Exodus 3:1-9 ▼

1 Now Moses was pasturing the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, a priest of Midian. And when he had driven the flock into the interior of the desert, he came to the mountain of God, Horeb.

2 And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. And he saw that the bush was burning and was not burnt.

3 Therefore, Moses said, “I will go and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”

4 Then the Lord, discerning that he proceeded on to see it, called to him from the midst of the bush, and he said, “Moses, Moses.” And he responded, “Here I am.”

5 And he said: “Lest you should approach here, remove the shoes from your feet. For the place on which 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.” Moses hid his face, for he dared not look directly at God.

7 And the Lord said to him: “I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their outcry because of the harshness of those who are over the works.

8 And knowing their sorrow, I have descended in order to free them from the hands of the Egyptians, and to lead them from that land into a good and spacious land, into a land which flows with milk and honey, to the places of the Canaanite, and Hittite, and Amorite, and Perizzite, and Hivite, and Jebusite.

9 And so, the outcry of the sons of Israel has come to me. And I have seen their affliction, with which they are oppressed by the Egyptians.