1Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb.
2The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. Moses looked, and there was the bush burning with fire, but the bush was not burned up.
3Moses said, "I will turn aside now and see this great sight. Why is the bush not burned up?"
4When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him out of the middle of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses." And he said, "Here I am."
5God said, "Do not come near. Take your shoes off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
6He said also, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7The LORD said, "I have surely seen the suffering of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their slave drivers, for I know their sorrows."
8"So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good land, a large land, a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites."
9"Now look, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. I have also seen how cruelly the Egyptians oppress them."
10"Come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring my people the children of Israel out of Egypt."
11Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
12And God said, "I will certainly be with you. This shall be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."
13Moses said to God, "When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' they will say to me, 'What is his name?' What shall I say to them?"
14God said to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM." And he said, "This is what you shall say to the children of Israel: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
15God said further to Moses, "This is what you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The LORD 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 ever, and this is how I am to be remembered by all generations."
16"Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, 'The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me and said: I have surely come to you, and have seen what is done to you in Egypt."
17"'And I have said, I will bring you up out of the suffering of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.'"
18"They will listen to your voice. Then you shall go, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him, 'The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now please let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.'"
19"I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, not even by a mighty hand."
20"So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do among them. After that he will let you go."
21"And I will make this people pleasing in the sight of the Egyptians. So when you go, you will not go empty-handed."
22"Every woman shall ask her neighbour, and the woman staying in her house, for jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters, and you shall plunder the Egyptians."