then they will ask me, “What is his name?” Then what will I say to them?’

¹⁴ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am! Say this to the Israelite people: “I AM has sent me to you.” ’^[e]

¹⁵ God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the Israelite people: “It is the Lord God who has sent me to you.^[f] He is the God that your ancestors worshipped. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” That is my name for all time. All generations of my people must call me by that name.

¹⁶ Go and call the leaders of Israel to meet together. Say to them, “The Lord God has appeared to me. He is the God that your ancestors worshipped. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He said to me, ‘I have been carefully watching my people in Egypt. I have seen the bad things that the Egyptians have done to you. ¹⁷ I promise that I will bring you out of your troubles in Egypt. I will lead you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. It is a land that will give you plenty of good food and drink, enough for everyone.’ ”

¹⁸ When you say that, the leaders of the Israelites will listen to you. Then you must go with them to the king of Egypt. Say to him, “The Lord God has met with us. He is the God that we, the Israelite people, worship. So let us go on a journey into the wilderness. That will be a journey of three days. We must offer sacrifices to the Lord our God there.” ¹⁹ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go. Only some great power will make him agree. ²⁰ So I will show him my power! I will do powerful miracles to punish the Egyptians. When they see that, Pharaoh will let you go free.

²¹ More than that, I will cause the Egyptians to think well of you, my own people. So when you leave Egypt, they will give you many gifts. ²² All the Israelite women will ask their Egyptian friends to give them things. They will ask the women who live near them and those who live with them in their houses. They will ask for silver things, gold things and beautiful clothes. Then you will take those things and you will dress your sons and your daughters with them. In that way, you will take many valuable things away from the Egyptians.’

God shows Moses some strange things

4 Then Moses replied, ‘Perhaps the leaders of Israel will not believe me. Perhaps they will not listen to my message. Perhaps they will say, “The Lord did not really appear to you.” ’

² Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘What is that thing in your hand?’ Moses answered, ‘It is a stick.’

³ The Lord said, ‘Throw it down on the ground.’ So Moses threw it on the ground. Then the stick became a snake! Moses ran away from the snake. ⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take hold of the snake's tail with your hand.’ So Moses caught the snake with his hand. Then it became a stick in his hand again. ⁵ God said, ‘Do this in front of them. Then they will believe you. They will believe that I, the Lord God, have appeared to you. I am the God that their ancestors worshipped. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’

⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Put your hand inside your robe.’ So Moses did this. When he took his hand out again, the skin had become white, like snow. It was the bad disease called leprosy.

⁷ Then God said, ‘Put your hand back inside your robe again.’ So Moses did that. And when he took his hand out, it was well again, like the rest of his skin!

⁸ God said, ‘The leaders may not believe you. They may not think that the miracle with the stick shows anything. But they may believe you when you do the second miracle. ⁹ But they may still not listen to your message. If they will not even believe those two miracles, do this: Take some water from the River Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water that you take from the river will become blood on the ground.’^[g]

¹⁰ Then Moses said to the Lord, ‘My Lord, I cannot speak well. I speak slowly and I speak with difficulty. I never could speak well. And even now, when you have spoken to me, I still cannot speak well.’

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Who has made human mouths? Who makes a person that cannot speak? Who makes a person that cannot hear? Who makes a person who can see, or who cannot see? It is I, the Lord God! ¹² Now go! I will help you to speak well. I will teach you what you must say.’

¹³ But Moses said, ‘My Lord, please send some other person. Do not send me!’

¹⁴ Then the Lord became angry with Moses. He said, ‘Aaron, the Levite, is your brother. I know that he can speak very well. Look! He is coming to meet you now. When he sees you, he will be very happy.

¹⁵ So this is what you must do. You must speak to him. You must tell him what to say. I will help both of you to speak. And I will teach both of you what you must do. ¹⁶ Aaron will speak to the people on your behalf. He will be like your mouth, to speak your message. And you will be like God to him. You will tell him what to say. ¹⁷ Take this stick with you and hold it in your hand. You will use it to do the miracles to show that I have sent you.’

Moses returns to Egypt

¹⁸ Then Moses went back to Jethro, his wife's father. Moses said to him, ‘Please let me return to my family in Egypt. I must see if they are still alive.’ So Jethro said to Moses, ‘Go in peace.’^[h]

¹⁹ The Lord had said to Moses while he was still in Midian, ‘Go back to Egypt. All the men who tried to kill you are now dead.’ ²⁰ So Moses put his wife and his sons on a donkey and they started on the journey back to Egypt. And Moses carried the stick of God in his hand.

²¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘When you return to Egypt you must do the signs. Do all the signs that I gave you the power to do. Do them in front of Pharaoh. But I will make Pharaoh angry and cruel. Because of this, he will not let the people go.

²² Then you must speak to Pharaoh. You must say, “The Lord says, Israel is my first son. ²³ I have already said to you, Let my son go so that he can worship me. But if you refuse to let him go, I will kill your first son.” ’

²⁴ On the way to Egypt, there was a place where people could rest on their journey. The Lord met Moses there and he wanted to kill Moses. ²⁵ But Zipporah took a sharp stone and she cut off her son's foreskin with the stone. She touched Moses' feet with the foreskin. She said, ‘You are a husband of blood to me.’ ²⁶ So God did not do anything bad to Moses. Then Zipporah said to Moses, ‘You are a husband of blood, because of this circumcision.’^[i]

²⁷ The Lord said to Aaron, ‘Go into the desert to meet Moses.’ So Aaron went. He met Moses at the mountain of God and he kissed him. ²⁸ Then Moses told Aaron all that the Lord had told him to say. He also told Aaron about all the special signs. God had commanded Moses to show these signs to the Israelites and to Pharaoh.

²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron went to Egypt. They brought together all the leaders of the Israelites. ³⁰ Aaron told them all the things that the Lord had said to Moses. Then Moses did the signs in front of the people. ³¹ And the people believed Aaron and Moses. They had heard that the Lord had come to his people. God had seen their hard life and he was sorry for them. They put their heads down and they worshipped God.